Television technology companies Imagine Communcations and Amagi said they formed a strategic partnership designed to help TV networks and broadcasters utilize cloud computing to better monetize programming through advertising and by creating and operating free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels and connected TV platforms.

“We want technology to be an enabler of change not a gating factor for our customers who are under unprecedented pressure,” said Tom Cotney, CEO of Imagine Communications. “Speed, flexibility, predictable costs and the ability to gain greater returns on content rights are demands that we can address more effectively by partnering with Amagi.”

The companies aim to get Amagi cloud-based products to work better with Imagine’s on-premises solutions. Integrating Amagi’s Cloudport into Imagine’s Aviator product and Imagine’s SureFire into Amagi’s Thunderstorm enables networks to control playout and distribution and reach FAST and CTV audiences.  

The integrations will also enable advertising to be planned, sold and executed across linear and CTV, the companies said.

“We are combining the strengths of both companies — Imagine Communications’ on-premises and hybrid broadcast solutions expertise and Amagi's leadership in cloud-native playout and content monetization,” said Baskar Subramanian, CEO and Co-founder, Amagi. “This creates a converged solution enabling customers to migrate to a cloud-based SaaS platform while also making it easier for broadcasters and media companies to launch OTT services, FAST, and pop-up channels and further monetize content.”

Imagine Communications said it hired Diana Horowitz as VP, strategic sales, advertising technology, a new position at the company.

Previously senior VP, advertising sales at fuboTV, Horowitz will help the company’s push to help customers generate profits from media assets by migrating toward a converged linear and digital advertising approach. 

“Diana is a critical addition to the Imagine advertising technology sales team,” said Steve Reynolds, president of Imagine Communications.

Also: Imagine Launches Aviator Content Monetization Platform

“She has demonstrated that she can plan and execute exactly the kind of transformation that so many of our customers are trying to implement right now — bringing together linear and digital advertising into a converged inventory and sales structure,” Reynolds said. “Diana’s prior experience in ad sales and operations with programmers, networks, and distributors provides a point of view that will allow her to understand and advocate for our customers, so that Imagine can deliver our industry-leading solutions in ways that provide real business benefit to those customers.”

Before joining fuboTV, Horowitz was with Telestream, IBM Watson Media, Comcast Technology Solutions and Scripps Networks Interactive. She began her career at The New York Times. 

“I am thrilled to join Imagine Communications at this pivotal time in the media industry, when brands, marketers and media companies are seeking to unite addressable audiences across platforms and devices to maximize the power of their advertising campaigns and the value of their inventory,” said Horowitz. “Imagines' vast experience in delivering innovative ad tech solutions provides a unique platform to support these business-critical objectives, and I am excited to partner across the industry to participate in achieving these goals.” ■

Imagine Communications and Operative said they are working together to build an automated ad sales system that will be used by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The system enables media companies to plan, sell and execute ad campaigns across all linear and digital properties based on audiences and will pave the way for alternative measurement and buying currencies, the companies said. 

“We are excited to see solution vendors in the advertising technology arena partner together in a collaborative fashion,” said Delbert Parks, president of technology for Sinclair. “The industry needs more open, standards-based platforms to allow broadcasters to innovate and evolve as audiences fragment and new technologies offer more opportunities for advertisers. Imagine and Operative are trusted partners and we fully support their collaboration.”

As the ad business has become more complex, with marketers looking to coordinate and maximize reach across platforms, interoperability has become a big demand being made by media companies. 

Also: Small Cable Firms Targeting Advanced Ads

"Customers require flexibility and extensibility when it comes to technology and data in media today,” said Lorne Brown, CEO of Operative. “The companies who are willing to partner and collaborate will provide the most value to their customers. Operative has always had an ‘open’ philosophy and our flagship product AOS was designed to accelerate data sharing across the entire ad workflow. Imagine shares our strategic vision of platform interoperability.”

The product being built by Operative and Imagine aims to be an industry solution based on standards including TIP. 

“We work proactively to enable our customers to innovate quickly with plug-and-play integrations into best-of-breed solutions against a backdrop of an ever-changing media landscape,” said Tom Cotney, CEO of Imagine Communications. ”Our partnership with Operative empowers our mutual customers to move faster, increase automation and operational efficiencies, while reducing costs.”

Sinclair and other media companies use Operative’s operating system -- AOS -- to allow buyers to target audiences across a multitude of impression-based currencies to process this order across all platforms and manage inventory.

