News & Opinion

Light Reading July 16, 2018 Read the full article here. ZoneTV is taking the platform that brought it success and turning it into a product. To date, ZoneTV has made its hay with an AI-assisted video platform that integrates over-the-top and other digital content into the set-tops of cable and telco TV operators. It does this on behalf of its various studio partners and also for its own licensed content.

Light Reading July 16, 2018 Read the complete article here. Download is no longer the future of mobile video: It has arrived. As it becomes clear that the shortcomings of video streaming aren't going away any time soon, providers are flocking to incorporate download into their mobile offerings. So OTT companies have a new question on their hands: With download options as the new normal, how can they go above and beyond to optimize the mobile video experience for their viewers? I predict that the next popular feature will be subscriptions.

Ooyala Flex Media Platform Helps Turner Automate and Orchestrate Workflows, Reducing Content Processing Time by 85% Ooyala is powering content syndication for Turner Asia Pacific with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, a flexible and configurable content supply chain optimization platform that automates tasks, simplifies workflows and speeds up the time to market for Turner. With increasingly complex content formats and requirements, Turner’s technology and operations team needed a single platform to power their syndication workflows. Turner required greater visibility into campaigns and projects in order to manage, add and deliver content to new and existing partners quickly, and expand revenue opportunities. The Flex Media Platform manages all campaigns, content, metadata and business rules, providing Turner with complete visibility into its operations, reducing manual tasks, saving time and freeing up resources. With the solution deployed in the cloud, Turner’s operation teams across the Asia Pacific region have seamless access and control anytime, anywhere. “Our syndication business in the Asia Pacific region is both fast-changing and complex, requiring us to get content to our partners quickly and efficiently,” said James Crossland, Turner International’s Regional Vice President of Technology & Operations. “The Ooyala Flex Media Platform, with its flexibility and strong orchestration capabilities, allows our team to configure workflows according to our business rules and automate manual processes to reduce repetition and unnecessary delays.” “Television companies today are dealing with accelerating complexities and time pressures in delivering content,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “We are delighted to partner with Turner, to streamline their media operations with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, and to bring them cost savings and efficiencies. Together, we’re expanding their business with the same resources while increasing revenue from their partners.” Ooyala, a leading provider of software and services that simplify the complexity of producing, streaming and monetizing video, developed the Flex Media Platform to connect the entire video content supply chain for broadcasters and content owners, from production to profit. The Flex Media Platform provides central workflows, shared metadata infrastructure and open APIs to integrate with existing systems and to provide a single source of truth for the content owners. For Turner, the Ooyala Flex Media Platform keeps track of content that has been processed and archived so that newly on-boarded licensees can immediately receive content from Turner’s existing catalogue. This provides not only greater visibility, but also opportunities for rapid expansion. “To be ready for tomorrow’s media and entertainment world, we must be agile and adaptable. We expect our technology solutions to be future-proof and scalable,” added Crossland.

