By Lisa DiCarlo

April 26, 2007 - These days, consumers want more personalized movies, music, Internet, TV shows, even advertisements, and they want it all on demand. Telecommunications providers have been challenged to provide these new services in a cost-effective way, until now.

Today, Sun announces the new Sun Streaming System, an IP video delivery platform that enables telco and cable operators to deliver next-generation services for half the cost of comparable offerings. The Sun Streaming System has the highest video streaming capacity at the lowest cost of any product on the market. At approximately $50 per stream, the system is poised to reshape the ecomonics of personalized video services over IP.

The Sun Streaming System offers:

• 160,000 simultaneous 2Mbps streams per switch
• Up to 640Gbps of total streaming capacity
• Up to 768 TB of 300,000+ hours of storage
• Open industry standards-based API for ease of integration
• Simplified management with single point of control

"The major challenge for operators is delivering personalized video services to subscribers so they can generate more revenue," says Sandeep Agrawal, Sun's group marketing manager, Networking Platforms. "They're challenged because of the high cost of building or scaling the equipment to deliver these services, or the cost of creating the services themselves. We solve both problems."

Personalized Content on a Large Scale

It's no secret that media of all kinds is undergoing a fundamental shift. Digital video recorders and on-demand cable services have made it possible for subscribers to watch what they want, when they want it. The Sun Streaming System enables operators to offer fully personalized television on a large scale more economically than ever before.

The system enables unicast video delivery, which allows each viewer to receive a personalized stream of content and permission-based advertising tuned to his or her interests. With broadcast media, there is virtually no way for advertisers to know if they're reaching their target audience. The Sun Streaming System enables advertisers to target subscribers they know are interested in their product or service. Given this added benefit, operators can charge higher ad premiums. It's a classic win-win scenario.

Acetrax Group AG, a Zurich-based multimedia services company, is currently pilot testing the Sun Streaming System with a very large European broadcaster. The goal, according to Acetrax marketing chief Leslie Golding, is for the broadcaster to develop direct relationships with subscribers and deliver on demand personalized content.

"Acetrax runs the TV from the user's PC with no need for a set-top box. This means that broadcasters can offer advertisers unicast capability, which lets people select channels and content at their own time and pace from the comfort of the living room," says Golding. "The Sun Streaming System allows massively parallel streams to be sent to individual subscribers. We couldn't get that from another company. They're also able to deliver superior streaming quality even under sudden massive demand."

Superior Scalability and Performance

There are four main components to the Sun Streaming System:

• The Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch, which includes 8 linecards, each capable of delivering 640Gbps streaming capacity per 14RU chassis
• The Sun Fire X4500 server, which stores up to 24TB (9,400 hours) of Standard Definition (SD) content--the equivalent of the entire video library of NetFlix, for example
• The Sun Fire X4100 server, a 1RU compact, high-performance AMD Opteron multiprocessor-based server
• Sun Streaming Software, a distributed software suite with simplified management and a single point of control

The system supports 160,000 personalized unicast streams and 200,000 hr of storage, up to 300,000 hr of storage connected to per chassis. Up to 32 Sun Fire X4500 data servers can be connected per Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch. Bottom line: scale is not a problem with the Sun Streaming System.

Breakthrough Technology

Personalized content and delivery holds enormous value not only for subscribers but for operators, broadcasters, and advertisers. To serve this need, operators need a simple, reliable and cost-effective delivery infrastructure.

The Sun Streaming System is breakthrough technology whose time has come. The Internet has already changed the music, publishing, and movie businesses. As Golding put it, "The Internet is storming the last bastion of old media."

Learn more about the Sun Streaming System.