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posted on 03 July 2008 09:09

Atrato's CTO, Thomas Wendt, has left the company and joined MusicGiants, an Atrato customer, as its Chief Technology Officer.

Atrato  is a startup which introduced its first product, the Velocity1000, in March. This was aimed at high-definition video delivery and similar requirements, being capable of shipping out 3,600 parallel data streams from its array of sealed disk drive canisters.

Along with Xiotech it was the first modern storage supplier to introduce sealed canisters of disk drives as a system building block.

MusicGiants is an Atrato customer and has integrated the Atrato V1000 into its content delivery platform. It is as if Thomas Wendt, parodying the Reminton ad, said: 'I liked the customer so much I joined it.'

Scott Bahneman, CEO of MusicGiants, said: “Tom’s vast experience in digital media makes him the ideal person to guide us through the latest technical innovations for delivering ultra-premium entertainment directly into home theaters. We have more than forty hardware manufacturers who are currently integrating our HD media store and delivery solution into their equipment. With so many configurations and networks to support, we needed somebody with a unique skill set to ensure that these integrations go smoothly. I am extremely happy to have him on our team and I am confident that his vision will keep us at the forefront of high definition content distribution.”

Wendt is still listed on Atrato's website as holding the office of the CTO and being an Atrato adviser.

He is very experienced in the digital media areas of video-on-demand, entertainment and media, fiber-to-the-home, production studio and advertising. Prior to Atrato, Wendt was the Founder and CEO of Optical Entertainment Networks where he was responsible for the development of a 479-channel IPTV offering and the deployment of a high bit rate triple-play product for the fiber to the home.

He has held three former CTO positions in video and enterprise with Business Engine – an international software company; Sandstream – where he developed the first end-to-end all IP triple-play solution for the fiber to the home; Intertainer – which developed the first video-on-demand products deployed on cable modem and DSL.

Atrato has not issued any statement concerning the matter.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}