NETGEAR Showcases Digital Media Receivers, Skype Phones and More at CES

January 9, 2007 — NETGEAR is introducing three new products and showcasing several more Innovations Award honorees at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. NETGEAR will demonstrate the new Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) media receiver, new Dual-Mode Cordless Phone with Skype™ (SPH200D), and new Storage Central Turbo (SC101T), along with award-winning RangeMax™ NEXT wireless routers, Powerline adapters and ProSafe® wireless networking solutions for growing businesses. From Monday, January 8 through Thursday, January 11, the company is exhibiting in booth #36219 in South Hall 4 of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where it is also hosting its “Blogger-in-Residence,” Videocasts, and Podcasts “Live From CES” to online visitors from around the world.

“CES offers NETGEAR a unique opportunity to learn as much as we teach and see as much as we show,” said Patrick Lo, chairman and chief executive officer of NETGEAR. “Through exhibits, demos, and workshops on the show floor as well as weblogs, videocasts, and podcasts shared over the Internet, we can reach out to customers, partners and prospects while they reach out to us. This hyper-networked conversation is the perfect place for everyone to connect with innovation. It’s a great way to start out the new year, and to celebrate the close of NETGEAR’s tenth year of innovation.”

Digital Entertainer HD Debuts
Making its debut at CES this year is the new Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) to bring the universe of digital content to television sets. The set-top media receiver streams high-definition movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, MP3 files, iTunes music purchases (from Windows® PCs) and personal photos — as well as Internet-based video, news feeds, weather reports and radio programs — over an existing home network. The Digital Entertainer HD automatically discovers and organizes media files from Windows and Mac® computers, network storage devices and USB media devices into a single library. A high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port displays video resolution up to 1080p on big-screen TVs and optical digital audio output (TOSLINK) transmits full digital surround sound to a digital audio receiver.

The new Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) joins the growing NETGEAR family of multimedia streaming devices that already includes the Digital Entertainer (EVA700), verified for Intel® Viiv™ technology.

Skype Calling Advances
Introduced at CES 2006, the NETGEAR Skype WiFi Phone (SPH101) has been received with international acclaim. This year, NETGEAR adds the NETGEAR Dual-Mode Cordless Phone with Skype (SPH200D), which simultaneously connects to a home network router through Ethernet (RJ-45) and a standard telephone wall jack (RJ-11) to support both landline and Skype Internet calls without the need to be connected to a computer. It incorporates DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephony) technology, which utilizes the 1.9GHz band enabling the cordless phone to avoid interference from WiFi networks to provide longer range and ensure crystal-clear voice quality. The Cordless Phone base station, which supports up to four handsets, saves consumers money and eliminates clutter by enabling users to improve the quality of their traditional telephone service and add the cost-saving benefits of Skype Internet calling by simply replacing their current cordless phones throughout the home. The small, sleek handset incorporates a built-in speakerphone and sharp TFT display to view contacts and callers. Both NETGEAR phones for Skype are 2007 CES Innovations Awards honorees.

Storage Networking Goes Turbo
NETGEAR is also adding to its popular storage product line with the new Storage Central Turbo (SC101T), honored with CES Innovations Award status. The original Storage Central (SC101), introduced in the fall of 2005, is one of the industry’s most widely distributed SAN devices. The new Storage Central Turbo offers versatile, high-performance, affordable networked storage, designed for the sharable data backup and storage needs of consumers and small businesses. It features a Gigabit Ethernet interface that enables users to quickly and easily transfer, share and store music, photos, data files, and videos across the network. The Storage Central Turbo supports two 3.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives of any capacity and makes real-time copies of stored data on two separate hard drives to ensure maximum protection against data loss, providing users with the ideal mirrored, centralized storage solution. Utilizing Z-SAN (Storage Area Network) technology to deliver a critical blend of scalability, performance and affordability, the SC101T is a future-proof storage solution that enables users to expand storage capacity indefinitely by upgrading to larger SATA hard drives or even by adding additional SC101T devices to the network.

