BRIEFS

CABLEWORLD STAFF

Cedar Point Communications has secured $25 million in its second round of funding from a consortium that includes leading VC firms here and abroad. Munich-based STAR Ventures led the round and was joined by Charles River Ventures, Battery Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital and Ascent Ventures. The infusion of cash is earmarked for the further development of Cedar Point's SAFARI C media switching system, which the company touts as the equivalent of a Class 5 voice switch in a packet environment.

Narad Networks has landed the first field trial of its broadband business system in Japan with StarCat Cable Network. In conjunction with its Japanese distribution partner Synclayer, Narad will test the delivery of high-speed Internet and 30-megs-per-second video streams to StarCat business customers over an existing HFC network.

Ucentric Systems has been granted a new patent for its media networking system. Issued in February, the patent can be applied in home-networking software and media-center/gateway products. ?The media-center and media-gateway product category has arrived, and we are now ready to help drive the market with our patent-protected solution that sits front and center in the battle for the new digital home,? CEO Michael Collette said in a release. The awarded patent is the first of others that Ucentric has pending.

When it's not tied up in the courtroom, Broadcom is busy making moves in the boardroom. The company announced last week that it will expand its storage networking business by acquiring the assets of the bankrupt Gadzoox Networks for about $5.8 million. Broadcom is specifically acquiring the Fibre Channel, a Gadzoox-designed transport protocol available in packages of 1-, 2- and 10-Gigabits. Meanwhile, the patent war between Broadcom and Microtune continues in a U.S. District Court.