Also: Fox Puts Ad Sales Management System in Cloud with Operative

Imagine’s inventory monetization system ingests orders from AOS and optimizes the respective ad decisions to guarantee reach and frequency to a particular audience across both digital and linear viewers, while maximizing the yield across all inventory. Ad execution data is sent back into AOS, where powerful dashboards provide advertisers real-time campaign fulfillment and forecasting reports. ■

Imagine Communications introduced Imagine Aviator, which enables broadcasters, MVPDs and digital media companies to monetize content and create channels on a single cloud-based platform.

Aviator’s capabilities include scheduling, rights management, channel origination, live events, VOD, ad sales, ad placement, ad service and campaign management. 

Imagine said Aviator delivers linear programming and VOD content with ads and trigger for local and dynamic ad insertion, enabling users to monetize viewing via broadcast OTT, FAST, pop up and VOD channels.

“We understand the challenges and complexities that premium brands have in today’s fluid media landscape,” said Rob Malcolm, chief product officer at Imagine Communications. “With Aviator, we are bringing together our experience and intellectual property in a unique, cloud-native platform that maximizes monetization of content across broadcast and OTT platforms today ― and readies media companies to adapt and thrive no matter what the future holds.”

Aviator incorporates Imagine’s “audience-first” ad placement engine, which will allow media companies to sell inventory by audience, by context, or by spot. 

“As consumers find more ways to watch, the efficiencies of cloud play an important role, making it easier for media companies to address broadening advertising opportunities and create highly impactful and dynamic channels with genuine appeal to viewers," Malcolm said. "Some aspects of the TV landscape remain uncertain, but making content available on all screens in a way that allows our customers to achieve their full revenue potential requires convergence of content planning, origination and monetization. And that is exactly what Aviator makes possible.”

Imagine will be showing off Aviator at the NAB Show in Las Vegas later this month. ■

Many businesses stared down a massive wall of uncertainty when the realities of COVID-19 started to hit. This resulted in an almost unprecedented exodus from TV advertising as video and content providers grappled with the dichotomy of canceled spots in the face of surging viewership. While their television ad systems could accommodate normal market fluctuations on an as-needed basis, they were not designed to handle enormous volumes that saw thousands of cancellations per day. It was an unanticipated scenario and one made all the more burdensome by manual processes required to make changes and salvage certain bookings.

While the greatest surge in rebookings and cancellations is past us, there remains a continued need for increased agility as conditions change. The lessons learned and counterstrategies developed in the past several months are being continually fine-tuned as content distributors and their partners position to be better prepared for challenges ahead — including a possible resurgence of the disease this fall and the anticipated fits and starts of a return to normalcy over the next two years.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Picture a restaurant chain that had placed spots across multiple local, regional and national outlets months in advance of March of this year. When dining rooms were ordered to be closed, canceling or redirecting a campaign in such a fragmented environment proved problematic. Cancellations of individual orders within ad management systems were required to ensure removal of all spots. Some businesses wanted to change their messaging on the fly to reassure customers that steps were being taken to keep them safe.

Even large brands and video providers, both with great resources, struggled to keep up.So consider the challenges that less-resourced players faced and the en masse cancellations start to make sense. With the unprecedented wave of cancellations taxing both ad-management systems and personnel, sales portals and traffic management systems crashed or timed out, leading to an increase in support calls. One major operator switched to staggered shifts and scheduled more than 100 hours of additional human effort to process the flood of requests.

Through it all, Imagine Communications worked closely with its customers to brainstorm quick fixes, workarounds and paths forward to get them into the clear. Next time, the goal is to keep clients ahead of the game. Based on our experience, we believe the following principles are essential for improved operational readiness and responses for future emergencies:

• Speed is essential: When events overwhelm systems, it’s vital to get ahead of the problem as soon as possible. By quickly convening the necessary resources, we were able to work with customers to isolate specific transaction types where unprecedented volume was causing critical delays. This allowed us to deliver a new function designed specifically to optimize key transactions, saving hours of time and virtually eliminating workflow bottlenecks.

• Collaboration is key: The more players in the mix, the greater the temptation to point fingers. What’s more productive is to recognize that unexpected emergencies require communication, listening and problem-solving from all stakeholders. Convening and participating in task forces that worked closely with our customers and their third-party partners (even competitors sometimes) helped us quickly communicate and strategize fast fixes. Bringing all resources to the table at the same time ensured clearer communication and strategies that could be delivered on by all necessary parties, mitigating the chance that addressing new problems would result in other unintended issues.

• Supportive services: While many spot pulls were due to unexpected revenue loss, some were simply about not wanting to deliver the wrong brand message for the time. Especially on a local level, video providers can preserve revenues by offering free or discounted production services to help change ads to incorporate more relevant messages.

