Tut Systems, Inc. announced that it has secured contracts to upgrade existing IPTV headends to MPEG-4 AVC compression technology. The contracts were awarded by triple play pioneers that previously deployed MPEG-2 technology. The upgrades represent the third phase of new technology in the rapidly growing IPTV market that originally deployed MPEG-2 over ATM, followed by MPEG-2 over IP, and now MPEG-4 AVC over IP. The robust architecture of Tut Systems' Astria content processor (CP) has enabled a seamless and cost-effective transition between each stage, all from a single platform.

The companies upgrading to MPEG-4 AVC include: Allendale Communications of Allendale, MI; Consolidated Communications of Mattoon, IL; MBO Corporation/MBO Video of Mannford, OK; and, as previously announced, Iowa Network Services of Des Moines, IA. The four companies will deliver an average of more than 130 channels of broadcast IPTV services utilizing Tut Systems' Astria CP with its market-leading MPEG-4 AVC encoding and transcoding solutions.

"Our MPEG-4 AVC headend will deliver improved picture quality while significantly lowering the bandwidth required to deliver standard and high definition video channels over our copper wires," said Mike Osborne, General Manager of Allendale Communications. "In the end, this will increase our revenues for our Digital TV service by delivering more channels per home, and a wider range of service offerings per customer."

"Consolidated's successful Digital Video Services (DVS) in Illinois was built around MPEG-2 technology from Tut Systems," stated Consolidated Communications' Vice President, Network Engineering, Tom White. "As we looked to invest in our IPTV infrastructure to offer High Definition, Digital Video Recording, and other high end services, Tut Systems' efficient and cost effective MPEG-4 AVC transcoding solution led us to select them for our next investment in IPTV technology."

"The extensive experience we have with our current Tut Systems' headend, combined with the advanced compression and reliability features available in the Astria CP with MPEG-4 AVC, made Tut Systems the right choice for our upgrade," said Howard Juul, Vice President of Network Planning at INS.

"Tut Systems offered an economical means to source MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC content from a single headend location," stated MBO Videos' Vice President and General Manager, Gene Baldwin. "As we looked at the business case for adding advanced compression capabilities to our headend, it became clear that Tut's solution offered the lowest total cost of ownership in terms of capital, operational, and network management expenses."

"Since our first Triple Play deployments in 1999, Tut Systems has maintained a close partnership with each of our IPTV customers," said Sal D'Auria, Chairman and CEO of Tut Systems. "We are honored to continue our long-standing partnership with each of the companies upgrading their systems to the latest IPTV technologies and thank them for their commitment to blazing the trail in the IPTV marketplace."

The Industry's Leading IPTV Platform for Telcos More than 160 service providers across five continents deliver IPTV powered by Tut Systems digital headends. The Astria family of video processing platforms, which serves as the core of the company's digital headend solution, processes both analog and digital video streams from multiple satellite and local sources in a variety of formats. The Astria CP supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC video compression, local ad insertion, forward error correction and provides real-time conditioning for distribution of video and audio over any ATM, IP, or RF broadband network. The Astria VSP provides the highest density, carrier class, single chassis product for the delivery of IP video over RF broadband access networks, including coax and FTTP (Fiber to the Premises).