Videonet’s recent report – The Hybrid Platform Operator – highlights the market implications of the hybrid platform operator and explores the challenges in creating a unified service through multiple networks and devices.

Our last posting highlighted a Q&A with John Moulding, the author of the report, to discuss his perception of the pay-TV landscape. This posting recaps a conversation with Steve Christian, VP of Marketing at Verimatrix—one of our close technology partners—to get his perspective on this timely topic. Following is a transcript of the conversation.

Why do you think this report has been so well received?

SC: Pay-TV operators around the globe are rapidly deploying multi-network services to meet subscriber consumption patterns and enable lucrative new business models, presenting operators with many opportunities. However, creating and operating a multiscreen video service across different managed and unmanaged networks and devices is no easy task — even for the most innovative operator. Videonet’s report explores what a successful user experience looks like and offers operators practical guidance on how to best leverage hybrid networks — all very useful information for competitive pay-TV operators today.

What kinds of “hybrid” configurations are you seeing in the marketplace?
What are the challenges associated with deploying these types of networks?

SC: We are primarily seeing two types of hybrid network configurations:

• DVB-Hybrid – building on a largely unconnected client device base
• IP-Hybrid – based on a largely or fully connected client device base

Each configuration has its own challenges, ranging from mitigating risk to ensuring a consistent, high-quality user experience (UE) across all devices. These challenges are balanced, however, by the revenue opportunities and competitive advantages presented by the offer of compelling multiscreen services, which are inexorably becoming the new frontier in pay-TV competition.

Why is it important to have a harmonized security rights strategy across multiple networks and devices?

SC: Exploiting the benefits of a hybrid delivery system does not mean that operators forego the compelling advantages of an integrated consumer experience. And, because rights management can so easily corrode that service experience, having a robust multiscreen strategy is becoming increasingly important. It can be a critical competitive differentiator, especially in emerging markets.

Many operators are choosing to deploy cardless security solutions. Why is that and what are the benefits of such an approach?

SC: Cardless security solutions offers operators a range of cost and logistical benefits, including the ability to proactively upgrade client features and security on a routine basis using the network itself. The operator perspective on cardless security is well covered in our two recent white papers, Future of Cardless Broadcast Security and Cardless Content Security: The Smarter choice for Hybrid Networks.

We also consider that operators benefit in a transition to a cardless security solution by positioning themselves more directly to expand or upgrade for multi-network delivery. Deploying a unified cardless security solution to secure both live and interactive content delivery via single security headend will help reduce OPEX and CAPEX as operators expand their services.

What does the future of pay-TV look like to Verimatrix?

SC: The pay-TV landscape will continue to encompass an increasing number of device types and an evolving world of network configurations and delivery protocols. Taking a unified approach to managing and integration security will enhance operators’ ability to manage across these changes while also enhancing quality of experience QoE for its customers and accelerating the growth of new revenue streams based on this paradigm. Leveraging such an approach will help operators prepare for the future by extending the reach of their existing service offerings for increased revenue security.

Last month, Videonet released its report on The Hybrid Platform Operator, which looks at the market implications of the hybrid platform operator and considers the challenges in creating what should be a unified service through multiple networks and devices. Issues addressed include matching broadcast quality of experience (QoE) on streaming services, the user experience, integrating over-the-top (OTT) video into the set-top box (STB) offering, the role of adaptive bitrate STBs, and streaming versus broadcast.

Our partner, Verimatrix, had the pleasure of sitting down with John Moulding, the editor of the Videonet report, to discuss the evolution of hybrid network offerings, and the challenges facing hybrid operators today. Following is a transcript of the conversation.

VMX: How has the definition of a “hybrid network” evolved over the last couple of years? How would you define a hybrid network today?

JM: The most important change is that we have to account for OTT video services — including managed broadband delivery — now. When the industry started talking about “hybrid” it meant a DVB broadcast mechanism plus classic IPTV. An example of this is an IPTV service using their DSL network for video on demand (VOD), but the local DTT bouquet as the linear channel offering.

This kind of hybrid service is not that common but it is becoming more commonplace to see a broadcast service combined with OTT/broadband. An example of this is a satellite operator using their satellite DVB-S/S2 signals for linear TV and broadband to deliver VOD into IP-connected DVRs.