• Solutions, not Band-Aids: While we've seen customers devote substantial human effort to fulfilling advertising cancellations and changes, including working with advertisers to have change orders submitted during the overnight hours, the long-term need was for a permanent fix. In this case, we determined that creating, testing and delivering a brand new function specifically optimized to process “cancel before start” requests (which generated 90% of the volume increase impacting performance of the legacy service) allowed for just these specific requests to be routed to the new function, completely isolating risks and causing no impact on legacy code or other vendors. The major takeaway is to always work to address what is causing the problem, not simply deal with the fallout.

• Stay ahead of trouble: An important decision at the start of the pandemic was to call every customer for permission to conduct practice runs on remote connections to their systems to identify possible trouble scenarios. When trouble is on the horizon, huddling with customers to address concerns, anticipated challenges and strategies for workarounds is a critical step to getting everyone on the same page quickly and figuring out what may go wrong before it actually does.

• Automated optimization goes a long way: More video distributors are experimenting with automated optimization of inventory. When a change or cancellation happens, inventory optimizers automatically shift spots around to accommodate the change and ensure the right audiences are being delivered. It is nearly impossible for this to be done manually as changes occur faster than humans can keep up. In this respect, automated optimization can be the difference between revenue that is saved and that which simply evaporates.

Plotting for Preparedness

In the months ahead, nothing will be as predictable as unpredictability. As advertisers experience sudden changes in needs, service providers and vendors alike will benefit from the ability to quickly implement the lessons learned from the pandemic, as well as the implementation of automation solutions that dramatically improve rescheduling or cancellation of spots. By taking these steps, the industry can quickly address shifts in the landscape to meet advertising partners’ needs and drive business results.

One final thought: Throughout the current crisis, the public increasingly has turned to television for news, information and entertainment, and the industry has risen to the challenge. Broadcasters, service providers and workforces have stepped up by doing whatever has been necessary to keep the world on-air — and connected. Amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic, the media’s uninterrupted presence has been a constant that deserves admiration and thanks from all of us. 

Michelle Stone is senior manager, ad tech client success management for Imagine Communications.

Small and midsized cable operators are looking to cash in on revenues offered by advanced advertising. WideOpenWest (WOW) said it is in the process of sending out requests for information to technology companies that could help the cable company upgrade its plant to enable selling more targeted and addressable advertising.

Advertising represents a small share of the revenue for cable operators, but every dollar counts as cord-cutting puts pressure on the video business. Unlike the biggest cable companies, most midsized operators don’t insert commercials into all of the networks they offer and don’t process the data or have the equipment needed to do advanced advertising.

“The industry is continuing to change with how consumers are viewing traditional linear and beginning to view video on other platforms, so we’re working hard to make sure that we have capabilities to reach off of the consumers for our advertisers,” Misty Jensen, VP of advertising sales at WOW, said.

WOW sells its ad inventory through Viamedia and Comcast’s Effectv and is working with them to determine what advertisers and media buyers want. WOW doesn’t break out its advertising business, but during the third quarter “other revenue” was $17.7 million of its $291.6 million in total revenue.

“We’re looking for incremental revenue, absolutely,” Jensen said. “But we’re also looking to protect ourselves as this shift continues to happen with viewership of television and video on different platforms to make sure that we have the impressions where the agencies and advertisers need to be.”

WOW is one of a number of operators talking about ways to increase ad revenue, said Jon Radloff, VP of video solutions at the National Cable Television Cooperative, which represents more than 750 independent cable operators.

“Advertising has been kind of a hot topic over the last six or nine months,” Radloff said. Radloff noted these operators have been leaving money on the table because they’re not inserting ads on some networks. At the same time, they’re starting to take advantage of opportunities as they offer video over-the-top and shift to internet protocol delivery.

The trick is that ad technology can be expensive, especially for operators with small footprints and a limited ad revenue base.

Earlier this year, the NCTC announced a deal with Imagine Communications that lets midsized and small operators opt into AdKey, a cloud-based service that inserts ads into IP-based video streams. That will let them tap into the fast-growing OTT and connected TV space.

Shifting some subscribers to lower-cost IP systems and using AdKey should help some NCTC members. “They’re saying, if we can take some of the costs out of providing video, and add some incremental revenue from the advertising side, then that gives us a little bit longer runway for video to continue to be viable for us,” Radloff said.

Radloff said that AdKey creates a virtual interconnect that advertisers can tap into by aggregating impressions across the particulating operators.

