Canada's Shaw Communications has picked Verivue's high-capacity video-on-demand system to expand VOD services to its 1.5 million digital video subscribers.
The MSO will provide additional HD and standard-definition content to customers in its Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg service areas with Verivue's MDX 9200, which integrates VOD servers, storage, networking and applications.
Verivue, whose backers include Comcast and Arris, sells two models in its MDX 9000 family: the MDX 9200, which delivers between 20 and 200 Gbps of streaming capacity and between 2 and 48 Terabytes of flash-memory storage in a 14-rack-unit chassis; and the MDX 9020, a 2RU system that provides 10 to 20 Gbps streaming capacity and 1 to 8 Terabytes of flash-memory storage.
Shaw's initial deployment of MDX 9200 systems will soon be expanded to include the smaller, MDX 9020 at the edge. The cable operator, based in Calgary, Alberta, had 2.3 million video subscribers -- of which 1.5 million are digital cable subs -- as of Feb. 28, 2010.
"The growth and popularity of video-on-demand service, along with the shift to high-definition content, creates a whole new set of challenges for cable operators like Shaw," Verivue CEO Jim Dolce said in a statement. "The MDX 9200 provides the performance, scale and reliability Shaw needed to address these changing requirements, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership."
Verivue touts its VueStor solid-state storage subsystem, based on flash memory, that is designed to provide higher streaming performance and reliability when compared with hard disk drives or conventional solid-state drives.
Verivue, based in Westford, Mass., was founded in 2006. The company has raised about $85 million to date from investors including Comcast, Arris, venture-capital firm Sigma Partners, Matrix Partners, Spark Capital, North Bridge Partners and Accel Partners.
