SeaChange International Inc. has updated its VOD-system advertising capabilities with a new placement system that can be integrated into a cable operator’s current sales operation.
SeaChange’s Ad Management component allows for centralized control over ad placement, so MSOs can set up VOD rules and targeting instructions for disparate spots stored in digital-video ad libraries. For instance, ads aimed at families can be streamed from the library when children’s programming is accessed from the VOD menu.
Task controllers automatically transcode the appropriate spot to the specifications of the VOD system and execute insertion orders into on-demand programming, SeaChange said.
SeaChange said spots, promos and bumpers can be updated and sent alongside VOD programming when it is accessed.
The system allows advertising to be customized by household, giving advertisers a better return on their investment. SeaChange is testing the system now and will showcase it next month at the National Show in New Orleans.
In other VOD news, TVN Entertainment Inc. said it will provide support for Comcast Sports Southeast/Charter Sports Southeast for its 60-game college football package this fall.
TVN said it would supply encoding, asset management, site-specific metadata and multicast transport using its TVNow rapid turnaround service. MSOs will carry games from Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Auburn.
“The TVNow rapid turnaround service allows us to have timely showings of these college football game via our on demand platform, which until recently may not have been possible,” said Comcast vice president and general manager Mike Sheehey said in a statement.
Elsewhere, MidStream Technologies said it has successfully tested an nDVR solution with DataDirect Networks, a storage company.
Using Midstream’s MVS-2000 video server and DataDirect’s fiber channel storage controller and disk array, the companies said it could handle ingest from 75 channels totaling 35,000 hours of content.
DataDirect said its technology can provide up to 12 gigabits per second performance and storage capacity in excess of 100 terabytes on either fibre-channel or Serial-ATA disk drives.
And Cathy Hetzel, a cable industry veteran from both the MSO and programming side, has been named senior vice president, VOD Essentials, the new division at Rentrak Corp. that’s creating VOD reporting and analysis tools. Rentrak is scheduled to begin a VOD measurement trial with Comcast next month.
Accurate reporting tools are needed to move ad-supported VOD forward.
