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VOD technology provider, SeaChange International, and digital video
specialist, Thomson, said last week that they have deployed an
advanced content delivery system for HBO Latin America Group. The
system, which uses digital watermarking for enhanced security, is being
used by HBO LAG to make movies available on the VOD platforms of
a number of cable operators throughout Latin America. “As easily and
efficiently as we can disseminate our content, it is equally important
that we can ensure the content’s integrity,” Pierre Jaspar, SVP of
technology and operations at HBO LAG, said in a prepared statement.
“The combination of SeaChange’s delivery solution and Thomson’s
watermarking technology provides us with the most effective and
reliable means of achieving those goals.”

According to SeaChange and Thomson, the solution they are supplying
to HBO LAG is based on SeaChange’s Vodcast content delivery system
and Thomson’s NexGuard video watermarking technology. They claim
that the solution enables HBO LAG to securely and cost-effectively
transfer file-based movie content “faster than real time,” from a single
origination point in Miami to hundreds of server locations
simultaneously. The content is serialized on a per-operator basis,
permitting any illicit copies to be traced back to the source of the leak.
Using secure satellite transmission, the Vodcast system integrates the
NexGuard software at each receiver site, where the MPEG files and
streams are invisibly watermarked upon receipt of new content. The
watermark data is based on a unique identifier on the catcher device,
and the process is fully automated–which, the companies say, makes it
impossible to be bypassed at the receiver site.

In other VOD-related news from SeaChange:

• The company says that Mexico’s largest digital cable operator,
  Cablevision Mexico, has become the first of its customers to use its
  MediaServer Flash Memory Streamers (note: Cablevision Mexico
  launched VOD, using SeaChange’s platform, in 2005; the service
  includes 720 broadcast programs that are ingested weekly for VOD
  consumption using SeaChange’s Record System software). The
  SeaChange MediaServer Flash Memory Streamer is a
  100%-flash-memory-based solution that is designed to decouple
  on-demand streaming from disk-based content storage. According to
  the company, the solution allows Cablevision Mexico to push its
  streaming resources to the network edge and meet its goal of growing
  its centralized content library to 14,000 hours of movies and TV
  programs. SeaChange also touts the Streamer as an optimal solution for
  time-shifted television, providing up to 4,400 hours of clustered storage
  in a single footprint, and (unlike DRAM) retaining real-time ingest
  content regardless of server failures. “On-demand has driven
  Cablevision’s digital uptake at a remarkable clip, so we’ve been very
  aggressive about growing our library and streaming capabilities to meet
  subscriber expectations,” Cablevision Mexico CEO, Jean Paul Broc,
  said in a prepared statement. “We identified flash memory as the very
  means to help us stay on target and on budget. Once again, SeaChange
  was in the position to bring pragmatic innovation to market first.”
  SeaChange touts the MediaServer Flash Memory Streamers as the
  industry’s only non-volatile flash memory streaming solution (no
  spinning disks) which also takes full advantage of the company’s
  MediaCluster server architecture. According to the company,
  MediaCluster, without costly mirroring, stripes content files across
  flash modules in a server and across servers in an InfiniBand-connected
  cluster, in order to ensure service fault-resilience and scalability, since
  only one copy of a video is ever required at a server location. Overall,
  the company says, flash memory runs on one-tenth the power required
  by disks, and thus enables reduced overheads. According to
  SeaChange, its MediaCluster technology extends flash memory’s life
  expectancy by a factor of five to at least 10 years: whereas content
  “write” hotspots would dramatically reduce life expectancy in any other
  architecture, the company claims, MediaCluster eliminates write
  hotspots by load-balancing content writes across all flash modules in a
  server and across all servers in a cluster.

• Triple-play provider, RCN, which launched VOD services in 2003,
  using SeaChange software and servers, has tapped the company once
  again to provide the technology for an extensive overhaul of its VOD
  platform. The overhaul sees RCN upgrading its operational software,
  replacing all its video storage and streaming resources, and upgrading
  its navigational software in order to provide a new VOD user interface.
  The operator says that the various upgrades will allow it to almost
  double the amount of content it offers, including HD programs, and
  provide a more intuitive VOD portal and virtual on-demand channels
  for easier accessibility. It promises that its revamped VOD service will
  be available to all its digital subscribers in Boston, Chicago, New York,
  Pennsylvania and Washington, DC by June. Specific elements of
  RCN’s upgrade include: 1) The deployment of SeaChange’s Axiom On
  Demand end-to-end standards-based VOD software framework–RCN
  says the software will provide it with personalization capabilities,
  operations efficiency and support for third-party applications. 2) The
  replacement of all its video servers with SeaChange’s MediaServer
  MDS 201 hybrid memory disk streamers–SeaChange bills the
  streamers as combining the advantages of standards-based hardware
  with its patented MediaCluster technology, and as providing
  high-density streaming and ingest, clustered memory caching, and
  scalable storage, in order to meet the varying demands of VOD usage
  patterns. 3) The deployment of SeaChange’s VODlink Portal 4.0, a
  video-rich navigation interface. The product is billed by SeaChange as
  allowing operators, “without the hassles of difficult middleware
  packages,” to easily integrate full-motion video into menus and user
  interfaces that can be changed quickly, in order to reflect new
  promotions and branding, enable use of movie posters in screen design,
  and support advanced capabilities such as DVD games.

• The company has partnered with Camiant, a provider of policy
  control and application assurance technology, on an integrated solution
  that is designed to guarantee quality of service and increase the quality
  of the subscriber experience for wireline, wireless and cable VOD
  service. According to the companies, the integrated solution–which
  combines Camiant’s policy control resource management solution with
  SeaChange’s Axiom VOD software environment–has been deployed
  by “a major broadband operator in North America” to support its
  nationwide VOD service. According to SeaChange and Camiant, the
  growing popularity of video, VoIP and gaming applications is making
  it increasingly necessary for operators to implement policy control, in
  order to guarantee the quality of high-bandwidth, time-sensitive
  applications for any subscriber at any time. Cable and IPTV operators
  use policy control resource managers in order to reclaim bandwidth and
  manage network resources in such a way as to ensure QoS: “With the
  opening of broadband networks, and the elimination of walled gardens,
  we are experiencing unprecedented growth of what operators perceive
  to be bandwidth-killers: video and gaming applications,” Steve Slattery,
  president and CEO of Camiant, said in a prepared statement. “This puts
  policy control front and center with wireless, wireline and cable
  operators around the world, and Camiant is delighted to be in a
  leadership position in this sector. This deployment with SeaChange is
  the first of multiple deployments that enable service providers to
  guarantee quality of service for emerging multimedia applications. It’s
  all about the user experience: the immediate availability and
  outstanding performance of video and gaming applications that leads to
  increased adoption of these services. With policy control, these services
  become revenue opportunities to embrace, not bandwidth-killers.”
  According to the companies, the integration of Camiant’s policy control
  solutions with SeaChange’s Axiom VOD software allows QoS to be
  guaranteed for all or for selected sessions. This in turn, the companies
  say, permits enhanced content delivery, advertising personalization and
  improved on-demand services over dynamic network infrastructures,
  and allows new services to be launched with minimal impact on
  network operations. The integration of the companies’ respective
  technologies will “enable operators to take full advantage of
  SeaChange’s asset management and content delivery capabilities,
  aligned with Camiant to efficiently control resources for blended
  services, such as IPTV, VOD, VoIP, gaming and broadband data,” they
  say.

• The company has promoted Yefim Nivoro to VP of sales for the Latin
  America region. He was previously SeaChange’s director of sales for
  the region.