NAB: mediaXstream Thinking Big With Early Deals

Just one week after beginning commercial operations in 18 U.S. cities, network service provider for the video industry mediaXstream Inc. has added applications to its menu with the acquisition of Secure Media Solutions Inc. and content quality of service through a partnership with Net Insight Inc.

Both deals were detailed at the National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB) annual conference.

Led by the industry veteran that founded the Vyvx broadcasting and media service unit of WilTel in the late 1980s, MediaXstream is aiming to provide more than just high-speed bandwidth for carrying video. However, the new company considers Vyvx its primary competition.

“We’re going after broadcasters, content owners and especially those with sports video assets,” said Del Bothof, mediaXstream’s CEO, who, while at Vyvx, made it the first landline network to carry the Super Bowl live. “With Secure Media, we’re adding media production applications to the network. With NetInsight we’ve addressed complete quality of service for whatever the network carries.”

The mediaXstream network is currently made up of 20 POPs in 18 cities, with Sycamore Networks’ (http://www.scamorenet.com) optical gear in each collocation facility capable of splitting a 10gbps wavelength into as many OC-48 links as is required. The POPs can also house video encoders and video servers to help handle customer feeds.

Bothof said his company can, from its operations center in Baltimore, turn circuits up or off in as little as five minutes covering links as small at 512kbps and as large as 1.5gbps. “Our whole business plan is to focus on high quality and high definition,” he said.

With that overall goal in mind, mediaXstream announced a deal with Net Insight to optimize its video transport network, which means a big boost in link utilization while ensuring top-flight content quality for the business-critical video content.

“The overhead for multicast traffic is high,” said Dan Lutter, vice president of strategic sales for Net Insight in North America. “We keep it under 2 percent.”

MediaXstream launched its new network using Net Insight’s Nimbra switching platform to carry real-time traffic for professional media companies across the country. The nascent network uses the vendor’s systems to deliver uncompressed or compressed HD or SD video, as well as data and voice services.

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