Video gear and software startup RGB Networks Inc. has signed several vendor partnerships, including a global reseller deal with Tandberg Television , after Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) acquired Terayon Communication Systems Inc. , a competitor. (See Motorola Seals Up Terayon .)

Motorola had served as RGB's primary reseller partner for a product line that includes its Simulcast Edge Processor (SEP), a digital video grooming device called the Broadcast Network Processor (BNP), and the Modular Media Converter (MCC), a box that handles ASI-to-Gigabit Ethernet conversions. Following its acquisition of Terayon, Motorola has stopped reselling the BMP and MMC, because those products compete with some gear in Terayon's portfolio, including its flagship CherryPicker platform. (See RGB: Ripe for Aquisition? )

More recently, RGB has introduced an edge QAM -- the Universal Scalable Modulator (USM) -- as well as a variable bit rate (VBR) system for video-on-demand services that promises bandwidth efficiency gains, and competes head-to-head with a product developed by another startup, Imagine Communications . RGB claims its Dynamic Bandwidth Manager (DBM) can cram 15 standard-definition MPEG-2 streams into a 6 MHz 256 QAM channel, a gain of about 50 percent compared to systems that use constant bit rate (CBR) techniques. (See RGB Takes Aim at Imagine.)

RGB, recently identified as one of Light Reading's Top 10 Private Companies, said Tandberg Television will resell and integrate RGB's BNP with its iSIS 8000 IP headend and video processing platform for satellite, cable, telco, and terrestrial networks.

RGB has also signed on three resellers -- Adrenio GmbH, Divitel B.V., and B.A.S.E. Technologies SA/NV -- to help the startup penetrate the European marketplace. Under that deal, the trio will hawk RGB's BNP, USM, and MMC products to operators on the continent. (See RGB Names Euro Partners.)

In June, Capella Telecommunications became the first company other than Motorola to sign a reseller deal with RGB. Capella specializes in the Canadian cable and telecom markets.

Also this week, RGB forged VOD integration deals this week with C-COR Corp. (Nasdaq: CCBL) and SeaChange International Inc. (Nasdaq: SEAC).

C-COR has teamed its n5 Video Server with RGB's DBM to increase bandwidth efficiency, and has hooked in the BNP to flesh out a system that can splice digital spots into multiple advertising zones. SeaChange has also teamed the DBM with its video-on-demand system. (See C-COR, RGB Team Up and RGB Teams With SeaChange.)

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News