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The Video Network Monitoring group at Tektronix, formerly Mixed Signals prior to its acquisition, has formed a Technical Advisory Board to provide guidance and counsel to management and engineering teams as they continue developing the company’s line of solutions that enable video service providers to quickly identify, diagnose and repair video and audio errors that can impact the viewing experience.

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Flycell, Inc. (www.flycell.com), a leading mobile and online entertainment content company, today announced availability of a new edition of its portal created especially for the South African market. South Africa is the tenth country to gain its own version of the award-winning mobile content service. The website, now live at www.flycell.co.za, features some of the best and most exciting mobile entertainment content.

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Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, today announced that its Sentry® and Medius™ digital content monitoring solutions are being used by Cablevision du Nord, a Canadian cable television operator based in Québec, to ensure that subscribers enjoy the best possible viewing experience. Cablevision is the largest cable operator in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Québec, providing cable television and high speed Internet to tens of thousands of subscribers in 50 municipalities throughout the province. Cablevision is the latest cable operator to deploy Sentry, joining nine of the top 10 U.S. operators and three of the top five Canadian operators.

Cablevision chose Mixed Signals Sentry for its ability to comprehensively monitor their digital video network and catch any potential service-affecting issues. Sentry’s unique ability to identify and diagnose errors enables Cablevision to quickly repair errors, thus ensuring viewers enjoy an optimal Quality of Experience (QoE) and service uptime.  Sentry utilizes advanced deep packet inspection technologies to continually dive deep into all the video programs flowing through a network to spot problems at the IP and MPEG layers, leaving no error undetected. Sentry’s ability to detect and localize errors quickly, also enables service providers to significantly reduce their operational expenses as technicians can immediately make repairs, rather than spending time tracking down the root cause of errors.

“To deliver the best possible viewing experience for our subscribers, we knew we needed to keep a closer eye on our video network and proactively spot any errors,” said Mr. John Colton, General Manager for Cablevision du Nord.  “Mixed Signals’ monitoring tools enable us to effectively catch and repair errors in our network before they affect our subscribers, allowing us to offer the best quality of experience to our customers.”

Cablevision has installed Sentry in its headend in Val-d’Or, Québec where it monitors their entire digital programming line-up, including all high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) programs.  Cablevision will expand its deployments of Sentry, with the next installation planned for its headend in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec.

In combination with Sentry, Cablevision is also using Mixed Signals’ Medius remote monitoring and management system to communicate with all the Sentrys from a central location.  Sentry and Medius together provide operators with the industry’s most integrated, comprehensive and network-wide solution for ensuring an optimal QoE for their subscribers.

“Cablevision du Nord has proven its dedication to ensuring the highest possible quality of experience to its customers by using Mixed Signals to monitor its video network,” said Mr. Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals.  “Sentry’s ability to proactively detect errors before they affect the subscriber is second to none and provides Cablevision du Nord with the tools they need to keep their subscribers loyal and happy.”

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

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Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, today announced that it has added significant new reporting and analysis features to its award-winning Sentry® digital content monitoring solution that enable video service providers to track, isolate and repair even the most complex video and audio errors in their programming. Mixed Signals is demonstrating Sentry’s new Reason Codes capability in its booth (714) at this week’s Canadian Summit of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) in Toronto.

Reason Codes are an enhancement to Mixed Signals’ state-of-the-art Audio and Video QoE Scoring System – which accurately gauges the severity of errors – and provide added detail to show the causes of impairment behind a particular quality of experience (QoE) score. The combination of Reason Codes together with Sentry’s unprecedented ability to detect video and audio quality errors gives service providers a more complete picture of particularly complex and recurring QoE issues, which enables more accurate and quicker diagnoses and repairs.

“We continue to listen to our customers to provide the capabilities and tools they need to zero-in on even the most complex video and audio quality errors,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Sentry’s new Reason Codes are the latest example of our commitment to adding new features and functionality to Sentry to keep it the most advanced and comprehensive solution for ensuring that service providers deliver their programming with best possible quality while keeping operational costs low.”

Sentry’s Reason Codes will be available in an upcoming software update that will support already deployed Sentrys and will come standard with new models.

