Verizon is opening up, ever so slightly, on its FiOS TV service, announcing that it is using SeaChange’s IP Video System as the basis for the video-on-demand portion.

SeaChange's platform, widely used by cable operators, automates the on-demand service from content intake all the way to set-top applications. Verizon is quick to point out that it is using IP transport to both receive orders from customers and send the content to home, creating a hybrid network because it will continue using traditional RF to send linear programming. The telco also is using IP in the service’s interactive programming guide.

Architecturally, Verizon also is using a hybrid-distributed design for VOD where most of the operations are controlled in the company’s super head ends (SHEs) located in Temple Terrace, Fla., and Bloomington, Ill., but content is generally stored in more regionally located video hub offices (VHOs). The company chose the architecture not because it was bandwidth constrained but because it provides the best viewer experience, said Joe Ambeault, director of interactive applications for Verizon.

“It’s really a function of the customer experience,” he said, noting that with the amount of fiber the carrier is using is not an issue. “Sending the signal over hundreds and hundreds of miles of fiber brings in quality issue. It is technically possible. It’s just a matter of viewer experience because of physics.”

Currently the company has about 1700 titles (both movies and some cable programming) available on demand. Most of that is coming through TVN, which is the primary VOD supplier.

“We have about 7000 hours of capacity in our VHOs,” Ambeault said. “We have every expectation to keep building that up. What we expect is going forward the very popular titles will be pushed closer and closer to the user.”

The company also is exploring additional VOD applications, which was one of the primary reasons it is choosing SeaChange, he added. Among the more advanced is gaming on demand.

Paul Nielsen, vice president of sales, Americas, for SeaChange, said the vendor is working with a number of carriers to deploy gaming that would target both hardcore gamers and more casual users. Additionally, SeaChange is now in testing an application with Lexcom Telephone n Lexington, N.C., that allows local operators to broadcast locally shot DVDs over an IPTV network.

“The telcos have an advantage here in that their networks are IP from the start,” Nielsen said.