This weeks round up of OTT Video News, Deals, Launches and Product in the OTT Video market
Artel Video Systems, a provider of IP and fiber-based media transport solutions, will be launching its DLC910 Quad SD-HD-3G SDI Multiviewer product at the NAB show next week. The DLC910 enables users to monitor the status of up to four independent video channels by adding four-channel SD-HD-3G Multiviewer capabilities to its DigiLink media transport platform – featuring auto detect format, audio monitoring, automatic aspect ratio output, and multiple I/O options using BNCs, optical or HDMI SFPs.
Video cloud services company Brightcove has announced a new platform called OTT Flow in the run up to NAB, to help publishers launch OTT services. Brightcove says OTT Flow quickens the launch process from months to weeks by removing the need to work with multiple vendors, and it supports both advertising and subscription models. The platform uses Brightcove Once for ad insertion technology, Dutch company Cleeng for SVoD options, and Swedish app solutions firm Accedo handles the user experience.
Fossil fuel company Black River Petroleum has acquired Filipino OTT technology company Viva Entertainment this week. Johnny Falcones, who founded and operated a successful record label company alongside of the Universal Music Group, has been appointed CEO and said, “the benefits of web based TV, including the portability and customization capabilities, as well as viable alternatives to traditional cable and satellite is what consumers want. I am confident our product offerings and new direction will create a win-win scenario for consumers and shareholders.”
Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat has announced it will broadcast seven Euro 2016 football matches in UHD on the Tivusat platform of Italian public broadcaster Rai, via its Hotbird satellite. The broadcasts will be supported by UK company V-Nova which will provide its P.Link 4K software-based encoding and decoding system. Sales of UHD screens in Italy is forecast to surpass 1 million units by the end of this year, according to Anitec, the Italian association representing the ICT industry.
Eutelsat also successfully broadcast the Vienna Opera ballet “Le Corsaire” live in UHD this week, via its French satellite TV bouquet Fransat, using Ateme’s Titan solution – encoding content in UHD 50fps 10bits using HEVC. The satellite signal was transcoded by IRT using Titan to power a UHD DASH OTT real-time delivery on Arte’s HbbTV portal for Smart TVs. DASH packetization was supported by an Anevia Nea Live Advanced Origin server that directly fed the Akamai CDN worldwide.
OTT platform provider Anvato has revealed that its Media Content Platform (MCP) has added support for immersive 360-degree video content – which can be viewed in full VR with an Anvato player and VR headset, or in 360-degree on 360-enabled sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Anvato says its MCP provides faster processing of content as it treats 360 videos as segments as opposed to single files – reducing time between video ingest and playback.
US mobile video firm Streambox has announced new add-on modules for its AvenirMicro and AvenirDrone family of video encoders. It says this will offer greater means of connectivity, and increase mobility options. The embedded modem module includes four embedded 3G/4G/LTE mobile modems, four external SMA connectors (SubMiniature version A) to connect four remote antennas for signal improvements.
Cloud video solutions firm Dejero will unveil new enhancements of its Live+ Control management system at NAB – a system to centrally and remotely manage a broadcaster’s contribution assets. The update includes new management, monitoring, and routing capabilities to provide users with better insights into the usage and performance of field transmitters. Dejero has collaborated with Grass Valley to embed Live+ Control into the GV Stratus video production and CMS. This allows users to move recorded clips from a Live+ Broadcast Server to the Stratus Express server – where files are automatically transcoded to the desired format for previewing and use.
Viaccess-Orca and Harmonic will be showcasing a VR solution at NAB, in partnership with 360-degree video software company VideoStitch. The VR solution is currently being tested by Sky Italia to broadcast a basketball game. Harmonic provides its ProMedia Xpress WFS multiscreen transcoder and packager for UHD transcoding in MP4 and MPEG-DASH formats, as well as the ProMedia X Origin media server. Harmonic’s products are integrated with VideoStitch’s Vahana VR live video stitching software, and Viaccess-Orca’s Virtual Arena platform which includes the Connected Sentinel Player for security, and its cloud-based Voyage-TVaaS for interactivity and analytics.
Broadcast monitoring platform provider Actus Digital has announced that Central European Media Enterprises (CME) has deployed its media monitoring platform as a centralized system from which CME can monitor its 36 TV channels across six countries of operation. Actus’ monitoring products provides tools to broadcasters, cable and satellite providers, IPTV services, media agencies, governments and content products for acquiring, viewing, analyzing and repurposing transmissions from channels around the world. Actus will also present at NAB 2016 a new Change-Tracker for comparing two video streams, and new NLC (Near Live Clips for OTT) technology.
Swisscom has introduced a new UHD service this week, which will allow customers of its IPTV platform Swisscom TV to watch selected live games of the Euro 2016 football tournament this summer, on public TV channel SF Zwei. Swisscom will also show two games per week of domestic Swiss first-division football in UHD quality from next season. Existing Swisscom TV 2.0 customers can purchase the new UHD TV box for €109, the box also supports HDR.
Multiscreen video player provider NexStreaming has partnered with Korean VR camera company Mooovr to livestream what the two claim to be the first worldwide commercial baseball event in 360-degree video. The recently released NexPlayer360 SDK was part of the Android app, used to stream the game between the Korean baseball teams KT Wiz and Samsung Lions of the Korean premiere league last April. NexPlayer360 SDK features zoom in/out, dive mode with Google Cardboard, HMD (Head Mounted Display), seamless navigation, and HD video support.
Harmonic has launched two new offerings of its VOS software-based media processing platform this week, powered by the cloud. VOS Cloud enables content and service providers to manage the video production and delivery workflow for broadcast and OTT applications via standard IT hardware, over public or private cloud infrastructure. The second update is its VOS 360 professional cloud media processing service, giving operators a SaaS solution hosted in the public cloud to launch OTT services “in a matter of minutes instead of months”.
CDN technology provider Limelight Networks has announced that music streaming company Rhapsody has signed an agreement to extend its 15-year partnership with Limelight, leveraging the Limelight Orchestrate Delivery and Storage services. Seattle-based Rhapsody has 3.5 million global customers to which it delivers music via Limelight’s CDN.
Cloud-based broadcast infrastructure specialist Amagi has announced a new OTT advertising insertion platform called Thunderstorm – to deliver personalized and targeted advertising for premium live sports and news feeds, using Amagi’s patented content watermarking technology. The new platform will be showcased at NAB, and Amagi says this eliminates large integration efforts in existing broadcast traffic systems.
NBC Olympics has selected Ericsson to provide video contribution and distribution solutions for its production of the Games of the XXXI (31) Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro in August 2015. Ericsson will supply its modular receivers to support the delivery of HD broadcast to millions of viewers.
Netflix has announced that it will add HDR support for Marvel’s Daredevil and Season 1 of Marco Polo as part of its $12 per month 4K UHD plan. However, users will require internet speeds of at least 25 Mbps to stream this content.