CLEARING THE LANES FOR THE VOD RUSH

BY ANTHONY CRUPI

If you're reading this magazine, you probably figured out long ago that video-on-demand is a great value-add, a churn-busting, revenue-raising, consumer-alluring whizbang of an application that makes regular one-way TV look like something you'd find in a Neanderthal's rec room. Trouble is, the demand for on-demand may soon outstrip operators' ability to provide it.

According to a recent Yankee Group research note, MSOs have deployed VOD to nearly 10 million digital subscribers. Not a gargantuan figure, considering the number of cable customers there are out there, but none too shabby in light of the fact that this represents about one-third of all active digital subs. Still, VOD is being rapidly deployed and already several systems have struggled to keep up with demand.

Enter Artel Video Systems. Back in June, at this year's NCTA show, the Marlborough, Mass.-based tech firm took the wraps off a pair of products designed to support all VOD architectures, while providing enough wiggle room to support future applications. The vowel-averse VSGx and VSGm (Video Session Gateway) devices work in tandem to transport up to 30,000 MPEG streams on a single fiber while slashing transport costs by up to 50%, says director of product marketing Dave Pecorella.

?One of the key features that seems to have been lost on a lot of the folks is the Asymmetrical Reverse Path,? Pecorella says. ?This allows operators to scale the reverse path to meet their specific VOD needs.?

Pecorella points out that since VOD applications are inherently asymmetrical, MSOs can avoid wasting resources on the reverse traffic, which is generally a sliver of the forward traffic anyway.

When both gateways are deployed, the resulting platform can cut traffic in dense networks up to 45%, which ?on a per stream basis, averages out at under $30 per stream,? Pecorella says.

The VSGm actually serves as a passive adjunct to the modular VSGx, which allows the system to adapt to any network configuration. Open standards-based for easy integration into existing infrastructures, the VSGx can be configured to support up to 12 Gigabit Ethernet channels per chassis, which saves MSOs valuable real estate.

Wendell Bailey, president and CEO of Strategic Technology International, has given Artel his endorsement, saying the VSGs are ?the best I've seen in terms of giving cable operators a cost-effective and scalable platform designed for meeting the specific requirements of VOD.?

Lab trials are slated to begin at the end of August, an Artel spokesperson says.