Whoa: SeaChange Rolls Out VODlink

Cable World, Nov 4, 2002

Byline: ANTHONY CRUPI

It's the perfect movie for demonstrating the capabilities of time-shifting, this frothy frappe of quantum physics, fin de siecle paranoia and balletic martial arts. Digital Video Arts president George Breen stabs a thumb into a remote and there it is, flickering darkly on a television screen in a Manhattan hotel suite, The Matrix, looking even more ridiculous than the last time we saw it. As Keanu Reeves bends over backward to avoid a fusillade of bullets, time dilating and warping so that the rounds harmlessly float past him, Breen punches another button, which sends us headlong into another scene.

No biggie, right? We've seen DVD players before, reveled in their ability to skip over the dopey parts of movies and on to our favorite scenes. But what Breen is demonstrating here, high up in the Helmsley, is not a DVD player. It's video-on-demand, specifically an interface that allows MSOs to offer users the full DVD experience through a VOD stream.

The application, part of SeaChange's VODlink software suite, was developed and built by DVA, a software development house and SeaChange subsidiary. In addition to the DVD-on-demand capability, other VODlink apps include channel overlays that allow programmers to provide their own branded VOD interfaces, and a portal feature that allows ops to organize VOD content into a number of specific categories.

"VOD as it stands now is merely VCR-on-demand," Breen says. "The original VOD business assumption, that it was all about VCR functionality, wasn't far-reaching enough. Through this application, the set-top, for all intents and purposes, becomes a DVD player."

Breen is quick to add that the VODlink application can also work with VOD platforms other than those engineered by SeaChange. In fact, the vendor is currently in talks with Concurrent regarding VODlink, he says.

John Coulbourn, SeaChange's director of communications, says that while the studios are being hipped to his company's DVD-over-coax tech, they are thus far taking a wait-and-see approach.

Still, it's not as though the idea hasn't generated some interest. Stuart Rohrer, VP, new nedia/ITV for Mag Rack, told Cable World that the application certainly sounded intriguing enough. "I haven't seen the latest iteration, but the VODlink software could be a useful step toward increasing customers' understanding of the VOD experience." he says. "The software application will help customers adapt to VOD...within the framework of the more widely accepted and established DVD universe."

One factor that could work to SeaChange's disadvantage is DVD's strong adoption rate. According to the DVD Entertainment Group, nearly 25 million DVD players were in American households by the end of 2001, a 97% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, it has been estimated that by 2006, 60% of the total U.S. television-owning households will also own a DVD player.

New businesses like Netflix.com, an online DVD delivery service, have chipped away at video rental figures, but some analysts believe that VOD will prevail. Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff estimates that 32.9 million U.S. households will be tapped into VOD by 2006. That could translate into about $650 million of commerce by 2006.

In the meantime, as master thespian Reeves struggles to articulate the concept of multiple realities - he gets as far as "whoa" - Coulbourn winds up his pitch with a suitably enigmatic utterance. "It's like a dessert and a floor wax all in one," he says, gesturing to the TV.

Whoa is right.

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*As the fastest-growing consumer electronics product, does DVD have reason to be wary of VOD?