SAN JOSE, Calif.—Pixelworks has announced the launch of what it is calling a universal over-the-air integration platform, EasyOTA. The main goal of the EasyOTA platform is to simplify the integration of local OTA TV channels into existing or new OTT streaming services.

EasyOTA offers live local channels through a home-network OTA streaming device using Pixelworks’ XCode technology. This prevents any burdens on the network or additional content license fees, says Pixelworks, and can help maintain subscriptions.

“With the dramatic growth in OTT streaming services as well as increased antenna usage, there is a huge opportunity for service providers to easily combine OTA and offer a cost-optimized streaming service while still providing a comprehensive lineup of rich TV content to their subscribers,” said Anselma Pilla, senior director of marketing, Video Delivery, at Pixelworks.

The EasyOTA platform is part of Pixelworks’ FlexVU ecosystem and will be available to qualified OTT partners.

More information can be found on Pixelworks’ blog.

BURBANK, CA—The awards committee of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) this week announced the winners of the 2019 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards.

The winners include:

• Adobe–Content-Aware Fill for Video in Adobe After Effects;
• Epic Games—Unreal Engine 4;
• Pixelworks—TrueCut Motion; and
• Portrait Displays Inc. and LG Electronics—CalMAN LUT-based Auto-Calibration with LG OLED TVs.

“Every year, it is an absolute pleasure and a privilege to witness the innovative work that is brewing in our industry,” said HPA Awards Engineering Committee chair Joachim Zell. “Judging by the number of entries, which was our largest ever, there is genuine excitement within our community to push our capabilities to the next level.

“It was a close race and shows us that the future is being plotted by the brilliance that we see in the Engineering Excellence Awards. Congratulations to the winners, and all the entrants, for impressive and inspiring work.”

A blue-ribbon judging panel selected the winners after a session held at IMAX on June 22. Winners will be honored Nov. 21 at the 14th Annual HPA Awards Gala at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Honorable Mentions were awarded to:

• Ambidio for Ambidio Looking Glass;
• Grass Valley, a Belden brand for Creative Grading; and
• Netflix for Photon.

The HPA Awards were founded in 2005. They recognize creative artistry and innovation in the professional media industry. Tickets for the 14th Annual HPA Awards will be available later this summer, HPA said.

The Engineering Excellence Award honors outstanding technical and creative ingenuity in media, content production, finishing, distribution and archive.

More information is available on the HPA website.

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—A group of companies including developers of antenna and hardware/software technologies have created a new marketing coalition to make it easier for consumers to view over the air broadcast with streaming services.

In the announcement of its formation last week, the companies, which include Antennas Direct, Hauppauge, Nuvyyo, Pixelworks, Plex GmbH, Resonian, and Shenzhen Geniatech cited the complexity cord-cutters face when trying to combine OTT/streaming services with free over-the-air local broadcasts.

“As a growing number of consumers abandon traditional cable and satellite subscriptions to gain increased control over content selection and the associated cost of video entertainment, they are often faced with added complexity as well as limited or overpriced access to local broadcast TV channels,” they said. “The genesis of FlexVU is a mutual end-goal of helping consumers “select the most seamless and high-performance cord cutting solutions, including the ability to access TV content from anywhere with a connected display device.”

[Read: Cord-Cutting Pace Accelerates As Viewers Seek Premium Programming, Says EMarketer]

As part of its initiative, the coalition said it would be advancing what it termed “a broader ecosystem under a newly recognized and industry-supported brand.”

Along with offering so-called “skinny bundles”—lower cost OTT services which target cord-cutters—several consumer electronics vendors like DISH and TiVo have made recent attempts to integrate OTT and OTA. Earlier this year, DISH launched “AirTV” an over-the-top, over-the-air service that gives customers access to dozens of over-the-air broadcast channels across multiple devices inside and outside of the home. Last week TiVo introduced its “Bolt OTA for Antenna” which combines OTT and over-the-air signals, delivering four tuners and a one terabyte hard drive capable of recording 150 hours of HD programming. The company describes the new box as a an “upgrade” to its “Roamio” DVR, which targets cord-cutters and has been available for four years.

Likewise, FlexVU member Nuvyyo offers its Tablo device that features an OTA tuner that provides DVR-type services to over-the-air viewers, as well as the ability to stream OTA signals to home Wi-Fi setups.

The coalition defined five elements that make up the FlexVU initiative—TV antenna, TV tuner, transcoder, software for the user interface and a DVR that allows consumers to view content on any device anywhere. It has also launched a consumer education portal www.flexvu.tv, which includes specific product and component recommendations, testimonial videos from FlexVU partners and useful links to tools, such as a Channel Finder to help consumers determine what local TV channels can be access based on their zip code. In addition, the FlexVU Web site has a helpful animation that provides an easy to understand overview of the key benefits and messages of the FlexVU initiative.