News & Opinion

As the M&E industry advances rapidly, exhibitors gearing up for the innovative world of NAB 2024 are poised at the edge of unparalleled opportunity. With the right approach, this event can be much more than a showcase—it can be a pivotal moment in your brand's journey. But how do you cut through the noise and ensure your message resonates? Having guided 50+ companies through the NAB maze, here are five strategic PR moves designed not just to make an impact at the show, but to echo long after. Craft a Compelling Narrative Your technology isn't just a product; it's a story waiting to be told. Before you step onto the show floor, define what makes your solution unique and why it matters. This narrative should weave through all your communications, from press releases to social media posts, creating a cohesive and memorable brand identity. Do you have someone on your team that can distill complex tech jargon into engaging stories that capture media attention and resonate with your target audience? Leverage Media Relationships The media landscape at NAB is as vast as it is varied. Securing coverage in this crowded space requires more than just sending out press releases. It's about nurturing relationships with journalists and influencers who specialize in your niche. How are you identifying and engaging with targeted media to amplify your message? You want to be sure that your news not only lands but makes a splash. Engage with Influencers and Thought Leaders In today's digital world, influencers and thought leaders can be your most powerful allies. Collaborating with these individuals for panel discussions, interviews, and live demos can significantly extend your reach and credibility. Are you making the most of your strategic partnerships? NAB is the perfect opportunity for your executives to share the stage with industry luminaries and put your company’s innovations in the spotlight. Optimize Digital Presence NAB is not just a physical event; it's a digital phenomenon. An optimized online presence ensures that your brand captures attention both on and off the show floor. From live-tweeting key announcements to hosting virtual tours of your booth, consider crafting a digital engagement strategy that keeps your client’s and prospects connected and interacting, no matter where they are in the world. Post-Show Momentum The end of NAB doesn't mean your PR efforts should wind down. In fact, it's just the beginning. Post-show follow-ups, content marketing and leveraging the buzz created during the event can keep the momentum going strong. What’s your plan for converting post-show enthusiasm into long-term engagement, helping you nurture leads and build lasting relationships with your audience?   The BG&A Difference At Bob Gold & Associates, we understand that NAB 2024 is more than a trade show—it's the perfect chance to elevate your brand in the tech world. Our tailored PR strategies are designed to make every moment count, ensuring you not only shine at the show but continue to glow long afterward.   For tech exhibitors looking to turn opportunities into outcomes, BG&A is your partner in creating buzz, building relationships and driving success. Let’s connect and craft a PR strategy that puts your innovations on the map.

In a groundbreaking achievement that's setting the tech world abuzz, Varnish Software, in collaboration with Intel and Supermicro, has shattered previous records in content delivery network (CDN) throughput. This Swedish caching specialist has not only pushed the boundaries of speed and efficiency but has done so with a keen eye on sustainability, boasting an almost hard-to-believe throughput of 1.17 Gbps per Watt from a single edge server. This achievement marks a significant leap forward in the quest for more sustainable and cost-effective live streaming and video delivery solutions.    For those intrigued by the intricacies of high-performance streaming technologies and the sustainability of digital infrastructures, this development is not to be missed. Varnish's breakthrough promises to reshape how we think about and manage large-scale content delivery, blending cutting-edge technology with environmental consciousness.    Catch the full story and dive deeper into this exciting breakthrough here. 

Recent research from the Future Today x Variety Intelligence Platform Streaming Study, took an in-depth look at the latest TV viewing behavior and streaming preferences, polling U.S. consumers to identify the emerging trends shaping OTT, advertising, and the broader TV industry.   Data highlights from the report found that the majority of consumers (67.89%) prefer choosing the individual programs they’d like to watch on an on-demand basis, compared to just 12.5% who prefer pre-programmed, linear channels.   Other findings and insights of note: 50.6% of US consumers prefer using ad-supported video services to reduce costs Streaming ads are twice as likely to be relevant to a viewers’ interests than ads seen on cable or broadcast TV 5% of consumers plan to decrease their number of paid subscriptions Of those who have used a free trial in the last 12 months, 41.2% subscribed after the trial ended   “Consumer viewing preferences continue to evolve. Streaming has become the de facto source for watching TV shows and movies, but not all services, platforms and models will thrive in this shifting media landscape,” said Vikrant Mathur, CEO and Co-Founder of Future Today. “Despite some pundits’ expectations, we’re seeing AVOD adoption flourish, and expect this trend will continue to grow for years to come. Our research solidifies that with the right viewing experience, the ad-supported streaming model is ideal for content owners, brands and, most importantly, audiences.”   Helping power VIP+’s analysis throughout the State of Streaming 2021 is exclusive data from third-party firms such as connected TV analytics firm TVision and leading multichannel streaming company Future Today, as well as pollster YouGov and analytics firm Magid.   Read the complete report and analysis from Future Today here.

