Ericsson is extending its video delivery capabilities with the purchase of video optimization software provider Azuki Systems for an undisclosed amount. The Azuki platform enables live and on-demand content delivery, as well as the ability to tie content to metadata and to social connections. It also allows multi-screen ad insertion and the ability to personalize the user interface. Azuki calls its platform TV Everywhere, a nice fit with Ericsson’s TV Anywhere initiative.
Azuki is the latest in series of video-related purchases for Ericsson. In 2007, Ericsson bought Tandberg Television for roughly $1.4 billion. Then last year Ericsson bought Microsoft Mediaroom, which makes IPTV “middleware” software to power set-top boxes.
Ericsson said that Azuki is a leader in content protection and in adaptive bit rate streaming technology. Adaptive bit rate streaming means that a network can adapt the speed of a video stream in real time by detecting and analyzing each user’s bandwidth and hardware capabilities. “Azuki adds key technologies and capabilities to extend our market leadership position,” said Ericsson senior vice president Per Borgklint, head of the company’s business unit support solutions group. “Traditional TV is shifting rapidly towards TV Anywhere. Azuki Systems further positions Ericsson to help customers deliver on the Networked Society’s global demand for customized and personalized media experiences that include content on any screen, any time across any network.”
“The future will be IP video in every single platform for the home,” said Simon Frost, head of TV marketing for Ericsson’s BSS unit, speaking with RCR after Ericsson’s Mediaroom acquisition. “Already we see very high speed capabilities by cable networks and the cable industry looking to potentially evolve to a pure IP delivery network. The satellite and terrestrial and the cable guys are … adding IP capabilities to their delivery networks so that they can really blend the best of large amounts of high quality linear and live TV content with a large library of on-demand and catch-up TV content. That’s really all about the home. When we add into the mix moving away from the home .. on all these different types of amazing new devices that we all own, that’s very much about pure IP, whether that’s Wi-Fi, whether it’s 4G/LTE, or 3G, and mobility of course is another a very, very important aspect on top of all of that.”
Ericsson’s purchase of Azuki comes on the heels of another merger in the video optimization space. Earlier this year Flash Networks acquired Mobixell, becoming the largest independent provider of video optimization solutions.
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