From Multichannel News:
SeaChange Lands Rogers, Pioneer Deals
By LESLIE ELLIS November 16, 1998
SeaChange International Inc. landed two more promised strategic links
last week, one with Pioneer Digital Technologies and the other with
Rogers Cablesystems.
SeaChange has said it will end the year with two major MSOs signed on
for tests of its video-on-demand solution, and that most agreements with
set-top suppliers will be in place.
Nevertheless, don't look for 1999 to be "the year of VOD," said Yvette
Gordon, director of interactive technologies for SeaChange. Gordon, no
fan of hype, said she anticipates technical issues to dominate most of
1999. Instead, 2000 will be a major VOD deployment year, she predicted.
Next year may also herald strategic links between SeaChange and
traditional premium programmers, such as Home Box Office and others, who
are quietly planning their entry into the pay-per-view segment via VOD
techniques, Gordon hinted. She declined to elaborate, except to say that
partnerships between satellite-based and server-based entities "make
logical sense."
Time Warner Cable, as the MSO most publicly bullish about VOD, was the
first to sign up with SeaChange for VOD field tests. On the set-top
side, both General Instrument Corp. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. are
working with SeaChange to assemble an integrated VOD solution.
Now, Rogers will put the SeaChange ITV (interactive television) system
through tests in an undisclosed area. Executives with the MSO did not
return calls to discuss the SeaChange arrangement, but the MSO's set-top
decisions fall into the GI camp.
Rogers is also the first North American MSO to deploy GI's DCT-2000
digital set-tops, which are distinguished by their use of 256 QAM
(quadrature amplitude modulation). Known as "higher order modulation,"
256 QAM affords about 33 percent more bandwidth for digital traffic.
Pioneer executives said they want to ready a VOD solution partly because
of Time Warner's enthusiasm about the category.
"VOD is definitely the digital 'killer app,' and demonstrates the
potential and power of the Pegasus/OpenCable digital system," said Neil
Jones, senior vice president of operations and business development for
Pioneer Digital Technologies.
The VOD addition will link to Pioneer's "Voyager"-brand digital set-top
and "Passport" navigator, Jones said.
SeaChange plans to debut its complete ITV system at the Western Show
next month. The system consists of SeaChange's "MediaCluster" video
server system, linked to the "Command Center," a master control center
software suite that automates interactive applications. |
