The Proof Is in the Coding

Cable World, Nov 4, 2002

Byline: ANTHONY CRUPI

Midstream Technologies president and CEO Ed Huguez speaks about video-on-demand in the argot of a bootlegger or a prosecuting attorney: It's all about proof. Over a light lunch in the lobby of the New York Helmsley Hotel, the soft-spoken exec explains that the integration of Midstream's server into a legacy VOD network is proof positive that the upstart vendor has arrived.

Utilizing the industry standard architecture (ISA) developed by Time Warner Cable to actualize multivendor VOD systems, Midstream successfully wired its IP2160 server into an undisclosed network. (Given the provenance of ISA, one needn't be a professional bookmaker to calculate the odds that the incumbent network in question is a Time Warner enterprise. For its part, TWC merely stated that it is "pleased to see ISA embraced by manufacturers, as it enhances the ability to integrate new products into existing platforms more quickly.")

"Getting ISA compliance was a defining moment for us," Huguez says. "This is all part of our seamless growth objective. We can go in and supplant other vendors as a system grows, which in turn will help them to further deploy scalable, reliable VOD."

Huguez says that a total of four "top" MSOs have either committed to a trial or are presently in trials, for a total aggregate of six trials. Again, Midstream is still laboring under a code of silence vis-a-vis the identity of the participating operators, he says that the successful first trial and the subsequent of other parties "proves, for the first time, that multiple vendors can coexist in a network."

Midstream's slender two-RU (3.5-inch) server features dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and sufficient capacity to support approximately 425 to 480 simultaneous, unique 3.75 Mbps streams of content. It also boasts a completely field upgradable system for both hardware and software, which means components can be swapped in and out on the fly.

As Huguez sees it, the push for VOD - and the concomitant adoption of flexible servers like the IP2160 - must continue apace if cable is to outshine DBS. "Cable ops really have no other choice but to embrace this," he says. "They need to differentiate themselves from satellite, and this is the surefire way to do it. They certainly aren't going to get there on the backs of new subs."

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Will Midstream be able to lure away business from areas served by incumbent providers such as Concurrent, SeaChange and nCube?

*Will enough greenfield VOD markets pop up to sustain similar aspirants (e.g. Broadbus)?