LOS ANGELES—Verizon Digital Media Services and Microsoft have teamed up to offer a VDMS global streaming platform on Microsoft Azure.

The full enterprise of the Verizon streaming service will be available on Azure and work in combination with Azure’s services to support broadcasters and content providers. The new offering will support the accelerated consumption of online media and OTT services.

Verizon will work with Microsoft to integrate Azure Media Services, Microsoft AI and Microsoft machine learning technology to increase the personalization and experience for viewers.

Microsoft plans to assist with the awareness of the platform through its own salesforce.

Examples of the streaming platform and how the Verizon and Microsoft technologies work together will be on display at both company’s booths (VDMS, SU3605; Microsoft, SL6716) at the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

OTTAWA—In 2015, Discovery’s process of producing programming was overdue for a fundamental overhaul. The company was relying on a mix of tape-based workflows and physical media delivery that was anything but standardized across the enterprise–and it was causing problems.

For instance, although Discovery’s U.S. facility had standardized on receiving content using LFTS-formatted LTO data cartridges (Linear Tape File System/Linear Tape-Open), other Discovery regional facilities were using their own file delivery systems. Discovery’s various facilities even differed on whether content suppliers had to provide the network with broadcast-ready or master-quality video files; the latter being formatted in whatever frame rate the content producer had selected.

This lack of standardization was costing Discovery time and money. This is why the network selected software from SDVI, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of content management software to standardize its content acquisition and creation workflow over IP. The company’s Rally next-gen, cloud-based media supply chain platform gives Discovery’s many content providers a central point to submit their content, in line with the network’s file standards. Having made this happen, SDVI’s Rally now gives Discovery a fast, effective, end-to-end solution to serving out content to cable, satellite, and the web, as well as a way to spin new program streams and even channels.

[Read: ‘Deadliest Catch’ Lands In The Cloud]

Discovery is just one example of a traditional broadcaster/media company that has adopted what the industry refers to as a “next-gen media supply chain” to speed up and rationalize its content creation workflow. Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) is another: They are using Imagine Communications’ Versio platform, EPIC MV, SelenioFlex File, and Nexio Motion to provision SBG’s KidsClick children’s programming block to SBG TV stations. Meanwhile, Disney/ABC is using Verizon Digital Media Solutions’ evolved delivery platform and Broadcast/OTT Solution to prepare all of their content for online distribution; with sufficient flexibility to allow ABC affiliates to insert viewer-targeted local advertising quickly and easily.

THE NEXT-GEN ADVANTAGE

In a traditional media supply chain, content is either created or received—or both—at a broadcaster/media company, and then packaged using production hardware and software that is dedicated to the company’s existing playout channel(s) on their physical premises. If a new playout stream needs to be added or a new channel spun up, an entirely new physical production workflow needs to provisioned; machines, personnel and floor space are included.

In a next-gen media supply chain, all of this functionality is provisioned using software and commodity computer hardware; just add servers and stir. Move it into the cloud, and a third-party provider like Imagine, SDVI, or Verizon can handle all of the details. All the broadcaster/media company has to do is to interact with the software (which can be stored in the cloud or loaded onto their own on-premises servers) to format their content as they see fit, and then play it out to a linear delivery system (broadcast./cable/satellite), or serve it directly to the viewer via OTT online.

LAUNCHING NEW CHANNELS QUICKLY

With access to a next-gen media supply chain, broadcasters/media companies can spin new channels up and down as quickly as opportunities dictate.

In the case of SBG’s KidsClick and Imagine Communications, making this happen required some initial customization to serve the varying needs of SBG’s many local stations. But once this work was done, “it was really just an exercise of pointing at the cloud, requesting the required resources, and validating that they’re available and match your requirements,” said Brick Eksten, Imagine’s CTO of Playout & Networking. “We do this for this particular customer three times a day.”

Being able to spin up new channels virtually in the cloud is obviously far more economical than building an entirely new physical plant to produce and distribute them. But the savings can go even further. For instance, at Verizon Digital Media Services, “we only charge you based on the number of viewed content hours,” said Jason Friedlander, the company’s senior director of Product Marketing. “This approach enables our customers to experiment with new strategies and test what works in the market; if no one is watching, you don’t pay.”

