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Tag: Amagi

  • Amagi debuts machine-learning powered content-preparation suite

    Amagi debuts machine-learning powered content-preparation suite

    MUMBAI: Amagi, a cloud-based technology provider for media processing, has launched Tornado, a machine learning-based content preparation service that enables TV networks and content owners to scale their operations and accelerate broadcast workflows.

    Over the last three years, the broadcast industry has had to evolve significantly due to a rise in multi-screen content consumption, demands for “here and now” content and a shift in how consumers are viewing content as more consumers move from cable to over-the-top (OTT) services.

    In such an evolving scenario, TV networks, content owners and digital-first networks are creatively trying to grab a piece of the action by trying new mediums and delivery methods to provide better experiences to consumers while streamlining costs and operations. Content preparation, however, continues to require pain-staking hours of manual work and massive overhead costs.

    Compared to traditional manual content preparation, the company claims that the suite is nearly six times more efficient, allowing broadcasters free up capital and streamline workflows.

    Tornado is a cloud-based machine learning-augmented content preparation suite that tackles content preparation challenges head-on. It is conceptualised as a suite of machine learning-based content preparation services that dynamically evolve as machines learn more about each segment of a video asset as they process higher volumes of content. Tornado can cater to the unique preparation needs of TV networks, content owners, vMVPD platforms, and digital-first networks with the company planning to continually expand the suite functionality and capabilities to optimise the entire broadcast workflow.

    “Given how competitive broadcasting has gotten today, it has never been more important for broadcasters to be able to optimise their operations and spends,” Amagi CEO Deepakjit Singh said.

    Also Read:

    Emerald Media buys minority stake in Global Sports Commerce

    Geo-targeting eliminates ad wastage says Amagi’s Subramanian

  • Amagi names Deepakjit Singh as CEO

    Amagi names Deepakjit Singh as CEO

    MUMBAI: Amagi, , today announced that it has named Deepakjit Singh as its Chief Executive Officer. With nearly 30 years of experience in broadcast technology – including executive positions at Encompass, Ascent Media, Bharti Airtel and BT – Deepakjit has been brought in to increase the footprint of Amagi across the globe. He will be closely working with the team to continue and expedite its impressive growth trajectory, particularly in the U.S. where the company expects rapid growth this year following its official launch in the region in late 2017.

    “Deepakjit is one of the most well-regarded leaders in broadcast technology today,” said K.A. Srinivasan, Co-Founder of Amagi. “And, he will be a huge part of helping Amagi build upon its global success, especially within the U.S. and other rapidly evolving markets. We are really excited to have him on board.”

    Amagi is a first-of-its-kind, true end-to-end cloud playout and managed services provider. Amagi’s products, based on ‘in-the-cloud’ technology and infrastructure, make it possible for content providers to reach their consumers anywhere across the world and on any device of consumer’s choice without the upfront expense of satellite or fiber-based delivery. Content creators can use Amagi’s CLOUDPORT to easily spin up new channels and deliver them to any location, using the cloud, which delivers tremendous benefits in terms of worldwide manageability and cost savings.

    “Amagi’s technology is second to none,” said Deepakjit Singh. “Globally, there is a huge void in the media industry to provide distribution capabilities to content owners for both linear TV and non-linear video consumption market. With its technology, Amagi is perfectly positioned to fill this gap, delivering enviable business outcomes to broadcasters addressing their playout operations, management and monetization needs. I’m thrilled to spearhead Amagi’s growth and position into being the technology and service provider of choice for the new-age – anywhere, anytime – content consumer.”

    Prior to joining Amagi, Deepakjit served as Chief Innovation Officer at Encompass, and Managing Director for APAC region where he grew the company’s business exponentially. Earlier, Deepakjit served as VP of Sales and Marketing at Ascent Media following a stint as SVP at Bharti Airtel.

    Founded in 2008, Amagi offers cloud-managed broadcast services and targeted advertising for TV and OTT, enabling TV networks to launch, operate, and monetize channels anywhere in the world. Amagi now has deployments in more than 40 countries and delivers over 100 feeds to audiences worldwide. Clients include industry heavyweights such as Turner, VICELAND, Scripps Networks, Cinedigm and more.

    “The US is an incredibly attractive and competitive marketplace, and it augurs well that we have hit the ground running in the region, thus far. We expect over a third of our revenue to come from the US market in 2018, so continuing our growth here will be huge moving forward. And with Deepakjit now in the fold, we believe we are in an even better place to continue our success worldwide in 2018,” added Srinivasan.

