Kasenna has been awarded three more key patents, adding to the company’s patent portfolio in the area of media-on-demand and content management.
The first patent, “System and method for media stream indexing,” protects Kasenna’s technique for implementing VCR “trick-modes” in a video-on-demand system. Trick-mode access allows users to pause, rewind, and fast-forward video or audio streams being served from a video server, the same way they currently interact with a VCR or DVD playback system. The patented technology provides a way for time synchronizing between a normal stream and a fast-forward or fast-reverse stream, and enables delivery of content from any selected time in the program material. This patent is used by all Kasenna customers and is at the core of any video server providing trick mode access to on-demand content.
The second patent, “Media server system and process having device independent near-online storage support,” protects Kasenna’s technique to connect and access large content libraries with a media server system that allows the content to move automatically and transparently among different storage hierarchies. This technique also provides a way for different storage systems to be added to a video network easily and transparently. This patent is the basis of technology that enables customers such as Japan’s broadcaster NHK to create and manage large archives of content in various storage hierarchies.
The third patent, “Media server system and method having improved asset types for playback of digital media,” protects Kasenna’s header-injection technology, which is used for seamlessly playing back sequences of content such as MPEG-2 video. By extracting header information from the content, storing it as metadata, and making the metadata available to client decoders, this technique ensures that transitions between different clips are handled smoothly. This technology is useful in creating play lists, ad insertions, and other IP video features.
Kasenna holds 11 core patents with 6 additional patents pending, which are incorporated into its products, such as the MediaBase XMP Video Server, vFusion video network management system, and the LivingRoom application for IP television. http://www.kasenna.com
- In July, Kasenna outlined its plans for a Secure Video Delivery Network (Secure VDN) for enabling widespread broadband service provider distribution of premium video content. Kasenna’s Secure VDN delivers content in an encrypted format all the way from the studios to viewers’ homes, thereby addressing the digital rights management (DRM) concern that has so far impeded direct broadband delivery of first-run studio content.
- Also in July 2004, Kasenna, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, completed a new $15 million round of private equity investment for its broadband IP video solutions. Kasenna recently announced two new major product line extensions — vFusion and vForge — along with the acquisition of ViewNow’s content resources and studio relationships, new partnerships with SecureMedia, and customer wins that include Charter Cable, PrairieWave Communications, and Iowa Networks.
