Petrichor Networks, a startup that is focused on helping cable operators unify their video networks and gracefully migrate to an all-IP platform, said it has hired industry vet S.V. Vasudevan as head of product.

Vasudevan, who has held exec slots at companies such as TiVo, Cisco Systems and switched digital video pioneer BigBand Networks (acquired by Arris in 2011), will be taking over Petrichor’s product functions as the company continues lab trials, pivots into initial field trials and prepares to launches its product/platform commercially later this year, and ramp up in 2018.

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Vasudevan, who started at Petrichor on June 1, noted that the plan is “reimagine” video solutions using a cloud-based software system that aims to reduce costs and network densities by 50%, and reduce power requirements by about two-thirds, while also helping MSOs open the door to a new class of applications and revenue opportunities.

Petrichor aims to unify the operations of what have become dual video networks for operators -- one leaning on legacy QAM technology, and a newer one that runs over IP.

The premise of the company’s approach is to “provide a graceful runway to get from the traditional legacy QAM architecture to an all-IP architecture,” added John Boland, a former Arris exec who was named CEO of Petrichor earlier this year.  

While going all-IP and managing the quality of experience/service that underpins that move is the longer term end-game, Boland said that Petrichor has some more near-term opportunities to displace current on-demand hardware and reduce an operator’s operational expenses.

Boland, who has been focusing on Petrichor’s business development, noted that the company is in lab trials with two operators since Q3 2016, and expects to next enter a field trial with a yet-unnamed U.S. operator.

Regarding financing, he said Petrichor is about three-quarters of the way through a seed round, and that he’d like to see the company move through the field trials and enter commercial deployment before the company aggressively pursues an A-series round of funding.

“We've got plenty of runway right now,” he said.

Petrichor currently has 11 employees, but is in hiring mode.

Others industry vets tied to the startup include John Carlucci, president and chief strategist, who previously was president and CTO of Alticast U.S and a former exec with Clearleap (now part of IBM), and Time Warner Cable; Bill Helms, chief technologist, who previously was vice president of subscriber networks at Time Warner Cable; and Mike Hayashi, chairman, the former long-time engineering exec at TWC.

Petrichor Networks, a startup led by a group of cable engineering execs late of Time Warner Cable and Arris, is taking aim at a major challenge faced by MSOs – accelerating the migration to an all-IP video world.

Founded in 2016, Boulder, Colo.-based Petrichor Networks believes that the platform it’s developing can speed this shift without requiring cable operators to toss out millions of older, non-IP set-top boxes.

Petrichor is also taking on a significant operational issue that this migration entails as MSOs continue to tend to and feed their legacy digital video platforms while also support a separate, parallel IP video network that is being used to ship video to tablets, mobile devices, Web browsers and TV-connected devices.

Petrichor aims to converge those silos with a hardware-agnostic, scalable software platform that enables cable operators to unify their video platform in such a way that they can use a single source of video to serve all devices, including those that are IP-connected as well as older set-tops that rely on QAM/MPEG video.

“By bringing our software solution, we knock down those silos,” said John Carlucci, Petrichor’s president and chief strategist, an engineering exec who is late of  Alticast, Clearleap (now part of IBM), Time Warner Cable and PolyCipher, a downloadable conditional access system initiative that was once a J.V. of Comcast, Cox Communications and TWC.

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That platform presents “an opportunity to accelerate the movement from where the operators are today into the IP space,” added John Boland, Petrichor’s CEO, a former Arris exec who took the helm of Petrichor Networks last month.

Petrichor Networks currently has eight employees and plans to expand on that. Other members of its leadership team include chief technologist Bill Helms, most recently VP of subscriber networks at TWC, and company chairman Mike Hayashi, the industry pioneer who last served as TWC’s EVP of architecture, development and engineering.

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The core of Petrichor’s platform is called DROP (Dynamic Rate Optimization Processor), a real-time media processing software engine that can run on non-proprietary, off-the-shelf hardware. DROP is not a new codec, but uses a combination of algorithms that “enhance” existing codecs.

That system is comprised of the DROP Media Server and the DROP Set-Top Box.

The DROP Set-Top Box is designed to create a remote IP port that resides on the network. That, the company explains, enables IP video delivery to legacy video devices by housing some key functions of the set-top box in the cloud. That works in tandem with the DROP Media Server, which is designed to support standard interfaces like HTTP Live Streaming, multiple codecs (MPEG-2, HEVC, etc.) and interoperate with traditional QAM and edge QAM technologies.

Carlucci said the platform requires no changes to the set-top client software or the device’s navigation system, because the certain functions of the STB are virtualized in the cloud and “transparent to the existing software.”

More detail about Petrichor Networks, including how it shares and differs from the philosophies and technologies of other vendors focused on cable’s IP video transition, its trial activity with cable operators and its next steps will be features in the Feb. 6 issue of Multichannel News. The story also explains what inspired the company name, but in the meantime spool up this YouTube clip for a hint: