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Tightening its technology ties to a major pay TV joint venture, Cadent Technology, a new ad-tech unit that merged the teams of BlackArrow and Cadent Network, said it has licensed the Reference Design Kit (RDK).

The move positions the ad-tech company to support the RDK, a preintegrated software platform that’s managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, which also happen to be some of Cadent’s largest customers.

Cadent Technology recently complemented its on-demand advertising platform with one that supports addressable linear TV.

As for the RDK, Cadent said its primarily focus is on Linear Segmented Advertising that inserts targeted ads into live and time-shifted experiences on the RDK-V (Video) software.

RDK Management announced earlier this week that more than 15 million devices are running the RDK, and that its licensee base now spans more than 275 partners, including north of 25 cable, satellite and telco service operators.

“It’s an exciting time to join the RDK community,” Stephanie Mitchko-Beale, Cadent’s COO and CTO, said in a statement. “The RDK’s standardized stack and collaborative methodology help us develop advanced advertising solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into our customers’ existing infrastructure.”

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Cadent Technology, a new ad-tech unit that merged the teams of BlackArrow and Cadent Network, will be showing off its new addressable linear platform at next week’s INTX confab in Boston.

Cadent recently added live linear targeting capability to its existing solutions for VOD for QAM set-tops and and IP-based devices and OTT apps.

Cadent Technology said its advertising solutions are currently used by pay-TV partners that reach more than 40 million homes, with Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks, Rogers Communications and Liberty Global/Virgin Media among its known partners.

Cadent  CTO and COO Stephanie Mitchko-Beale is also on tap to host a session at the Imagine Park pavilion -- “Why Targeted Ads Are (Still!) Such a Moving Target,” on Tuesday, May 17 at noon ET. She’ll be joined by Ofir Daniel of Amdocs; Aaron Goldman of 4C; Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor; Derek Mattsson of Placemedia; and Zane Vella of Watchwith.

Cross MediaWorks (Cadent’s holding company) announced the acquisition of BlackArrow in August 2015.

Cadent Technology, a new ad-tech unit that merged the teams of BlackArrow and Cadent Network, said it has developed a new network-based addressable ad platform for linear TV for its partners in the pay-TV industry.

To demonstrate that capability, the company recently showed its campaign platform splicing in 30-second ads, based partly subscriber demographic data, on set-tops from Pace (now part of Arris) equipped with the Reference Design Kit, a preintegrated software stack managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.

In the demo, the system delivered an ad for potential car buyers, and another that would be associated with a set-top for a subscriber that is not part of that specific group.

Rather than having the ad-decisioning occur in the set-top, Cadent’s system implements that in the network, whereby the box detects the in-band signal that calls back to the network to receive the proper ad that’s driven by the campaign manager.

That system, explained Les Carter, vice president and chief architect at Cadent Technology, in a recent briefing, can deliver real-time ad insertion and ad-decisioning based on linear multicast feeds. The solution can still use use QAM-based multicast content feeds, but can also use an IP-backed backhaul (via a box’s integrated DOCSIS modem, for example) to make the ad-decisions back in the network and use IP technology to acquire the ad assets.

Cadent also claims that its new unified ad control plane now supports a range of delivery methods, including QAM, IP, IP adaptive bit rate, and mobile, while also supporting live TV, as well as time-shifted video.

Carter also noted that the system is now equipped to be agnostic, as it can work with the company’s own ad servers, or ad servers from companies such as FreeWheel (now part of Comcast) or Google’s DoubleClick, for example.

That product, he said, is the first to emerge from the recently combined teams, whereby BlackArrow is best known for dynamic ad insertion, while Cadent’s expertise has focused on linear advertising.

Carter said Cadent Technology is in the process of setting up lab trials with partners.

BlackArrow, now part of the unit, has DAI partners that include TWC, Comcast, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks, Rogers Communications and Liberty Global/Virgin Media. BlackArrow has also been a partner of Canoe Ventures, the MSO-backed advanced ad J.V. backed by Comcast, TWC, Cox Communications, and Bright House Networks.

Of that group, Time Warner Cable Media, the ad sales arm of Time Warner Cable, announced recently that its Ads Everywhere platform now offers addressable campaigns for linear TV and VOD that can be targeted to the household level.

Cross MediaWorks (Cadent’s  holding company) announced the acquisition of BlackArrow in August 2015.

Media, ad technology and data specialist Cadent has formed a new division, called Cadent Technology, that merges the technology teams of BlackArrow and Cadent Network, a national TV advertising media solutions provider.

Formation of the new unit comes about six months after Cross MediaWorks (Cadent’s  holding company) announced the acquisition of BlackArrow, a dynamic ad insertion company that counts partners such as Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks, Rogers Communications, and Liberty Global/Virgin Media. 

In the new structure,  New York-based Cadent Technology will focus on developing addressable, cross-platform advertising and data solutions that support BlackArrow’s new and existing customers, while Cadent Network will continue to encompass Cadent’s media solutions, the company said. 

“The creation of Cadent Technology reflects our commitment to help the pay-TV industry monetize video delivered to any screen at any time. The merging of the teams and their complimentary expertise creates a full range of products and services from self-serve advertising software to fully managed inventory services, across all forms of linear and non-linear TV inventory,” Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent and the former CEO of BlackArrow, said in a statement.