Tiny Swedish VoD specialist Edgeware, which invented the idea of using cheap Flash memory based systems to serve video, now has a strategic alliance with the biggest telecommunications equipment supplier in the region (if not the world) in Ericsson.
Edgeware will now integrate its solid state VoD platform with the Ericsson’s yet to be installed IPTV middleware system and its OpenStream Digital Services Platform. Previous partners for Ericsson have never really done very well in IPTV, but Ericsson finally seems to have the bit between its teeth and may put up a challenge in Europe through its well considered IMS capability and its Tandberg encoder acquisition, which now offers its own middleware.
Edgeware’s says that its network-distributed server architecture allows operators to utilize their existing network, even when bandwidth and quality of service are limited, by caching popular content close to the viewers.
‘We are proud to be part of the Ericsson IPTV solution. Partnering with an industry leader like Ericsson gives us a strong global reach and together we are able to provide advanced IPTV solutions to a large number of operators around the world,’ said Mikael Samuelsson, VP of channel sales at Edgeware. In the long run if Ericsson is serious about IPTV, it will do well to acquire Edgeware.
At the IPTV World Forum show Edgeware also announced that UK digital media systems specialist, ioko, which has built its reputation around helping the BBC and Sky TV build online video services, has recently completed a successful lab trial with the Edgeware Web TV server. That’s almost like saying that the BBC iPlayer or systems which might extend it, like Project Kangaroo (if it ever is allowed to be developed) may end up using these servers, but without actually coming out and declaring it.
All they said was that this trial was part of ioko’s assessment of caching and serving technologies for a range of new web video distribution services.
Edgeware has just landed an $8 million Series B Financing
Round, which in this financial environment is pretty spectacular, led by Micron Technology, one of the leading US Flash chip makers.