About Sentry

Mixed Signals’ award-winning Sentry is a comprehensive and scalable monitoring solution that uniquely enables video service providers to better manage their networks to deliver services with optimum quality and to reduce their operational expenses. Sentry identifies anomalies in the network at the IP and MPEG layers, as well as in QoE, identifying hundreds of issues, including video freeze, video black and the loss of audio, which represent the bulk of trouble calls from subscribers.  Sentry’s single rack unit (RU) appliance ensures easy deployment in even the smallest hubs and its ability to be remotely managed eliminates the need for technicians to service Sentrys installed in remote locations.

Sentry is in widespread use with top tier video service providers, including the top nine U.S cable operators, three of the top five Canadian cable operators and other providers all over the globe.

Complementing its sales success, Sentry’s advanced capabilities and market-leading performance have been recognized with seven industry awards.

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

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Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, announced today that Network Products Guide, the industry’s leading information technology research and advisory guide has named Mixed Signals’ Sentry® a winner of the 2010 Product Innovation Awards for the second year in a row.  This annually venerated award recognizes and honors vendors, large and small, from all over the world with innovative and groundbreaking products that are bringing essential and incremental changes and are setting the bar higher for others in all areas of information technology.

For the second year running Sentry won the ‘Test, Measurement and Monitoring’ category.  This win continues Sentry’s 2009 winning streak in which it received five awards recognizing its advanced capabilities that enable video service providers to detect and diagnose video and audio errors that can ruin viewers’ quality of experience (QoE).

“Innovation is not just about new products alone,” says Rake Narang, editor-in-chief at Network Products Guide. “To succeed companies need to see innovation not as a onetime errand but as something that has to be continuously evolved and improved upon over and over again. This requires putting greater focus on customer needs and making innovation the center of the company’s way of developing better solutions. Innovative products such as Sentry are bringing crucial improvements in the field of digital content monitoring.”

Complementing its awards successes, Mixed Signals achieved a stellar 2009 with a year-over-year revenue increase of 115 percent in a difficult economy.  Mixed Signals’ customer base has grown to include the top 9 U.S cable operators, 3 of the top 5 Canadian operators in addition to key customers all over the globe.

“Our ongoing commitment to product innovation and introducing cutting edge features and capabilities to our products is why they continually receive industry accolades like the Network Products Guide Innovation Award in back-to-back years,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals.  “We continue to build the best products in the space, which adds tremendous value to our customers every day.  Our success is ultimately reflective of our ability to improve the success of our customers.”

Mixed Signals’ products make up the industry’s most comprehensive content monitoring solution, giving video service providers unparalleled visibility into network anomalies at the IP and MPEG layers to quickly identify and repair even the most complex video and audio errors.  Mixed Signals released several new products in 2009, which enable service providers to achieve significant cost reductions and ensure their viewers enjoy an optimal QoE.

About Network Products Guide Awards

As industry’s leading technology research and advisory guide, Network Products Guide from Silicon Valley plays a vital role in keeping decision makers and end-users informed of the choices they can make in all areas of information technology. You will discover a wealth of information and tools in this guide including the best products and services, roadmaps, industry directions, technology advancements and independent product evaluations that facilitate in making the most pertinent technology decisions impacting business and personal goals. The guide follows conscientious research methodologies developed and enhanced by industry experts. To learn more, visit www.networkproductsguide.com

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

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Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, will demonstrate the advanced audio monitoring capabilities of its award-winning Sentry® digital content monitoring solution at next week’s annual Winter Conference of CableLabs®, the research and development consortium for the cable television industry. Mixed Signals worked closely with major television industry leaders to create its audio monitoring solution, which enables service providers and broadcasters to identify loudness issues in programming and commercials, giving them the critical information necessary to quickly fix dramatic volume changes that occur during channel changes and when commercials run.

Sentry’s new audio monitoring capabilities are particularly timely as legislation before Congress will require video service providers to ensure that ads be no louder than the programs they accompany. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act has already been approved by the House of Representatives and is now with the Senate, where passage is expected. Unless the industry can implement a viable solution for addressing loud commercials, it is feared that Congress will task the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with specifying a solution that operators must adopt regardless of cost or complexity.

