Choice Cable Deploys Qwilt Video Delivery Platform to Tackle OTT Video Challenges

REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 3, 2013) - Qwilt, a leading provider of transparent caching and video delivery solutions, today announced that Choice Cable has deployed its QB-Series Video Delivery Platform to address extraordinary consumer demand for over-the-top (OTT) video services across its network.

Network Operators worldwide are feeling the impact of increased consumer demand for OTT video services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube across their networks -- from local aggregation points, through regional hubs and across their backbone to core sites where they interconnect with the Internet. The impact of this demand presents a strategic problem for operators of all sizes: how to cost effectively architect their networks to deliver high definition (HD) OTT video, while maintaining a high quality consumer viewing experience. Most operators are seeing their overall network traffic grow by more than 50 percent year-over-year, due almost entirely to OTT Video.

"The explosion in video consumption online will inevitably lead to bandwidth problems. Solutions need to be put in place now to address the issue," added Colin Dixon, founder and chief analyst at nScreenMedia. "This is a strategic problem that demands innovative thinking and technology. Transparent caching technology, such as that provided by Qwilt, will be an important part of the scaling solution."

The revolution in consumer video services involves a complex and highly interdependent ecosystem. Content providers, like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube need to deliver HD streaming video to consumers in their homes. To accomplish this, content providers sometimes rely on Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) to cache video content near an operator's core network site. In other cases, Content Providers deploy their own video caches in the operator's peering sites. In either case, the videos must often cross an operator's entire network -- from core to edge -- to reach the consumer's home. In the case of a blockbuster hit, the operator will need to transmit the same video across their entire network every time it's requested. These redundant transmissions require more network capacity in order to sustain an acceptable consumer's viewing experience. An operator's ideal architectural solution, therefore, is to deploy universal cache technology deep inside their network, in close proximity to their subscribers, where it can automatically detect, store and deliver popular content, regardless of the source.

Choice Cable recently deployed Qwilt's solution to establish a new network architecture capable of addressing consumer demand for streaming video. Choice Cable chose Qwilt's technology because it provides increased visibility and control over OTT video running across their network, and achieves ROI in less than 12 months.

"We have seen how the rapid growth of OTT video traffic impacts our network capacity. We considered a number of alternatives and ultimately chose to deploy Qwilt's product," Enrique Gonzalez, Director of Network Services of Choice Cable. "Qwilt's solution was easy to deploy and Choice now enjoys the financial and operational benefits of transparent caching in our network."

Qwilt's solution is unique in a number of key dimensions: First, the QB-Series is deployed 'out of band' within an operator network, eliminating any adverse impact on network reliability or performance.

Next, Qwilt provides a universal cache that can automatically classify, store, deliver and monitor virtually any video content in the operator network, regardless of the content provider or source. This approach means one universal video cache and delivery technology deployed across the operator network can address OTT video traffic from a diverse and constantly changing community of current and future video content providers. For example, Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) video streaming from content providers such as Netflix is a relatively new and popular streaming protocol that is efficiently cached on Qwilt's platform.

Finally, Qwilt's video delivery solution is unified and built to support edge deployments on even the most demanding carrier networks. Unlike traditional caching technologies, which require racks of disparate processing gear in the datacenter, Qwilt's QB-Series delivers a single, unified and sleek 2RU device with over 5 times the performance of comparable caching systems.

"Despite the wide diversity in size and region among the network operators where we have deployed to-date, we continue to see common trends in their needs and the benefits Qwilt offers," said Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt. "The impact of OTT video on operator networks requires a new approach. We are pleased to be supporting this deployment with Choice Cable."

About Qwilt
Qwilt's products help carriers reduce the impact of over-the-top (OTT) video traffic on their networks, improve quality of service for their end users, and prepare their networks for the future of online video. Qwilt's QB-Series combines transparent caching, video delivery and video analytics in a unified, turnkey platform. A growing number of the world's leading operators rely on Qwilt for the most precise video content detection, highest performance and scalability, and unprecedented transparency and control needed to optimize video delivery in carrier networks. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Qwilt is founded and staffed by industry veterans from Cisco, Juniper, BroadSoft and Fortinet, and backed by leading investors including Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Marker. Learn more at www.qwilt.com.