Future Today, the only full-stack streaming solution that packages branded channels and delivers the audiences to watch them, announced the launch of three free streaming services on Rogers Ignite TV and Ignite SmartStream: FilmRise, Fawesome and iFood.tv. In addition, the companies have expanded their partnership whereby Rogers Sports & Media (RSM) will now provide ad sales representation for all of Future Today’s streaming channels across Canada.   “Rogers is a dominant force in shaping the TV viewing experience and leads the way in customer-focused offerings,” said Vikrant Mathur, Founder and CEO, Future Today.   In the last 12 months, Future Today has experienced extraordinary growth and has aggressively expanded its content library to offer more than 225,000 movies, TV shows and episodes with the addition of 15,000 hours of premium content that is currently available on every major streaming platform, including Rogers Ignite TV and Ignite SmartStream, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple, LG, Samsung, Vizio, Xbox, iOS and Android.   Read more from Rapid TV News here.

Ooyala Flex Media Platform Will Integrate with Existing BFI Systems to Distribute British Film Heritage  Ooyala, a leader in content supply chain solutions, is proud to announce it has been selected by the British Film Institute (BFI) to assist in the BFI’s massive Heritage 2022 project to transcode and aggregate access to its ever growing digital archive of moving image assets.   The BFI is the leading organization for film in the UK and curates and presents international public showings of world cinema for audiences in theaters, at festivals and online. The BFI National Archive is one of the world’s largest and most important collections of film and television. As part of its work, the ambitious Heritage 2022 program is a key component to ensure that everyone, everywhere in the UK will be able to enjoy more of the UK’s moving image heritage. Heritage 2022 is a preservation-led program to safeguard high risk significant collections held by the BFI National Archive and the Regional and National Film Archives across the UK. It ensures such collections are safe for future generations to enjoy and gain knowledge from, and enables access as a result of digital preservation.   For the ambitious task, the BFI will use the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, an open and extensible video management solution that simplifies and streamlines the entire content supply chain, from production to profit, significantly reducing costs and complexity while increasing revenue. It seamlessly integrates with legacy solutions and is used by many of the world’s leading organizations offering entertainment, news and sports content, such as HBO, Turner and Arsenal Football Club. It will be implemented alongside BFI’s existing systems, providing broader functionality and orchestration of BFI’s distribution workflows and ensuring greater compatibility with any additional systems and applications.   “We have a critical opportunity to save irreplaceable titles -- stories that make up the fabric of British filmic history – that are stored on at-risk videotape formats and film,” said Edward Humphrey, Director of Digital at the British Film Institute. “We have set this as a five-year task because there are a finite number of compatible video playback machines and spare parts in working condition, and a looming decrease in engineering and preservation talent. The clock is ticking, and we are counting on Ooyala to help us manage access to this vital content.”   “BFI has set for itself the ambitious and crucially important task of preserving Britain’s wonderful motion image heritage for future generations,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “With the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, BFI will be able to do so efficiently.   We feel privileged to be able to play a role in helping BFI and legions of dedicated preservationists and other craftspeople to bring to new audiences so many treasures of British film.”

Empowering HBO Asia To Scale Their Business With Ease And Efficiency, Through The Automation Of Media Workflows By Ooyala Flex Media Platform Ooyala, a leader in content production, distribution and monetization solutions, has signed its latest client, HBO Asia, an award-winning entertainment provider, to drive efficiencies into their content distribution business across linear and OTT channels, and speed up their time to market for Asia. With the Ooyala Flex Media Platform integrating and connecting all of HBO Asia’s existing systems, processes, and tools, HBO Asia can now streamline and automate their video workflows, with a single source of access and truth.   “HBO Asia is an innovative and leading brand for entertainment content in the region, and an important new client added to our fast-growing customer list,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “We are proud to be powering their content distribution business, bringing cost savings and efficiencies to their operations, and supporting them in scaling the business effectively.”   HBO Asia, part of the global entertainment company HBO, brings the best of Hollywood to Asia with its award-winning original series and programs, reaching 23 territories across Asia with five 24-hour commercial-free subscription movie channels. HBO content is distributed via their traditional linear channel partners, as well as to HBO’s own streaming platform, HBO GO. In order to scale and grow the business with momentum, HBO Asia will automate their content and delivery processes to increase the speed and efficiency of their media operations. The network will also leverage and consolidate their existing systems for encoding, quality control, and digital rights management into one platform and access.   The Ooyala Flex Media Platform - the world’s fastest growing content supply chain solution being used by innovative content owners to simplify millions of video workflows - is used to orchestrate media workflows for HBO Asia from start to finish, and as media logistics to prepare and process content for quality control, encoding, and finally, distribution across both linear and Over-The-Top (OTT) channels.   From receiving a content file, validating it, applying QC, approving it, transcoding it, packaging it with digital rights to distributing it, Ooyala Flex Media Platform streamlines the entire process, which is hosted on HBO’s premises.   “Thanks to the open and flexible Ooyala Flex Media Platform, we are now able to automate our processes and distribute content to our viewers more quickly and efficiently, without any additional resources,” said Vincent Teo, HBO Asia's Head of Technology & Operations. “This frees up the team to focus on expanding the business and driving more revenue.”

