Do you remember the past CEO of Cantata, Mark Zionts? He keynoted a past ITEXPO and was head of the company just before it sold to Dialogic. Since then he joined another company which he helped sell and now he is on to a new company called Ortiva Wireless — where he is CEO.
Ortiva has found an interesting niche in the mobile video streaming market where they focus on optimizing the video experience for end users without requiring them to download anything onto the phone. Unlike a progressive download where the client needs to have extra memory, DRM and a buffer, the solutions Ortiva Wireless focuses on stream live, in real time.
The company has focused extensively on ingesting and analyzing content and subsequently has learned the nuances needed to ensure the client gets the best possible experience regardless of bandwidth. For example if a user is watching a news broadcast and the bandwidth starts to dry up, the software makes the decision that stereo is likely not needed and moreover that the audio is more important than video.
Ortiva is working with tier one carriers at the moment and business seems to be very good according to Zionts. Marc is proud to point out that some of the investors in their B round of funding were actually service providers. In my experience this is usually a good sign as carriers generally understand the market they serve better than others.
The company can also sell to content providers but at the moment the service providers seem to be beating the door down, so don’t expect any outreach in other areas any time soon.
There are many organizations looking to be the ad insertion point for mobile carriers and I am happy to report Ortiva Wireless is no different and they can also help carriers insert these ads on a per-subscriber basis.
My take on Ortiva is they are in the right place at the right time as many carriers want the revenue associated with video without purchasing and subsidizing high-end devices. I would imagine the company and this space will continue to expand for some years to come.
