To do so, Cisco first introduced its Videoscape products at last year’s CES. Now the network equipment provider is introducing a series of new products that build on its existing platform. While initial Videoscape products were built to intelligently handle video distribution over the network, the new additions will provide more functionality both for managing assets in the cloud, as well as new client-based technology for a wider range of connected devices.

On the cloud side of things, Cisco is announcing a product called Videoscape Voyager Virtual, which renders a new user interface that can be delivered to legacy set-top boxes. While some operators — most notably Comcast — are producing a massive update to their set-top boxes, there’s still a large installed base of users who won’t get new hardware anytime soon. The Voyager Virtual will let them get more dynamic updates to the programming guide, by delivering that user interface as a channel.

The Cisco Media Processor and Transcode Manager will support delivery to multiple devices with adaptive bit-rate technology automatically. The Cisco Conductor offers up a unified control plane for delivering multiple video services on more devices. And Cisco also provides advanced analytics for both its Content Delivery System customers or for third-party CDNs.

On the client side, Cisco is introducing a new multiscreen gateway that will deliver live, recorded and on-demand video to multiple TV around the home. The gateway has six tuners, meaning it can record up to six video streams all at the same time. Cisco is also introducing a software platform for creating new user interfaces and programming guides. That software stack can also be used to deploy new apps to set-top boxes, including social media applications, streaming video and other features.

This is all really geeky but necessary stuff, and it’s probably attractive for operators to run Cisco software if they’re already Cisco clients as a way to roll out these multiplatform capabilities. In fact, a few already are: Canada’s Rogers Communications, France’s Numéricable and Israel’s YES have all chosen Videoscape components to roll out next-gen video services.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The rise of M2M security challenges
• A near-term outlook for big data
• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media

BNI Video sells a hosted control plane offering that helps ISPs quickly turn up new online video services. It handles entitlement, billing and quality of service necessary to do so, and it packages those services together in a platform that can interact with service providers’ own billing and entitlements systems. This is particularly helpful for service providers that were formed through the combination of a number of legacy systems acquired over years of consolidation.

The acquisition is the latest of many purchases Cisco has made to bolster its Videoscape portfolio. It bought white-label online video distributor ExtendMedia last year, and earlier in 2011 it acquired video encoding firm Inlet Technologies. The BNI Video acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s second fiscal quarter, which ends in Jan. 2012.

BNI Video raised $16 million in a round of financing that closed last October. Investors in the startup included Cisco, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, in addition to Castile Ventures and Charles River Ventures.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Strategic Implications of the Microsoft/Skype Deal
• 5 Connected Consumer Companies to Watch in 2011
• Cisco Acquires Pure Digital

The vision, as Cisco CEO John Chambers told an audience at CES, is to “allow people to get access to any video on any device with proper authorization,” and to make it simple to do so. At the heart of the problem, from Cisco’s point of view, is establishing a software architecture that enables that type of convergence. But even if the technology exists now to make this happen, will cable companies invest in that vision?

To convince them, Chambers showed off a handful of Videoscape-powered devices through which consumers would be able to access various types of consumer interactions: A Videoscape set-top box blended web and live TV, a Videoscape Android client let Chambers watch video on a phone, another mobile client enabled interactive viewing and merchandise purchasing on the iPad. Altogether, the new offerings represent what could be the future of multiplatform video delivery.

One couldn’t help but notice Cisco’s appeal of commerce to its service provider partners, the promise of new and exotic revenue streams currently not available through their existing video architectures. There was the ability to serve targeted ads — to upsell, Chambers called it — against web content not high definition enough to show in full screen, the way service providers could tie in interactive one-click sales on the TV and other devices.

All of the Cisco Videoscape products shown off are aimed at service providers looking to enable next-generation video experiences in the home and on the go. Those products, which range from living room hardware such as the Videoscape media gateway or the Videoscape set-top box to Videoscape software clients that would run on mobile and tablet devices, would be sold to cable and IPTV providers to enable the final end user experience.

The first customer that Cisco named at CES is Australian telco Telstra, which Chambers said was providing consistent video experiences across the set-top and tablets. But the equipment vendor didn’t have any news about other service providers offering similar capabilities using the Videoscape architecture.

While Cisco’s vision for Videoscape is a noble one, it could be some time before we see actual application of the network equipment maker’s products in action. The new Videoscape products clearly won’t be made available to consumers unless service providers want them to be — and therein lies the rub.

Chambers said in his speech that Cisco has the opportunity to help redefine the consumer video experience. That might be the case, but it will need service provider buy-in to make its vision become a reality. But with tens of billions of dollars in traditional TV and cable advertising still changing hands and hundreds of millions of subscribers paying monthly for their existing cable and satellite bundles, many see the current TV business as one that’s not broken and doesn’t need to be revolutionized. As a result, even if the technology exists to place online content next to more traditional TV offerings, service providers have little incentive to make that technology available to end users.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: (subscription required)