--Upgrades its MediaHawk Back Office Software Suite (MHBOSS)
--Secures New VOD Deals with Time Warner Cable
VOD technology provider, Concurrent, has launched the Real Time
Pitcher 2000 (RTP2000), which it says uses resilient real-time content
distribution to ensure no loss of video captures due to network or
component failures, enabling content ingest success rates up to
99.999%. According to the company, this enhancement to its
time-shifted TV platform has generated significant interest among
cable operators--particularly Time Warner Cable and Bright House
Networks, which are using Concurrent equipment and software to
power Start Over services (note: Time Warner Cable recently launched
Start Over in Staten Island and plans to make the service available on
all its New York City networks by the end of the year). "When we
launched Start Over in our Tampa division in January, we partnered
with Concurrent specifically because of its superiority in time-shifted
television technology," Jeff Chen, SVP of advanced technology at
Bright House Networks, said in a prepared statement. "From the very
beginning, we have always planned to build Start Over as a fully
resilient service. Now with the launch of the RTP2000, we can further
enhance our customer experience by ensuring no loss of Start Over
content when any component fails." Added Concurrent's recently
appointed president and CEO, Dan Mondor: "With 65% marketshare in
cable systems offering Start Over, Concurrent is the clear industry
leader in time-shifted television technology. With the launch of the
RTP2000, we are once again demonstrating our innovation and
leadership in advanced on-demand applications."
According to Concurrent, the primary function of the RTP2000 is to
convert unicast FTP, where information is sent from a single source to
a single point, to reliable multicast, where information is sent from one
or more sources to one or more points. The company says that the
RTP2000 takes incoming video and pitches it to several Real Time
Catchers (RTC), from which video servers can then pull and stream
selected content to the end-user. Concurrent claims the new content
pitcher's resilient real-time content distribution distinguishes it from its
competitors.
In other Concurrent news:
- The company has implemented a number of upgrades to its
MediaHawk Back Office Software Suite (MHBOSS), which it says will
result in enhanced scalability. According to the company, the new
version of MHBOSS can now support up to 32 streaming servers, or
over a million subscribers. "Our customers, such as Time Warner,
Bright House and J:COM, operate some of the largest cable systems in
the world," Concurrent's Mondor said in a prepared statement.
"MHBOSS was designed to address the needs of these 'megasystems,'
which must constantly balance the need to launch advanced interactive
television services with maintaining low levels of system down time.
With MHBOSS, system operators can now deploy applications like
time-shifted television and advanced advertising in a phased manner,
without service interruptions." According to Concurrent, MHBOSS's
capacity can be increased "effortlessly," as new VOD customers are
added and VOD utilization rises, by simply adding more computing
and storage modules. All replications of data and load balancing are
automatic, the company says, and can occur when the system is
operating at full capacity. In addition, Concurrent claims, content
libraries can be expanded and user-generated content can be added
without limit. The software suite features an open architecture which
Concurrent bills as enabling interoperability with multiple VOD server
venders using RTSP and NGOD protocols, and with numerous
software applications through industry-standard interfaces such as
XML and SOAP. It provides Web services for reporting, subscription
management, billing and other applications that require information
from the backoffice. According to Concurrent, its modular design
provides interfaces for a broad spectrum of advanced set-top box
applications, and allows it to be easily integrated with OCAP/tru2way
applications. The company claims that, when combined with its
MediaHawk 4500 servers (note: it is also compatible with Concurrent's
MediaHawk 4000 servers), which feature "resilient streaming
technology," MHBOSS provides a VOD platform that is "nearly
immune to equipment and environmental failures."
- In a July 9th 8-K regulatory filing, the company revealed that it has
received purchase orders for its VOD systems from Time Warner Cable
for the San Diego and Los Angeles markets. According to the filing,
the orders, which are for complete systems, are worth over $2 million.
As a result of having been selected as the cable operator's VOD
supplier for these markets, Concurrent says, it expects to receive
"additional individual orders for its video-on-demand products at other
sites within these markets" during its current fiscal year (2009). The
new orders are expected to support roll-outs of Time Warner Cable's
Start Over service.
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