SOLVING DISCOVERY’S PROBLEMS

At Discovery, SDVI’s Rally platform is a key part of the company’s global, scalable, and automated media supply chain. “Over the past three years we’ve worked to rebuild our supply chain, transitioning from physical media and fixed assets to a flexible, cloud-based model,” said Josh Derby, vice president, technology development & strategy at Discovery.

According to Derby, moving to a next-gen media supply chain has provided three key benefits to Discovery.

First, “the inherent scalability of Rally and of the public cloud has allowed us to improve the throughput of our supply chain,” he said. “This week we celebrated the upload of the 100,000th asset through our front-end supply chain, a milestone we hit within just two years of our launch. Earlier this year, that supply chain seamlessly absorbed over 20,000 additional assets in just four months as we quickly brought content from our new networks into the supply chain.”

Second, moving to a next-gen media supply chain has allowed Discovery to incorporate “a tremendous amount of automation into our workflows,” Derby said. “We are no longer reliant on having our logistics staff shepherd content through the supply chain. In our Rally supply chain, the assets find their own path through the workflow based on the system’s ability to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the asset metadata and the results of previous workflow steps.”

Thirdly, adopting a next-gen media supply chain has standardized content acquisition and handling across Discovery’s entire operation. “The new supply chain lets us have a truly global media factory,” said Derby. “Regardless of whether it’s an episode of ‘Deadliest Catch’ airing in the US or an episode of ‘House Hunters’ going to Poland, the content comes through the same supply chain. It’s checked against the correct standards, converted to the necessary file format, and delivered to its correct destination based on metadata from our business systems, allowing us to give each region the files it needs while maintaining a single global media pipeline.”

Next-gen media supply chains have the power to revolutionize content creation workflows, according to Lawrence Kaplan, president and CEO of SDVI. “The fact that they can speed up the rollout of new channels is just the beginning: Next-gen media supply chains can fundamentally improve the ways in which broadcasters and media companies prepare, playout, and distribute their content worldwide.”

NEW YORK—Compliance monitoring has evolved over the past decade from simple broadcast logging to what is now a much broader range of applications that encompass monitoring, analysis and even revenue-generating functions for broadcasters, OTT providers and MVPD operators. Today’s digital tools have largely replaced the VHS long-play tape recorders to log transmissions, and other new technologies promise to only increase how broadcasters and others can utilize and even monetize what was once just compliance monitoring.

“The need for compliance loggers comes from the legal requirement to log all broadcasted content,” said Ken Frommert, president of ENCO, a Southfield, Mich.-based provider of broadcast technology systems. “This need, arising from the national telecom regulators, such as the FCC, did not change. However, the ever-increasing economic pressure on the same broadcasters, coupled with the fact the compliance loggers are an economic liability with no real business benefit, will necessarily force a technological evolution that will change the loggers into becoming economically beneficial.”

FROM BROADCAST TO OTT

Compliance monitoring is now at a massive transformational stage.

“To start, while compliance services have their roots in traditional broadcasting, we’re seeing the need for compliance services to not only cover broadcast, but also OTT content,” said Ariff Sidi, chief product officer for content delivery network provider Verizon Digital Media Services. “An increasing number of services now offer the ability to monitor OTT streams, and that trend will continue this year and beyond. We’ll see monitoring capabilities enhanced to cover the full path—from ingestion to delivery and through to the end user experience as well. Second, there will continue to be a major shift from compliance monitoring services being hardware-based to cloud-based.”

Even traditional compliance monitoring is now changing in terms of the content being monitored, the level of detail and even how long to store the results. Much of this wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago.

“A simple studio-based ‘Air Recorder’ at the output of master control, keeping recordings for 30-90 days is insufficient,” said Ted Korte, COO of Qligent, a Melbourne, Fla.-based developer of broadcast monitoring and QoE technology. “More and more functions are either being outsourced or moved closer to the end user, and so should compliance monitoring. Having a number of monitoring points covering each of the delivery platforms, is a much more accurate representation of an audience and thus creates a more comprehensive compliance verification. Since new regulations are likely to evolve it is also a good practice to record all the associated metadata with the media and to record everything for extended periods of time to allow post verification analysis and audits.”

