press release

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12 November 2009 – Russia’s largest broadband Internet provider Comstar-UTS has chosen MiriATE, the industry-leading set-top box testing system from Mirifice, for all its future IPTV service and set-top box deployments.

MiriATE is an automated testing system, enabling Comstar to achieve far superior results in the reliability and robustness of both its IPTV services and set-top boxes.  This is achieved by enabling an increased volume and depth of testing.

Victor Belov, Director of Business Development, Service Platforms and Networks, at Comstar-UTS, says ” MiriATE will allow Comstar-UTS to track the state of subscriber set-top boxes in order to update the software on time and ensure that services work correctly. MiriATE in combination with MiriMON, which was introduced by Comstar-UTS in 2008 for real-time monitoring of service quality and customer service levels, will enable the operator to obtain an effective quality management system of customer service (CEM) throughout the service deployment life cycle.”

Niall Buckingham, Director and Founder at Mirifice, says, “I am delighted that Comstar has chosen MiriATE for its test automation.  MiriATE enables extensive, accurate tests to be run 24 hours a day.  The resulting improvements in service quality and reliability will provide in a reduction in the total cost of ownership of devices and improved customer satisfaction with the service.”

MiriATE provides Comstar with the ability to automatically drive large numbers of STBs through suites of stringent tests, including realistic endurance testing.

MiriATE offers advanced features such as video analysis, motion detection, region comparison and optical character recognition (OCR); these are critical in automating the majority of tests, as they replace the need for manual recognition and verification.

Additional benefits include multiple concurrency and test scheduling on a platform which offers 24/7 availability, resulting in reduced costs and improved time-to-market.

The MiriATE system can scale from a solution for four set-top boxes to very large systems for hundreds of set-top boxes.
 
About Mirifice Ltd
Mirifice is headquartered in Bath, UK and provides software products, solutions and services to the broadcast industry. Our products include MiriMON, the award-winning system for real-time monitoring of live Digital TV networks, and MiriATE, a powerful technical environment for the testing and control of set-top boxes.  We also provide software development, testing strategy, project management and technical consultancy services.

Mirifice customers include BSkyB, BT, Virgin Media, Top-Up TV, Comstar Direct, Pace, Austar, Open TV, Tandberg and Thomson.

Mirifice Ltd.
4 Abbey Street,
Bath BA1 1NN
Tel: +44 1225 460126
www.mirifice.com

For more information contact:
Julia Ruane
Stetson PR
T: +44 7714 331991
E: JR@StetsonPR.com

Andy Scott
Mirifice T:
+44 1225 460126
E: andy.scott@mirifice.com

About COMSTAR-Direct
COMSTAR United TeleSystems is the largest telecom multiservice operator in Moscow in terms of financial indicators and subscriber base. COMSTAR-UTS provides voice, data, Internet, pay-TV and other value-added services to operators, corporate clients and individual users, using backbone network and "last mile" access in 98% of Moscow households. In addition, the company provides telecom services in five federal regions of Russia, as well as in Armenia and Ukraine. The subscriber base of COMSTAR-UTS as of the end of Q4 2007 was 3.6 million subscribers, private individuals and 102,000 of corporate clients in Moscow, including 695,000 broadband subscribers in Moscow, with 651,000 being individual users. COMSTAR-UTS has approximately 448,000 subscribers in the regions of Russia, Ukraine and Armenia, including about 40,000 broadband users and 102,000 subscribers of Pay-TV. The aggregate income of the Group for the 12 months of 2007 was US$ 1,562.4 million, with OIBDA index being 42.5%. The stocks of COMSTAR-UTS are listed on London Stock Exchange; the company's ticker is CMST. For details, please, visit:  http://www.comstar-uts.ru/