Arris Unveils "Intelligent Content" Features for its ConvergeMedia VOD Platform

Communications technology company, Arris (note: the company recently announced that it had reached a $20 million deal to acquire Digeo, the Paul Allen-backed set-top box company best known for its flagship Moxi DVR--see the article published on itvt.com, September 27th), said Monday that its ConvergeMedia Management Suite (note: the product line, which was originally developed by nCUBE, was previously known as nABLE) can now dynamically manage heterogeneous VOD content across multiple video servers, optimizing service provider resources for network bandwidth, video server storage and streaming. The company says that the new functionality is enabled by Management Suite release 1.0, which is now generally available, and which it claims builds on the software's functionality to cost-effectively manage content ingest, distribution and dynamic redistribution of content across servers throughout a service provider's networks.

According to Arris, the new platform enables service providers to deploy large media libraries of mixed or heterogeneous content throughout their networks of video server deployments to best suit their needs. Service providers can now extend VOD deployments to more communities, the company says, by deploying edge servers that were not previously economically viable due to the management overhead and quantities of different edge servers required. Because the ConvergeMedia Management Suite and storage platforms also support advanced advertising features like dynamic ad insertion and interactivity, Arris claims, service providers have a platform to launch new, revenue-generating advanced services without replacing their deployed servers.

Seamlessly managing all forms of media content in a real-time, dynamic and efficient manner allows service providers to focus on their services and less on the technology, Arris says. According to the company, the ConvergeMedia management and distribution platforms allow operators to cost-effectively deploy very large and growing libraries of VOD content across entire network footprints using different servers for media formats. The company says that the ConvergeMedia OnDemand management platform also offers features that enable operators to converge high-speed data and video services with VOD and advanced advertising offerings by providing content search capabilities, recommendation engine integration and personalized features. This, Arris claims, will allow subscribers to push personalized search and content to their various media devices, including TV, PC or mobiles. The platform provides full-cycle content management, the company says: "acquisition to consumption, heterogeneous and hierarchical content for optimal storage and streaming, along with a high availability design critical for 'always-on' revenue-generating advertising and on-demand services."