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In 2002, Borough of Kutztown launched a community-owned analog CATV system serving its community of 5,500 subscribers consisting primarily of local homeowners, and college students attending the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania most of whom live in rental units. The original 750-MHz system was later upgraded to an 860-MHz fiber-to-the-home network to provide, in addition to the basic CATV service, two tiered services each with several premier channels, broadband service, and lifeline telephone service. The Borough itself is a utility provider and in addition to the telecommunication services mentioned above provides electric, water, sewer, and refuse services.

With the ever-increasing demand of subscribers in general, but the college students in particular, for higher bandwidth and more progressive services, and with the then looming FCC-imposed  transition of analog broadcast services to digital, early in 2009 the Borough started to investigate the possibility of another system upgrade. That investigation resulted in the following five requiremetns: (i) providing additional channels without the need for costly outside plant upgrades, (ii) integrating digital and HD services into existing analog services without the necessity of adding set-top boxes at the customer premise, (iii) a future-poof design to allow seamless migration to an all- digital service in the future, (iv) a robust network to allow for additional revenue sources such as Voice-over-IP and DSL services, and (v) turn-key implementation with minimal disruption to existing services. It was this stringent set of requirements that prompted the Borough to call Blonder Tongue who not only offers design and consulting services, but also manufactures all the necessary equipment and provides optional turn-key installation and maintenance services.

“We turned to Blonder Tongue to take us into the next generation of television services without having to deploy set-top boxes at our subscribers’ premise. Our overall goal was to improve our choice of content and to deliver more services to our customers at a reasonable cost. With this in mind, we needed a solution that could be launched quickly and with minimal down time of our existing analog service. Blonder Tongue offered us exactly that - the expert design, engineering, and installation services that we needed to move to the next level without interruption of existing service. All of that, not only in a timely and efficient manner, but affordably too.” said Mr. Frank P Caruso, Director of Information Technology, Borough of Kutztown.

To help the Borough provide a specific blend of analog and digital channel lineup, Blonder Tongue developed new software for its existing 4:1 Digital QAM Multiplexer (Model DQMx) which allows the user to configure the PSIP (Program & System Information Protocol) parameters embedded in the digital stream so that major- and minor-channel numbers could be revised per Borough’s specifications.

“The expertise and professionalism of Blonder Tongue’s technicians is unparalleled.  They set to the task and completed the build in a short amount of time.  They were very helpful in explaining and demonstrating the products as they went.  When the project was complete I had a thorough understanding of all components installed.  It was a real pleasure working with them on this project.” said Mr. Mark A. Arnold, Hometown Field Coordinator, Borough of Kutztown.

In his closing remarks Mr. Caruso added, “We have increased our channel capacity and increased our product offering without deploying set-top boxes that are very costly to maintain. The Borough of Kutztown made the right decision in choosing Blonder Tongue - their overall expertise and professional approach has been a godsend to our operation. They have been our expert consultants in the design phase, outstanding ally in the implementation phase, and trusted visionary on how to offer the ‘next generation’ of services to our customers in the years to come”.