This post has been updated and modified and clarifies an earlier version
Vubiquity Wednesday formally announced AnyVUCloud, a cloud-based platform for delivering video content to the marketplace.
According to yesterday’s press release, AnyVU Cloud will host “…licensed transactional and subscription Video on Demand content, as well as free-on-demand TV and live linear feeds, providing content providers with a single-source solution for global distribution to set-top boxes and connected devices.”
AnyVU Cloud, which is being characterized as ‘content-as-a-service’ will use Akamai CDN services to “…offer a robust licensed content library along with cloud-based content workflows, storage and delivery at a global scale.”
A new delivery method
The AnyVU Cloud announcement hits the market as Vubiquity is separately in the process of shifting its traditional linear content transport services from satellites to terrestrial fiber distribution. In a recent interview, Vubiquity Chief Corporate Development Officer Jon Romm said that the shift in linear content transport services is being made because the company wants to support the ability to deliver content to a variety of devices.
That move changes a long-standing method for video content distribution. Vubiquity is the dominant provider for linear content transport to smaller IPTV and cable service providers, as well as a leading provider for video-on-demand content distribution to the entire video service provider ecosystem.
The change is not without controversy. Several small service providers that use Vubiquity told Telecompetitor the terrestrial delivery requirement increases their content delivery costs in comparison with the satellite delivery approach. The service providers, who did not want to be identified, said the new approach requires them to purchase a fiber connection to a Vubiquity point of presence (POP) – an expense the providers didn’t have with the satellite approach. For remotely located service providers, this expense can be significant – and the service providers say this is a hardship at a time when they are struggling to make a profit in the video market, where content costs have been climbing steeply.
“We had some logistical issues,” said Romm. He said the company is working with service providers to pick the right POPs to make the fiber-delivered platform as cost-effective as possible. The company aims to have all customers on the satellite platform moved to the fiber-based platform by June 1.
He argued, though, that the move to the fiber-based delivery system is essential to support the delivery of content to smartphones and other devices – a capability that is increasingly in demand by end consumers. The satellite-based content delivery system does not support two-way communications – and that capability is a requirement for meeting evolving consumer demands, Romm explained.
“The traditional multicast technology didn’t give us the ability to get the right file formatting to distribute [content] not only to a set-top box but also to” other devices, said Romm.
Romm added that Vubiquity has been in communication with service provider customers about the transition for several months and has been conducting webcasts with customers to ease the transition.
Vubiquity has 11 POPs in major metro areas that are geographically distributed around the country, Romm said.
