RGB Vet Farassat Joins Conviva

Following almost a decade with RGB Networks, Ramin Farassat has joined video streaming technology startup Conviva as VP of product marketing, the company has confirmed.  

At Conviva, Farassat now heads up global product management, including the planning, strategy and delivery of its Preemptive Video Stream Optimization products.  An RGB spokesman said Simone Sassoli, an ex-SeaChange International exec who joined RGB in the fall of 2011 as vice president of international,  has been tapped to succeed Farassat.

Farrassat joined RGB Networks in 2004, most recently serving as VP of product marketing and business development, responsible for helping the company define and launch its line of video processing and adaptive bit rate video technology for multiscreen delivery.  He’s also late of Skystream Networks and Cisco Systems.

Founded in 2006, San Mateo, Calif.-based Conviva provides a bit-rate analysis platform that optimizes live and on-demand video streams to avoid buffering interruptions.  In January, Conviva announced a six-year deal to provide video optimization support for HBO’s HBO GO and MAX GO TV Everywhere services globally, expanding a relationship that first came together in May 2011.  That deal followed a $15 million funding round in Conviva led by Time Warner Investments that extended Conviva’s total funding to $59 million.

Other Conviva content and technology partners include ESPN, AEG Digital Media, Vevo, NBC, Turner, Disney, and Comcast-owned video publishing firm thePlatform.  Conviva says it is optimizing more than 1 billion streams per month.

In its analysis of 22.6 billion streams from around the globe last year, Conviva found that 39.9% of views experienced buffering.