At the same time, Viamedia, which sells cable TV ad inventory from 60 distributors in 72 markets, introduced QTT, a cloud-based product that allows computer-based and programmatic buying of linear cable TV ad inventory. One of the first test’s QTT was at WOW’s Columbus, Ohio, system, and the product is now being rolled out to additional WOW markets.

“Advertisers love the idea of using digital platforms to do their buying. The beauty of our solution is they can buy access to the biggest platform out there, which is linear TV,” said Viamedia president and CEO Mark Lieberman.

Lieberman said small and midsized operators have been “left in the dust by some of the bigger MVPDs. Now these midsized MVPDs can play catch-up by bringing dollars back by using a solution like QTT.”

Obstacles remain for smaller operators looking to cash in on advanced advertising. Step one is building the ability to harness their own set-top-box data.

“The power of data isn’t just advertising,” Lieberman noted. Having that data available can help operators with marketing and in negotiations with programmers. There’s even a business selling data.

“I think they’re talking about taking the first step,” Lieberman said. “What you have is a challenge around the cost at a time when their traditional video business is not nearly as profitable their broadband business.”

QTT does not require operators to upgrade their plant, making it an easy way to offer more sophisticated advertising products and might provide encouragement to wade deeper into the advertising pool.

“We feel that’s definitely one product that’s going to be beneficial not only to WOW, but I think also the industry,” Jensen said.

Telecom and media industry vet Charlie Vogt has been named president and CEO of ATX Networks, and is coming on board to help the supplier of network and commercial video equipment extend beyond its traditional focus on cable operators and satellite service providers.

Vogt succeeds Ken Wildgoose, who has served as ATX’s president and CEO for the past 18 years. Wildgoose will remain with ATX as an advisor and maintain a slot of its board of directors.

Vogt is taking the helm of ATX just a couple of months after he stepped down as CEO of Imagine Communications to take on senior advisor role at The Gores Group. Vogt became CEO of Harris Broadcast in the summer of 2013, where he led several acquisitions and the splitting of Harris into two operational units – Imagine Communications and Gates Air.

RELATED: Tom Cotney In, Charlie Vogt Out, as Imagine Communications CEO

Prior to Harris and Imagine, Vogt was president and CEO of Genband, headed up an IP switching company once known as Taqua, and was a key exec at companies such as Adtran, Ascend Communications, Accelerated Networks, Motorola, IBM, and Santera Systems.

Vogt is assuming the top spot at ATX more than two years after the company was acquired by H.I.G. Capital, a private equity company with $24 billion of equity capital under management.

He’s also coming on board following two recent acquisitions by ATX – InnoTrans, a company focused on the optical access/mote PHY market, and Pico Digital, a maker of commercial enterprise gateways for cable operators and satellite providers, as well as distribution systems for radio stations and broadcasters.

RELATED: ATX Nabs InnoTrans

Heading into the new role, Vogt said his immediate priority is to achieve better alignment of the across the company’s product, sales and services teams and to “accelerate” the technology that ATX acquired from InnoTrans and it work around the optical node arena.

“That’s certainly where the traditional HFC market is transitioning to,” Vogt said.

He also sees the acquisition of Pico Digital helping ATX target new verticals like the hospitality industry. “That’s a market that’s got a lot of legs to it,” he said.

More generally, Vogt will be looking for ATX to extend and grow its business beyond its core focus on cable and satellite, which make up the bulk of the company’s revenues.

“I think it’s the right [time] for them to begin to branch out and patriciate in a lot of these new initiatives that will give them an opportunity to expand its...top-line revenue." 

A big questions now is how heavily M&A will factor into that plan. Vogt’s pedigree has been expansion through organic growth and through M&A. On the latter side, he’s made about 17 acquisitions over the past ten years. At Harris/Imagine, he headed up acquisitions that include Imagine Communications, RGB Networks, OpenTV’s advanced advertising business, and Digital Rapids.

Vogt said M&A won’t be the focus out of the chute for Vogt at ATX, but don’t count out that possibility, either.

"I think they [H.I.G. Capital] know that I’ve got a history of what I’d  call strategic and rounding out portfolio M&A initiatives,” Vogt. Said. “But my first order of business isn’t to look at what more we could buy. My first order of business is taking advantage of the technology we have and the two acquisitions that they made last year and focusing on expanding those and growing those." 

“It has been an honor to lead ATX Networks and to be a part of the Company’s incredible team of dedicated employees,” Wildgoose said in a statement. “Charlie is a visionary and strategic thinker with a decades-long track record of hyper growth in the service provider and media communications industries. His passion and expertise in conjunction with the Company’s talented team and exciting new initiatives in the cable HFC access network and commercial video gateway markets positions ATX for an exciting and promising next chapter.”

