BNI Video (www.bnivideo.com), a software company backed by Cisco, Comcast Interactive Capital, and Time Warner Cable, has launched a video control plane designed to enable video service providers to achieve breakthrough gains in service delivery flexibility, scalability, velocity and reliability. The company also announced that it has raised more than $16 million from its industry backers, as well as from venture capital firms Charles River Ventures and Castile Ventures.BNI's video control plane is intended to provide a foundation for operators to extend their services to incorporate different forms of content from multiple sources. The software is designed to enable transcoding and DRM, invoke QoS, and interface with billing and entitlements. The Web services-based architecture is intended to reduce time to market; incorporate virtually any subscriber application; assume more control over system maintenance and service delivery; achieve high transaction rates with fast response times; automatically upgrade the network without shutdowns or manual intervention; transition smoothly to all-IP; and leverage technologies already in place.