ORIGINS IN CALM

One of the key components of compliance monitoring is that audio levels are consistent as required by the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which barred TV commercials—as well as other content—from increasing in volume at commercial breaks. Since the introduction of CALM it has been mostly “all quiet” on the audio front as broadcasters have mostly complied, but new technologies would bring up similar issues.

“Commercial loudness has been an issue since the 1980s, but finally modern audio systems really made it noticeable,” said William T. Hayes, director of engineering for Iowa Public Television and president of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. “Today the issue is how people consume content in other ways, and these services don’t follow the rules set in place by CALM. The major streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Video are pretty good, but then you can instantly tell that YouTube videos and others aren’t CALM-compliant.”

For audio compliance, self-regulation could be one solution, but new technology at the consumer level might also solve the issue.

“The reality is that everyone who has a service that provides video and audio knows they need to do something,” Hayes added. “But self-regulating may not solve all the issues. However, smart TVs could be made to automatically adjust volume to a consistent level.”

FULL STREAM AHEAD

In a recently released white paper, Mediaproxy, a provider of compliance, monitoring and analysis technology noted that as the industry has to deal with an increasing number of transmission platforms that span from traditional broadcasts to OTT logging and monitoring paradigms have also shifted.

“It’s become apparent that with an increase in scale, the tools have to extend in versatility. Making sure that the right content is transmitted at the right place and time across the different outputs is paramount. Loggers are hence expected to have advanced video analysis features like content and source matching” said Erik Otto, Mediaproxy president. "However, this also means that OTT providers will have to address challenges, as streaming doesn’t fit in very well with traditional compliance monitoring."

“Linear and nonlinear streaming is very different as to how it is delivered and consumed, making end-to-end visibility and control much more complex,” said Korte at Qligent. “Streaming is changing all the usual points of reference such as primetime, demographics, DMAs, and even the definition of ‘live’.’’ All this new technology and opportunity will also invite new regulations regarding privacy and data protection [end users], fraud [i.e. advertising], piracy [i.e. rights], ratings [social media], etc. from multiple government agencies as well as vendor/service provider SLAs.”

Yet, unlike in a traditional broadcast, which typically has one version of content delivered to all viewers and with differences often the result of local market requirements, OTT could enable content providers to deliver innumerable discrete streams delivered to users—differentiated by region, device, preference or other factors.

“This same ‘one-to-one’ approach can be applied to compliance monitoring systems, too,” added Sidi. “In addition to monitoring the entire cloud workflow, it can check streams by region or other critical factors.”

The downside for content providers is that these opportunities could require more work.

“Budgets haven’t gone up,” and companies are not hiring replacements when employees leave, according to Hiren Hindocha, CEO of Digital Nirvana. “However today’s new compliance monitoring tools can address those requirements.”

AI AND MACHINE LEARNING

Technology could certainly play a major role in this evolution of monitoring and logging, and could take advantage of artificial intelligence or machine learning, which could more easily manage the influx of “Big Data” that is created at a near constant rate.

“The big trend is mixing technical compliance with content compliance,” said ENCO’s Frommert. “The way we see things, the loggers are producing enormous amounts of video data. This ‘Big Data’ is just sitting there for months until it is deleted and replaced by newer data, with no effective use. The use of Big Data technologies is gradually enriching the value of these video records and adding a number of useful functions.”

This, in turn could change compliance monitoring from something required and which can be costly, into a potential revenue stream instead.

Compliance tools are required by law, and thus become an expense for broadcasters, Hayes said, who added that today, AI can turn compliance into a value add instead.

“AI can analyze your audio for CALM compliance, but could also make it easier to ensure that closed captioning makes sense, including that the right version of a word is used. But it can also turn it into a profit center as it becomes a service, whether that is a tool for viewers to find content, or for those in commercial broadcasting so that advertisers and vendors can track their results.”

This could include automated detection of commercial ad spots, which could replace what has been a manually intensive work.

“This technology [AI] can scan many channels and provide very accurate affidavit reports on the number of ad spots,” added Frommert. “Similarly, the ads watching technology can also analyze competing channels and provide comparisons channel to channel on the number of ads sold and aired.”