The really big change, now underway, is that even platform operators who already have a two-way network (like cable) are adding broadband/OTT delivery into their STBs to further enrich the service. Virgin Media in the UK is an example: they offer classic cable VOD, but they are also dedicating DOCSIS bandwidth to broadband video that is delivered into their TiVo DVRs. The broadband is used for catch-up TV, YouTube and for streaming video that is accessible via channel partner apps, among other things. So OTT is not just a way to enable two-way services, it is a way to enrich existing two-way services.

It is probably worth drawing a distinction between a hybrid service (what we would call a hybrid platform operator) and a hybrid network. There are some hybrid networks where an operator uses both cable and IPTV footprint to reach homes, but as a customer you only sit on one footprint or the other. To be defined (by us) as a hybrid service/operator, there needs to be more than one network input into the customer premise equipment.

VMX: What are the biggest challenges facing hybrid platform operators?

JM: If we are talking about OTT/broadband delivery as the second part of the “hybrid” (by far the most interesting version of hybrid today), a key challenge is to ensure that the services you offer via this “pipe” meet the high expectations that TV viewers have when turning on a STB. We are all used to television just working, for pictures to look great (especially if you get HDTV) and for them to remain consistent.

You need to ensure that the service blends easily into the overall television package, so that people can access streaming video (including catch-up TV) easily. This user experience is where platform operators can differentiate themselves from pure-play OTT services and smart TV vendors, so it should be (and is) a major focus area. And depending on what content you want to deliver via broadband, the content protection must be up to the job.

VMX: How can operators overcome these challenges and position their company for success?

JM: While operators might not be able to offer the same quality of experience (QoE) as classic TV today when using OTT, they must make that an ambition. Guaranteeing the bitrates for the OTT services is a good start and clearly the quality of the content delivery network (CDN) arrangements and video compression are going to impact what is possible within the bandwidth that is available.

The new generation of pay-TV platforms (e.g. Virgin Media TiVo) and indeed the next-generation free-to-air platforms (like YouView and Freesat’s in the UK) are all addressing the user experience (UEX) challenge. They are using backwards-facing electronic program guides (EPGs), Now/Next, Search and apps, etc. to help people find streamed on-demand content easily. There is a distinct feeling that all the content is in one place — and the source of the content is hidden.

When it comes to content protection, you need studio confidence in the quality of the digital rights management (DRM) implementations on broadband, and the best solutions seem to manage conditional access (CA) and DRM in one place and translate business rules into entitlements for multiple DRMs while removing most of the complexity from the platform operator. Unified content protection management becomes even more important once you start throwing in multiscreen services, which also use OTT and could well use the same video streaming that is delivered to a STB.

VMX: How can operators differentiate their pay-TV offerings from those of their competitors?

JM: When it comes to the broadcast/OTT hybrid, the most obvious way to differentiate is the addition of VOD and catch-up TV if you are currently relying on a one-way broadcast network, like satellite. This is a potential game-changer if you are in competition with two-way providers like cable and IPTV.

If there is a level playing field, in the sense that all providers now offer VOD (including any broadband delivered content) then you can differentiate by the volume and quality of the content available via OTT, whether that is the number of catch-up TV channels or the number of compelling content-rich apps.

The more important the OTT delivered content becomes to consumers (and catch-up TV, if nothing else, will ensure we do start to rely on it more) the more important QoE becomes. This can be a differentiator, assuming competitors neglect it, although there is clearly a point where ‘good enough is good enough’ and a triple-play consumer is not going to churn in order to get a 10% improvement in their catch-up picture quality. But if only one provider in a market can give you a reliable catch-up TV service on a 32-inch screen and everywhere else it pixelates, then this could be a competitive weapon.

VMX: What was the most surprising discovery when talking with industry experts for The Hybrid Platform Operator report?

JM: We have been excited about ‘Pay-TV Lite’ services since they started to appear. These are OTT bouquets offered by existing pay-TV operators and targeted at new homes, rather than existing subscribers. NOW TV from Sky in the UK is a great example, offering movies and sports on a per-month (and even per-day for sports) subscription basis.

One surprising insight was that in the U.S. a cable operator is looking to offer an OTT subset of its normal bouquet to persuade cord cutters to come back to them in some form, with the eventual aim of upselling them back to the full ‘traditional’ package. That means they will only use the Pay TV Lite service within their current footprint (because that is the only place you can offer the full package), even though you can, in theory, go off-net with OTT.

I was also surprised at how forthright Guy Bisson, Research Director for Television at IHS Screen Digest, was when he told us that Pay TV Lite platforms like NOW TV are a marker in the sand for pay-TV operators who are hedging their bets in case the world becomes increasingly OTT. We always thought these services were more than just a Netflix-busting movie service, but did not look upon them as a parallel platform that could accommodate an OTT migration.

