Network service quality control solutions provider Operax (News - Alert) announced today that its Bandwidth Manager 5500 is being integrated with SeaChange International’s video-on-demand (VOD) and IPTV solutions. This integration will enable operators to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) for selected sessions, including unpredictable and bandwidth-intensive personalized VOD services.


The demand is growing in the market as operators are seeking to deploy increasingly diverse VOD and IPTV (News - Alert) services to ensure their competitive differentiation, and as a result, expensive infrastructure challenges are coming to the surface.

The growing number of IPTV subscribers and the consumer shift from multicast linear TV to unicast on-demand programming, is quickly creating congestion in access and aggregation networks. In the midst of adding new capacity, service providers must also carefully manage their network resources in order to ensure the users’ Quality of Experience (QoE).  

Operax Bandwidth Management solutions are designed for efficient, rapid deployment with minimal integration effort for single-service environments, and comprehensive cross-application deployment for multi-service environments. With its SeaChange Axiom VOD software and TV Platform IPTV middleware integration, Operax can guarantee QoS for all or for selected sessions.

This integration permits enhanced content delivery, advertising personalization and improved on-demand services over dynamic network infrastructure. In addition, new services can be launched rapidly with minimal impact on network operations.

With the integration of the two companies’ solutions, Service Providers will be able to take full advantage of SeaChange’s asset management and content delivery capabilities, aligned with Operax to efficiently control resources for blended services, such as IPTV, VOD, VoIP, gaming and broadband data.

Operax Solutions Alliances Director, Roberto Kauffmann-Dev, said in a Friday statement:  "All network operators want to understand how they can deploy new services to increase ARPU while reducing operational costs. SeaChange provides the foundation for many of the world’s largest VOD and IPTV deployments, Operax controls the bandwidth for sessions end-to-end across all components of an IP network; partnering with SeaChange creates exciting solutions for our customers."

SeaChange Vice President of Product Marketing, Tom Rosenstein, contributed in Friday’s statement, "Our open VOD and IPTV platforms are designed to give operators the widest choice of options possible, including Operax Bandwidth Manager, which gives telcos a best-of-breed control layer between their applications and their network. Through the integration, SeaChange is providing customers with yet another means of easing the introduction of services and enhancements on their systems while ensuring the quality of video sessions, which are critical to the continuing success of IPTV and VOD."

Service providers are coming to the conclusion that they must offer extended service options or face a losing battle by competing in an industry that has to make changes to accommodate consumer demand. For some, offering these options comes with a price as they are not set up to offer such things as IPTV or VOD.

The integration of Operax with SeaChange will extend to these service providers the necessary bandwidth to provide these services with the quality that consumers demand, thus helping to drive revenue in a tightly competitive market. This integrated solution will better position these service providers for longevity and future growth.

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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.