AI could further automatically create captions and subtitles via speech recognition technology, while also utilizing rich metadata for searching and organizing the vast archives of video, which are stored on-premise or in the cloud.

“This can make it easier for people to find the content they want, as it is needs to be available to whomsoever, whenever they want it,” said Hindocha. “Metadata is really ripe for AI and machine learning, as it can help the viewer decide whether they want to consume that content. Metadata, as a side of the logging, helps you slice and dice the variety of content that is out there.”

LOS ANGELES—Verizon Digital Media Services and the Newsy national news network have struck a deal that will allow Newsy video content to be readily available for Verizon Digital Media Services Uplink Video Streaming customers. Users will be able to access Newsy content from its library to add directly to their video streams.

This is an extension of the partnership that Verizon Digital Media Services and Newsy have had since 2016, in which Verizon has powered the streaming and syndication of linear and on-demand video content from Newsy. Now, Newsy’s video content will be readily available for publishing via the Verizon Digital Media Services platform, as well as give publishers access to the Newsy sales team.

Newsy creates video news segments on world and national news, policy, culture, science and technology with an aim toward millennial audiences. It also produces the 24/7 Newsy Live linear news channel.

TV TECHNOLOGY: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2017 NAB Show?

RALF JACOB: We’re going to see more and more OTT technology that’s enabling and supporting the creation of personalized viewing experiences. Just as content has continued to trend towards personalized experiences—from skinny bundle offerings to apps exclusively featuring niche content such as sports, movies and television shows—so too, will the technological infrastructure that supports these viewing experiences head in this direction. Whether it’s more consolidation of workflows into a single platform, intuitive ad insertion technologies or robust enterprise quality of service tools, more of these technologies will be available to content creators and OTT providers. We also anticipate new ad formats to emerge, making use of AI and machine learning; we expect object recognition to play a major role.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

JACOB: As the OTT industry continues to evolve, we’re always working to ensure that our products, solutions and services meet the ever-changing demands of content creators—the demands both of today and tomorrow. We’re always looking for ways to simplify the OTT workflow of getting content into the pipeline, monetized and then out to audiences around the world, at scale. With this in mind, we can’t wait to share more about a new, next-generation OVP solution that we’ve been working on and that will drastically impact the media and entertainment landscape.

We’re also excited to make the North American debut of two products that we launched last fall 2016: our Live Streaming Solution and our Volicon Media Intelligence service.

Our Live Streaming Solution simplifies the live event workflow and gets quality live streams onto mobile and connected devices. It boasts so many features to make the entire live streaming process easy—from the instantaneous creation of on-demand content to video clipping for content syndication to internal or third-party content management systems and apps.

Last year, we acquired Volicon, a leading provider of video capture, archival, compliance monitoring and clip creation workflow for broadcasters. After the acquisition, one of the first investments we made was integrating our Slicer application, which encodes and packages content for streaming, into the Volicon Media Intelligence service. Now, Volicon Media Intelligence service users can easily launch OTT offerings through their own existing Volicon hardware infrastructure.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

JACOB: One of our biggest differentiators is that we have a digital media platform that comprises both all of the necessary tools to successfully launch an OTT service and also a global content delivery network (CDN) to ensure the secure, reliable and quality delivery of content to mobile and connected devices. There’s no need to have to go to multiple partners—one for analytics, another for monetization and yet another for a CDN. You can get everything you need all under one roof, the Verizon Digital Media Services roof.

TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?

JACOB: The NAB Show is a jam-packed week, filled with informative panels, educational seminars, mind-boggling booths and critical relationship-building meetings. It’s fast-paced, hectic, a whirlwind—and, incredibly fun. Where else can you find out about the latest industry trends, see some of the coolest technological innovations, connect with old friends and meet new ones—literally all in one day? I’ve been attending for many, many years now and each time, I always find myself leaving the conference having learned something new and networking with some of the most inspiring leaders and trailblazers within the media and entertainment space.

LOS ANGELES & BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA—Thanks to a new multi-year partnership between Verizon Digital Media Services and Pontis Technologies, Latin America broadcasters will have access to OTT and content delivery network (CDN) services.