RangeMax NEXT Routers Speed Ahead
Yet another CES Innovations Award honoree showcased this year is the RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router Gigabit Edition with 10/100/1000 Switch (WNR854T), the top-performing draft 802.11n-compliant wireless router according to a recent competitive analysis in a real-world residential environment by VeriTest®, the testing service of Lionbridge. The RangeMax NEXT wireless product family, which also includes a 10/100 Switch router, delivers uplink throughput speeds of up to 300 Mbps — nearly twice as fast as competitors’ draft 802.11n-compliant routers — using an advanced internal antenna design to automatically optimize performance. The same test also shows uplink throughput speeds up to 15 times faster and ranges up to 10 times greater compared to equipment based upon current 802.11g technology. RangeMax NEXT routers achieve the strongest short-, mid- and long-range uplink throughputs while incorporating “Steady Stream” technology to deliver the stable connections required for high-quality media and telephony applications, even in heavy interference or long-range conditions.

NETGEAR’s entire RangeMax NEXT family of draft 802.11n-compliant wireless routers, notebook, PCI and USB 2.0 adapters, and access points will be on display throughout the duration of CES.

Powerline Networking Surges
Bestowed with a 2007 CES Innovations Award, the NETGEAR 200 Mbps Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter (HDX101) turns any AC electrical outlet into a home network broadband connection for real-time gaming, high-quality VoIP calls or high-definition video streaming. The Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter enables consumers to seamlessly connect a personal computer, digital video recorder, game console or other Ethernet-ready device to their home network. NETGEAR’s Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter offers built-in Video Quality of Service (VQoS) for consistent performance with encrypted security, at unprecedented data rates, to seamlessly stream high-definition video throughout the entire home without the need to run any cabling between rooms. CES attendees can learn more about Powerline networking on Wednesday, January 10 at 10:30 a.m., when Kartik Gada, NETGEAR’s product line manager for connectivity and storage products, will join the moderated panel “Powerline Networking: Has Its Day Arrived?” at the “Connections: The Digital Home Conference.”

SSL VPNs Boost Remote Productivity
At CES, NETGEAR will display a full array of its ProSafe products for corporate, branch and remote offices — Managed and Stackable Smart Switches (including Gigabit Layer 3 Stackable Switches), Wired and Wireless VPN Firewalls, and Wireless Access Points. NETGEAR’s continued dedication to the SMB sector has made it the industry-leading provider of complete, innovative network solutions for small and medium sized companies.

In 2006, NETGEAR expanded its family of ProSafe Gigabit Layer 3 managed switches with the launch of its flagship ProSafe 24 and 48 Port Gigabit Layer 3 Stackable Switches with Four 10-Gigabit Slots (GSM7328S and GSM7352S), which offer scalable, enterprise-class functionality that brings a rich, new feature set and high availability to the network edge, wiring closets, branch offices, and data centers.

Also highlighted at CES is NETGEAR’s industry-leading suite of affordable, feature-rich family of ProSafe Stackable Smart Switches, the ProSafe 24 Port 10/100 Stackable Smart Switch with 4 Gigabit Ports (FS728TS), ProSafe 48 Port 10/100 Stackable Smart Switch with 4 Gigabit Ports (FS752TS) and ProSafe 48 Port 10/100 Stackable Smart Switch with 4 Gigabit Ports and 24 Power over Ethernet Ports (FS752TPS). NETGEAR’s Stackable Smart Switches offer key management features that provide the ability to scale network infrastructure without the need for dedicated IT personnel on staff or the complexity of a fully managed network.

Prominent among the products on display at CES is NETGEAR’s multiple-award winning ProSafe SSL VPN Concentrator 25 (SSL312), which enables businesses to boost the productivity of remote employees by providing secure access to the corporate network from any standard Web browser using the secure socket layer e-commerce protocol. The ProSafe SSL VPN Concentrator 25 (SSL312) has received the CRN Test Center Recommendation, while Tom’s Networking Guide declared it a “breakthrough product.”

For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.netgear.com or call (408) 907-8000.

SOURCE NETGEAR