I was also surprised by the amount of interest there apparently is in using IP/ABR-only (adaptive bit rate) STBs as the primary receive device in pay-TV homes. We were told about one cable operator that is looking to provide a replica cable TV offering via an ABR STB. Ironically this would take us beyond “hybrid” and back to a single delivery system into the customer premise equipment, only this time that single stream is going to be OTT/ABR rather than DVB-C, for example.

To view Videonet’s full report on The Hybrid Platform Operator, sponsored by Verimatrix and RGB Networks, please click here.

If you’ve been following us lately, you’ve probably already guessed that our big focus for this year’s NAB show is ‘Multiscreen 2.0’ and the array of solutions that we offer under this umbrella to help video service providers streamline and monetize their TV Everywhere and OTT offerings.

If you’re going to be in Las Vegas this week, stop by booth #SU5924 for demos of all of our latest and greatest solutions. Here’s a quick list of what you’ll see and you can read more details in this press release.

• High-Density Transcoding without Compromise: RGB’s new, carrier-class VMG Gen 2 performs the industry’s highest capacity real-time transcoding. Tightly integrated with RGB’s TransAct Packager for delivering live video services to any device, this unique pair can scale easily to meet growing demand for multiscreen services. Come see the pristine video quality achieved by the new platform, without compromise.
• nDVR and VOD for Multiscreen: Complementing our powerful live delivery solution, RGB offers a flexible set of options to meet a wide range of on-demand and time-shifting delivery needs. A demonstration will illustrate how RGB’s TransAct Packager and TransAct Encoder/Transcoder support a variety of VOD and nDVR applications.
• Multiscreen Monetization: RGB’s Ad Insertion for Multiscreen (AIM) solution enables VSPs to migrate to a proven model for monetizing video services to the multiscreen environment. RGB will demonstrate the VMG and TransAct Packager delivering three different targeted ads to three separate iPads inserted within the same linear feed.
• Adobe Primetime: As a key Adobe Primetime ecosystem partner, RGB will highlight its TransAct Packager performing Adobe HDS encapsulation. It also supports Adobe Primetime DRM encryption (formerly known as Adobe Access) for secure content delivery.
• Surround Sound for Multiscreen Ad Insertion: This audio demonstration will show the integration of Dolby® Digital Plus with RGB’s AIM ad insertion solution, performing seamless audio bitrate switching across network and ad content, allowing VSPs to deliver surround sound via various adaptive streaming protocols to any device.
• Audio Loudness Correction with DTS Technology: This demonstration will highlight how the DTS/RGB solution takes loudness correction to the next level, ensuring a premium audio experience across all IP devices—both large and small screen. Download this white paper for more information now >>
• OTT Swipe from Siemens: RGB will highlight an exciting new technology – OTT Swipe – developed by Siemens Convergence Creators. This web-based “swipe” technology allows users to quickly and easily move video content from a mobile device to a TV and back again with the swipe of a hand. Together with RGB’s multiscreen transcoding, packaging and ad insertion, VSPs can deliver an exceptional user experience to their subscribers. Come use the swipe technology yourself and learn about end-to-end multiscreen solutions, brought to you by Siemens.

We hope to see you in Las Vegas!

With only days to go until the hottest mobile event of the year, it’s time to turn our attention to the phenomenon that is Mobile World Congress.

Every year the event draws thousands of visitors to Barcelona, all wanting to see first hand the latest and greatest that the mobile industry has to offer (last year we predicted more high-quality video on more devices). Whether it’s a new handset or tablet, a new app, or a new way of getting that all-important video content on to one or more mobile devices, Mobile World Congress is a must for anyone and everyone associated with mobile.

Over the past 12 months the mobile industry has continued to thrive, with video coming on strong as a must-have service addition. According to Cisco’s latest mobile data forecast, mobile video traffic accounted for more than half of all wireless data usage by the end of 2011, and is expected to increase 25-fold by 2016 to account for more than 70% of total mobile data traffic. With this projected growth, operators are well-advised to ready their networks for mobile video delivery or be left behind.

And with the broadcasting calendar already jam packed over the year ahead – the Summer Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Euro 2012 (that’s soccer for our American friends) – there is a real near-term opportunity for operators to capitalize on subscribers’ desire to view video anytime and anywhere on their mobile device of choice. If you’re looking to reap the rewards of TV Everywhere and deliver those “mobile moments” to your subscribers, it is absolutely essential that your infrastructure is ready and geared up for these monumental events.

