Vidiom Systems has emerged from its chrysalis as a provider of a turnkey platform that was designed to help Tier 2 and Tier 3 cable operators migrate to IP video.
While cable operators have long used IP to send video back and forth between systems, the movement to deliver video over IP closer to customers’ homes has been gaining traction.
There are various approaches to get to IP video, including: video over DOCSIS, where video is fed through a cable modem termination system; a hybrid approach that sends traditional MPEG-2 to a gateway in the home, which encapsulates the content into an IP header before sending it across a home network; and CMTS bypass.
Vidiom, which is owned by ADB Group, previously specialized in OCAP before reinventing itself.
Vidiom’s Open System Solution (VOSS) is a pre-integrated platform that was built around the Vidiom Management Control Server. The platform was designed to help cable operators create, install and maintain IP video offerings while using their existing cable or fiber infrastructures.
VOSS employs the open standard GEM-IPTV specification and the efficiencies of MPEG-4 to reclaim bandwidth and allows operators to deliver an expanded array of content and third-party applications – including gaming, navigation, information and social networking – to multiple devices in the home.
“While the benefits of delivering bundled services have been clear to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cable system operators, the complexity and expense of migrating to IP video were major obstacles until now,” said Jeansie Wiley, senior director for Vidiom Systems. “VOSS has been designed to accelerate the ability of operators to deliver the flexible, IP-based services and the expanded HD content that they need to succeed in today’s competitive environment.”
In each system, the Vidiom Management Control Server serves as a single point of control for device and service management, combining set-top box provisioning and management, service management, and application delivery with interfaces to the operator’s existing billing, conditional access, digital rights management (DRM) and VOD services.
The VOSS platform includes content ingestion, headend management, network distribution, CPE and applications.
The Vidiom Management Control Server’s support for GEM-IPTV specifications enables further differentiation of service offerings by allowing operators to deploy any standards-based CPE from any vendor, including set-top boxes and such advanced devices as multi-room DVRs, home gateways and other IP devices.
Vidiom Systems will be demonstrating VOSS in the Networked Home Pavilion at Cable-Tec Expo next week in New Orleans.