    For more information about Amagi and its cloud-based broadcast solutions, visit www.amagi.com.

  • “Competition in OTT solutions is what makes it exciting:” Amagi’s Baskar Subramanian

    “Competition in OTT solutions is what makes it exciting:” Amagi’s Baskar Subramanian

    Founded in 2008, Bengaluru-hqed broadcasting, cloud and OTT ad and tech solutions provider Amagi is a homegrown outfit that is slowly and steadily making its mark globally, thanks to its innovative tech prowess.  With offices in New York, London and Hong Kong, and its R&D lab in Bangalore,  Amagi has made  deployments in over 40 countries and delivers more than 80 feeds to audiences worldwide. Its client roster features some big ticket premium players like: Discovery Communications (for DSport), Vice (for its Viceland channel),  Turner, AMC, IMG and B4U.

    Like previous years, the company is exhibiting at the global broadcast and OTT ecosystem confab, IBC in Amsterdam. Among the tech solutions it is showcasing at the exhibition include:  Cloudport channel Playout, Thunderstorm OTT Ad insertion, and Storm TV localization.

    Indiantelevision.com’s Kirti Chauhan had a brief conversation with Amagi CEO Baskar Subramanian about the company’s participation in IBC as well as on its journey so far. Excerpts from the interview: 

     

    What are the innovations you are bringing to IBC 2017?
    This time we are carrying two big innovations. First is related to machine learning capabilities or we call it the new deep learning capabilities, the artificial intelligence approach. For the first time, we are announcing products and services that would leverage machine learning capabilities to create new services. For example, we are demonstrating the  sports highlight feature.

    In a 90 minutes live soccer match, as soon as the match completes, a video editor identifies and creates a 10-15 minutes highlight show removing injuries, fouls and much more non-highlight things.

    But, Amagi has created a system that can automatically spit out 10 minutes highlights without worrying about missing the key factors.

    This is one step in the evolution of the bunch of services we are bringing in, which is going to transform how content is processed more in terms of live as well as VOD content.

    The new capabilities allow us to create promos, key frames, and much more with the help of our new solutions, which are done manually today.

    The second big innovation is the auto ad detection capability. It is an OTT offering. We have created a mechanism that can identify an ad and content separately so that each can be monetized on an individual basis.

     

    What is the amount of investment put in the technologies, which you are showcasing at IBC 2017?

    Amagi has raised $60 million to date and a large part of these funds are used on technology and research and development from the past six years. The products and innovations which we are going to present in IBC 2017 are a result of that R&D. We have raised  $35 million earlier in this year from KKR Emerald Media.

     

    How much traction has your ad insertion solution got globally?

    The total amount of ad insertion transaction we have done is close to about $30 million.

     

    You are entering a competitive market in OTT end-to-end solutions. Comment.

    There are three different parts specifically to the OTT value chain today. Looking at it from the technology standpoint, there is a need for OTT platform, that is, first, the software infrastructure, users interface towards the customers and the interaction with the customers. That is the whole customer related platform which is the online platform.

    Second is the advertising monetization, which is a separate piece of managing the monetization part. And third is video back pulling which is bringing the content into the system.

    Amagi basically focuses on its strength –  which is ad monetization as well as video back and forth today. We work with multiple different online platforms.

    Yes, it is a competitive market and that is the exciting part. The market is growing dramatically in this segment. Many different players from different parts of the globe are getting into this particular space.

     

    Who is your target clientele for live streaming online?

    Our target clientele is everybody who is into live streaming of any sort of content. One bunch is the large professional  sports TV channels. Another bunch of clients we are targeting is Youtube stars and wannabes. Those who already exist on Youtube space now are looking to create live events and sessions.

    We have few clients worldwide who have started to look at it and lot more is going to happen in the next few months, where we will be seeing digital first companies becoming great consumers of live streaming capabilities on the internet.

    For example, we already have channels that are using Amagi’s infrastructure for live sports. In India, DSport,  a Discovery Communications sports channel, is run by Amagi. We are handling their live content day in and day out. Content coming in from worldwide is going through our infrastructure where we help them to orchestrate and create live streams for different sports events worldwide. Currently, we are managing their Pakistan vs World XI  match via Bangalore.

     

    How you will take out the interruptions (ad breaks) from the live content that you are demonstrating at IBC2017?

