Inlet Technologies

About Inlet Technologies

Inlet Technologies, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based company, carved a significant niche in the digital media processing landscape before its acquisition by Cisco in 2011. Founded in 2003 by industry pioneers Neal Page, Scott Labrozzi, and John Bishop, the firm specialized in Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) technology. Page, a key figure in the streaming industry since the early 1990s, had previously founded Osprey Technologies in 1994, which became known for its essential video capture cards for live internet webcasting. His engineering background and vision for high-definition encoding drove the creation of Inlet Technologies. Tragically, Neal Page passed away in 2009 after a battle with leukemia.

The company's core business centered on providing digital media processing platforms for service and content providers. Its primary offering was advanced ABR technology, a crucial component for streaming multimedia. This technology dynamically adapts the quality of a video stream based on the viewer's real-time network conditions, ensuring a smooth playback experience across various devices like mobile phones, tablets, and smart TVs. Inlet's solutions enabled clients, including major service providers, to deliver high-quality, compelling video experiences over any Internet Protocol (IP) network. The business model involved selling these encoder and transcoder solutions to clients who were navigating the increasing consumer demand for media on an array of connected devices.

The firm's expertise in delivering video over IP networks made it an attractive acquisition target. In a deal valued at approximately $95 million, Cisco acquired Inlet Technologies to bolster its Videoscape TV platform. The acquisition integrated Inlet's ABR capabilities and its experienced team into Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group, enhancing Cisco's ability to help service providers unify digital TV, online content, and social media into a comprehensive entertainment experience.