After performing several customizations of its headend management system for customers, Zanaware Technologies has established a separate unit specifically to provide similar services for others.
ZanaTech Services has a dedicated software engineering team to provide cable operators and telecom carriers who use the company’s headend management devices, Channel Lineup Pro and Auto Backr Pro, with custom system integration and interface development. The team has a pool of expertise that covers MPEG video, video headends, database application development, and IT protocols.
Service options may include: custom extension of Zanaware’s existing platform, development of an ad hoc hardware/software solution, or a hybrid combination of the two to fully master the complex protocols of multiple video formats, spanning broadcast, cable, MPEG/digital video, satellite and IPTV.
Jay Cox, CEO of Zanaware, said of the company’s customers, “While praising our products for incorporating highly requested features, they often have many other database-driven needs – whether it be mass configuration of settings across many pieces of equipment, multicast IP assignment tracking, detailed reports or other needs – but cannot realistically implement them. Operators generally lack in-house software developers and the ‘big name’ IT and software development firms just don’t understand video.”
One of ZanaTech’s first customization projects was a comprehensive network monitoring upgrade for one of the five largest U.S. MSOs, the company said. The project required updating a number of parameters on hundreds of vendor-specific edge devices deployed across many sites. Recognizing the extensive man-hours required to accomplish this itself, the MSO reached out to ZanaTech Services.
ZanaTech built a Mass Configuration Tool that had the same look-and-feel of the original GUI of the edge devices. Now, using this tool, the MSO updates hundreds of edge devices in just a few minutes, enabling it to ensure a superior customer experience with minimal effort, labor, and cost, Zanaware said.
The ZanaTech team offers a suite of programming services, covering a span of programming languages and frameworks including ASP, .Net, PHP, HTML 5, Java, Javascript, Flash, Perl and Python. ZanaTech also incorporates outside protocols for communication with external equipment, such as ODBC, XML, SQL, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, SSH, Telnet and TFTP.
