Myrio Interactive TV Software Platform Deployed Over Fiber Optic Network
KIRKLAND, Wash., March 20, 2001 – Myrio Corporation announced today an agreement with Grant County Public Utility District (PUD), in Ephrata, Wash., to install and deploy the Myrio Interactive TV software platform over the PUD’s Zipp fiber optic network. Myrio Corporation is a full service infrastructure provider that aggregates hardware, software, content, systems integration, and professional services to enable telephone companies, overbuilders, and utility companies to deliver digital TV, video-on-demand, and high-speed data services to their subscribers. The kickoff and sneak preview of the Myrio service will be held in conjunction with Grant County PUD’s “Year into the Adventure” celebration hosted by the PUD on Friday, March 23 at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash.
The agreement allows Grant County PUD to transport Myrio Interactive TV entertainment and communication services to central Washington customers through Benton Rural Electric Association’s PowerNet. Enabled by Myrio Interactive TV, customers who subscribe to PowerNet? Interactive TV will get:
Video-on-demand with VCR type controls (fast-forward, stop, play, etc)
120 channels of digital “cable” TV, including local programming
Games and music entertainment-on-demand
Always-on, ultra high speed Internet access to the TV and PC
Personal video recording of live TV
Parental controls for TV, movie and Internet content
Interactive TV subscribers will be able to rent games and movies with a click of a TV remote, allowing subscribers to start and stop a movie or game when they want; check e-mail during commercials; conduct Internet research on the TV with their children; monitor and control what television channels and movie rentals their children have access to; and record favorite TV programs for later viewing with a built-in Personal Video Recorder – all at the same time via Internet Protocol (IP) and the fiber optic line into their home.
“This agreement with Myrio gives Grant County Zipp fiber network customers a choice in home TV entertainment and communications,” said Ed Williams, director of Grant County PUD’s customer service division. “Grant County residents in the outlying areas are just getting phone service for the first time through the open-access fiber network we are providing to independent service providers. With Myrio and Benton REA, we are now able to greatly expand the choices in advanced entertainment and communications services our residents now have. Simply put, Myrio’s enabling technology provides more choices and better service for our Central Washington residents.”
“Grant County PUD is leap-froging some of the world’s most successful telecommunications companies,” said Robert Manne, President & CEO, Myrio Corporation. “This utility is at the forefront of broadband technology by utilizing IP, fiber optics, and Myrio’s software applications, content and professional services for the delivery of TV-centric entertainment and communications services.”
Manne continues, “this deployment with Grant County PUD validates Myrio’s use of open standards such as IP for transport-independence in the delivery of voice, video and data services into the home. With the PUD’s fiber and our software, we will greatly exceed the performance and capabilities of any cable-based broadband services provider. Grant County residents are among the first in the country to receive state-of-the-art fiber-based connections to the home, superior reliability, exciting advanced services and greater choices in TV entertainment and communication. This is an extremely gratifying deployment. As a Washington-based company, we are pleased to deploy Myrio’s technology in our own backyard of central Washington, and playing an important role in Governor Locke’s directive to close the digital divide.”
Grant County PUD created its fiber optic Zipp Network to address the County’s need for a broadband telecommunications network, as well as achieve the directive contained in a telecommunications bill signed by Washington State Governor Gary Locke in March 2000. The year-old law – originally Senate Bill 6675 – allows public utility districts and rural port districts to provide wholesale telecommunications services across their fiber optic networks. Grant County PUD originally built is fiber-optic network to control its substations, hydroelectric facilities and administrative buildings as a mode of communications. Further review indicated that the excess capacity of the fiber network allowed Grant County PUD to offer a range of advanced telecommunications services that would benefit utility customers and the community.
Grant County PUD joins a growing list of Myrio customers that deliver the convergence of voice, video and data into the home. Myrio has garnered increasing attention for implementing its software platform and systems solution via standards-based broadband technologies such as ADSL, IP and ATM, enabling cost-effective deployment of advanced voice, video and data services over existing copper-based networks.