The SmartStream interactive digital cable system consists of an integrated set of high performance stream processing elements necessary for the successful deployment of advanced services like VOD and digital ad insertion. To accommodate various deployment strategies and network architectures, the elements of the SmartStream system have been designed to: simplify and optimize the management of headend system resources; affordably address exploding stream count; provide a secure content delivery environment; and provide a scalable architecture to allow the system to grow with subscriber additions. The SmartStream system has been designed specifically to address the next wave of revenue producing services being readied by the cable industry. The enhanced viewing experience that these new services bring to consumers requires sophisticated and powerful headend-resident systems to efficiently process thousands of content streams and manage the cable plant bandwidth. The SmartStream system overlays and adds functionality to existing digital cable systems and adds four new product families to optimize advanced services performance.