“Ken Wildgoose has led ATX through several technology lifecycles and growth, both organically and through strategic acquisitions,” added Camilo E. Horvilleur, board member of ATX Networks and managing director of H.I.G. Capital. “We thank Ken for his years of leadership and look forward to continuing to work with him as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors. With a distinguished history of successfully building, transforming and growing companies, spanning the service provider and media communications industries, Charlie was a logical choice to succeed Ken.”

In a reshuffling at the top of video and ad-tech company Imagine Communications, Tom Cotney has succeeded Charlie Vogt as CEO.

Cotney takes the new post immediately. Vogt is joining The Gores Group as a senior advisor, where he will continue to drive M&A and business development activities at Imagine, the company said. Both execs will work together during this transitional phase.

Cotney, who is also joining the board of directors at Imagine, has previously served as GM of the communications sector unit at IBM Global services, and has been a CEO and board member for several privately held companies, including mBlox and Air2Web.

Vogt was named CEO of Harris Broadcast in July 2013, and led the way to multiple acquisitions as Harris split into two operational units --Imagine Communications and GatesAir – the following year.

The Gores Group is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles with about $2 billion in assets under management. In addition to Imagine and GatesAir, it has investments in several other companies, including Vitac, DataBlue, Tweddle Group, Therakos, Sagemcom, and VeriFone.

RELATED: Harris Broadcast Does the Splits

During his time as CEO, Vogt has been active in driving IP and cloud services into Imagine’s product line and helping partners such as The Walt Disney Co. with those transitions. Imagine didn't offer a specific reason for the change, but TVNewsCheck, citing unnamed industry sources, reported that Vogt "was unable to convert his IP strategy into steady growth."  

RELATED: TV Tech’s Silent Disruption

“Over the past four years, Imagine has transformed the media industry by becoming the first company to deliver on its vision of an all IP/cloud network for playout and master control,”  Alec Gores, founder, Chairman and CEO of The Gores Group, said in a statement. “I want to acknowledge and personally thank Charlie for his leadership in driving this massive transformation and placing Imagine’s technology at the forefront of the industry. Sharing our vision of where the industry is heading, Tom is uniquely qualified to build on this momentum and I welcome him in his new role.”

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead Imagine to the next level,” added Cotney. “Business models in transformation have become the norm in almost every company today. I can’t thank Charlie and the team enough for building Imagine into one of the market leading, long-term players in this industry.”

“Imagine Communications could not be better positioned than we are today to take market-share across the ad management, playout, networking and distribution markets, particularly as we continue to guide the industry transition to IP and the cloud,” Vogt said. “We are pacing to have our best quarter of the year, and Friday we signed a strategic Advertising Management System contract to accelerate the emerging ATSC 3.0 multi-services market. I look forward to supporting Tom Cotney is his new role in an advisory capacity at The Gores Group and believe he will be able to fuel Imagine’s continued expansion and innovation.”

Imagine Communications, a company focused on multiscreen video infrastructure products, software and advanced ad systems, has launched Imagine Communications Labs, a unit that will help the vendor's customers and partners test proof of concepts and to validate workflow integrations and product interoperability.

Leading the new labs unit is industry vet Peter Riordan, who is late of Encompass Digital Media and the tech teams of HBO and Discovery Communications.

Imagine also announced several appointments and promotions:

-Ajay Kapoor has been promoted to lead Imagines’ Global Services unit, overseeing a team of more than 200 support engineers and analysts in 30 countries. Late of Avaya, Kapoor joined Imagine in 2014.

- Sarah Foss has been promoted to chief product officer of Imagine’s Advertising Management Solutions (AMS) portfolio.  She reports to Imagine CEO Charlie Vogt.

- Chris Sjerven elevated to VP of operations, reporting to Vogt.

- Leonardo Emilo Gañán will head up the company's CALA sales region.  Gañán is late of Grass Valley, Textronix, Thomson Broadcast and Quantel.

''After spending much of the past few years focused on the fulfillment of our strategic vision, Imagine Communications is now expanding its focus by providing our customers with industry-leading expertise and support to fully modernize their infrastructure and advance the revenue-generating capabilities of their businesses,'' Vogt said in a statement. ''Imagine is sending a clear and resounding message to our customers that we will continue to invest in technology innovation and in the support resources required to provide exceptional customer service.''

Here’s the first of a series of news briefs emerging from this week’s NAB show in Las Vegas.

