Posing potential competition for Digeo Inc.'s Moxi digital gateway product, DigitalDeck Inc. is pitching cable operators a service that would allow cable subscribers to use a set-top to access content from digital video recorders, personal computers and other audio and video devices.
Founded by Syndeo Corp. CEO Ted Griggs and former Omnis Technology Corp. executive Erik Sheelke, DigitalDeck has raised $4.5 million in financing from Lexington Ventures, Louis Gonda's Los Angeles-based venture-capital fund.
Last week, DigitalDeck executives demonstrated the product, showing how a user could pause a live television program and resume playing the program in another room.
DigitalDeck executives also demonstrated how a user could access content on a TV from a video camera, a personal computer, a digital camera and a stereo with a single remote.
DigitalDeck is talking to set-top vendors about licensing hardware designs, vice president of strategy development Martin Levine said. He also said DigitalDeck wants to develop a digital video recorder that could be linked to other electronics devices in a household in addition to a product that would allow a consumer to use a PC as a DVR.
Levine said Digeo won't discuss pricing and rollout plans until the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but said DigitalDeck set-tops would cost less than Digeo's Moxi Media Centers, which cost about $500 apiece.
DigitalDeck also hopes to sell set-tops through retail outlets, said Levine, a former iVast Corp. executive. Cable operators "already are moving into a model where they're selling services but a lot of the hardware is now selling through retail. There's no reason why we couldn't follow the same model."
