Sony Imaging and Product Solutions of America has notified customers that Encompass Supply Chain Solutions will be handling the sale of Sony repair parts starting on July 1, 2023. 

Sony said that it will continue to sell and provide parts support direct through June 30, 2023 and that starting July 1, 2023 users will need to contact Encompass for Sony parts ordering, researching, pricing, and availability requests.

Sony also reported that current part numbers and pricing will remain the same for the foreseeable future.

For current back orders of Sony parts that are expected to be received after mid July,  Sony said it will contact users to cancel the order and to tell them to order from Encompass for fulfillment.

Prior to 7/1/23 Sony said that customers should place their order with Sony at www.sony.com/servicesplus, or by emailing proparts@sony.com, or through phone support 800-538-7550. 

After 7/1/23, customer should place their order direct with Encompass. The Sony Servicesplus website will redirect to a new Sony professional service and support page that will include a link to the Encompass pro parts ordering site, the company explained. 

To place orders, customers will need to set up an account with Encompass online here. They can contact Encompass at 800-515-4157 or email Encompass at Ar_services@encompass.com.

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.” 

LONDON and ATLANTA—Encompass Digital Media announced that it is expanding its operations into Eastern Europe with the acquisition of MTG’s facility in Riga, Latvia. Encompass will provide managed services including media management, playout, VOD, over-the-top and downlink for all existing channels.

“We are very excited to be expanding our footprint into Eastern Europe,” states Marc Bruce, Encompass’ SVP Commercial, EMEA. “Over the last eight months, Encompass’ EMEA business has doubled in size, and we have secured significant long-term contracts. With the addition of the Riga facility, we gain an important opportunity to serve both existing and new clients throughout the Eastern European market.

“This next step in our relationship with Encompass further cements our belief that we have partnered with the right team in providing high-quality services for our channels. We are delighted that our long-term collaboration will now be extended to cover our whole supply chain,” states Rachel Bernard, MTG senior vice president of Broadcast Operations.

>Encompass continues to increase the breadth of services that it provides MTG by assuming further responsibility for its media management solutions. Complementing the existing post production, media management and playout services hosted in the company’s London facility, Encompass now offers extensive geographically diverse disaster recovery services for Europe. Today, Encompass processes and delivers VOD content to over 40 platforms including Viaplay Scandinavia, Nova TV, Prima TV and Viacom from its new Latvian facility.

ATLANTA—Encompass Digital Media is heading into business with Sony Pictures Television Networks, as the companies have announced that Encompass will supply its CloudVOD platform and Digital Network Operations Centers to distribute VOD assets for Sony’s U.S. Channels. Among the channels that Encompass will handle are getTV, Cine Sony and Sony Movie Channel.

The Encompass technology will be used to distribute the Sony channels to major U.S. multichannel video programming distributors and virtual multichannel video programming distributors. Powered by Microsoft Azure, CloudVOD manages the processing requirements and multiple technology standards for traditional and OTT video delivery.

Regional operational teams will manage the CloudVOD platform for the global scaling the delivery of content to MVPDs and vMVPDs.