Edgeware has developed a companion system to work with origin servers that aims to increase the efficiency of delivering multi-screen and TV-Everywhere content.
Edgeware’s D-VDN Origin Accelerator accelerates both ingest and playout capacity of origin servers.
TV Everywhere and new over the top (OTT) cloud TV services require headends to record and store more content in more bit rates and formats than ever before, while delivering content to an increasing number of access networks. That traffic is being handled by origin servers that record, store and serve programs in the different formats as needed. However, origin servers still face major issues with costs and efficiency, Edgeware explained.
Costs scale rapidly with the number of channels, the number of recordings and the number of networks served by the origin servers. While local caching in these networks provides some offload, efficiency still declines with the increasing content driven by channel choice and recording windows.
Costs skyrocket even further when predictable performance is required, Edgeware said. Recording and playout functions must use separate processors and storage resources or virtual servers must be over-provisioned with complex load balancing to make this possible.
Edgeware created its D-VDN Origin Accelerator to address those specific issues. It is designed to offload and perform load balancing on all origin ingest and playout functions.
To provide redundant storage and any content transformation needed for the different formats, simple, low-cost hardware and file systems can be used, even in services capable of simultaneously recording hundreds of channels and supporting tens of millions of consumers with highly predictable quality of experience (QoE).
“As channel line-ups and content libraries grow, it was only logical for Edgeware to package our acceleration technology to solve scalability issues in the multiscreen headend,” said Jon Haley, vice president, product marketing and business development at Edgeware. “We are very excited about the new D-VDN Origin Accelerator, particularly due to the increasing number of new cloud TV and DVR service providers that will benefit from it.”
Separately, the company announced another in its line of network video delivery appliances. The Orbit 3080 handles live, video on demand (VOD) and network digital video recorder (NDVR) applications. The system features 80 Gbps wire speed video streaming from a single rack unit, Edgeware said.
Both Orbit systems, the original 3020 and the new 3080, support combinations of HTTP and RTSP traffic with uniformly low latency.
“Today, peak audiences on the Internet are still tiny compared to broadcast TV,” says Joachim Roos, CEO of Edgeware. “If Internet and cloud TV services are to compete, a drastic change in the delivery capacity is needed and that is exactly what this solution provides.”
Edgeware is using the IBC show in Amsterdam this week to demonstrate the key technologies and to discuss details of its solution with existing and prospective customers. IBC attendees can visit its Stand 14.C10.
