As part of its new relationship with Oracle Corp, Silicon Graphics Inc is going to support the former’s Video Server software on its Origin2000 servers as its primary solution for digital video broadcast and consumer interactive television markets. It means SGI will re-cast its own WebForce MediaBase video streaming software for use in education, entertainment, corporate and government market. It’s the first major development from the strategic business the two companies created back in June. SGI and Oracle say they will jointly develop other e- commerce and consumer interactive technologies and services that will leverage the current pay-per-view-oriented package. Oracle didn’t say whether it will dislodge MediaBase from use in some of SGI’s high-profile interactive TV trials. An Origin2000 server running Video Server is said to be capable of delivering 5,000 multiplexed MPEG streams for near-video-on-demand and interactive applications supporting 60,000 homes and is compliant with the European DVB digital video broadcasting standard. Oracle says Europe – which has already begun DVB broadcasting – and Asia are way ahead of the US digital broadcasting market. Oracle, which has worked on video serving technology for many years with NCube Corp – part-funded by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison – says SGI will be used at the high-end of its solution range. Video Server is also up on around ten other platforms including Sun, NT and Alpha.
