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By Arthur Cole, Contributing Editor

Liberate Technologies has signed up the last of the major video-on-demand (VOD) companies as a strategic partner, strengthening the middleware company's hand on the integration front.

Under the deal with Concurrent Computer, the two companies will cooperate under Liberate's PopTV Program, giving Concurrent the "highest level of preference" as a VOD supplier.

What does that mean? Simply that Concurrent's MediaHawk system can now be quickly outfitted for the Liberate platform, without a lot of custom integration that typically slows down a field deployment.

It's important to note, however, that the other major VOD vendors--nCube, Diva and SeaChange--also have the "highest level of preference" under the PopTV program, meaning the MSOs can pick and choose which VOD application to operate under the Liberate platform.

"The network operator now has more choice of vendors and a faster time to market," says Charles Tritschler, vice president of marketing at Liberate. "Instead of being hand-integrated, all four (VOD vendors) have written their products to the Liberate VOD Gateway. It makes it easier to launch the system without having to write a lot of low-level code for each installation."

The Liberate VOD Gateway module provides a plug-and-play environment on the server side of the architecture, an approach that speeds up deployment and simplifies back office operations. In Concurrent's case, the VOD Gateway acts as the portal not only to the MediaHawk server, but also to the MediaHawk BackOffice Business Management System that oversees management of content, subscriber demographics, transaction and usage patterns, billing and order fulfillment.

More deals ahead

The cable industry likely will continue to see alliances and sharing agreements between applications developers and platform companies. From Liberate's point of view, the Concurrent deal allows it to offer a variety of VOD solutions to its customers. Concurrent, meanwhile, keeps astride its competitors by making itself available to as many platforms as possible. There is also the added advantage of having a technological foundation with the middleware players as the technology evolves.

"As a preferred partner, Concurrent gets early access to Liberate technology," says Dell Kunert, vice president of marketing at Concurrent. "As they develop new releases, Concurrent will have access to it at the same time as the other partners."

The two companies expect to roll out an integrated system at Cox Communications' plant in San Diego later this year. The package will feature the MediaHawk running atop the Liberate platform on Scientific-Atlanta Explorer boxes. The two companies have also reached an agreement with Pace Microsystems to market the system with that company's boxes.

As well, Concurrent and Liberate are looking to market their combined system as a digital subscriber line (DSL) and Internet protocol (IP) streaming solution.

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