Boxee-Entropic trial boosts MoCA’s prospects

Boxee Box users clearly prefer using the platform over a high-bandwidth MoCA connection versus the more common home network option of Wi-Fi. That’s the main observation gleaned from a summer trial in which over-the-top video box vendor Boxee and home networking vendor Entropic Communications had 50 Boxee customers use Entropic’s MoCA-enabled Ethernet-to-Coax bridge to access video content in their homes.

Following the trial, 85 percent of the participants said that the MoCA connection gave them a better Boxee video viewing experience than Wi-Fi. About 59 percent said MoCA specifically improved their experiences watching video content streamed from the Internet or a PC within the household. Additionally, 85 percent of trial participants said they would recommend MoCA over Wi-Fi to other Boxee users. (The results were announced on the MoCA Blog, and also further discussed on the Boxee Blog).

The results also showed that users preferred MoCA-over-Powerline connections, but another notable home networking technology, HomePNA, was not included in the trial. Competition between all of these technologies only has grown more intense with the development of the G.hn standard.

The trial results and Entropic’s relationship with Boxee could open MoCA to a new level of retail and consumer awareness, while giving Boxee a competitive edge to crow about in the marketplace as it competes with a steadily increasing array of alternative set-top box vendors. The teaming of a home networking technology vendor and a retail box vendor also may be a new tactic in MoCA marketing, which mostly has focused on service providers.

“That last 10 feet in the home have been wireless to this point, and for viewing video, users will want something that can handle more than a short clip without buffering problems,” said Vinay Gokhale, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Entropic. “There are a lot of boxes in the home that will need a better connection than that.”

Gokhale said he envisions Entropic eventually working with other OTT box vendors to help them offer better streaming performance and viewing experience. Also, while the Boxee trial involved a MoCA dongle, he said he could see the technology someday being incorporated into such set-top box platforms.