-A coalition of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), America's Public Television Stations (APTS) and the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) have filed a joint petition with the FCC requesting local TV stations and TV receiver manufactures are allowed to adopt ATSC 3.0, a new, IP-based over-the-air broadcast transmission standard, on a voluntary, market-driven basis. The petition requests the FCC approve the core transmission technology for the new standard as an option for local broadcasters and receiver manufacturers, they said, noting that elements of the next-gen TV standard will be displayed at the show.

As envisioned, ATSC 3.0 will support Ultra HD, advanced emergency alert information, increased programming streams and channels, mobile broadcast TV, immersive audio, interactivity features and datacasting, they explained.

-Ericsson has introduced MediaFirst Video Processing, a platform that comes almost six months after Ericsson acquired Envivio. Ericsson said the new platform combines video processing and video compression, and complements its cloud-focused MediaFirst TV platform for OTT and MVPD partners. Ericsson has also introduced its global content discovery portfolio for TV and VOD, a platform that comes together following its acquisition of TV metadata and entertainment image content provider, FYI Television.

-SeaChange International said it’s showing the streaming of live channels and VOD/time-shifted services running on its Adrenalin and Rave OTT platform on Android TV-powered devices, such as the Google Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield.

-NBC Olympics, a unit of NBC Sports Group, said it has picked Cisco Systems to provide IP video contribution and distribution solutions, along with networking and security solutions for its production of the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, set for August 5 to 21, 2016. Cisco noted it will help with on-site production by streamlining the management and publishing of video content to consumer devices using solutions from the Cisco Media Blueprint, the company’s new applications and converged IP infrastructure approach for producing, storing, distributing and securing broadcast media content.

-OTT and TV Everywhere specialist Anvato has added functions to its Media Content Platform that enable content owners, service providers and media companies to deploy over-the-top services more rapidly. Enhancements include enhanced business insights (real-time metrics), “instant live-to-VOD,” and support for dynamic ad insertion across devices. Anvato also said MCP now supports Roku TV and Amazon Fire platforms with “frame-accurate server-side DAI stitched stream capabilities.”

-Net Insight has entered a partnership with Verimatrix for a secure, live OTT platform, called Sye, that utilizes Verimatrix’s Video Content Authority System. Net Insight said the deal will give the companies the ability to jointly deliver a digital rights management (DRM) solution for live, premium OTT services. Separately, Net Insight has teamed with Accedo to deliver live OTT via mobile apps. That arrangement will match Net Insight’s Sye platform with Accedo’s software development kit for video apps.

-Swisscom has tapped Nokia’s 5910 Video  Services Appliance for its “2.0” TV offering, including coming support for 4K/UHD video. The 5910 VSA includes Fast Channel Change (less than one second) and Retransmission, which prevents video and audio distortion, Nokia said. Swisscom's more than 1.3 million IPTV subscribers use Fast Channel Change today, and will do the same for Swisscom’s coming launch of live UHD streams

-IBM said Comic-Con HQ, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, AOL and Broadway Video are tapping the company’s new Cloud Video unit to launch new channels for and to and improve video management of their respective services. Among that group, Comic-Con HQ, a partnership between Comic-Con International and Lionsgate,  has selected IBM Cloud Video’s Clearleap platform to power its new subscription video-on-demand service, which will debut May 7.  IBM acquired Clearleap late last year.

-IC Real Tech has introduced the ALLie Camera, a 360-degree camera that allows for 24/7 viewing, recording and live streaming, as well as still-capturing and the ability to share content on social networks. IC Real Tech also said it has hired photography and video industry veteran Mark Sherengo as VP of sales and marketing.

Imagine Communications has closed its acquisition of RGB Networks, a deal announced last month that expands Imagine's ad insertion, video encoding and cloud DVR technology and expertise.

Imagine still has not disclosed the value of the deal, but said when it was announced that about 100 RGB employees would be joining Imagine alongside a plan to merge RGB’s and Imagine’s operations in Sunnyvale, Calif.

“RGB Networks’ technology, people and customers complement and accelerate our vision and roadmap defined by IP, software, cloud and multiscreen,” Imagine CEO Charlie Vogt said in a memo announcing the closure of the deal, its fourth acquisition in the last 12 months. “Video is increasingly at the center of social networking and the media and entertainment we consume. Imagine Communications is poised to lead the industry into the new frontier,” he added. 

In a move that will help producers of 4K video distribute content in the pixel-packed format, Imagine Communications said it is embracing a Sony-led initiative that will enable the delivery of baseband 4K signals over IP. 

