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Technology Stocks : Seac - Seachange New IPO -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: port_mgr who wrote (169)	11/14/1998 2:28:00 PM
From: Alan Sherman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 431

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.