Kasenna, The IPTV Company, today announced that Cavalier Telephone and TV, an innovative provider of telecommunications services serving over 250,000 homes, has gone live with the United State's first MPEG-4-based (H.264) Broadband TV service, powered by Kasenna's PortalTV solution. With a complete Triple-Play package including advanced features such as on-screen caller ID, Broadcast TV and Video-on- Demand, Cavalier has immediately moved to the forefront of the IPTV industry.

Cavalier Telephone is a competitive provider of telecommunications services with headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. Operating in five states in the mid-Atlantic region as well as metro Washington D.C., Cavalier currently serves approximately 35,000 businesses and 215,000 residential customers and is growing at a rate of approximately 15,000 new customers per month.

"Our mission is to deliver a superior and interactive television experience with the industry's most advanced voice, video, and data services," said Cavalier CEO Brad Evans, "and we are very proud to be the first service provider in the US that has rolled out MPEG-4 based Interactive Broadband TV. Kasenna and its fully-integrated PortalTV solution are key to our success - having enabled us to quickly deliver advanced, custom-branded, interactive IPTV services to multiple cities on our regional network. Furthermore, Kasenna's open, standards-based middleware platform allows us to stay on the cutting edge with future service offerings to our customers," stated Mr. Evans.

Cavalier plans to roll out its video services in other markets in the coming months including: Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Metro Washington, DC. Cavalier's Broadband TV will be available to two million homes passed with its Triple Play service when this rollout is complete.

"We selected Kasenna for several reasons, but most importantly for the easy-to-use customization features that Kasenna's middleware platform offers," said Andy Lobred, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Cavalier. "The Kasenna IPTV solution is unique in that it includes premium video content, the delivery server infrastructure and Internet and Web- Services based middleware, which allows us to easily create a branded user interface and portal, add new client functionality whenever needed, and fully integrate into a breadth of backend OSS/BSS applications. In addition, PortalTV provides the needed scalability as our network grows and becomes more complex."

Kasenna PortalTV, integrated seamlessly with other MPEG-4 video elements, such as video headend, encryption system, network equipment and set top boxes, has enabled Cavalier to deploy an end-to-end MPEG-4 based broadcast-quality video network today. Kasenna PortalTV combines award-winning streaming server, middleware, management, client, and content offerings into the industry's only end-to-end, pre-integrated IPTV solution. The fully interactive electronic program guide lets Broadband TV customers smoothly move through the service suite; from setting parental controls and viewing on-screen caller ID, to watching broadcast, pay-per-view and VOD programs. Cavalier is already planning its next-generation services including TV mail, interactive programming and gaming to make Broadband TV even more entertaining and convenient.

"Cavalier offers a world-class, broadcast-quality, interactive television service that gives consumers much greater degree of interactivity and much higher video quality, "said Kumar Shah, Kasenna CEO. "We are delighted that Cavalier has chosen PortalTV, the industry's first MPEG-4 based IPTV infrastructure, to deliver their customized, advanced Broadband TV services."