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Entone Inc., a San Mateo, California, company that helps telecom companies drive their TV services, Friday announced that it has closed on a $14.5 million financing round to fund a new box designed to integrate TV and broadband services while cutting installation costs.

The series B round was led by new investor Coral Capital Management with participation from prior investors Menlo Ventures and Scale Venture Partners. In the company's A round in 2007, the company had raised $12 million.

Jim Jones, managing director at Scale and a member of the Entone board of directors, said Motorola is believed to be the largest vendor of Internet protocol TV boxes with Entone in second or third place.

Entone provides IPTV boxes for tier two and three telecom providers that have moved into competition with cable and satellite companies. Customers include Hong Kong's PCCW, CenturyTel, which has a deployment in Wisconsin and Consolidated Communications with installations in Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Mr. Jones said Entone's new Janus media hub, scheduled for rollout in November, contains software that emulates full IPTV and broadband services without requiring telecom operators to upgrade their networks and add extensive equipment at their central offices. The savings can run up to $2,000 per household compared to companies like Verizon that run fiber-optic cable to the home, he said.

Beyond cost savings, Chief Executive Steve McKay said Janus will enable users to view TV, user digital and web content on the high-definition TV that are increasingly common in U.S. households.

"I can access my TV, my web video, photo libraries, video libraries all presented on my TV," he said.

He contrasted Entone's approach, which includes professional installation from the telecoms, to the "racks and stacks" alternative that would require consumers to integrate multiple devices like Tivo, AppleTV and a digital media adapter.

"There will be a graveyard of companies doing this," he said of the firms offering discreet services.

On the financial side, Entone is not cash-flow positive, "but it's close," Mr. Jones said.

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