Scientific-Atlanta announced that it will expand its video-on-demand (VOD) transport offerings to provide greater flexibility for small, medium or large networks. The newly employed 10 Gbps VOD transport cards for the Prisma IP multi-service digital transport platform will enable cable operators to use a single fiber to transport as many as 240,000 VOD streams.

Cable operators can now deliver a unique, on-demand video stream to every set-top in every cable household in a substantial portion of a cable network over a single fiber, says a company release.

The new VOD cards will enable design optimisation for small, medium, and large networks. Available with widely tunable lasers that are able to tune over all 100 optical channels of the entire ITU C-band at 100 GHz spacing. By incorporating a tunable transmitter, the card allows operators to more quickly provision new wavelengths using software controls, claims the release.

The release also adds that the 100-channel-capable transmitter card allows the MSO to order a single part for active spare transmitters. Being a cost-effective methos, this approach will enable the user to take advantage of high capacity DWDM networks where sparing cost considerations became a limiting factor.

According to Scientific-Atlanta vice president and general manager of emerging businesses Paul Connolly, "Adding these 10 Gbps VOD cards to complement our Prisma IP 1 and 2.5 Gbps modules gives cable operators a full, flexible range of products needed for scaling their network capabilities to match the on-demand needs of consumers. This solution enables the operator to create a scalable, purpose-built network to deliver VOD, subscription VOD or free on demand services on a cost-effective basis."

The Scientific-Atlanta-developed 10 Gbps VOD cards are commercially available for order. The Prisma IP platform was jointly developed by Scientific-Atlanta and Luminous Networks, adds the release.