re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?Cisco wakes up to sad state of Telecom market...spins up video servers. The MSO equipment vendors have been offering it for a long time; Cisco is behind the curve. OTOH, with Cisco in the game, its possible the RBOCs will pick up on it, but I doubt it will take off fast.
Brian Roberts, Lord Emperor of Comcast, said that their #1 priority is to upgrade their newly acquired AT&T Broadband properies to HFC networks with 2-way plant. That gets almost 100% of their customer base access to digital set top box and cable modem service to prevent erosion to satellite. Their #2 priority is video on demand. Their strategy is to hook people on the heroin by giving away a lot of VOD content for free. This means there will be a lot of video on demand servers and it will require constant upgrading of their IP network to provide the bandwidth and availability needed for this application.
re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?Yep. Comcast's trenchers are a spinnin' away in my 'hood as I type this. Make no mistake though, the commitment is for two-way where there was no two-way (aka HFC where there was an anitquated hard line). They are touting VOD as a "future feature", and no commitments as to when. I have no idea where they are buying their video servers, but as I said, VOD has been around for some time now in cable. Check out the SA and Mot websites. Cisco is late. They best hang out with one of the "old boys" in the game.
re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?VOD has been around for some time now in cable. Check out the SA and Mot websites.
Checked. I didn't see one damn thing about paying for the production of high quality video entertainment, broadcasting rights, nor about distributing DVDs ;-) Also, music on demand has been available as well. It's just not [legally] distributed through a cable company. Maybe they'll try the same tricks with VoD??
re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?A wide-spread misperception about VOD is that the IP based VOD will be exactly the same as the ones people saw in their hotel room TVs.
The potential variations in the VOD features can be very large.
I expect VOD to become a less meaningful term as the amount of deliverable content grow via the IP TV infrastructure. People will use VOD to describe their ability to view a live concert on demand in real time too.
re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?>They are touting VOD as a "future feature", and > commitments as to when. I have no idea where they are > buying their video servers, but as I said, VOD has been > around for some time now in cable. Check out the SA > and Mot websites. Cisco is late. They best hang out with > one of the "old boys" in the game.
Comcast and the other MSOs want to get away from the Concurrent, Seachange, et al, all encompassing vertical solutions and commodify the storage, video server, video pump, and provisioning software/interfaces. (The TW Pegasus ISA was not the way to go about this, though).
It's a smart strategy not to have a homogeneous solution per headend. Plus, they want to deliver the video content over both analog and IP (over their DOCSIS cable modems). The old players are dinosaurs. Kealia might fit with companies like Midstream and Path1--if the MSOs give them enough room to 'become successful'.
re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?It's a smart strategy not to have a homogeneous solution per headend. Plus, they want to deliver the video content over both analog and IP (over their DOCSIS cable modems). The old players are dinosaurs. Kealia might fit with companies like Midstream and Path1--if the MSOs give them enough room to 'become successful'.
Exactly. The video juke box will be centralized in a super head end where it is easy to maintain. It goes over the managed IP network to the head end where it either remains IP ends up at a DOCISIS set top box via the CMTS or gets converted at the head end to the legacy stuff.
If I were Cisco with the market penetration they have in the MSO managed IP network for routers, I'd be sniffing large dollars for router upgrades. The network needed to distribute VOD dwarfs the IP network need for cable modem web surfing. It remains to be seen whether Cisco can get traction in the video market. That OTHER evil empire in Redmond is sniffing a large opportunity in the multifunction set top box.
Kealia is a total waste of their investors money. I know of at least three companies that entered the grave this year alone that went after the CATV equipment/systems market. All three raised multi-hundred-millions. The common mistake: they each beleived SA or MOT had not thought of it, when in fact they had already done it, and were just waiting to see if an MSO will buy it, or to strike a deal with another major player. They all had to "just be given a chance"...
re: Is Cisco Tuning Into Video?whyiswhy writes: | All three raised multi-hundred-millions. The common | mistake: they each beleived SA or MOT had not thought of | it, when in fact they had already done it, and were just | waiting to see if an MSO will buy it, or to strike a deal with | another major player. They all had to "just be given a | chance"... | | Get real.
First, name the three companies that have received 'multi-hundred-millions' this year. Or just ONE that raised 'multi-hundred-millions'. And the funding source.
Second, open this link... http://www.cedmagazine.com/ced... ...and show me where Moto or SA are in the "Video Server Vendor" column. They're not. We're talking about Kealia, a video server vendor. Kealia is presumably trying to transplant Concurrent, Seachange, and nCube, the video server incumbents/dinosaurs.
We're not talking about set-tops or cable plant, we're talking about video servers and, tangentially, the backend storage and video pumps.
Third, if I'm wrong about the above, point me to the Moto or SA products that compete with CCUR, SEAC, or nCube.
First, I did not say the money was raised this year. The three I spoke of failed within the last year.
Second, to reiterate: The number of companies that (over the years) have tried to cut them (Mot & SA) out of a share and failed is simply too long to list.
Lesson: When Cisco comes in, as they apparently are, it's game over for the small players. They can be late. The advantage of muscle. And no, they won't have to buy out Kealia (or any of the smaller players).
Live a little while longer, listen more carefully, and grow wiser.
Brian Roberts, Lord Emperor of Comcast, said that their #1 priority is to upgrade their newly acquired AT&T Broadband properies to HFC networks with 2-way plant. That gets almost 100% of their customer base access to digital set top box and cable modem service to prevent erosion to satellite. Their #2 priority is video on demand. Their strategy is to hook people on the heroin by giving away a lot of VOD content for free. This means there will be a lot of video on demand servers and it will require constant upgrading of their IP network to provide the bandwidth and availability needed for this application.