Greater Bandwidth Efficiency and Immersive Viewing Complement New Capabilities Designed to Meet Today’s Video Marketplace Needs Ooyala today announced a suite of new capabilities and features for OoyalaLIVE, its application for effortless creation, management, delivery and monetization of live streamed events and linear TV channels on any device. Among other developments, Ooyala’s Digital Video Playout solution now enables the Ooyala Flex Media Platform to support VR360 content. Exhilarating immersive experiences for viewers are now possible, including live streaming with OoyalaLIVE, VOD content with OoyalaADAPT and playback support on all major platforms and devices leveraging OoyalaPLAY, Ooyala’s video player. The open and extensible Ooyala Flex Media Platform allows media companies to better optimize the content supply chain with customizable workflows, seamless integration of third party tools and a common data set across the entire video operation. “We are at the forefront of our industry, recently providing the workflow infrastructure for the VR360 experiences of the 2018 Winter Olympics as well as high quality and low bandwidth HEVC streaming solutions,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “Providing the best live video experience is a major part of our mission, and we’re leveraging best-of-breed Ooyala Flex Media Platform solutions to realize that objective for our customers.” The new features include: Multi-audio: The ability to deliver multiple audio streams in a single player, enabling multiple language tracks, additional audio commentary, or even audio description for the visually impaired, both for live streaming and VOD content. HEVC Streaming: The addition of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2 offers approximately 30% bitrate and bandwidth savings, enabling users to reduce bandwidth costs or deliver higher quality for the same bitrate – and making 4K delivery a reality for more consumers. VR360 Support: Ooyala’s Digital Video Playout solution supports the ability to stream, upload, store and play VR360 content, offering viewers an immersive experience, live and VOD, in both monoscopic and stereoscopic formats. Enhanced Live Clipping: Building on OoyalaLIVE’s existing capabilities users can now open live streams in OoyalaMAM to clip up VOD assets and highlights during live events, with timed markers and rich metadata. Leveraging the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, it is now easier than ever to automate syndication workflows for VOD assets, orchestrating distribution to multiple platforms with a single button-click, saving manual steps and reaching eyeballs faster. Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI): Support for Google DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) brings monetization opportunities to DFP subscribers. SCTE-35 markers are now supported providing frame-accurate and unique, per-user localized frame-accurate ad insertion. The latest Digital Video Playout updates follow a combination of late 2017 updates, including real-time monitoring, improved support, and back-up systems and scheduling tools, collectively offering content providers a 99.95% uptime for their video streams. Ooyala’s Digital Video Playout solution has been designed with a focus on ease of use to help broadcasters and other TV and video content providers, operators and online media publishers reach and monetize their audiences with high-quality and highly reliable live streams. The integrated solution provides all the advantages of the Ooyala video platform, including content management; analytics; monetization; publishing; and player management for channels, events and live-to-VOD recordings. Ooyala will showcase these new features as part of the Ooyala Flex Media Platform at Broadcast Asia, Singapore, June 26-28, and the MESA Media & Entertainment Day at the Microsoft Tech Center, New York, July 24.

Jack Jerry, a fast-rising social media influencer and video creator for our client, LIKE, shows the Right This Minute hosts how easy and fun it is to add special effects to the LIKE App. LIKE has over 300 unique special effects features that leverage cutting-edge technology including AI, AR, and advanced body recognition and tracking.   Jack Jerry was featured on Right This Minute on June 22, 2018.  

Jack Jerry, a social media influencer and video creator for our client, LIKE, tells us why he made the jump to the LIKE social media platform. LIKE has grown to over 50 million users in just 10 months and is one of the fastest growing short video special effects apps globally.   Jack Jerry was featured on The Tech Show on June 15, 2018.   See full episode here.   About LIKE.

O'Dwyer's ranks firms in 13 different cities/regions. The firms below are located within the city limits of Los Angeles and the immediate surrounding area. See complete list here.

In today’s data-driven tech world, it appears the priority is all about the speed of innovation and how we move data safely, effectively, efficiently and securely. But if no one knows about your solution, how will they purchase and use it?

Content owners, distributors and creators gathered for an important thought leadership breakfast on Tuesday, April 25th at NAB to discuss the rapidly evolving media and broadcast landscapes. The breakfast addressed many of the complex questions facing content owners and end users in the evolving digital media ecosystem for delivering interactive, anyscreen experiences.Cisco and its technology partners, including Intel, Grass Valley and Presidio, were joined by the chair of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council, for a panel discussion “IP, OTT, OMG!” which featured many of the innovative challenges which must be addressed by the industry in the next five to 10 years, including: Tipping the scale: How do you easily scale digital distribution of live and premium content?IP for Anyscreen TV: Broadcast video functions and processes are shifting to IP and cloud/virtualization; What does the optimized future supply chain across the ecosystem (production to distribution) look like? How does it open up more revenue sources?Managing Expectations: How do media companies manage expectations for next gen technologies including Ultra HD and Virtual Reality? Watch the video below to see and hear what they had to say. Also available on FierceVideo here - https://www.fiercevideo.com/sponsored/ip-ott-omg-cisco-partners-nab-thought-leadership-breakfast