Cisco Adds Internet Streaming to Content Delivery System

Enables Providers to Deploy Next-Generation Video Entertainment Services.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Cisco® today announced a significant enhancement to its Content Delivery System (CDS), adding Internet streaming media capabilities that allow service providers to offer an ever-expanding scope of online content to help meet their customers’ expectations of accessing any content, anywhere, anytime and on any device.

The enhanced Cisco CDS offers much more than other video-on-demand and streaming systems. The Cisco CDS Internet Streaming solution incorporates applications for delivering video to digital televisions and set-top boxes as well as delivering video, voice, music and data to a wide range of Internet Protocol (IP) devices such as personal computers, Wi-Fi-connected mobile phones and personal digital assistants.

This solution is part of the Cisco Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN), an architecture based on international standards and industry best practice. The Cisco IP NGN is a converged network designed to deliver next-generation video, voice, data services while adding mobility to all services. The IP NGN design for video service delivery is a flexible platform for the delivery of a wide array of traditional and emerging video applications. The Cisco CDS uniquely delivers personalized services to both set-top boxes and IP devices; it empowers service providers to transform themselves into experience providers that can deliver “The Connected Life” to their customers.

“In today’s competitive landscape, service providers need to provide a differentiated, highly personalized customer experience,” said Paul Bosco, vice president of cable and video initiatives, Cisco. “By incorporating the Cisco Internet Streaming solution directly into our Content Delivery System, Cisco is providing flexible and powerful options to increase customer satisfaction and help enable service providers to deploy a variety of next-generation, value-added video entertainment services and much more.”

Offering a number of key benefits, the Cisco CDS Internet Streaming solution is designed to:

* Help enable access to all Internet content, whether professionally created or user generated;

* Support a hierarchical deployment model that enables service providers to scale their offerings to millions of customers;

* Supports multiple streaming and file transfer protocols, enabling service providers to converge to a single multipurpose infrastructure for distribution and delivery;

* Simplify operations and reduces operating expense via sophisticated management software; and

* Provide a flexible platform with application-layer intelligence that can serve as the basis for both existing and future service offerings.

“A new generation of entertainment is upon us with the maturing of user-generated and web-based video,” said Vince Vittore, senior analyst with The Yankee Group. “Service providers must respond by enabling customers new ways to create and consume content. These new services build on the Web 2.0 concept by bringing interactivity and community to video services. Using the Internet streaming capabilities of the Cisco Content Delivery System, service providers can tap into the content scope of their over-the-top competitors but use it in way that benefits both the consumer experience and their business as a whole.”

Using the Cisco Content Delivery System, service providers can deploy a variety of next-generation, value-added video entertainment services. These include:

* User-Generated Content Service. The Cisco CDS Internet Streaming application enables services where customers become video producers and publish personal content to be viewed by a wider audience. The hierarchical design of the Cisco CDS enables the system to scale distribution as content popularity grows and to deliver the content to the device type appropriate to the user.

* Live TV Streaming Service for IP Devices. The unified Cisco CDS design simplifies the ability to deliver live content, originally intended for set-top box, to be delivered to any IP- and streaming-enabled device. Cisco CDS is quality of service (QoS)-enabled through integration with various QoS mechanisms such as PacketCableTM MultiMedia, for high-quality delivery.

* Music Streaming Service. The Cisco Internet Streaming solution can provide either live or on-demand music streaming services. Using this service, customers can have access to CD-quality, QoS-guaranteed music channels on either IP devices or televisions.

* File Distribution. The Cisco Internet Streaming solution provides highly efficient, scalable file distribution using standard protocols. Service providers can use this capability as a means of delivering software updates for devices either inside the service provider network, such as Quadrature Amplitude Modulators (QAMs) or Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAMs), or inside the customer’s home, greatly reducing operational expenses.

Product Availability

The Cisco CDS Internet Streaming solution is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of 2007.

For more information on Cisco CDS Internet Streaming solution, visit Cisco booth 2044 on May 7-9, 2007, at The Cable Show ’07, the 56th Annual Convention and International Exposition of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev., or click the following URL:

www.cisco.com/go/cablevideo