The Arris media gateway, bottom, combines the functions of a wireless router, cable Internet modem and phone modem. It also includes a digital video recorder that will play back shows in other rooms on TVs equipped with the media player, top.

BendBroadband will be rolling out a first-in-the-nation service, called Alpha, that will combine many home digital devices and services — cable Internet, telephone and video — into one hub, enhance them with more content and features and allow them to communicate.

“This is literally revolutionary,” Frank Miller, BendBroadband chief technology officer, said Friday.

Miller joined Amy Tykeson, BendBroadband CEO; John Farwell, vice president of operations; and John Childress, product development manager, in a demonstration of the new system, which the company has teased in television commercials and on billboards.

At the heart of Alpha is a box, called a media gateway, that’s about the size of a digital video recorder, such as BendBroadband’s DVR with Moxi.

It combines into one package the cable Internet modem, wireless router, telephone-service modem and DVR that clutter some BendBroadband customers’ living rooms today. It also will be the platform to provide even more enhanced services in the future.

The media gateway’s DVR allows users to record six live shows at once. It also will allow them to play back recordings in bedrooms or other rooms in the home that have televisions equipped with media players, at the same time — even at different points in the show.

For example, one viewer can be watching the opening scenes of the program while another is viewing the middle.

Currently, DVR users must watch shows on the TVs connected to the DVR.

Customers also can stream content from websites like Flickr, Hulu, YouTube or Netflix.

BendBroadband is testing the new service in a small number of homes and plans to launch it for all customers in April. It will demonstrate the system at WinterFest, which starts Friday and runs through Feb. 20.

The company has been discussing the service for more than a year, the officials said Friday, and its staff has spent six months engineering the system, which is built on BendBroadband’s existing cable and Internet infrastructure and will run from the cables already installed in homes.

BendBroadband, which led the nation with its new high-speed wireless service in 2009, will be acting as a test site for Arris, the Suwanee, Ga.-based company that makes the media gateways and players.

“We’ll be the first launch in the U.S. with this product,” Tykeson said. “We were ready to move.”

She and other top officials are still discussing how much Alpha will cost customers, but the rental fee for one box should not be greater than the combined fees for multiple digital-control devices.

“The expense will be more economical for customers than what they have today,” Tykeson said.

Alpha will require installation fees, like other services. The company will be learning how much time installation takes, as technicians will also need to teach customers the basics of the service.

To use Alpha, customers will need to have BendBroadband’s Internet and cable TV services. Alpha will only be available to the company’s hard-wired customers in Bend, Redmond, Sisters and parts of unincorporated Deschutes County. It will not work with other broadband Internet systems, such as DSL.

Those who only have BendBroadband’s Internet service, cable television and one TV may not opt for Alpha, Tykeson said, but it will likely appeal to the 35 percent of BendBroadband’s customers who use the company’s most advanced technology.

By combining so many digital devices into one, she said, Alpha will streamline users’ experiences.

“I think customers will love the product because of the simplicity and integration you get with it,” Tykeson said.

Simply eliminating the need to have multiple DVRs will be huge, she added.

Customers will be able to access the Alpha system through their accounts at mybendbroadband.com. They also will be able to set parental controls for individual media players located in other rooms.

Equipped with a 500-gigabyte hard drive, the media gateway’s DVR will also be able to hold much more programming than current models. Its various ports accept a variety of connections, such as HDMI and digital optical audio, Miller said.

Company officials touted the programming guide, which can be customized to display programs by time or topic, allowing users to drill down and get detailed information on, for example, sports shows.

Those with BendBroadband telephone service will also be able to view their caller ID on the TV, where they can also see logs of their phone calls.

Web content, such as family vacation photos from Hawaii, can be accessed from the media gateway, which also has a built-in firewall.

BendBroadband expects to add a Web browser to the system in the summer, Childress said. With its built-in router, it becomes the Wi-Fi portal for the whole house.

The Alpha system also will serve as the foundation for future digital innovations, such as IP, or Internet Protocol, TV.

“It’s another way to deliver that cable experience,” Tykeson said.