Buckeye CableSystem Overhauls VOD Infrastructure with SeaChange Software and Flash Memory Servers

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Longtime SeaChange Customer Rolls Out End-to-End Upgrades to Support Launch of High-Definition Video On Demand

ACTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

SeaChange International (NASDAQ: SEAC) today announced that Buckeye CableSystem has upgraded its existing SeaChange video-on-demand platform to include new SeaChange software and flash memory servers that will help grow its VOD offering available to its 90,000 digital subscribers in Ohio and Michigan. This upgrade supports Buckeye's introduction of high-definition content as well as the continued growth of its traditional VOD business. Having built its VOD service - Buckeye VOD - from the ground up with SeaChange systems, Buckeye is now generating nearly a quarter-of-a-million monthly VOD requests, an increase of nearly 3,000 percent since its launch in 2004.

The most popular content for Buckeye VOD is stored using SeaChange MediaServer FMS 200 flash memory-based servers, while long-tail material is stored on HDS 601 hybrid disk-based servers. The new servers add more than 7,000 streams to Buckeye's VOD capacity, which is managed by a newly deployed version of Axiom On Demand software, SeaChange's open content delivery platform.

"The combination of SeaChange flash servers to stream our hottest content, coupled with the hybrid disk servers operating in a centralized capacity, forms an ideal storage and streaming architecture," said Jim Brown, Director of Engineering, Buckeye CableSystem. "Upgrading the intelligence of the Axiom On Demand software has enabled us to build an incredibly robust platform on which to roll out our HD VOD offering and ensures that our customers enjoy a quality viewing experience every time."

"Buckeye's continued success and expansion embodies SeaChange's commitment to giving our customers the technology and services they need to grow their TV business in the direction and at the rate they choose," said Yvette Kanouff, chief strategy officer, SeaChange. "Our flash solution in combination with Axiom is becoming a featured player in operators' upgrade and expansion strategies, as demonstrated by smaller operations such as Buckeye along with some of the largest here and abroad."

Today, SeaChange's MediaServer Flash Memory Streamer is the industry's only non-volatile flash memory streaming solution (no spinning disks) which also takes full advantage of SeaChange's widely proven MediaCluster server architecture. Without costly mirroring, MediaCluster stripes content files across flash modules in a server and across servers in an InfiniBand connected cluster, ensuring service fault-resilience and cost-efficient scalability since only one copy of a video is ever required at a server location. Overall, flash memory runs on one-tenth the power that disks require, providing a new dimension of economy for television operations.

SeaChange's Axiom On Demand open content delivery platform is the intelligence behind billions of on-demand streams delivered globally. SeaChange Axiom software fully automates the intensive behind-the-scenes VOD processes from content propagation, to subscriber and stream management, to performance reporting and monitoring. Beyond VOD, SeaChange Axiom software also provides the foundation for adding SeaChange's growing range of content navigation, gaming, DVD and ad targeting applications.

About SeaChange

SeaChange International is a leading provider of software applications, services and integrated solutions for video-on-demand (VOD), digital advertising, and content acquisition monetization and management. Its powerful open VOD and advertising software and scaleable hardware enable cable and telco operators, as well as broadcasters, to provide new on-demand services and to gain greater efficiencies in advertising and content delivery. With its Emmy Award-winning and patented technology, thousands of SeaChange deployments are helping broadband, broadcast and satellite television companies to streamline operations, expand services and increase revenues. Headquartered in Acton, Massachusetts, SeaChange has product development, support and sales offices around the world. Visit www.schange.com.

About Buckeye

Buckeye Cablevision, Inc., is the largest cable firm operating in the Toledo, OH, area, with about 130,000 customers in Toledo and 28 of its contiguous suburbs and adjacent townships and about 20,000 customers in a sister system in Sandusky, OH, and 10 of its contiguous suburbs and townships. It is the 21st largest MSO (Multiple System Operator) in the United States.

Buckeye is a wholly owned subsidiary of Block Communications, Inc. Block Communications is a holding company which also owns The Blade of Toledo and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, both daily newspapers; Buckeye Telesystem, Inc., a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), broadcast television stations in Lima, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Springfield/Decatur, Illinois, and Boise, Idaho. Block also owns a fiber and cable construction company, headquartered in Toledo.

Source: SeaChange International

Released October 22, 2008