IPTV-systems provider Kasenna Inc. last week announced a major remodeling for its “Living Room” on-demand middleware, adding features allowing operators to expand their interactive-TV features.
Unveiled at the Globalcomm telco trade show in Chicago, Living Room 2.0’s upgrades include a new electronic user guide that operators can customize using standard Web-design tools, as well as features allowing for network-digital-video-recorder services and the ability to pause and replay live TV similar to Time Warner Cable’s “Start Over” service.
The new middleware also automates the process of taking in video and converting it into on-demand files. Many providers now have to do so manually -- gather, encode and index content for on-demand -- so the aim for Kasenna’s new product is to lighten that load.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on details like: How do operators operate a system?” said Mark Crandon, vice president of marketing at Kasenna. “Customer feedback indicates that some of these IPTV systems are a beast to operate, so we are trying to take a lot of the opex [operational expense] out of the system.”
In related news, Kasenna also struck a deal struck with Swedish electronics maker EricssonAB, which will license its “PortalTV” suite of products for use with its broadband-access gear.
