Ruckus Wireless, the innovator of smart Wi-Fi technology, today announced that broadband providers Slovenian Telekom (Siol) and T-2 will bring location-free TV using Ruckus Wireless smart Wi-Fi products into Slovenian homes.

Ruckus Wireless systems are being used to provide reliable, whole-home wireless distribution of new digital video (IPTV), voice and data services being delivered to subscribers over their broadband connections. Now, Slovenian consumers can enjoy TV anywhere, anytime in their homes without the hassle, inconvenience and disruption of wiring or rewiring their homes. Meanwhile, broadband providers can easily enable and manage these new services all the way into customer homes.

Through its Slovenian partner, Telos, Ruckus Wireless is providing its MediaFlex smart Wi-Fi systems to enable Slovenian Telecom and T-2 to deliver location-free TV to end users by eliminating the requirement for in-home wiring to support streaming video services such as IPTV.

Slovenian Telecom and T-2 cover approximately 70 percent of Slovenia. Combined, Slovenian Telecom and T-2 are adding some 500 new IPTV subscribers each week. Slovenia is one of the more mature markets for IP-based digital TV, as IPTV services have been available there since early 2004.

According to the Agency for Post and Electronics Communications, the rise in broadband connections in Slovenia has been much faster than the EU average. A recent report by Telecompaper showed that Slovenia is in the global top 20 relative to per-capita broadband penetration with 32 broadband connections per 100 households. It's also poised to overtake the United States next year which currently has 33 broadband connections per 100 households.

Like many countries around the world, the standard method of multimedia distribution within Slovenian homes is through the use of Category 5 Ethernet wiring. This is costly, can take up to three to four hours using one or more installers and is disruptive to the consumer. Conversely, the Ruckus solution is designed for the high reliability transmission of IP-based video in the presence of voice and data traffic, is non-intrusive and can be installed in under 45 minutes by a single installer or self-installed by the end user.

"A stable, non-interruptible signal throughout the home, without wires, is the holy grail in the home," said Milan Mekinda, marketing manager at Telos. "Most Slovenian homes don't have Ethernet cabling so the last 100 feet becomes a big issue in delivering a managed broadband service."

Slovenian Telekom today provides ADSL and ADSL2+ services that deliver 24 Mbps of broadband capacity to subscriber homes. T-2 provides consumers VDSL services of up to 54 Mbps or higher over fiber optic cables. Some 120 IPTV channels of standard definition television are compressed using MPEG-2 encoding and available to Slovenian subscribers. Both Slovenian Telekom and T-2 are quickly moving to MPEG-4/AVC compression which makes streaming high definition (HDTV) content possible.

What is IPTV?
IPTV is a new way of streaming real-time television programs, movies and other video content over a broadband IP network. Unlike conventional TV, IPTV requires connecting multimedia receivers (known as IP set-top boxes) to a computer network to receive video transmissions from the broadband modem or home gateway.

Since most home computer networks do not extend to areas where the televisions are located, consumers have to put up with expensive and/or unsightly Ethernet cable installations. While technologies exist today to make Ethernet work over existing coaxial or electrical wiring in a home, their applicability is location dependant.

Furthermore, consumers everywhere have selected Wi-Fi as the home networking technology of choice. The Ruckus MediaFlex system is the first and only Wi-Fi system purposely designed to deliver picture-perfect video to all corners of a home by automatically steering Wi-Fi signals around interference and physical barriers.

Meanwhile, the Ruckus smart Wi-Fi system can also support simultaneous Internet browsing and voice over IP calls. Once installed, the system can connect multiple TVs and set-top boxes, as well as portable video receivers such as multimedia laptops and handheld multimedia players, without the hassles of new wiring or re-wiring.

Easy Self-Installation
Slovenians will now be able purchase the Ruckus MediaFlex system from broadband providers for use with their "triple play" service(s).

Installation of the Ruckus smart Wi-Fi system is simple. Using standard Ethernet connections, a Ruckus MediaFlex router is attached to the broadband gateway, acting as a Wi-Fi sender, and a MediaFlex adapter is attached to each set top box, acting as a Wi-Fi receiver. A single Ruckus Wireless MediaFlex router can support up to 64 attached devices and reliably provide 15 to 20 Mbps of sustained throughput to any corner of the home.

Once the Ruckus system is powered on, it self configures. Each Ruckus MediaFlex system supports the latest data encryption technology for state-of-the-art wireless security.

Adding televisions within a home now takes only minutes and only requires purchasing a MediaFlex adapter that attaches to the set top box where the TV is located. TVs can be placed and/or moved anywhere with the assurance of flicker-free picture quality.