Imagine is a member of a consortium of companies backing Sony’s Networked Media Interface, a new AV over IP interface that will provide low-latency transport of 4K video, audio, reference, metadata and control data. As part of that effort, Imagine will support a “slightly compressed” codec for 4K content that can be shipped over a 10-gig Ethernet IP distribution pipeline, Kerry Wheeles, CTO-networking at Imagine, explained.

The idea, he said, is to support an interface that supports high quality and low-enough latency to be applicable for video production environments, and provide a path from legacy SDI to IP-based network infrastructures. 

Sony introduced the effort last September, identifying several companies that were already backing the effort, including Imagine, Altera, Cisco Systems, Evertz, Juniper Networks, and Rohde & Schwartz, among others.

Imagine notes that today’s studio cameras use one HD-SDI cable to carry a single uncompressed baseband signal that could require up to 3 Gbps, meaning that the same systems would require four HD-SDI cables to handle the larger 4K payloads. “[R]eplicating this massive cabling increase throughout the network infrastructure presents nearly impossible logistical challenges,” Imagine said, adding that Sony’s new IP interface is made to resolve the issue.

While those uncompressed 4K signals could require up to 12 Gbps, Sony’s approach with “minimal compression” will enable them to be packed into common 10-gig transport.

Wheeles noted that there’s a competing standard under development, but notes that Imagine “will absolutely be supporting the Sony [initiative] at a minimum.”

He said Sony is expected to release the final spec this summer, noting that Imagine will be able to support it by linking Imagine’s existing gear to a new “daughter card.”

“This embrace of Sony’s new innovation is not a result of any single vendor’s unique efforts, but instead is a collaboration of the vendor community to ensure that our media and entertainment customers can transition to the next great leap in video quality enhancements and IP innovation,” added Steve Reynolds, CTO of Imagine, in a statement.

Video and multiscreen tech specialist Imagine Communications has acquired the advanced advertising business unit and related assets of OpenTV from the Kudelski Group.

Financial terms were not announced, but Imagine said the acquisition of assets will complement an advertising business systems portfolio that already manages more than $25 billion in annual advertising revenue worldwide, and believes the deal will provide its MVPD partners with new capabilities for consolidated, multi-platform billing, while also extending support for both impression-based and ratings-based advertising. 

Products acquired from OpenTV include its EclipsePlus, EclipsePlus/xG Billing, EclipsePlus/xG Insights and EclipsePlus/xG Linear advertising campaign management systems. Kudelski said those products are used by cable operators to manage more than 1.2 billion spots and over $3 billion of ad revenue annually. Imagine will also hire a number of OpenTV employees as part of the transaction.

Kudelski took control of OpenTV, a company that also specializes in set-top middleware and applications, in late 2009. On Thursday, Kudelski said the sale of the advanced ad assets of OpenTV was another step in the streamlining of its business portfolio as it looks to focus on content security, digital TV solutions and new initiatives such as cybersecurity. Kudelski sold its NagraID unit in August.

Imagine is making the deal as it looks to amplify its MVPD ad business and fleshes out its advanced ad technology roadmap. Glenn LeBrun, Imagine’s vice president of product marketing, said there’s some customer cross-over between Imagine and OpenTV among some major MVPDs, but noted that the deal also brings some new customers into the fold.

“The main value that we see in this deal is showing the commitment we have to the MVPD space,” he said. “We feel a strong sense that there’s an opportunity to provide advanced advertising functionality for the telcos and cable operators.”

LeBrun said the newly acquired assets will also play a role in Imagine’s development of a next-gen, cross-platform and more modular advanced advertising platform. That system will also be equipped to support automated, programmatic ad business models.

“The acquisition of OpenTV’s advanced advertising business amplifies our commitment to the MVPD market and accelerates the investments we are making in our advertising business systems portfolio,” said Charlie Vogt, Imagine’s CEO, in a statement. “The advanced advertising management technologies we have acquired from OpenTV add new capabilities to our portfolio and complement our media, playout and networking platforms. The addition of the experienced and talented research, development and services team from OpenTV further expands our world-class engineering and support expertise to create new innovations for this growing market segment.” 

“Broadband, the Internet and mobility are substantially contributing to the changing viewing habits of the new video consumer, making the challenges of managing video advertising campaigns increasingly complex and impacting media companies’ ability to monetize their content,” added Steve Reynolds, Imagine’s CTO, who joined the company from Comcast late last year. “The advanced advertising assets acquired from OpenTV are the result of significant investments in innovation to resolve these challenges for MVPDs by streamlining operations, lowering costs, providing rich analytics, and managing the complexity of working across both traditional and new media environments.”