    When an event happens, we take the whole event content into the cloud, and then there is a stream of the event coming as an IP stream or internet stream into the cloud. In the cloud, Amagi can through a browser insert exact points of the ad. For example, if we are watching a cricket match, exactly at the end of an over to put an advertisement, Amagi uses its browser-based approach. Another current example, in the DSport scenario, the satellite uplink is happening in Hong Kong,  the cricket match is happening in Pakistan, the control of the advertising, graphics and sports score card is done in Bangalore.

    Amagi does the effective master control of the whole live stream from the Bangalore master control room on cloud infrastructure. Amagi has built out sophisticated and complex architecture that we are demonstrating at IBC 2017 as our new innovation.

     

    What would be the time lag in the telecasting of the live content?

    From the time the camera captures the event to the time it comes to on any screen is called glass-to-glass latency. In Amagi, the glass-to-glass latency is about 10 seconds.

     

    How have you scaled up to offer these solutions?

    Amagi’s infrastructure has been built from a software architecture standpoint through which we would be able to scale and offer thousands of services. Once, applied on a public cloud infrastructure like Amazon, Microsoft Azure, then it starts scaling up dramatically.

     

    How do you operationalize these channels and run them?

    Amagi uses a lot of automation instead of people and has built automated monitoring capabilities, alerts, and system capabilities. Everything is automated, as much as possible, and we minimize manpower, as well as our scalability, is automatically addressed using machines.

     

    How do you manage monetization?

    Amagi has the technology to identify the location of all the ads breaks on the online television content, which is available on television today. Once it is identified, we connect with ad networks and ad exchanges and sell the advertisements to them.

     

    What is your expectation from these innovations?

    Fundamentally the innovations we are doing are world class and pioneering. We will be probably the only company or one of the companies talking about taking the machine learning and artificial intelligence approach. Also like Google and Microsoft, we will be one of the few companies, which talks about these capabilities for broadcasting as a media business programmer.

     

    Also read:

    Managed Broadcast Services Amagi’s Skylight Cloud Platform

    Amagi wins IBC Innovation Award

    Amagi to provide ad solutions to Sun TV Network

  • Amagi to provide ad solutions to Sun TV Network

    MUMBAI: Sun TV Network with the reach of more than 95 million households in India is commencing its business association with Amagi Media Labs. Amagi offers geo-targeted advertising solutions in 23 channels across 26 markets in India.

    Amagi Media Labs is expanding its offerings by adding new HD channels of Sun TV Network Ltd. to its bouquet of channels who are offered targeted advertising solutions. The channels are — Sun TV HD, KTV HD, Sun Music HD, Gemini TV HD, Gemini Movies HD, Gemini Music HD Udaya TV HD & Surya TV HD, to help advertisers reach out to the niche Southern India audience. All HD channels from SUN TV network carry the same content as their SD counterpart.

    Using Amagi’s technology, SUN TV network will monetise HD feed by separating HD feed from SD feed for which Amagi will have exclusive rights to sell.

    Sun TV (SD) is leading Tamil GEC channel garners over a billion impressions every week with close to 90 per cent reach across TN. Sun TV HD has 40 per cent viewership from Chennai, 17 per cent from Bangalore and 43 per cent from Rest of TN.

    KTV is a 24-hour Tamil movie television channel featuring Tamil films. KTV HD has 37 per cent viewers from Chennai, 15 per cent from Bangalore and 48 per cent from rest of TN.

    Sun Music is a 24-hour music channel that features popular Tamil film music. Sun Music HD has 32 per cent viewers from Chennai, 2 per cent from Bangalore and 66 per cent from rest of TN.

    Gemini TV is the leading Telugu television channel which is part of the Sun TV Network. The channel’s programming includes big ticket fictions, films, film-based programs, and game shows. Gemini TV HD has 6 per cent viewers from Hyderabad, 92 per cent from rest of AP and 2 per cent from Bangalore.

  • Omnicom’s Amol Dighe joins Amagi as business head

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media Labs, a global media technology and leading ad-tech company in India, has appointed Amol Dighe as the business head.

    A seasoned media professional, Dighe has worked on all sides of the value chain – client, agency and media owner. His expertise runs across buying, planning, negotiation and strategy; developing business systems with deep strength in analytical, organisational and managerial experience. His mandate with Amagi spans across channel strategy and media buying along with growing and adding new revenue streams targeted at both national and regional advertisers.

