Imagine Communications is introducing multiple enhancements to its award-winning Versio™ native IP playout solution at IBC 2016, which takes place in Amsterdam between 9 and 13 September. A next-generation automation system that is deeply integrated into the Versio platform’s open and flexible architecture headlines a suite of enhancements designed to provide broadcasters and other media companies with an agile and future-ready integrated playout solution optimised for all operational models — baseband, IP and hybrid — and all deployment scenarios — from appliance-based to public/private cloud and mixed datacentre models.
Business models are evolving and media companies are now actively adopting a variety of next-generation architectures to accommodate shifting video consumption practices, generate new revenue and improve competitive positioning. The transition from a technology foundation based on single-function, dedicated hardware to a software-defined environment with no physical boundaries and new levels of scalability, flexibility and agility requires media companies to have access to systems and processes designed to fully exploit the capabilities of both traditional and virtualised playout environments.
“Today’s automation systems were not designed with distributed, next-generation playout architectures in mind,’ said Brick Eksten, chief product officer, Imagine Communications. “The recent automation enhancements to Versio further extend the utility of this already-advanced playout environment while at the same time enabling broadcasters and other media companies to seamlessly and transparently extend their traditional operations to geo-dispersed environments.’
Cloud-enabled automation facilitates the integration of operations across all segments of the workflow. At IBC 2016, Imagine Communications will showcase the integration of Versio and xG™ Schedule, the company’s rights, planning and scheduling system, running on Microsoft Azure cloud services. It is the first enterprise-class demonstration of integrated playout and scheduling running from a public cloud. Providing a seamless link between scheduling and playout in a cloud setting allows media companies to improve operational efficiency and explore new business opportunities by exploiting the elastic nature of IT technologies, such as pop-up, or on-demand, channel playout. Imagine Communications’ cloud-capable solutions are compatible with all public cloud environments.
New enhancements to Versio also include improved redundancy capabilities. With geo-dispersed operations and technology deployments in mind, Imagine Communications has augmented Versio playout with an enhanced redundancy interface that significantly simplifies and strengthens the management of channel redundancy, providing media companies with powerful options for protecting channel playout across multiple sites and datacentres, including cloud resources. Versio redundancy enables operators to define and manage groups of Versio instances that can be organised into pools and hierarchies to help ensure high-availability operations and streamline disaster recovery scenarios. This maximises the use of Versio playout systems while helping to minimise the impact of maintenance windows or downtime across the entire operation.
Additional enhancements and capabilities that will be demonstrated at IBC 2016 include Ultra High Definition (UHD) playout and powerful, embedded graphics. Imagine will also be showcasing Versio HTML5 user interface unification across all facets of the broadcast workflow, including playout, content management and graphics, within a cohesive HTML5 user experience.
For more information visit the Imagine Communications website.