By Chris TribbeyConnections January 23, 2019 Before the show floor opened for CES 2019 in Las Vegas, online video platform and workflow management system specialist Ooyala hosted a private “Business of Video” panel, featuring Ted Schilowitz, futurist with Paramount Pictures, Laura Martin, senior analyst with Needham & Co., Belsasar Lepe, founder and CTO of Ooyala, with the trio tackling everything from direct-to-consumer models to the influx of amateur-made video. Video of the panel is now available here, and you can read the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance’s (MESA) coverage of the panel here.

By Chris TribbeyHITS January 08, 2019 LAS VEGAS — Ted Schilowitz, futurist with Paramount Pictures, looks at the state of entertainment today, and sees a mixed bag. “We’ve effectively TV’d everything in our life,” he said, speaking Jan. 8 during a panel discussion at the 2019 CES. “We’ve taken our screens that lived in our living rooms, made them portable and we take them everywhere.” And while that’s convenient, it’s also resulted in almost too much content, an endless array of video choices for consumers today, he said, calling the result the “YouTubing of the world.” “There’s almost no separation between what an expensive camera can create and what any camera anyone has can create,” he said. And just sticking with professionally made content, we’ve possibly hit a point where too much is coming out too fast, according to Laura Martin, senior analyst with Needham & Co. “I think there’s too much content being made,” she said. “Whoever’s funding your [content creation] right now will pick winners and losers. There’s a huge controversy right now around whether Netflix is a winner or a loser.” She said the future likely lies in what Disney is doing with its own streaming service, where the consumer data will be just as important as the initial subscriber numbers. “When you talk OTT, I think Disney is trying to change the definition to direct-to-consumer (DTC),” she said. “OTT you don’t own the content. DTC, with Disney, they’re creating a direct relationship with the consumer.” Belsasar Lepe, founder and CTO for Ooyala — which hosted the panel — offered a different perspective: all this content, regardless of length or quality, has a role to play for bringing in revenue for both distributors and content owners. “Niche content has a role to play,” he said, pointing to services that offer both short- and long-form video. “It can be content they get addicted to after they become a subscriber.” Jonathan Huberman, CEO of Ooyala, doesn’t disagree that it’s a different entertainment world than it was just a few years ago. Consumer expectations — and patience — are more difficult to predict, he said. “The money that’s being pumped into content creation and delivery … it’s a very volatile marketplace,” he said. “It’s a very exciting marketplace.” Also see story here: https://www.mesalliance.org/2019/01/08/ces-2019-ooyala-paramount-execs-talk-future-of-video/

Execs from The Walt Disney Company, SWR, Arena TV, and Cisco share their vision for the future of video workflow   By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 7:49 am Print This Story   At this year’s IBC Show, SVG partnered with Cisco on a panel discussion looking at the future of video technology in the worlds of sports and entertainment. The session dove into examples of how major media organizations from around the globe in terms of how they transmit and archive important video assets on a cloud-based network, how much focous and resources are dedicated to security, how automated IP networking for live broadcasting open new opportunities, how AI, AR, and VR will play a key role in the business, and much more.   The conversation featured: Benjamin Havey, VP, Technology Innovation at The Walt Disney Studios Markus Ostertag, Director of Engineering and Production at SWR Dafydd Rees, Deputy Director of Operations at Arena TV Roger Sherwood, Global Director Media & Entertainment at Cisco The discussion was moderated by Brandon Costa, Director of Digital at SVG.