With many multiscreen IP video deployments under our belt with major operators in Europe and around the world, the team at RGB Networks can make this happen quickly and smoothly. We will be available at Mobile World Congress to review our solutions and explain how you can turn your mobile video goals into a reality. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us to schedule a private meeting in our suite. Hope to see you there!

It seems the beginning of the year brings two things—an endless slate of college football bowl games and everyone’s lists of trends in the broadband industry. Last week, we revealed our top ten predictions for 2012. We’re always eager to compare notes with the broadband press, so we eagerly awaited CED Magazine’s annual “Broadband 50”—the top trends and benchmarks as determined by CED’s learned editors and “high-ranking industry execs.” Not surprisingly, they chose a number of topics related to IP video—a subject near and dear to us at RGB:

#1 – IP Migration: A perfect circle: IP continues its inexorable progression to being the basis of all the services operators offer, not just video. The pace is quickening though as operators realize they can take advantage of the flexibility and economic advantages of IP to expand their TV Everywhere services.

#6 – Multiscreen on the move: TV Everywhere has left the proverbial drawing board for real-world mobile devices, and though not fully ready for primetime, advanced trials and early deployments are progressing nicely thanks to second generation transcoding and adaptive streaming technologies.

#12 – Transcoding for multiscreen: So many different viewing platforms, so many different screen sizes, so many different networks, and programming coming to headends in both MPEG-2 and H.264 – you bet TV Everywhere requires transcoding, and a lot of it (no complaints here!).

#20 – Putting the advertising puzzle together: Interactive “clickable” ads remain poised to move from trials into the mainstream, as are hyper-targeted ads, a leading-edge revenue booster we first discussed here.

#24 – Adaptive bit rate streaming: The secret sauce for seamless video delivery to mobile devices and PCs, adaptive streaming compensates for the bandwidth fluctuations inherent in today’s overburdened networks. Now a requirement for streaming video, look for more announcements from RGB in 2012 on additions that enhance our adaptive streaming solution.

#26 – TV Everywhere: Waiting game: Live TV on smartphones and tablets remains the next big thing. The technology is in place and we’ve had success in many trials in 2011, but it’s the content rights that are holding the industry back from full-scale deployments. With recent developments in this area, we believe the waiting game will soon be over.

It’s clear that IP video delivery will remain at the forefront of the broadband industry in 2012, with developments on both the technology and contents sides pushing it ahead. We look forward to helping make video a key component of the new mobile lifestyle for consumers around the globe.

Not to be left out of the trend of posting a trends blog, we’ve put together a round-up of the key trends in IP video that we expect to see over the year ahead. Here are our top 10 predictions for 2012:

1. Increase in uptake of multiscreen IP video services

Over the coming year we can only expect the uptake of multiscreen solutions to continue increasing. With a greater number of IP devices available on the market than ever before (just take a look at what next week’s CES holds in store for us…if you have any doubts), operators are going to continue to be pushed by consumers to up the ante on their TV Everywhere offerings.

2. Content remains king

Even as this posting was being written, things were changing in the world of content rights and we expect to see more. With Comcast and Charter signing significant content deals this week for multiscreen delivery, the landscape is shifting, opening up the floodgates for larger deployments of TV Everywhere services—declared by Neil Smit, president and chief executive of Comcast’s cable division, to be “…the future of entertainment.”

3. Accelerated opportunities presented by the Olympics

The London Olympics is going to present a massive broadcast opportunity in 2012 with content streamed all over the globe. Network infrastructure will have to be ready and advertising solutions firmly in place if operators are going to truly capitalize on the opportunities available. And not too far on the heels of London, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will greatly accelerate the deployment of new television services in Eastern Europe (which we expect to be in evidence at the upcoming CSTB show in Moscow in February).

4. Advertising ups and downs

Talk of a double-dip recession will continue over the coming year, and with this will come concerns over the fate of the advertising market. New market opportunities, such as those presented by multiscreen strategies and adaptive streaming technologies, should work to alleviate these fears.

5. Social TV/second screen strategies will increase in use

The increased adoption of multiscreen strategies has led to changes in not only where content is viewed, but also how it is consumed in the home. A recent study by Ovum, a business/technology research firm in the U.K., found that almost 40% of TV viewers discuss particular TV shows via social media while they’re watching them. Adopting a ’second screen strategy’ will become the norm going into 2012 and operators will look to capitalize on this trend to encourage further loyalty and buy-in to programming.

