LAS VEGAS—This year’s NAB Show will undoubtedly be focused on transitions—the one to IP and the cloud as well as the one to new evolving business models. What Imagine Communications hopes to do is talk about the exact types of migration strategies that the industry needs to get itself from point A to point B.
That’s the basis for the company’s focus on practical innovations at the NAB Show, according to Glodina Connan-Lostanlen, Imagine’s chief marketing officer. “We recognize that a lot of transition is happening, and we recognize that customers need to be able to go through them at their own pace.” At the exact time that the industry is looking at next-gen solutions, they’re also looking for a real-world way to migrate to new technologies and business strategies, she said.
LONG-TERM PRIORITIES
The annual NAB Show offers a chance to kick the tires, so to speak, and see first-hand how these next-gen technologies interweave with existing facilities, and why accelerating (or slowing down) the migration might make good sense, depending on the company and their long-term priorities.
Take for example the transformation that’s happening in playout. “It’s a segment that used to [require] a multiproduct solution [to] launch channels, and now one can [utilize] a more compact solution that relies on software modules,” Connan-Lostanlen said.
Or take the revenue opportunities that come from next-gen advertising solutions. “[The industry] is really moving together traditional adverting linear workflows with the digital ad insertion technology,” she said. Disappearing are those scenarios where a salesperson selling the digital platform is totally separate from one selling linear advertising.
In these areas as in others, there are potential monetization improvements and cost efficiencies that happen with the adoption of next-gen technologies that are able to compress and streamline, she said. And yet on the other hand, companies nearly always have existing legacy products and infrastructures that need to be properly considered as part of the migration.
One key example is the transition in North America to the next-generation ATSC 3.0 standard, she said. “If broadcasters today want to take advantage of ATSC, they [need] to be on digital platforms with very efficient workflows to be able to leverage that,” she said.
NEW BUSINESS & PRODUCTION TOOLS
This year, the company will be showcasing a number of new tools in the areas of advertising, playout, live production and the cloud. In the advertising arena, Imagine plans to introduce new business development tools such as the xG Scorecard business analytics tool, the new xG GamePlan cloud-based ad inventory optimization solution and AdTech solutions.
On the live production networking front, Imagine plans to show new features within the Selenio network processor as a means of addressing the gap between baseband and the IP world. Other options on display will be the hybrid SDI-IP Plantium IP3 router and the UHD-ready EPIC MV multiviewer.
“We are supporting a hybrid solution of routing/multiviewing in terms of how you take this to the IP world,” Connan-Lostanlen said. The company plans to participate in the IP Showcase initiative that will be at NAB alongside industry standards groups like AIMS and SMPTE. Imagine will do a deep dive discussion into standards like the recently approved SMPTE ST 2110-20 uncompressed video transport and the ways to go about ensuring interoperability between different receivers.
The company will also present a series of seminars in its booth on ATSC 3.0, solutions for monetizing inventory and dynamic ad insertion.
For playout, Imagine will show its Versio playout system and Versio IOX sharable and scalable storage solution.
In its booth in the South Hall, Imagine also plans to showcase solutions in cloud microservices technologies, routing, master control, graphics, storage and inventory management.
Imagine will be in Booth SL1516.
