NEWS RELEASE
WESTERN CABLE SHOW
V-Bits Booth 4611
SeaChange Booth 1655
For more information: Earl Pennell John Coulbourn
V-Bits, Inc. SeaChange International
510-290-5226 978-897-0100 x3098
earl@mediafirstpr.com johnc@schange.com
CABLE TELEVISION?S DIGITAL CHANNELS TO DELIVER TARGETED LOCAL ADS THROUGH SEACHANGE AND V-BITS
COLLABORATION
Digital Streams Insertion Solution to Provide Local Cable?s Return On Investment in Digital Networks
SAN JOSE, Calif. and MAYNARD, Mass. (Dec. 9, 1999) ? SeaChange International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEAC), the world leader in digital ad insertion, and V-Bits, Inc., a recent acquisition of Cisco Systems Inc. and provider of digital video processing systems, are collaborating to enable digital advertising insertion into cable?s digital tier. By making digital streams available for ad insertion, the companies are empowering cable operators to expand their advertising revenue, to provide greater value, and to recoup their investment in digital networks. The SeaChange and V-Bits solution will comprise the SeaChange Spot digital advertising insertion system and V-Bits RateMux statistical re-multiplexer. The combined technologies, located in local and regional cable system headends, will enable cable operators to simultaneously insert demographically targeted ads into multiple national cable channels carried on the newly available tier of ?multiplexed? digital streams.
?The cable television industry?s use of the new digital broadcast spectrum is one more step on the path toward placing ads geared toward well-defined groups of viewers within local cable systems, producing the greatest value and impact in television advertising,? said James Kelso, vice president of advertising systems, SeaChange International. ?SeaChange?s product strategy ensures that cable operators can leverage Spot with their choice of networks and components to provide a more effective product for their ad clients. Our strategy enables us to collaborate with V-Bits, which will help our customers to grow their ad business into the digital tier.?
?As cable operators begin to define the digital ad insertion market, we plan to collaborate with key vendors like SeaChange to prepare for the large need for MPEG digital video signal manipulation,? said Mike Moone, president and CEO, V-Bits. ?We want make sure that no cable operator is left standing without a full-featured and scaleable solution. Further, to help cable operators and their engineers stay focused on completing their digital headend installations, we have removed most of the stigma surrounding the purchase and integration of leading-edge equipment by virtually ?future-proofing? our RateMux product. The cable operator can be assured that both our embedded software and hardware components will seamlessly integrate into their digital headened as well as sustain a long-term technology life cycle.?
Television operators worldwide have transitioned from video tape players, which require intensive manual labor and maintenance, to the SeaChange Spot digital ad insertion system to streamline advertising operations, dramatically improve the video and audio quality of inserted ads, and greatly increase the volume of ad placements in local cable systems. Spot Systems are deployed in hundreds of cable TV systems and deliver more than two million MPEG-2 encoded commercials each day. Applications for V-Bits? RateMux product include customizing local digital program lineups, performing rate reduction of MPEG program streams, creating 256 QAM data streams, providing a gateway for digital ad insertion and creating statistically multiplexed outputs from VOD servers or local MPEG encoders. A future upgrade will allow multiplexing of HDTV and signals with SDTV programs so that cable bandwidth can be used most efficiently. |