Mixed Signals has upgraded Sentry specifically for monitoring audio level issues in the multi-channel cable environment. Complementing its existing ability to continually monitor hundreds of channels simultaneously, Sentry now supports the ITU-R BS.1770 audio specification for monitoring program loudness. Developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the BS.1770 specification is shortly expected to be adopted by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) here in the U.S., which in turn will lead to its use by broadcasters and then cable and other multi-channel video service providers. Operators already using Sentrys can easily add support for BS.1770 via a software upgrade.

“The first step in ensuring that commercials air at the same volume as the programs they accompany is to actually identify overly loud commercials, which can be a daunting task for service providers who deliver hundreds if not thousands of channels of programming,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Sentry gives operators the capabilities they need to find the loud commercials in all of their programming and to do so in a cost-effective and scalable fashion.”

About Sentry
Sentry is a comprehensive content monitoring solution for cable, telecom, IPTV and other video service providers. Sentry enables the early detection, diagnosis and repair of video and audio errors (i.e., video freeze, macro-blocking, loss of audio, etc.) whenever or wherever they occur in the network, so service providers can deliver services with excellent quality, thus ensuring an optimal quality of experience (QoE) for subscribers. Sentry accomplishes this through its unique combination of unprecedented visibility into network anomalies at the IP and MPEG layers, scalability to monitor every program in the network and its real-time, 24/7 operation. Sentry is proven in deployments with service providers worldwide, including nine of the top 10 U.S. cable operators.

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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RGB Networks, the leader in network video processing, announced that its Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) won a coveted TelcoTV 2009 Vision Award in the “Innovation in Encoding” category yesterday.

The VMG is a carrier-class video processing solution that enables service providers to deliver high-quality digital and IPTV-based video services in both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264. It won in the “Innovation in Encoding” category based on the integration of its, high-density content repurposing capabilities with a number of other value-added video processing functions, including ad insertion, transrating and grooming. Able to simultaneously transcode hundreds of MPEG-2 programs into MPEG-4/H.264, and vice versa, in real time, the VMG offers telco video service providers a highly versatile and scalable solution as they expand their video offerings.

“Winning a TelcoTV 2009 Vision Award is another validation of our unique approach to transcoding and of the ability of our Video Multiprocessing Gateway to help service providers of all sizes deliver advanced video and advertising services whether they use MPEG-2 or MPEG-4/H.264,” said Sanjay Dhar, Director of Product Marketing for RGB Networks. “By integrating transcoding with several other key video processing functions in a single, ultra-dense, carrier-class platform, the VMG offers a highly scalable and cost-effective solution for transitioning video service providers’ networks to an architecture than enables the delivery of personalized services.”

A key component of RGB’s innovative content repurposing solution, RGB’s next-generation approach to transcoding will enable video service providers to simultaneously deliver any video program to multiple devices – from televisions, to personal computers, to mobile devices – via any network and with pristine picture quality. This ability to easily repurpose many video sources, deliver them over multiple networks and to all viewing devices using a single, integrated video processing platform will dramatically reduce the operational complexity for video service providers to expand their offerings.

About RGB’s Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG)
RGB’s carrier-class Video Multiprocessing Gateway is a complete MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 video processing solution that enables service providers to deliver high-quality video services to their subscribers. The VMG can simultaneously perform a variety of critical video processing functions in a single, ultra-high-density platform, including: content aggregation, grooming channel line-ups, transrating program streams, inserting ads and transcoding. The VMG product family currently includes the VMG-6 and VMG-14 models, offering different capacity to meet varying needs. Both carrier-class platforms are fully redundant, ensuring maximum reliability, and offer easy, license-based upgrading and scalable, pay-as-you-grow expansion of services.

About RGB Networks
RGB Networks is revolutionizing video, delivering leading-edge video processing solutions that address the complexities of the changing video delivery model. With advanced solutions for bandwidth optimization, content repurposing and addressable advertising, RGB’s products enable operators to deliver the next generation of highly personalized video services, which are relevant to individual subscribers and delivered anytime to any device. The company’s products are based on its unique Video Intelligence Architecture™ (VIA), enabling them to process an unprecedented number of video streams with the highest video quality. RGB’s scalable solutions dramatically reduce the cost to deliver both broadcast and unicast services, and help operators maximize their existing network infrastructure. More than 7,000 RGB products are deployed in the field by over 170 service providers in 25 countries worldwide. Learn more at www.rgbnetworks.com.