Video network specialist MediaXstream has chosen Hibernia Atlantic for its transatlantic capacity requirements. The deal is for multiple diverse 10Gbps wavelengths from North America to London and Dublin, and further extends MediaXstream’s young DTM video network such that it can serve customers with European needs. And who is MediaXstream? That’s a question I asked myself, until I ran into a familiar name in its CEO Del Bothof.
Bothof, telecom and broadcast infrastructure followers surely recall, was the head of Wiltel’s Vyvx for years, after which he resurfaced at Broadwing and spearheaded the development of their DTM video network. Both of course became part of Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings), and I had wondered what happened to both Del Bothof and the Broadwing DTM network but never followed up. Well now I know – roughly a year ago he got started with MediaXstream which apparently hit the ground running. Their network happens to look a heck of a lot like the video network he built for Broadwing – it’s even managed out of a NOC in Baltimore. I’m curious about the circumstances, I’m guessing Level 3 didn’t continue with the DTM plans so Bothof picked up the ball and ran with it, but I don’t really know. Anybody?
The pairing makes a lot of sense for both Hibernia and MediaXstream. The northern transatlantic route has low latency which is vital to the delivery of HD video feeds to Europe, and Hibernia’s unique footprint on both continents allows them to handle the on and off ramps as well.
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Categories: Undersea cables · Video
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Level 3 mothballed the DTM platform in favor of a packet based option. This left a vaccuum for broadcast customers who could not depend on the multicast limitations of packet based solutions. Mediaxtreme was set up to leverage the advantages of DTM. They also were able to pick up some discarded DTM assets as well as the NOC.
MBW, thanks for that summary, it does seem to fit with what I was thinking.