Latest from Next TV in Zodiac-interactive

IBC 2017: ActiveVideo, Zodiac Team to Bring Fresh UIs to Older Boxes

Jeff Baumgartner — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 05:29:00 +0000

Zodiac Interactive and ActiveVideo are pitching a joint solution that, they claim, can help pay TV of all sizes bring a next-gen interface/experience to any installed set-top box.

They said the joint offering builds on prior customer-specific ActiveVideo-Zodiac collaborations. Notably, Charter Communications’s Spectrum Guide for legacy set-tops as well as newer ones with IP connectivity use both ActiveVideo and Zodiac technologies. ActiveVideo operates as a joint venture of Charter and Arris.

The joint solution being introduced this week and timed with the IBC show in Amsterdam, combines the cloud virtualization capabilities of ActiveVideo’s CloudTV platform with Zodiac’s PowerUp Stack software and AMS cloud platform.

Cable Bahamas, which delivers service to about 250,000 set-top boxes, is on board to rollout the new joint solution in the second quarter of 2018, and will include a mosaic guide that displays live content from multiple channels, and unify an experience across multiple devices.

“Using the integrated solution, small or large pay-TV operators around the world can deliver the industry’s most advanced services to every subscriber in a matter of months,” Zodiac CEO Brandon Brown said in a statement.

One Equity Partners Invests in Zodiac

Jeff Baumgartner — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:45:00 +0000

One Equity Partners (OEP) said it has invested in Zodiac Interactive, a video software vendor that works with cable operators and other MVPDs.

OEP didn’t reveal the amount of the investment, but said Monday that it made it as Zodiac sees “substantial growth” for its cloud and embedded software with top MVPDs in North America and abroad. Zodiac, for example, supplies the software stack for Charter Communications’ new Worldbox, and also counts Cablevision Systems as a customer. Zodiac is also a licensee of the Reference Design Kit, the software platform for IP and QAM/IP hybrid devices being managed by Comcast, Liberty Global and Time Warner Cable.

OEP said it partnered with Derek Harrar, Comcast’s former SVP and GM of video and entertainment services, “to bring additional industry expertise relevant to Zodiac,” noting that Harrar has joined Zodiac’s board of directors.

“What struck us was the value proposition: with a software upgrade to any configuration of existing hardware and with minimal investment, Zodiac enables MVPDs to rapidly advance their customer experience across the entire footprint, from legacy to all-IP, to be competitive with Internet offerings,” said Andrew Dunn, a managing director of OEP. “As a result, MVPDs can mitigate churn and grow revenue, while improving capital efficiency and reducing operating expenses by implementing a unified video management platform. OEP is pleased to support Zodiac’s management team as it invests in the business to develop more new products and acquire additional customers.”

“Our focus has always been on keeping our heads down and providing innovative software, on time and on budget, that just plain works despite our customers’ incredibly complex service provider infrastructures and intense carrier-grade operational requirements,” added Brandon Brown, Zodiac’s CEO. “With OEP, we have found a partner to support our growth while staying true to our customers and the values that have driven all our success to date.”

Zodiac Unleashes Unified Set-Top Stack

Jeff Baumgartner — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Targeting both legacy and new, IP-capable cable devices, Zodiac Interactive has launched a unified set-top software stack that will essentially try to do it all.

The company’s PowerUP Video Broadcast Solution (PVBS) is a hybrid QAM/IP software platform that supports the legacy tru2way platform, including boxes from both Cisco Systems and Arris, as well as next-gen HTML5-based ecosystems, and the Reference Design Kit, the preintegrated software platform being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.

The all-inclusive stack starts with a new component that handles key middleware services, presentation engines, and drills down to the operating and business support systems, Brandon Brown, Zodiac’s CEO, said. Depending on their deployment requirements, operators, he said, can use all components of PVBS, or just a subset.

In the U.S. Zodiac’s known cable operator customers include Cablevision Systems and Charter Communications. On Monday, Charter noted that it’s using Zodiac’s software in a system that will underpin a cloud-based user interface that is capable of running on legacy QAM-only boxes as well as a new breed of IP-capable set-tops and gateways.

Zodiac said it’s working with Charter toward interoperability on new managed devices, and more than 40 models of legacy managed devices.

Zodiac’s stack, Brown said, can also enable MSOs to support apps and services on unmanaged devices that consumers purchase at retail.

Charter Inches Toward Cloud UI Rollout

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:45:00 +0000

Charter Communications continues to test a new cloud-based user interface in employee homes, and expects to start expanding it to customer homes in “certain markets” by mid-year as the MSO moves ahead with its ambitious all-digital upgrade plan.

Working in tandem with vendors such as ActiveVideo and Zodiac Interactive, Charter is designing and architecting the new UI (a sample is presented above) so it can be offered across its entire base of set-top boxes, including new IP-capable devices as well as boxes that can only use QAM/MPEG-based digital transport streams. On the latter example, Charter is testing the scalability of a network-based platform from ActiveVideo that essentially stitches the UI into the MPEG transport stream so it can be rendered by QAM-locked boxes.

“Our new guide has been designed to run on every set-top box we have in the field,” Charter president and CEO Tom Rutledge said on Monday’s first quarter earnings call. He later said that initial tests are showing that the approach works and that Charter will be able to extend the UI to all boxes without having to buy new ones.

The new guide is coming into play as Charter moves ahead with all-digital upgrades that will be tied to a new consume brand, Charter Spectrum, and the introduction of a beefed up menu of services.

Rutledge said about 40% of the all-digital plan is complete and that the company is on target to finish the rollout by year end. That completion target includes Charter’s current footprint, and not additions that are poised to come way via a deal announced Monday with Comcast that will involve the exchange of nearly 4 million subs and essentially double the size of Charter’s subscriber footprint.

Charter has already introduced the new Spectrum brand in two markets: Dallas/Ft. Worth and Greenville, S.C.

Tied in with the upgrade and new brand, Charter is launching new service packages, expanding its HDTV lineup to more than 200 channels, adding enhancements to its digital voice service, beefing up its VOD library, and offering 60 Mbps (downstream) as the minimum speed offered on its high-speed Internet product. In St. Louis, Charter has plans to make 100 Mbps as the minimum speed offered in the downstream direction, Rutledge said.

Charter’s all-digital plan includes the deployment of two-way interactive set-tops at every outlet, and that decision did contribute to higher capital expenditures in the quarter.

Charter said capex increased $116 million in the quarter year-on-year, to $539 million, with $119 million going toward the all-digital upgrade, and $59 million heading toward commercial services. Charter’s spend on set-tops and other consumer premises equipment also rose by $89 million year-on-year in support of the all-digital effort and other customer growth. For all of 2014, Charter expects capex to hit $2.2 billion, including labor, with $400 million earmarked for the all-digital project.

Despite the rise in capex, Rutledge said overall “capital intensity” on set-top box costs is coming down, citing Charter’s current deployment of integrated security boxes and its work toward a downloadable security platform. “As a result of that -- both the volume and the technology platform that we’re deploying -- our costs per digitally-deployed box is going down,” Rutledge said.