Conditional access and digital watermarking specialist Verimatrix Inc. says it aims to address an MSO migration toward IP-based video services with a content security platform called VCAS for Cable IPTV, along with gear from GoBackTV , an edge QAM and cable modem termination system (CMTS) startup.

    Under a deal announced today, Verimatrix will market its market its software-based Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to cable operators in tandem with a GoBackTV's CMTS Bypass solution, which enables cable operators to pipe IP-based video services using their standing hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) plants and the underlying Docsis architecture.

    Using the bypass approach, multicast and unicast IPTV streams sidestep the "core" CMTS by funneling video through GoBackTV's GigaQAM 3000 edge QAM, which encapsulates the IPTV traffic. Those video signals are then delivered to homes via Docsis cable modems that are linked to off-the-shelf IP-based set-tops

    Verimatrix, which is demonstrating the platform this week at the IBC conference in Amsterdam, is marketing the integrated system under its own brand, and is on the hook for installations, training, and general customer support.

    This approach, the company claims, will allow some MSOs to migrate to digital at a fraction of what it might cost using more traditional methods. Much of those savings, they believe, will come at the set-top level. While most digital cable boxes cost in the $200 range, IPTV set-tops average about $80 each. Verimatrix has completed integrations with about 70 different models from vendors that include Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board), Scientific Atlanta , Amino Communications Ltd. , Entone Technologies Inc. , and i3 Micro Technology AB .

    Taking the set-top-- the most expensive component -- out of the equation, the switchover to the Verimatrix-GoBackTV architecture will cost operators a one-time capital expense of about $30 per subscriber, estimates Steve Oetegenn, Verimatrix's chief sales and marketing officer.

    Because VCAS is software-based, Verimatrix believes it also meets U.S. cable's separable set-top security requirements, which went in to effect July 1, 2007. Although most cable operators are currently meeting the mandate with removable CableCARDs, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that downloadable conditional access systems would also fit the bill. (See Countdown to 'Seven-Oh-Seven'.)

    Currently, the Verimatrix-GoBackTVcombo is designed to work on Docsis 1.1 and 2.0 and EuroDocsis networks. They also plan to support Docsis 3.0, a new CableLabs spec that supports IPv6 and enlists channel bonding techniques to produce shared speeds in excess of 100 Mbit/s.

    Verimatrix, a seven-year-old company, began specializing in IPTV content protection in 2002, and launched the first product in that portfolio in 2003. KT Corp. was its first IPTV customer. It has since added customers including NTT Communications Corp. (NYSE: NTT - message board), Belgacom SA (Euronext: BELG - message board), and Telecom Italia SpA (NYSE: TI - message board). Today, it claims to have installations on 80 IPTV networks and secured north of 2.5 million licenses on IPTV set-tops. It expects that figure to jump to 3 million by the end of 2007.

    But penetrating the cable market has its special challenges. While most MSOs don't yet use IPTV, cable's conditional access landscape, particularly in North America, is dominated by the duopoly of Motorola and Scientific Atlanta.