DALLAS, March 13, 2017 – Imagine Communications, empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation, will showcase at NAB Show 2017 its latest product and solution innovations aimed at helping broadcasters and other media companies advance to or accelerate the adoption phase of the modernization of their production, playout and distribution facilities. Imagine Communications has selected the media and entertainment industry’s largest tradeshow and exhibition, beginning April 24th in Las Vegas, as the venue for unveiling how its market-proven innovations are being utilized by media companies around the world to provide a step-by-step evolution of their current infrastructures and operations to the modernized facilities of the future. The company is also making its South Hall (SL1516) debut, expanding its presence at the seminal event and unveiling a new booth design.
One of the biggest challenges facing today’s broadcasters and other media companies is the seamless and disruption-free adoption of the next-generation architectures that will be required to meet the consumption demands of the not-too-distant future.
“The once-murky image of the media facility of the future has come into sharp focus over the past year, providing both content creators and distributors with a clearly defined destination at the end of their next-generation journeys,” said Imagine Communications CEO Charlie Vogt. “Media companies of all sizes and from all regions are now in a position to map out plans for the step-by-step transition of their current facilities and business models. By demonstrating Innovation at Work at NAB 2017, Imagine Communications is showcasing its commitment to helping our customers manage the ‘How to’ stage of the migration of their operations through breakthroughs in microservices design, Cloud-Native applications and our modular approach to solving their most demanding business challenges.”
At NAB Show 2017, Imagine will shine a spotlight on key module-based platforms, such as Selenio™ One, xG™, Versio™ and Zenium™, that are designed to enable media companies to construct and evolve their workflows at their own pace and in lockstep with market demands, seamlessly integrating the latest technologies and capabilities as they become available. The company will also demonstrate the comprehensiveness of its end-to-end portfolio, which spans ad management, linear and nonlinear, broadcast and OTT — including ATSC 3.0 — and enables unprecedented integration capabilities across workflows and all media and business operations.
ImagineLIVE Power Sessions
The relocated and redesigned Imagine Communications booth will be the venue for ImagineLIVE Power Sessions, featuring prominent executives and subject matter experts from Imagine Communications and its partners and customers from across the IT and media and entertainment industries. Twice daily, attendees will have first-hand access to information and insight on the trends and events that are influencing the decisions of media industry professionals today and into the future.
Topics range from groundbreaking implementations of next-gen technologies to new product introductions, including:
- The impact of the adoption of Cloud-Native and microservices-based applications on the future of the media & entertainment industry
- Breakthrough technology from Imagine Communications offering early support for the processing of uncompressed UHD signals over IP in conformance with SMPTE ST 2110
- How the capabilities being introduced in cloud-centric content origination and via the advanced delivery technologies of ATSC 3.0 will bring significant enhancements to future business models and technical implementations
- Monetization and cost-saving benefits associated with Imagine’s Unified Distribution architecture, which calls for a full embrace of OTT transport and moving all services to a single network based on fragmented video technology
- Innovative ways in which some of the most prominent media companies in the world are utilizing virtualized environments to revitalized their operations and generate new revenue
- How the move to a platform-based modular model for both operations and business systems introduces new cost efficiencies, provides greater agility and facilitates seamless integration across the end-to-end workflow
A detailed description and schedule of all ImagineLIVE Power Sessions will be made available several weeks before NAB.
Featured Solutions at NAB Show 2017
Visitors to the Imagine Communications booth (SL1516) will also have access to dozens of demonstrations that highlight the capabilities of the company’s current market-leading live production, playout, multiscreen delivery and ad management solution portfolios:
Live Production
Hybrid SDI-IP routing and multiviewer solutions empower media companies to transform sports, in-venue and other live production operations by leveraging standard IT equipment without squandering investments in traditional broadcast technology or sacrificing performance. Imagine Communications’ production and contribution portfolio provides ultra-low latency encoding and decoding and the delivery of standards-based uncompressed media over IP for HD and UHD, as well as third-party lightweight compression technologies. Imagine’s live production portfolio also supports the most recent UHD processing technologies, including up/down conversion, high dynamic range (HDR) image quality and precision timing. Imagine Communications will also participate in the NAB 2017 IP Showcase, a cooperation of multiple standards organizations and the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) dedicated to demonstrating the interoperability of the SMPTE 2110 specification (currently being drafted) and highlighting the creative and business-building benefits of IP technology.
Playout
Imagine Communications’ Nexio™ and Versio™ playout and graphic workflow solutions support compressed or uncompressed IP-based playout, advanced multichannel and UHD playback and branding. Also featured will be a new user interface, new automation features and the company’s native IP and hybrid playout and master control solutions, which seamlessly unify playout, automation and graphics supporting fully virtualized deployments for cloud environments. Showcasing its storage capabilities, Imagine will demonstrate the capabilities of Versio IOX, which provides sharable and scalable storage — SAN and NAS — throughout the content lifecycle while offering the highest levels of digital asset protection.
Multiscreen Delivery
Imagine’s multiscreen delivery portfolio is among the most comprehensive available and supports high-density and high video quality transcoding and delivery for OTT linear and on-demand services, all supported by advanced dynamic ad insertion (DAI) capabilities. An end-to-end cloud DVR solution, including recorders and packagers, is supported by advanced storage optimization capabilities that enable video service providers to cost-effectively meet various legal and copyright requirements, including private copy laws. The company’s next-generation DAI and unified distribution portfolios enable content distributors to consolidate and simplify their infrastructures to reduce costs and explore new monetization opportunities.
Advertising Management
Imagine’s end-to-end, multiplatform ad management portfolio features open, modular systems that help manage, connect, deliver and optimize ad revenue. Highlighted capabilities include sales, scheduling and analytics for linear and nonlinear monetization. The company will also demonstrate groundbreaking integration of playout and scheduling achieved through the unification of its Versio™ and xG Schedule™ solutions, as well as hyperlocalized monetization models that leverage the capabilities of ATSC 3.0.
Highlighting the deployment flexibility and versatility of the company’s recent innovations, Imagine Communications will also be showcasing many of its solutions as cloud services available through Microsoft Azure. Similarly, the company will be highlighting the power of Zenium, its microservices-based platform for building smarter applications and services for virtualized environments.
The adoption of a true microservices-based design architecture, which enables the creation of Cloud-Native applications that fully exploit the benefits of virtualized environments, is a critical component of any next-generation strategy, and media companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of partnering with technology partners with a history of embracing microservices-design principles. In a forthcoming survey of more than 400 media professionals, nearly 75% of respondents identified Cloud-Native application and an underlying microservices-based architecture as an important component of the media facility of the future.
Imagine Communications will host a webinar entitled What are Microservices — and Why do they Matter? on March 16 at 11 AM EST. Additional details and registration information are available here.
Visit Imagine Communications at NAB Show 2017 at Booth SL1516. For more information about Imagine Communications’ products and solutions, please visit www.imaginecommunications.com.
###
About Imagine Communications
Imagine Communications empowers the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation. Broadcasters, networks, video service providers and enterprises around the world rely on our optimized, future-proof, multiscreen video and ad management solutions every day to support their mission-critical operations. Today, nearly half of the world’s video channels traverse our products, and our software solutions drive nearly $50 billion in global ad revenue for our customers. Through continuous innovation we are delivering the most advanced IP, cloud-enabled, software-defined network and workflow solutions in the industry. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com for more information, and follow us on Twitter @imagine_comms.
