June 28, 2012 — Spur, TX – Cap Rock Telephone Cooperative, a 4,800 subscriber line company in the lower Texas panhandle, relied on their long standing relationship with Innovative Systems, providers of their legacy AP Hardware as a primary reason for choosing the APMAX Middleware solution.
According to Operations Manager Tommy Swaringen, ”We needed to convert all of our STBs which is never easy, but on the other side of the coin, anytime our previous vendor made an upgrade that would affect one STB brand there would be repercussions that would adversely affect the other brands of boxes that we had also.” Swaringen added, ”By having more control over the STB software,
Innovative’s Middleware solution will make it easier on us as service providers and less service disruptions for our customers. We have also not seen box freeze ups requiring reboots which is
something that really wears on a customer. ”
With the tight profit margins in video, one area that has helped Cap Rock is the DVR and Whole Home DVR features which according to Swaringen has been a big seller for Cap Rock, with a 30% take rate. Cap Rock’s strategy of bundling in the price of whole home DVR with the DVR service has been well received by their customers and another hook that keeps them competitive with the DBS providers.