Under Vogt, who took the helm of the company in July 2013, Harris Broadcast split itself into two separate operational  units – Imagine Communications and GatesAir – in March 2014.  Harris Broadcast closed its acquisition of digital video vendor Imagine Communications in January. In April, Imagine beefed up its multiscreen and TV Everywhere portfolio by acquiring Digital Rapids, a Canada-based maker of media processing systems for live streaming and broadcast and video capture and ingest, as well as workflow management.

While many get ready for some R&R this weekend, thousands of video industry people will be burning it on both ends in Amsterdam as the confab continues to roll on.

Here’s a looks at what else is making news there. Check out our earlier IBC news roundups here and here.

-TiVo’s shot at achieving global domination is well underway. The DVR and video software company said it’s expanding its European footprint to include sales, marketing and account management staff offices in Austria, England, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, noting that they’ll be dedicated to personalized video products – a move that happens to come on the heels of TiVo's acquisition of Digitasmiths. TiVo, which already working with Com Hem in Sweden, Ono in Spain and Virgin Media in the U.K., isn't saying how many staffers will be based at these expanded international posts, but the company employs 635 people worldwide today. So we reckon that the number we were looking for is something less than 635.

-Alcatel-Lucent said it’s working on a new architecture that will help pay TV providers store a customer’s favorite TV shows in the cloud at low cost while also maintaining compliance with content rights and copyright laws. Under U.S. rules, cloud DVRs must make a private copy for each recording request made by a given household -- horribly inefficient from a storage standpoint when compared to areas of the world that alllow multiple subscribers to stream off of the same recorded copy. Alcatel-Lucent said will be getting around this via a “virtual private copy architecture” that combines a tiered storage system with its Velocix Content Delivery Network (CDN), claiming that the approach can reduce storage costs by up to 75%. The company is developing a prototype of the architecture and expects it to be ready for trials in mid-2015, followed by commercial availability toward the end of next year.

-SeaChange International is demoing a new platform that integrates Freesat’s next-gen Freetime service with SeaChange’s multiscreen Adrenalin video backoffice platform. They’re pitching the combo, which includes a catch-up and recommendation engine,  to IPTV, satellite, cable and terrestrial operators. Freesat, a joint venture of the U.K.’s ITV and the BBC, is a subscription-free service with more than 200 channels, plus on-demand, that’s in over 1.85 million homes. 

-Envivio has shed more light on the tech partners who are tied into Nuage, its new multiscreen video platform. They include Microsoft (content protection), Adobe Primetime (video playback, authentication, DRM, and ad insertion/decisioning), Dolby (audio processing), and 1 Mainstream (automated video app platform).

-Brightcove has unveiled Brightcove Perform, a video playback system for multiscreen video that supports management APIs and its “HTML5-first” Brightcove Player. As the performance of Perform goes, the company is making the lofty claim that it can load up to 70% than competitive players, including YouTube’s. That player will also be available soon as part of the company’s flagship Video Cloud online video platform.

-Verimatrix said Swisscom has selected its Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to secure the operator’s new TV 2.0 service, which runs on an Android-powered set-top and marks Swisscom’s move away from Mediaroom, the former Microsoft IPTV platform that is now part of Ericsson. Swisscom TV 2.0 supports live TV and a seven-day replay service for 250 channels.

-EchoStar is using IBC to offer a sneak peak at a  home automation and security platform that will feature “do-it-yourself” installation and enable the control of thermostats, security cameras, door sensors, lights, doorbells and switches. EchoStar said the new product is expected to debut in “various territories” in early 2015.

-Second-screen specialist Visiware said its Sync2TV platform reaches more than 50 million users, with 500,000 of them “engaged” with several single TV shows. Visiware said it’s working with several producers and networks, including Disney, Embassy Row, Endemol, ESPN, NBC Universal, the NFL, ITV, M6, Sony, and TF1, among others.

-Harmonic has released its Polaris playout management suite of tools and integrated them with its Spectrum media server family. Harmonic also unveiled new multiscreen packaging and origination capabilities for its VOS software-based media processing platform that adds  packaging-on-the-fly and low-latency origin server capabilities that were originally developed for its ProMedia multiscreen applications. Sky Italia is one the first customers to deploy the VOS platform for its broadcast and multiscreen services.

-Speaking of Sky Italia, it has also deployed Imagine Communications’ Magellan SDN Orchestrator, a distribution system for both ASI and IP transport streams across broadcast routers and commercial IP switches that’s tied into a common software-defined network infrastructure