6. Increase in sales of connected TVs

Research in this area suggests that this market is set to increase exponentially. According to Digital TV Research’s Connected TV Forecast report, the number of TV sets connected to the internet will reach 551 million by 2016, up from 124 million in 2010, bringing the IP video experience to the traditional living room TV (not to mention intense competition amongst manufacturers—especially if rumors of an Apple TV are true).

7. Increasing struggle to maintain subscriber loyalty

The competition is only going to increase further as more content is available and operators struggle to maintain loyalty in an ever crowded market. Traditional video service providers must deploy new services that support subscribers’ on-the-go digital lifestyle.

8. Standards still not standard

We expect to see progress in two important standards areas this year. A new adaptive streaming standard—MPEG DASH—has just been approved as a draft standard, with publication expected this March. We will be sharing some thoughts on the adoption of this new standard in a blog to be posted later this month. The second important area for standards development is for multiscreen ad insertion. After years of investment in SCTE standards, it will be important to integrate them with new adaptive streaming ad insertion techniques.

9. Working together

As you might imagine, delivering hundreds of streams to an ever-increasing number of devices isn’t an easy task—there are a lot of parts that must work smoothly together to ensure the reliable and efficient delivery of multiscreen IP video services. We closed out last year with the formation of a consortium of companies that delivers a best-of-breed multiscreen solution. We expect to see a lot of cooperation (by us and others) to continue to build out integrated solutions, adding new pieces as the ecosystem evolves and ensuring that operators have a proven solution for meeting their IP video goals.

10. Live TV continues to make its mark

Consumers may have benefited from the advent of on-demand services and this has altered the way that content is consumed, however, live TV continues to play a major part in consumers’ viewing habits. With competition-based shows like X Factor, American Idol, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars that encourage voters to watch in real time, live sports and award show remaining as popular as ever, and the growing engagement of social TV tied into all of the above, live TV will certainly continue to hold its own.

What do you think about these trends? Do you agree with us? What have we missed? As always share your thoughts with us here!

2011 has been a year of huge video moments. From the global screening of the UK’s Royal wedding, to the US’s equivalent, and from YouTube clips of national uprisings, to televised footage tracking the global Occupy movement—it has all been captured on camera and broadcast around the globe throughout 2011 on an increasing variety of screens.

In the world of RGB Networks, while the landmarks may not have not been as politically significant, there have certainly been many notable moments!

In the last of our blog postings for 2011, we have taken a look back over the year, and rounded up our top ten moments from 2011:

10. The Wall Street Journal ranks RGB as 13th most promising company in the U.S.

RGB was selected from a pool of more than 5,000 eligible start-ups to be recognized as one of the 50 most promising venture-backed companies in the U.S. What a way to begin the year!

9. Showing them what we’ve got

Providing us with the opportunity to meet with old friends and engage with new customers, trade shows are a huge part of RGB’s yearly calendar, but this year’s shows were a particular success. RGB stepped boldly into the mobile market at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where the announcement of many new video-enables devices helped ensure the future of mobile video. We made a huge splash at IBC with an abundance of operator interest in our multiscreen solutions and extensive coverage in the coveted IBC Show Daily. And we closed out the year with crowds of visitors at the SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo seeking out help to meet their multiscreen video challenges (and that’s only a few highlights!).

8. Award accolade awesomeness

This year saw a continuation of 2010’s award winning streak with multiple accolades received. From shortlists to award wins, RGB Networks has done it all in 2011. The trophy cabinet is simply bursting at the seams!

7. Adaptive streaming hits its stride

We saw increasing focus on adaptive streaming, with our customers taking significant interest in our TransAct Packager—praised by many operators for its numerous unrivalled attributes—and designing it into their IP video deployments.

6. It’s all about the money

Providers started considering ways in which to monetize their multiscreen offerings. This has ultimately led to an increased interest in advertising and second screen strategies as potential investors consider how to make a viable return on their investments.

5. Accelerated growth

Due to the strong worldwide demand for our next generation solutions, RGB’s lifetime product shipments propelled past $200 million early in the year. The pace of RGB’s growth is accelerating as we completed our second $100 million in shipments in two years compared to over three years for the first $100 million.

