PHOENIX—Edgio has announced a strategic partnership with streaming technology providers Accedo, Bitmovin, Grabyo, and Vimond to provide a roadmap for M&E companies looking for a more simplified, more cost-efficient platform for delivering OTT video, providing them with the ability to quickly assemble and manage a streaming ecosystem that delivers high-quality linear, live or on-demand video. 

Edgio is leading the alliance as a Managed Service Provider, working with its partners to seamlessly integrate technologies across the entire streaming tech stack—from content production, personalization and distribution to user experience and monetization. This not only simplifies the intricate processes associated with delivering and managing streaming workflows, it also helps provide a frictionless entry into the market, the companies said. As Managed Service Provider, Edgio will provide a single point of contact for all support needs, regardless of vendor. 

"For media companies, piecing together an ecosystem like this on their own would be costly, time-consuming, and risky," said Eric Black, CTO and GM of Media for Edgio.  “By bringing together companies at the forefront of streaming and managing the entire process under one service partner, media companies can focus on creating innovative content versus navigating the complexities of a streaming workflow.”

The pre-integrated workflow provides increased flexibility for M&E companies to experiment with distribution and price point models, such as AVOD, SVOD, and FAST, to find the most profitable individualized offering for their specific audiences, Edgio said.

At launch, the partner ecosystem includes Accedo, which provides Video Application management, which includes custom templates and bespoke development for state-of-the-art UX that attracts and retains users. Accedo is pre-integrated with Vimond and Bitmovin to provide a seamless end-to-end solution.

Bitmovin’s Bitmovin Player guarantees flawless playback and viewing experiences across an extensive range of devices at speed and scale. Bitmovin Analytics ensures stream reliability by user session data and pinpointing any playback issues in real-time so they can be resolved before they impact the viewer. Bitmovin’s Analytics delivers real-time operational monitoring to optimize video and ad workflows based on viewer experiences across all platforms. Bitmovin Analytics also offers benchmarks across different performance metrics to gain industry insights.

Edgio’s Uplynk Platform empowers media companies to deliver the highest-quality streaming experiences to global audiences, while reducing time-to-market and driving operational scale. Its best-in-class components deliver exceptional viewing quality and reliability while maximizing monetization through advanced advertising. Uplynk, coupled with Edgio’s expert services, provides an exceptionally quick time-to-market and improves ROI. The Uplynk platform will be the foundation through which the OTT ecosystem is built upon using a mix of open standard video protocols and flexible APIs. 

Grabyo is a modern, cloud-native SaaS solution for live production, video clipping, real-time editing and distribution. The platform can scale from single operator digital streams to multi-camera productions with a larger remote team, combined with integrated live clipping, editing and publishing tools. With the recent introduction of SCTE-35 marker insertion, Grabyo’s cloud production users can now create ad breaks to monetize their live video across linear broadcast, FAST and OTT platforms. The platform supports live feeds from on-site cameras, audio sources, remote guests or mobile field kits, with ingest streams up to 50Mbps, 1080p/60FPS using leading video protocols including SRT, Zixi, RIST, RTMPs, HLS and RTP. Grabyo provides unlimited capacity for live video clipping and will sit in front of Uplynk, so customers can ingest video with Grabyo then publish to Uplynk where it’s distributed to end viewers.

Vimond’s CMS enables customers to provide contextual metadata to describe and curate content presented to users in apps and websites. With support across the workflow, from media ingest, asset management, metadata enrichment, to distribution, Vimond VIA provides customers with a flexible and user-friendly CMS to handle videos, freeing valuable resources to focus on winning new viewers and content strategy. Vimond’s VIA product will use Uplynk as its backend video management system by integrating with Uplynk APIs.

Each of the companies will be demonstrating their technologies this week at IBC2023, RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 15-18. Accedo: Hall 5, Stand F40; Bitmovin Hall 5, stand D72; Edgio, Hall 5 stand F18; Grabyo, Hall 5, Stand A20; Vimond, Hall 5, Stand H59.

WALTHAM, Mass. & LONDON—Zixi has announced a collaboration with Vimond to create a cloud-native video editing tool for post-video production.

