ATLANTA—In a notable example of how media companies are moving operations into cloud-based infrastructures, Encompass Digital Media has announced that it will launch A+E Networks (AEN) entirely on its Altitude Media Cloud.
Encompass’ scalable and flexible processing platform will provide AEN resiliency across multiple geographical cloud regions for its primary North American networks, including playout of 23 feeds, disaster recovery and archive storage, the companies said.
“We are excited to be advancing AEN’s North American networks to the next-generation of cloud-first origination services, and with our long-standing relationship, Encompass is the best partner to help future proof our growth,” stated Don Jarvis, senior vice president global broadcast operations and engineering, at AEN. “Moving our services to Altitude provides the agility we need along with the broadcast reliability our audience demands, and it integrates seamlessly with our cloud supply chain.”
Altitude Media Cloud is designed for the most demanding media applications around broadcast media protocols, performance, service levels and commercial models. Twenty-three AEN feeds are deployed across diverse geographic regions, supporting both pre-recorded and live events with built-in disaster recovery, the companies said.
Not only does Altitude solve the issue of running critical broadcast applications on virtualized infrastructure, but also provides exclusive and direct access to Encompass’ global satellite and video fiber footprint, Encompass said.
“We are honored AEN is entrusting Encompass to evolve them into a cloud-first media environment for its primary networks, including managing over 40,000 hours of content and the seamless delivery to millions of viewers across the US,” explained Bill Tillson, CEO of Encompass. “Our goal is to help AEN avoid the turbulence of a cloud transition with next-generation technology while leveraging Encompass’ extensive broadcast knowledge.”
Altitude Media Cloud offers AEN a large-scale content storage system, providing long-term archive in addition to higher performance, shorter term working storage, Encompass said.
With content stored securely across multiple Altitude regions, it is both local to AEN and protected from disaster. This architecture offers high-performance access to the entire content library from any Encompass facility, maximizing AEN’s opportunity to utilize the intellectual property while minimizing the costs associated with acquiring, creating, storing, manipulating, repurposing and delivering these assets, Encompass said.
“Altitude Media Cloud provides an innovative platform where playout applications are agnostic of compute and storage which avoids specific hardware based or fixed operating environments that inhibit changes,” explained Scott Brown, CTO at Encompass. “With this enhanced service offering, our customers gain a new level of flexibility with increased resiliency that also allows for more rapid go-to market timelines.”
