Charlie Vogt at IBC: "Imagine is not looking for buyers"

At the start of IBC, the CEO of Imagine Communications denies rumors that the company could be for sale, emphasizing investors' total commitment to its future.

During the opening press conference of IBC 2017, which lasted almost an hour and a half, forty minutes were spent by the CEO of Imagine Communications, Charlie Vogt, to deny rumors that the company could be for sale, emphasizing the investors' total commitment to its future.

“I can assure you that Imagine is not looking for buyers, on the contrary, our investors are doubling the capital applied to the company and we are positioning ourselves as buyers,” said the executive. When asked, however, if they were announcing any acquisitions soon, he deflected. "Before, in the golden age of hardware it was much simpler to check what solutions would complement a company's product line. Today, with everything based on software, it becomes more complicated, and this is the main reason why we are not acquiring other companies," he acknowledged.

Inventory management

In terms of products, there are two major releases for IBC 2017. The first is xG GamePlan, a cloud-native booking optimizer designed to improve the efficiency of programming directors. With an intuitive interface and informative dashboard, XG GamePlan simplifies critical tasks by ensuring that all advertising placement opportunities are being monetized without over-delivering and that last-minute campaigns can be planned simply and accurately to achieve the desired results.

The latest addition to Imagine's advanced next-generation ad management portfolio, it provides broadcasters and distributors with a cloud-born inventory optimization engine perfectly configured to increase revenue generation opportunities by meeting audience goals and satisfying buy-side campaign requirements, while consuming the minimum amount of ad airtime.

Ahora más que nunca, las empresas de media que se financian con publicidad están sometidas a una presión extraordinariamente fuerte para maximizar el valor de sus inventarios de anuncios. Las cadenas de televisión, los distribuidores y demás proveedores de franjas para anuncios publicitarios de anunciantes consideran que es fundamental optimizar el tiempo en antena y han fijado, como una de sus principales prioridades, sacar el máximo provecho posible de su inventario.

xG GamePlan is a cloud-born booking optimizer that has been designed to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of scheduling managers. Supported by a powerful and intuitive user interface, the xG GamePlan dashboard greatly simplifies the important task of ensuring that ad placement opportunities are monetized without over-delivery and that even last-minute campaigns can be planned simply and accurately to achieve effective results. The cloud-based xG GamePlan engine introduces advanced scalability to the optimization process, giving program managers the ability to automatically spin up the desired number of instances, in parallel, to find the optimal result in the shortest time.

Versio Platform

Imagine introduces Versio, a modular and highly customizable multimedia process platform designed to enable media companies to optimize their playout and related operations to meet clearly defined business and operational objectives. Versio Platform, on display at IBC 2017, provides content producers and distributors with a set of fully integrated functional blocks to build a fully modernized playout infrastructure that can be tailored to specific operational requirements and easily updated in line with market demand.

Pese a los recientes avances en la viabilidad de las arquitecturas de nueva generación para alojar procesos multimedia de importancia crítica, la mayoría de las soluciones de playout siguen estando optimizados en gran medida para hardware construido para una finalidad específica e instalado en entornos físicos. Versio Platform representa un hito importante en el proceso de modernización continua de las operaciones de playout de Imagine y constituye la primera solución de playout modular, nacida en la nube y basada en microservicios de la industria que ha sido diseñada desde cero para entornos de IP pura y geográficamente dispersos utilizando hardware comercialmente disponible (COTS).

The modular nature of the Versio Platform allows media companies to choose from a variety of deployment models, operating modes and industry-leading capabilities. The platform, for example, allows companies to choose between CapEx and OpEx payment options, as well as different deployment models, including physical, cloud (private or public) or hybrid.

Leveraging Zenium, Imagine's pure microservices technology, Versio Platform achieves its modularity and agility through its born-in-the-cloud design.

Collaboration with Huawei

Imagine está colaborando estrechamente con Huawei para integrar el software de playout IVersio con los equipos informáticos y de red para centros de datos de Huawei. La colaboración entre Imagine y Huawei, cuya sede principal se encuentra en Shenzhen (China), tiene por objeto proporcionar a las compañías de medios una ampliación de las opciones para realizar la transición de sus operaciones de playout a entornos basados en software y virtualizados que funcionen con hardware comercialmente disponible (COTS).

Charlie Vogt said: “The strategic alliance unites two of the most innovative operators in the computing and audiovisual industries to offer media companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and the rest of the world, a broader variety of hardware options to deploy origination and other playout operations in a data center environment.”

The collaboration will initially focus on Versio, Imagine Communications' cloud-born, microservices-based playout solution designed for geographically dispersed, pure IP environments. Versio, a 100% IT solution that supports both physical and cloud-based deployment models, enables media companies to create highly customized multimedia workflows that evolve with market demand.

Huawei demuestra la generación de flujos de trabajo IP con Versio en su stand (13.A06). La demostración incluirá también Selenio, la Plataforma de Convergencia de Medios (MCP) de Imagine con módulos de descompresión en IP (UCIP) para soportar tráfico tanto entrante como saliente basado en la norma ST 2022-6 de SMPTE en un entorno híbrido SDI-IP.

Demostración con BT

Imagine está colaborando con la división de Medios y Comunicación Audiovisual de BT para demostrar cómo se puede utilizar la compresión TICO sin pérdida visual y de bajo coste para aumentar la eficiencia de los circuitos de contribución (de acceso y de retorno) para emitir el contenido más exigente en directo y en UHD.

TICO, el estándar de compresión ligera desarrollado por IntoPix y actualmente apoyado por el consorcio TICO Alliance, que engloba a todo el sector, ofrece un rendimiento sin pérdidas visuales con una compresión de hasta 4:1 y unos resultados extraordinariamente sólidos. La naturaleza compacta de sus algoritmos hace que TICO sea ideal para su implantación en aplicaciones informáticas. Imagine Communications apoyó desde un principio el estándar TICO y otros esquemas de compresión ligera para UHD en Selenio, su plataforma de procesamiento multimedia, incluyendo plena compatibilidad con 4K y HDR UHD.

Imagine en IBC TV

Imagine once again provides the live streaming and Video On Demand (VOD) encoding infrastructure for IBC TV, the news and information service produced on site and distributed on different platforms. IBC TV's infrastructure, built specifically for the show, uses Imagine Communications' software-defined solutions based on Zenium technology, the company's purely microservices platform.

Some content will be produced from the IBC IP Showcase studio, which has a live, all-IP workflow based on the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) consortium roadmap and the ST-2110 family of SMPTE standards. The rest of the production and distribution for IBC TV takes place in a dedicated studio in Hall 13 of the IBC show.

SelenioFlex Live de Imagine proporciona la funcionalidad principal de codificación y transcodificación de IBC TV. La personalización de los flujos de trabajo mediante los componentes de microservicios de Zenium posibilita la generación, gestión y publicación automática de metadatos, garantizando que el contenido esté disponible en forma de paquetes de VOD a la mayor brevedad posible tras su publicación o emisión por streaming en directo en el canal de YouTube de IBC y en sus plataformas en Twitter, Periscope y Facebook. El contenido de VOD es cargado junto con metadatos de producción para permitir una experiencia de reproducción satisfactoria en el sitio web de IBC.