    Commenting on the appointment, Amagi Media Labs co-Baskar Subramanian said, “Amagi is geared up for the next level of growth. We have set ourselves a clear goal to expand our channel footprint for providing geo-targeted advertising solutions, scale Amagi MIX e-commerce platform for media planning and buying and create innovative ways to add media efficiencies for large advertisers by ad versioning. Amol is a terrific addition to our management team and I am confident that with his expertise we will be able to grow profitably and build a robust business foundation for future.”

    Prior to joining Amagi, Amol Dighe was the Head of investment for Omnicom Media Group Holdings (OMD) India and led the strategic insight and analysis over the OMD and PHD investment portfolio. Dighe has worked in Jakarta in a leadership role with Mindshare. He has also worked with Unilever in a regional buying and operations role for the Asia Pacific Region. He has also worked with Star TV as vice president – sales strategy, and Group M India.

  • Managed Broadcast Services embraces Amagi’s Skylight Cloud Platform

    MUMBAI: Amagi, the leader in cloud broadcast infrastructure and targeted advertising for TV and OTT, today announced the launch of Skylight, the first-of-its-kind, cloud-managed broadcast services platform positioned to redefine the managed playout services industry. Skylight offers TV networks cloud-led, end-to-end services encompassing content preparation, channel playout, content delivery, and monetisation for both linear TV and OTT for maximum efficiency. The Skylight services platform embodies a philosophy of simplicity, transparency, and automation.

    “Traditional managed service providers have archaic systems and their lack of innovation is limiting the possibilities for TV networks. They are labor-intensive, large physical operations, and from the perspective of TV networks, opaque in many ways,” said K.A. Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi. “We’re breaking new ground by adopting future-ready cloud technologies that add advanced automation to accelerate broadcast workflows, provide complete transparency through a web-based UI, and make it absolutely simple for broadcasters to operate channels.”

    Unlike traditional managed service providers, Amagi Skylight uses public cloud infrastructure to push broadcasters’ content to the cloud and then centrally manages the entire broadcast workflow. Skylight packs in cognitive capabilities and machine learning techniques to reduce human intervention wherever possible. These aspects drive scalability and increase broadcast efficiencies.

    Amagi’s Skylight uses a differentiated partner-centric approach to help TV networks get better choice and cost effectiveness – be it for creative services including subtitling, voice over, and post-production or delivery services over fiber and satellite. By giving a wide swathe of choice of partners and on-demand infrastructure, Amagi provides better cost efficiency and agility to its customers.

    “What makes Skylight truly an end-to-end service is our extensive expertise in monetizing content through targeted advertising on TV and dynamic, personalized ad insertion on OTT. This makes Skylight an attractive proposition for TV networks, not just for operational efficiencies but also for revenue generation,” added Srinivasan.

  • Amagi roped in for Colors Kannada & Marathi ad solutions

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media labs has added Colors Kannada and Colors Marathi to its expanding bouquet of channels offering geo-targeted advertising solution.

    This partnership will offer advertisers an opportunity to market region-specific products, communicate regional offers and promotions, and increase the share of voice by targeting markets such as Bangalore and rest of Karnataka, and Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. With this addition, Amagi’s channel strength has increased to 18 channels across entertainment, news, movies and music genres.

    Viacom18 regional channels sales senior VP Bikash Kundu said, “The partnership with Amagi will enable our national, regional, and new advertisers to reach region specific audience with targeted messaging in a cost-effective manner.”

    Amagi Media Labs co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “We anticipate an incredible scope for growth of geo-targeted TV advertising in the country.”

  • Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    MUMBAI: Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by the leading global investment firm KKR, has been keen to invest in the media and entertainment sector. Today, it announced acquisition of a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs (‘Amagi’), the leader in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure.

    Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji (an existing shareholder), is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary US$35 million (Rs 237 crore/ 2.4 billion) Series D round. Mayfield India and Nadathur Holdings will continue to remain invested in Amagi.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives. Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 30 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, Amagi is a next-generation media technology company providing cloud-based managed broadcast services and targeted advertising platforms to customers, worldwide. Amagi enables TV networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms. Using Amagi’s patented technologies, advertisers can target audiences at a regional level across traditional TV and OTT multiscreen platforms.

