Kasenna, The IPTV Company, announced a substantial multi-year deal to supply Cavalier Telephone with its full PortalTV product suite, including the Kasenna LivingRoom ^TM middleware platform and client SDK, MediaBase ^TM video servers, and vFusion ^TM video network management software. In addition, Cavalier will license major studio content from Kasenna's ViewNow division and will use ViewNow's ViewTrak monitoring software to gauge customer viewing habits. (See "Cavalier Telephone Selects ViewNow Content for VOD Rollout," also released today.)

Cavalier Telephone, based in Richmond, Virginia, is a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) serving business and residential customers across five states and the District of Columbia. The Kasenna deal marks Cavalier's entry into the IPTV service business. Cavalier plans to use the Kasenna products to roll out broadcast television, video on demand (VOD), and other entertainment services.

"Cavalier has invested more than $215 million to develop state-of-the-art service infrastructure for voice and data services, and we continue to explore extending our leadership into the realm of video," said Brad Evans, CEO of Cavalier Telephone. "As we tested various systems, we found that the Kasenna end-to-end IPTV network infrastructure is field-proven, immediately deployable, and it's the only solution that gives us full control over the look and feel of the customers' experiences inside their homes."

Kasenna's LivingRoom development platform gives Cavalier full control over the look and feel of its subscribers' viewing experience. While LivingRoom offers a user interface and electronic programming guide that work right out of the box, the software can be easily customized by anyone with basic HTML and Java programming skills. Cavalier Telephone will use the LivingRoom platform to develop its own, customized IPTV programming guide and user applications.

"As a major competitive carrier in the mid-Atlantic region, Cavalier is moving aggressively to complete its service triple play and has chosen our integrated solution because it gets them into the market far more quickly than with any other disparate set of products," said Mark Gray, chairman and CEO of Kasenna. "The Kasenna PortalTV product suite and ViewNow content will allow them to roll out branded IPTV offerings hat are fully scalable throughout their service area and easily adaptable for future services."