Tut Systems to Move Headquarters to Hacienda

Manufacturer Provides Broadband Solutions for Multi-Tenant Units

Tut Systems, an industry leader in providing broadband data communications to multi-tenant facilities, will move their headquarters from Pleasant Hill to Hacienda this summer. The company will occupy Rinconada One, a two-building project totalling 89,086 square feet at 5956 and 5964 West Las Positas Boulevard.

Tut's main market is in the design and manufacture of systems which provide high-speed data services for users in multi-tenant buildings, be they apartments, hotels, dormitories, or multi-tenant commercial buildings.

"We use a technology called Home Run, which is our own proprietary technology, that allows data to travel on the same line as voice traffic but at a different frequency," explains Tut spokesperson Amanda Berman. "It connects to the regular telephone wires in the wiring closet of, for example, an apartment and then uses those wires to transmit data through the existing infrastructure."

While similar to DSL, Home Run differs from that technology in the fact that Tut's equipment does not need to be located at the local phone company's central office in order to provide Internet access.

"It's much more cost effective because the service provider can avoid the colocation charges and all the line charges that they must pay to rent those lines," she adds.

Tut has also been active in forming associations and partnerships with a variety of other companies. Tut played an instrumental role in the formation of the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), a group with a goal of providing consumers with affordable high-speed networking solutions over existing home telephone wires. The other founding members of HomePNA include 3Com, Advanced Micro Devices, AT&T Wireless Services, Compaq, Epigram, IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent, and Conextant. HomeRun has since been endorsed by the group as the first-generation specification for home networking over copper telephone wires.

Their latest product is IntelliPOP, which was announced last month. IntelliPOP is designed to provide similar functionality to HomeRun but is specialized for commercial users and their needs for more bandwidth.

"IntelliPOP allows us to go to commercial buildings and offer faster speeds," says Berman. "It can also run over Category 5 (Ethernet) wiring and fiber."

The company currently employs approximately 170 people, and over half of them are expected to make the move to Hacienda. Tut Systems also has offices in Portland, the UK, and a number of regional sales people.

"We've been an East Bay company since the beginning and we're excited that we'll be remaining in the East Bay," Berman adds.

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