[Philip Lelyveld comment: news of a small Tenn. system upgrade]

[By ROGER BROWN, tricities.com]

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services officials said the company is nearing completion of a multi-million-dollar project that will make Video On Demand, extensive HD and 3D channels and other television features  available to BTES digital customers by late summer.

“We’re going to be putting Bristol residents on the cutting-edge of TV technology,” BTES Power Boardmember Kelly Graham said, regarding BTES’ plans to offer Internet Protocol TV — commonly known as IPTV — in Bristol households by late August.

Graham said IPTV will give Bristol residents “just as many state-of-the-art TV features as any community in the country. And a lot more than a whole lot of communities,” he said.

BTES CEO Mike Browder said the utility will hold a June trial test of the IPTV system in a handful of homes before fully rolling it out two months later.

“We’ve wanted to provide our customers with more content and wider access when they watch TV, and now we’re just about ready to do it,” Browder said.

He offered no details on what customers might be charged to receive the service, which will also let viewers watch DVR recordings from multiple TV sets and set DVRs from locations outside their homes.

While BTES has an estimated 33,000 electricity customers in Bristol and parts of Sullivan County, more than 12,000 of them also have cable, phone and/or Internet service.

Last November, Power Board members gave BTES approval to spend up to $5.5 million to install the IPTV system in its service area.

Browder has said IPTV would create a “huge wow factor” among existing customers — as well as attract new viewers and give BTES one of the most advanced cable systems in Tennessee.

“It’s going to be an exciting addition to what we already provide our customers,” Browder said.

See the original post here: http://www2.tricities.com/news/2011/apr/24/btes-digital-customers-get-3d-hd-upgrades-ar-991877/