The agreement will have the Uplynk Video Streaming service and Edgecast Content Delivery Network from Verizon Digital be integrated into the Pontis CloudTV platform, which will allow viewers in the region to experience live, linear and VOD streams on mobile and connected devices.

The Uplynk service uses one simplified workflow to ingest, format, insert targeted ads and optimize OTT delivery. Meanwhile, the Edgecast serves as the foundation to deliver content to its interconnection partners and points of presence infrastructure; recently, Verizon Digital launched six new points of presence in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Argentina.

LOS ANGELES—Fans of Club Deportivo Guadalajara will be able watch the team’s soccer games on the go this season courtesy of Cinépolis and Verizon Digital Media Services. Verizon will provide Cinépolis KLIC Live with the ability to live stream the team’s home matches during the 2017 season to mobile and other connected devices.

The practice began in January when Verizon Digital helped offer the live stream of Club Deportivo Guadalajara playing Club Universidad Nacional in Mexico. The next scheduled game that will be available for streaming will be against Deportivo Toluca F.C. on March 4.

In addition, Cinépolis KLIC Live has plans to offer more live content, including other sporting events and concerts, to the streaming service over the next couple of months.

Cinépolis KLIC Live is powered by Verizon Digital Media Services’ Live Streaming Solution, which utilizes the Uplink Video Streaming service. The system uses a single cloud-based workflow to stream live, linear or on-demand video content on mobile or connected devices with HD quality. It also features a cloud-based event dashboard, quality monitoring and 24/7 live event support. The Edgecast Content Delivery Network is also included as an integrated component to deliver live streams globally.

LAS VEGAS—Making its North American debut at the 2017 NAB Show, Verizon Digital Media Services will feature its Live Streaming Solution. It reduces the cost and complexity of simultaneously delivering hundreds of high-profile live events. 

To simplify content syndication to internal or third party content management systems and apps, the solution lets users publish a single live-stream URL that transitions seamlessly between pre-event, live, post-event and video-on-demand (VOD) content.

Upon completion of the live event, it creates a VOD asset, without need for re-encoding, which reduces costs and delays. It also features a cloud-based scheduler and operator dashboard for provisioning encoders, managing live feeds, inserting ad breaks and pushing slates in the company’s Uplynk video streaming service.

Verizon Digital Media Services will also feature the integration of its Slicer application, which is an essential software component of its Uplynk video streaming service, with the company’s Volicon Media Intelligence service. This facilitates the launch of OTT offerings by leveraging the Volicon hardware infrastructure. It also records broadcast content across interfaces, including SDI, transport stream and analog for monitoring, compliance and review, while putting compliance, monitoring and OTT delivery in a single footprint within a broadcast facility.

With this solution, broadcasters can ingest video, encode it into multiple bit rate profiles, encrypt it and distribute it via OTT or video-on-demand services, as well as via web and social media sharing platforms.

The 2017 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 24-27. Verizon Digital Media Services will be in boothSU3605. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

LOS ANGELES—Volicon is now a part of the Verizon Digital Media Services family, as the two companies announced an agreement that will see Verizon acquire the video capture, archival, compliance monitoring and clip creation workflows provider. Now a part of AOL, Verizon Digital Media Services says Volicon will enable content creators, publishers, broadcasters and enterprises to deliver their content to audiences on any device.

“Volicon’s role as a trusted provider to more than 1,200 broadcast and video operators around the world, combined with deep expertise in video monitoring and analysis, will improve visibility, transparency, and quality of our clients content and ads over our global delivery footprint,” said Bob Toohey, Verizon Digital Media Services president.

Combining Volicon’s technology with Verizon’s Video Lifecycle Solution will reportedly provide customers an option to take broadcast feeds and channels directly to OTT cloud-based delivery models. According to the press release, both companies already have complementary video workflow tools that generate assets, clips, highlights and social sharing opportunities from existing live, linear and VOD workflows.

Volicon was founded in 2005 by Eli Warawski, Julius Perl and Yehuda Brand. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This acquisition of Volicon follows Verizon’s 2015 announcement of acquiring a software package from ABC/Disney, and the 2014 integration with Comcast’s thePlatform.