    Amagi has today scaled up to be one of India’s largest TV ad networks, playing around a million ad seconds every month on premium TV channels. With numerous installations of Amagi’s playout and edge insertion servers around the world, they are already a global force in the broadcasting technology domain. Amagi has deployments in over 30 countries for leading TV networks and is India’s largest TV Ad network supporting more than 3,000 brands.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “Emerald Media has a strong understanding of the TV broadcast industry and the OTT space. Their domain expertise and regional and global media relationships will help us further leverage the transition of the TV broadcasting industry to the cloud and expand our international footprint.”

    Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat said, “Amagi has harnessed the transformative power of technology (both hardware and software) to change the way TV networks and brands perceive content delivery and monetisation. Emerald will assist Amagi in driving this change by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth.”

    Emerald Media MD Paul Aiello added, “Baskar, Srinivasan and Srividhya are the pioneers of targeted-TV advertisement in India. Amagi’s high degree of workflow automation make TV networks future-ready compared to traditional models.”

  • Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    MUMBAI: Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by the leading global investment firm KKR, has been keen to invest in the media and entertainment sector. Today, it announced acquisition of a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs (‘Amagi’), the leader in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure.

    Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji (an existing shareholder), is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary US$35 million (Rs 237 crore/ 2.4 billion) Series D round. Mayfield India and Nadathur Holdings will continue to remain invested in Amagi.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives. Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 30 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, Amagi is a next-generation media technology company providing cloud-based managed broadcast services and targeted advertising platforms to customers, worldwide. Amagi enables TV networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms. Using Amagi’s patented technologies, advertisers can target audiences at a regional level across traditional TV and OTT multiscreen platforms.

    Amagi has today scaled up to be one of India’s largest TV ad networks, playing around a million ad seconds every month on premium TV channels. With numerous installations of Amagi’s playout and edge insertion servers around the world, they are already a global force in the broadcasting technology domain. Amagi has deployments in over 30 countries for leading TV networks and is India’s largest TV Ad network supporting more than 3,000 brands.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “Emerald Media has a strong understanding of the TV broadcast industry and the OTT space. Their domain expertise and regional and global media relationships will help us further leverage the transition of the TV broadcasting industry to the cloud and expand our international footprint.”

    Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat said, “Amagi has harnessed the transformative power of technology (both hardware and software) to change the way TV networks and brands perceive content delivery and monetisation. Emerald will assist Amagi in driving this change by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth.”

    Emerald Media MD Paul Aiello added, “Baskar, Srinivasan and Srividhya are the pioneers of targeted-TV advertisement in India. Amagi’s high degree of workflow automation make TV networks future-ready compared to traditional models.”

  • Tentkotta launches linear OTT channel with Amagi

    Tentkotta launches linear OTT channel with Amagi

    MUMBAI: Amagi plans to launch south-Indian linear OTT channel Tentkotta to international markets and expand its SVOD offerings by leveraging Amagi’s Cloudport managed services.

    The new Tentkotta TV is a subscription-based, ad-supported 24/7 linear OTT channel bringing premier South-Indian language content to a global audience. Amagi led the service provider’s transition to a cloud-based broadcast infrastructure in accordance with Tentkotta’s vision to grow its global audience through high-quality content delivered by an unmatched OTT viewing experience.

    “Launching a full-fledged linear OTT channel and expanding our viewer base was a natural progression for us,” said Tentkotta co-founder Varun Kumar. “After evaluating multiple options, we found Amagi Cloudport to be unique in terms of its advanced capabilities, automation, transparency, and control for managing a new channel. Coupled with its 24/7 fully managed service, Cloudport allows us to scale quickly and reliably.”

    Amagi Cloudport is a one-stop managed service that is ideal for launching a pure-play OTT platform such as Tentkotta TV. Amagi set up the entire broadcast workflow — from content preparation to HLS stream generation, playlist management and scheduling, graphics insertion, cloud playout, and delivery to Akamai CDN.

    “As the world’s first cloud-based managed services platform, Cloudport offers unparalleled simplicity, advanced automation, and built-in transparency for TV networks and content owners. The result has been transforming: TV networks can now run and control their broadcast operations, from any remote location,” said Amagi co-founder K.A Srinivasan.

    “Partnering with Tentkotta, we are able to provide their viewers with a world-class content experience that features the highest quality content streamed 24 hours every day.”

    Hosted on a secure Amazon AWS cloud infrastructure, the service caters to both OTT and traditional TV platforms, integrating with third-party partners to stitch a seamless workflow that can be managed through a simple Web-based user interface.