NEVADA CITY, CALIF. & BRISTOL, U.K.—Telestream has announced the acquisition of UK-based Quality Control (QC) technology specialist, Vidcheck. The acquisition, according to Telestream President Dan Castles, will add QC technology to Telestream’s Vantage product line.

Telestream CEO Dan Castles

Established in 2009, Vidcheck provides automated QC solutions within file-based production workflows. Its system solutions are used by broadcasters, facilities and content owners worldwide, such as ITV, BBC, CBS and many others. The privately funded acquisition is complete and the new combined company will take its bow at IBC (stand 7.B26). 

Vidcheck’s QC technology is primarily known in European markets. Vidchecker, the company’s flagship product, provides file-based automated QC. Telestream says the acquisition will build on Vidcheck’s success, providing greater reach around the globe and strong sales and market presence. 

“Vidcheck’s team and product portfolio line up very well with our area of expertise,” said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream LLC. Castles continued, “It is not just some great technology and products that we are acquiring but also a gifted, talented and passionate team that will reinforce our resources here at Telestream. We look forward to leveraging our combined know-how to offer our worldwide customer base an even more complete and exciting product portfolio.”

"Telestream is a great home for Vidcheck, technically, commercially and culturally,” commented Thomas Dove, CEO of Vidcheck Ltd., who will stay on as director of QC for Telestream. “The companies have complementary technologies which will feed into both product ranges, the most obvious being the perfect fit of Vidchecker auto QC with Vantage. With Telestream's sales and support reach, Vidchecker will naturally be available to a much wider set of customers, particularly in North America. Being part of Telestream provides a great launch pad for the next phase of growth for Vidcheck."

Castles says that while Vidchecker will be integrated into Telestream’s Vantage line, Telestream will continue to offer Vidchecker as a standalone product. “Everything that current customers get from Videcheck, they’ll continue to get from Vidcheck,” Castles said, adding that there’s not much overlap among the two companies’ customer base. 

“One of the great intriguing things about this is, when we did our due diligence [for the acquisition], about half the Vidcheck customers have never owned a Telestream product,” he said. “That’s huge for us.”

BRISTOL, ENGLAND—Interoperable Master Format metadata is now part of the checklist for both the Vidchecker and Vidchecker-post automated quality control software, announced Vidcheck.

Developed around the SMPTE ST 2067-2 standard, a single IMF package can contain video, audio, graphics, closed caption and metadata elements, says Howard Twine, Vidcheck COO; those files can be stored in the IMF files as separate assets and combined when required. IMF has progressed to Application 2e (SMPTE 2067-21), which supports images with 4K resolution plus high dynamic range.

Twine says that with Vidchecker’s new features, the system can check all IMF data and detect potential operational issues. Problems detected in either the program essence or metadata container are displayed on the user interface.

Vidchecker is designed for checking and repairing file-based video, audio and related metadata before and after distribution. Vidchecker-post is a specialized version of Vidchecker aimed for post-production companies, content distributors and smaller broadcasters.

BRISTOL, ENGLAND—Provider of automated quality control and correction of file-based media, Vidcheck has announced the latest upgrade to its Vidchecker software. Vidchecker V.7 will feature new automated correction options, allowing for the addition of file-correction capabilities.

New features for Vidchecker V.7 include automatic video segment detection, advanced validation of Interoperable Master Format metadata and essence, multi-lingual alerts, and peak attenuation. The updated version also uses parallel processing architecture employed in modern digital microprocessors.

The automated error correction options that are introduced as part of Vidchecker V.7 combine detection and correction into a single application. These new options include layout changes allowing automatic addition of bars and black to a file without interruption; PSE correction; and transcoding.

A majority of the new V.7 features are also available on Vidchecker-post.

Vidcheck says that Vidchecker V.7 will be available as a free upgrade to existing customers with current Vidcheck software maintenance contracts, and to Vidcheck On-Demand license holders.

BRISTOL, ENGLAND—The U.K. patent office has granted patent protection to Vidcheck for the core process used to interrogate and auto-correct digital video and audio signals. The patent covers improvements to the techniques available for correcting out-of-specification video and audio signal levels.

The Vidcheck patent defines a multi-stage process based on the concept of the ‘connected area’ to provide industry standard parameters to video and audio content that exceed the permitted levels without degrading quality. Vidcheck products perform the multi-stage algorithm. All correction activity is logged and specific levels can be set to issue an alert.

Vidcheck is a developer of software for automated quality control and automated correction of file-based media.

BRISTOL, ENGLAND—Vidcheck, a provider of products to check and correct file-based video and audio content, has officially relocated its headquarters in Bristol, England. The company’s new address is 1 Little King Street, Bristol BS1 4HW.

The new telephone number for Vicheck offices are +44 (0) 117 325 8500 for sales and +44 (0) 117 325 8700 for support. All other contact details remain the same.