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MANSFIELD - Just how important are clear and uninterrupted images on your cable TV and Internet service? Just ask any cable operator or Internet service provider whose signals get scrambled during the Super Bowl or a climactic installment of “Survivor.”

Mansfield’s IneoQuest makes its mark in monitoring video quality

Now, increasing emphasis on video content on computer networks, wireless, cell phones as well as cable is super-charging the growth of a local company that helps operators monitor video quality across their systems as well as predict and identify problems.

IneoQuest, a young but fast-emerging player in video quality management systems, is riding a rising tide of demand for equipment and software that can quickly localize signal problems and help operators cut costs. The company, which recently won a Product of The Year award from Communications Solutions Magazine for its iVMS desktop Internet video management system, and is winning notice from within the cable and Internet service industries as well.

With 604 percent revenue growth in the past three years, IneoQuest was recently named the sixth-fastest growing company in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal. IneoQuest, which developed its technology for monitoring the quality of video transmissions in 2002, currently employs about 64 people, according to company CEO Marc A. Todd. But already having amassed about 300 customers, including some of the largest communications industry players, Todd says the company is poised for growth.

“Clearly, we’re just at the beginning,” said Todd, who said he expects demand for IneoQuest’s products to rise as customers recognize their effectiveness and cost-cutting potential.

Solving problems remotely

Traditionally, service providers have relied on customer complaints and field technicians and engineers to localize and remedy service outages and video quality problems. IneoQuest’s monitoring equipment, probes and software can help companies localize and diagnose problems remotely by reviewing thousands of video streams at once — with the potential for greatly reducing expensive service calls.

“If you think just in terms of a company’s costs in answering phones when there’s an outage, there’s a considerable expense,” said Todd, who says the industry calculates the cost of responding to a single trouble call at anywhere from $5 to $15. Dispatching a truck and technician to investigate the source of a problem or outage can run into hundreds of dollars.

IneoQuest, whose “horizontal” approach to monitoring video quality can track video quality at any point in the system from a central location, lets operators put their fingers on trouble spots before leaving the office. Response times are reduced and maintenance costs associated with “hide and seek” hunts for problems in the field are minimized.

All of this, says Todd, translates into better customer service for end-users as competitive pressures build to provide quality, uninterrupted service.

Currently, the privately-held IneoQuest has been driven by “organic” growth, says Todd, as the company wins over more and more service providers to its products. However, Todd expects that be supplemented by repeat sales as companies realize the value of adding more video sampling devices, called “probes,” throughout their systems to maintain quality and control costs.

“I call it a tsunami effect,” said Todd. “The wave isn’t here yet, but when it gets here we plan to be ready.”

IneoQuest remains firmly in expansion mode, says Todd. Currently, about 80 percent of its sales come from North America although the Mansfield firm has also established beach heads in Europe and Asia. Recently the company expanded is lab, office and manufacturing space by taking over all of a manufacturing building once occupied by Motorola Corp. The company is also looking to hire a wide range of professionals, from sales personnel to field engineers. RICK FOSTER can be reached at 508-236-0360 or at rfoster@thesunchronicle.com.