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NETGEAR unveils media gateway technology powered by Digital Keystone’s scalable platform.

LAS VEGAS – January 7, 2013 – NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR),  a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, unveiled NETGEAR NeoMedia™ at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES®). NeoMedia™ is a new integrated technology platform for media gateways powered by Maelstrom™ software from Digital Keystone® (www.digitalkeystone.com), the leader in media distribution software. NeoMedia is the industry’s first platform that delivers broadcast and personal content to multiple screens without the need for middleware on the Customer Premise Equipment (CPE).

Multi-screen initiatives being deployed by service providers today are limited by the availability of content and by the type of CPE devices that can access this content. Current multi-screen architectures are constrained by their dependence on complex middleware for content rights management, navigation and social networking. Deployment of new features requires the operator to go through an expensive and time-consuming upgrade of the CPE devices. Furthermore, ensuring a high quality of customer experience requires the operator to be aware of the subscriber home network, presenting additional challenges.

The NeoMedia platform developed by NETGEAR and Digital Keystone eliminates the need for middleware on CPE devices, enabling operators to deploy, scale and manage their multi-screen services without constraints. With an innovative distributed architecture that leverages proven cloud technologies, the NeoMedia platform enables operators to rapidly launch new services or seamlessly upgrade their existing offers. By locating key aspects of a media gateway such as access rights management, user interface and navigation on a cloud-based server, the NeoMedia platform enables CPE devices to become lightweight without sacrificing functionality. With the NeoMedia server acting as the proxy for the CPE devices in the subscriber home, operators can enable multi-screen services without having to individually manage each CPE device. This server-client architecture enables rapid innovation without requiring costly infrastructure changes, CPE upgrades or truck-rolls.

“The NETGEAR NeoMedia media gateway platform is an all-inclusive technology. Service providers have the ability to store, share and stream media as well as decide how it’s accessed and who gets to access it—all without the need for middleware on the CPE,” said Naveen Chhangani, director of product management for Service Provider products at NETGEAR. “Digital Keystone’s Maelstrom software adds an additional level of integration and when layered on NETGEAR’s media gateways, turns NeoMedia into a scalable, intuitive solution.”

“NeoMedia technology marks a unique collaboration between Digital Keystone and NETGEAR. NeoMedia represents the state of the art in media access performance and flexibility, and the perfect platform through which to deliver the full set of Maelstrom media features to a wide range of markets. With Digital Keystone’s secure media distribution technology combined with NETGEAR’s proven leadership in home connectivity and broadband access, service providers get a simpler, more flexible, and cost-effective rollout of multi-screen services,” said Paolo Siccardo, president and CEO of Digital Keystone.

Key capabilities of the NeoMedia platform include:

• In-home access to live and recorded linear TV services;
• Cloud-based access to live and recorded linear TV services;
• Secure playback on retail and thin IP clients;
• Aggregation of Live TV, VOD and Network DVR services; and
• Seamless integration into operator’s existing infrastructure.