SeaChange Debuts Flash Memory Server for VOD

SeaChange International unveiled its 100% flash memory solution for on-demand television -- decoupling on-demand streaming from disk-based content storage and enabling television operators to push their streaming resources to the network edge and deploy centralized content libraries.



Available in Q3 2007, a single SeaChange MediaServer Flash Streamer (two rack units high) will provide 300 hours of storage and 1,000 streams.



SeaChange said the most popular content can be delivered most efficiently using diskless edge streaming, thereby enabling centralized storage and storage management at headends. In contrast to DRAM solutions, its Flash Streamer retains real-time ingested content in spite of server failures or maintenance downtime, a critical requirement for time-shifting.



SeaChange is also announcing its new Axiom Core 4.0 software, which can automatically distribute "hot" content to Flash Streamers to provide additional streaming capacity.



"With flash technology, operators can now bring much more content to the network edge to more subscribers without having to bring disk storage with it, which means more content and higher quality of service at a much lower total cost of ownership," said Bang Chang, director of server products, SeaChange.



SeaChange's MediaServer Flash Streamer also leverages technology used in the company's widely deployed MediaCluster disk-based servers . Without costly mirroring, MediaCluster stripes content files across flash modules in a server and across servers in an InfiniBand connected cluster, ensuring service fault-resilience and cost-efficient scalability since only one copy of a video is ever required at a server location.



SeaChange said its MediaCluster technology is also the key to extending flash memory's life expectancy by a factor of five to at least 10 years. Whereas content "write" hot spots would dramatically reduce life expectancy in other architectures, SeaChange's MediaCluster eliminates write hot spots by perfectly load-balancing content "writes" across all flash modules in a server and across all servers in a cluster.



Axiom Core 4.0 is SeaChange's latest generation on-demand management software. It is an open solution for automating television's rapidly expanding core services, including network PVR and broadband PC/mobile delivery and subscriber place-shifting.

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