4. Making the Forbes top list

RGB’s sustained success was recognized by top business publication, Forbes magazine, with RGB named as one of America’s 100 most promising companies. It’s nice to not only be recognized for our technology leadership, but also for the strength of our overall business.

3. The birth of eVIA

In September, RGB Networks announced the launch of its Enhanced Video Intelligence Architecture (eVIA), a suite of products and technologies that provides for the integrated delivery and monetization of video to multiple screens over adaptive streaming delivery protocols with hyper-targeted ad insertion capabilities. This architecture represents the future of IP video delivery.

2. Customer deployments aplenty

This year RGB Networks was selected by the majority of top U.S. and Canadian cable and telco operators for their trials and deployments of multiscreen services, showing the excellence of RGB’s technology and the company’s strength in IP video delivery. European operators also recognized the advantages of RGB’s unique solutions, with Waoo! and Swisscom Broadcast, among others, going live with RGB-powered multiscreen deployments.

1. Multi-screen, multi-fabulous

Multiscreen solutions dominated industry headlines this year and even reached mainstream tech trends as TV Everyone becomes a common term. As the proliferation of tablet devices continues and consumer video consumption habits change, providers have increasingly become aware of the need to diversify their offerings to incorporate a multiscreen strategy.

And there you have it – our list of our top ten favorite 2011 moments! As always, we invite you to share your thoughts.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to welcoming you back in 2012!

Those of you who visited with us at IBC last month got the first peek at our new Enhanced Video Intelligence Architecture (eVIA) ecosystem for the delivery and monetization of multiscreen IP video services. This first-of-its-kind architecture, incorporating adaptive bitrate ad insertion for hyper-targeting, gained significant attention from operators.

With TelcoTV 2011 marking eVIA’s debut on this side of the pond, we expect to have some interesting conversations with telecom operators in New Orleans this week.

And never a company to rest on our laurels, we’re enhancing our multiscreen solution for our North American customers by working with itaas, a well-established system integrator, and Verimatrix, a specialist in securing and enhancing revenue for multiscreen digital TV services. With extensive expertise and best-of-breed products, together we’re offering a TV Everywhere solution that allows service providers to quickly and cost-effectively deploy a complete multiscreen IP video service for streaming live video to any device, without the headache of piecing it together on their own. We’ll be giving a demonstration of this solution at our booth—#233—at TelcoTV.

We invite you stop by to learn how you can easily transition your network for the delivery of any video to any device. And if you need more motivation, we can offer you a cocktail (or two) during the booth crawl, starting at 4:30 on Wednesday, October 26. We look forward to seeing you.

Believe it or not, cable vendors have their own “Oscars”—or at least that’s how we think of Broadband Technology Report’s prestigious annual Diamond Technology Reviews. Much like the esteemed “Academy”, the “Diamonds” are judged by a distinguished panel of senior executives and lead engineers from major cable operators—key decision makers who have deployed cable equipment in the real world.

For this year’s Diamond competition, RGB submitted two recently upgraded products for review. First was the latest addition to our industry-leading Video Multiprocessing Gateway line—the VMG-8. As operators scramble to deploy and enhance their TV Everywhere services—expanding their delivery of video content to a plethora of mobile devices—they find the VMG’s mix of density, capacity, scalability and a rich feature set well–suited to their growing multiscreen requirement. Like its family members, the VMG-8 is a highly reliable, future-proof transcoding platform capable of performing the range of codec, format and resolutions changes required to deliver video to any device over any network with pristine picture quality.

We also entered the VMG’s companion product, the TransAct Packager, our advanced adaptive streaming solution which segments and packages MPEG-4/H.264 streams into the Apple, Microsoft and Adobe HTTP streaming formats. Praised by our customers as a very unique offering, the TransAct Packager is also leading the way into a new world of hyper-targeted IP ad insertion—ad placement localized down to not just a neighborhood, but to an individual, which, as we’ve talked about, represents higher potential revenue for video service providers everywhere.

The BTR Diamond judges awarded the VMG-8 4 Diamonds and the TransAct Packager received a nearly as impressive 3.5 Diamonds. With all the Diamonds our award-winning products have racked up over the years, our trophy case is starting to look almost as impressive as Steven Spielberg’s mantle. However, we’re proud to say that our VMG/TransAct Packager combination doesn’t just look good on the red carpet—as our many customers will attest, it will deliver in your network as well.

So, before we thank the Academy, we’d like to invite you to learn more at the upcoming TelcoTV and Cable-Tec Expo trade shows. Please stop by our booths for a demonstration.