News

UStec Delivers Missing Piece for Digital Home; Patented Switching Technology Creates the First Home Network to Integrate Audio/Video, Voice, and Ethernet over a Single Cat5 Cable (23/8/2005)

UStec, a leader in residential wire-based networks, today introduced the industry's first high-capacity home network for sharing entertainment media, data and voice over a single Cat5 cable.

The product, called tecStream, operates with a patented switching technology that enables multi-room, multimedia networking with one remote control and an easy to use menu that pops up on networked televisions. tecStream represents the first home networking solution to overcome the limitations of Ethernet or IP-based technologies for transporting video.

"Neither wireless nor other IP-based solutions out there today have enough bandwidth to distribute multiple high quality video streams from DVD players, live cable TV and satellite TV sources simultaneously," says UStec President Bill Thompson. "tecStream is revolutionary because it surpasses the capability of today's custom wired systems without the complexity and expense that has limited those systems to a very small portion of the market."

Because tecStream operates over Cat5 cable, it is readily installed into new homes. It also accommodates people living in older homes that want the power and security of a wired solution.

"People in older homes are no longer confined by the unreliability and limitations of wireless," Thompson said. "Cat5 cable is easy and inexpensive to install today."

A simple, seamless electronic stream of entertainment and information

The tecStream network allows homeowners to include up to eight locations with networked televisions and boasts the capacity to run up to 16 independent streams of high bandwidth video (30 Mbps and higher) simultaneously.

tecStream encodes analog streams from today's VCRs, set top boxes and DVD players at high bit rates to provide extraordinary picture quality at every networked television. It is the first home-networking solution to include an IEEE 1394 interface for incorporating digital recording devices such as AV Hard Disk Drives and Digital VHS decks.

Combines High Quality A/V Distribution with Complete Flexibility of Use

The tecStream network improves lifestyles by giving homeowners greater flexibility with and access to their entertainment devices. For instance, homeowners with one cable or satellite set top box in their living room can view program menus or watch on-demand programming from the television in the kitchen, bedroom, garage or any room on the network.

If parents wish to watch a DVD in the living room where the cable or satellite set top box and the home theater are located, the kids still are able to watch all the cable or satellite channels and access program menus from another room. tecStream provides instant accessibility to the content stored on media PCs. If you are sitting around the kitchen table, for instance, and wish to share digital photos with a friend, you can select the media PC (located, say, in the home office upstairs) with the tecStream remote control and display the images on the kitchen television within seconds.

tecStream's IEEE 1394 network allows homeowners to make digital recordings even as they are watching a different program on the same television. If your spouse wants to watch a sitcom and you want to watch the ball game, you can record one onto an AV hard disk drive while watching the other. High definition channels from cable or off-air can be recorded and distributed through compatible IEEE 1394 digital recording devices.

tecStream also supplies a data port for distributing broadband Internet and sharing files and peripherals among home computers and a telephone jack. The built-in Ethernet capability allows homeowners to set up a home office virtually anywhere and move it without costly and time consuming re-wiring.

The tecStream network consists of a central switch, tecStream 2500 modules, with analog inputs, and tecStream 2000 modules. Single Cat5 wires run from the central switch to each of the rooms where the modules and networked television sets are located. Both the tecStream 2500 and 2000 modules contain IEEE 1394 ports to accommodate digital electronic equipment such as D-VHS decks and AV Hard Disk drives.

tecStream is ready for shipment and is available through UStec's dealer channel.

www.tecstream.com