Set-top boxes set to enhance Utah fibre network

The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency has selected Amino's AmiNET 110 set-top boxes for its Internet Protocol television network.

The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) has selected Amino's AmiNET 110 set-top boxes (STBs) for its IPTV (Internet Protocol television) network.

The deal involves a three year contract with an initial order of 20,000 set-top boxes, which will offer IPTV, ultra-high-speed Internet, always-on video monitoring and broadcast quality video telephony to 14 cities in Utah.

The AmiNET 110 will enable service providers to make full use of the large capacity of UTOPIA's fibre network.

As well as a wide choice of TV programming, including movies on-demand and interactive TV, the AmiNET 110 will enable online gaming, interactive distance learning and teleworking.

Further developments of the services planned by UTOPIA include broadcast-quality video telephony via the Amino set-top box and web-cam, to enable deaf people to hold fluent conversations in sign language, an application that was previously impossible due to choppy video connections.

An always-on video monitoring service will provide added confidence and security for elderly or disabled persons who want to live independently, as a remote carer can be in constant contact via a set-top box and cameras installed in the subscriber's home.

Simple medical appointments or specialist consultations could be conducted from the home or doctor's office to provide better access to healthcare for rural communities.

"Visual communication is the evolution of telephony and if people are to be able to do that from their living room, you need a set-top device like Amino's".

"Once you marry the Amino technology with UTOPIA's fast fibre network, you are given the opportunity for interactive two-way visual communications to work", commented Jeff Fishburn, Chief Technology Officer at DynamicCity, the network management company responsible for the design, implementation, financing and operation of the UTOPIA network.

"Amino's set-top box was the clear choice for UTOPIA as it offered the huge range of functions required at a very low cost".

"End customers will also like it because it is a very small and attractive device".

Roy Kirsopp, CEO at Amino Communications, commented: "UTOPIA will bring a completely different way of life to the people of Utah, improving education quality, business productivity, medical services, security and entertainment, for all who live there".

"It will become a global example of how life could be if we harness the potential of IPTV".

UTOPIA is one of the largest projects in the USA to build an all-fibre network directly to homes and businesses.

It is mutually owned by its 14 member cities, which comprises a population of more than 140,000 households and businesses.

Phase one of the project will offer services to more than 50,000 premises in six cities in Salt Lake County and Utah County.

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