Vimond has integrated its Vimond IO browser-based clipping and video editing system with the Zixi Software-Defined Video Platform, which results in a cloud-based collaborative editing tool. The Zixi integration provides low latency, content-aware and network adaptive error corrected live ingest, which enables users to deal with connectivity challenges of remote production.

Organizations that have existing Zixi distribution workflows are able to deliver live content directly to the Vimond IO AWS S3 bucket via the Zixi Broadcaster. Those without can deliver Zixi streams directly to the Vimond IO service using a live broadcast encoder from the Zixi Enabled Network.

Vimond and Zixi will demonstrate the joint offering as part of a Zixi Enabled Network partner webinar series on May 27 at 11 a.m. ET. 

LAS VEGAS—Vimond Media Solutions has plans to show NAB Show attendees its Vimond IO cloud-based multi-user storytelling tool that lets journalists and other video professionals put stories and clips together quickly in the cloud for broadcast and social media environments.

Vimond IO provides rapid search tools for finding content stored in the Vimond Online Video Platform, or in the users’ own MAM system. It leverages the cloud to host and process large video files and gives editors a low-res proxy that they can edit frame-accurately using familiar keyboard controls and audio and video editing tools.

Since rendering is done as a background process, the story is immediately ready for publishing to a CMS, social media sites or online newspapers. Latest features include lower thirds, graphical overlays and advanced audio features, such as rubber banding, collapsed/expanded audio and solo/mute monitoring.

Vimond will also highlight other modular content creation tools, including Vimond Orchestrator, which is a back-end workflow engine that manages online video from ingest to media asset management to distribution and playout. Vimond also offers the Rights Manager, Content Manager and Content Curator for managing content rights and media assets. And Vimond Monetization, which links content, pricing and payment, can be used to organize subscription plans, map them to associated content, and manage end-user payments.

The 2017 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 24-27. Vimond Media Solutions will be in boothSU10105CM. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

LAS VEGAS—At the 2016 NAB Show, Vimond Media Solutions will launch Vimond Connect, an innovative way of creating a social media experience for Video on Demand content that viewers will experience as if it were live.

Vimond will also debut Vimond IO, a new storytelling tool for journalists and other video professionals that makes it easy to work with a wide variety of formats and publish quickly to a content management solution or online.

Based in Bergen, Norway, Vimond powers services from such online TV brands as Comcast, Thomson Reuters, TV 2, and Iflix, and provides unique technology and expertise that helps global broadcasters adapt to a rapidly changing environment and expand their digital audience.

The 2016 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 18-21. Vimond Media Solutions will be in booth SU9104CM. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

BERGEN, NORWAY & NEW YORK—You know what they say, “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” and Norway-based developer of broadcast tools Vimond Media Solutions is giving it a shot as the company has announced a new regional office in New York. Helge Høibraaten, CEO, and Glenn Pedersen, CTO, will now be based out of the New York office.

The move comes after Vimond had some large-scale deployments in North America in 2015. Among these were Comcast and Thomson Reuters, who launched some of Vimond’s online services.

Some of these services offered by Vimond include the Vimond Platform and Vimond Highlights. The Vimond Platform provides an environment for managing and delivering multi-format OTT services. Featuring a multi-tenant architecture, the Vimond Platform offers tools and controls for services like ingest and encoding.

The Vimond Highlight is a device for live-to-VOD conversion. The system combines a focus on rapid short-form clip production and distribution to social media with broadcast quality recording and editing tools.

Vimond Media Solutions has announced that it will also offer new job opportunities in its New York office. For more information, visit www.vimond.com.

Christina Moe Hansen

BERGEN, NORWAY—Vimond Media Solutions have announced that Christina Moe Hansen will take over the position of chief financial officer. Hansen will be based at the company’s Bergen headquarters. Joining Vimond from Ernst & Young AS, Hansen brings a background of financial management experience with SME clients and large enterprises.

“The appointment of a dynamic CFO at this point in the company’s development is a significant event, especially in a period of rapid expansion in the U.S.A. and other regional markets,” said Helge Høibraaten, CEO of Vimond. “Christina’s contributions will be invaluable in Vimond’s continuing progress and we are delighted to welcome her aboard.”