I’m told Israeli startup Fabrix.TV, majority owned by telecommunications and energy provider IDT, is one of the key vendors in the mix behind Cablevision Systems’ Remote Storage-Digital Video Recorder.
Cablevision and Fabrix.TV reps declined to comment.
According to IDT’s 10-K filing from Oct. 28, “In August 2010, a major cable operator licensed [the Fabrix.TV] software to empower its cloud-based DVR offering.”
On Cablevision’s earnings call Thursday, chief operating officer Tom Rutledge said the network-based digital video recorder service is ready to go live in New York sometime before the end of 2010 — and that Cablevision is going to cease buying physical DVR set-tops once RS-DVR is fully rolled out.
According to the Fabrix.TV website, the company’s platform is based on off-the-shelf servers and handles both ingest and streaming. The startup’s Remote Storage DVR page boasts that the modular architecture “is ideal for RS-DVR applications as it scales to support petabytes of video storage with an industry leading cost/capacity ratio.”
Also note that IDT is based in Newark, N.J., where Fabrix.TV lists a U.S. office. That’s a stone’s throw away from Cablevision’s Bethpage, N.Y., campus (well, OK, kind of a long drive during rush hour, but you get the point).
For the fiscal year ended July 31, 2010, according to IDT’s annual report, it spent $2.8 million in R&D related to Fabrix.TV, the same amount as the prior-year period.
SeaChange, by the way, lists Fabrix.TV as a partner on its website.
Originally, back before it was hauled into court by cable programmers and other content owners, Cablevision developed the RS-DVR using VOD equipment from Arroyo Video Solutions, which was acquired by Cisco Systems (see Network-DVR Battle: Cablevision Sued and Cisco Buying Arroyo for $92M).
But at this point Cisco is “absolutely not” in the RS-DVR at Cablevision, a source confirmed.
