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Tag: Cloudport

  • Amagi acquires OTT recommendation & automation specialist Argoid AI

    Amagi acquires OTT recommendation & automation specialist Argoid AI

    MUMBAI: This is an Indian tech company which has been winning rave views in every market in which it operates. In fact, in most places it is  mistaken for an American firm. Now, Amagi – one of the top companies globally in  cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TVs (CTVs) – is  gearing up to add some more  trophies to its already well-stacked award gallery. The company has acquired Argoid AI – a company specialising in recommendation engines and programming automation for OTT platforms.

    Amagi believes the acquisition strengthens its mission to empower media companies with intelligent content planning, distribution, and monetisation solutions.

    Argoid AI has as developed innovative AI products that enhance content recommendations and enable real-time programming decisions. Its solutions have been pivotal in increasing viewer engagement and optimising channel operations for customers in the streaming media space. By integrating Argoid AI’s advanced algorithms into Amagi’s existing platform, the  acquisition will significantly boost the functionality of Amagi’s product suite, Amagi Now and Cloudport’s offerings, enabling media companies to make faster, smarter, and personalised content scheduling decisions at scale.

    It will also allow Amagi to deepen its AI-powered content programming, metadata enrichment, and recommendation engine services, which are crucial for transforming to personalised streaming as part of the  FAST 2.0 innovation.

    Argoid's founders

    “Amagi has been investing in AI/ML over the last couple of years. We strongly believe in AI/ML’s pivotal role in transforming the media and entertainment industry, creating efficiencies, enhanced monetisation, and a superlative viewer experience,” said Amagi co-founder & CEO  Baskar Subramanian. “With this acquisition, Amagi will integrate Argoid’s AI components into its award-winning cloud solutions, significantly enhancing value for our customers. The combined tech expertise of both companies will address key challenges in the streaming industry, such as content discoverability, viewer retention, and intelligent programming.”  

    Argoid’s founders, Gokul Muralidharan, Soundararajan Velu, and Chackaravarthy E will join the Amagi team, contributing to the future roadmap and further integrating AI into Amagi’s offerings. The three founders have one commonality: they all worked at the Walmart-owned Flipkart in Bengaluru around the same time.

    “We are thrilled to join forces with Amagi, a true leader in media technology,” said Gokul Muralidharan. “This partnership allows us to scale our AI-driven solutions, delivering even greater customer value. Together, we will revolutionise how content is programmed and distributed in the digital era.”

    Amagi provides a complete suite of channel creation, distribution, and monetisation solutions. The company’s clients include some of the world’s biggest names, including Hearst Networks UK, ABS-CBN, Astro, Cox Media Group, DAZN, Globo, Lionsgate Studio, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, and VIZIO.
     

  • “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

  • Chef Kapoor-promoted Food Food bolsters ops with Amagi Cloudport

    MUMBAI: Amagi, a leader in cloud-managed playout services and targeted advertising for TV and OTT, has announced that celebrity master chef Sanjeev Kapoor-promoted food and lifestyle channel, Food Food, has deployed Amagi’s Cloudport edge playout platform to launch its new international feed.

    “Since we launched in 2011, Food Food channel has been building an enviable viewership, not only in India, but also across the U.S., Canada, UAE, Qatar, and Mauritius,” said Sanjeev Kapoor, co-founder and director, Food Food. “However, till now, we had been broadcasting a common feed to all our markets of operations. Owing to popular demand for our programming, creating dedicated international feeds was a natural step in consolidating our position as a food and lifestyle channel of choice.”

    “Using traditional broadcast models, Food Food channel would need to create a separate playout infrastructure for each international market. This would not only be expensive, but it would also limit the channel’s ability to scale rapidly in new markets. In contrast, Amagi Cloudport is a low capex and opex cloud broadcast model, with unprecedented scalability to expand into non-contiguous geographies as needed by Food Food channel,” said K.A. Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi.

    Amagi enabled Food Food channel to push all its content assets to a secure Amazon Web Services cloud. Using a web-based UI, the channel’s operations team was able to import schedules, add dynamic graphics, create playlists, and manage the entire content asset library to create a new international feed. Amagi installed its Cloudport edge playout servers at operator headends. Through a simple business internet connection, playout-ready content was pushed to the edge servers. The server then played out the content as per defined playlists and schedules, offering audiences a feature-rich, world-class playout and viewing experience, in HD format, 24×7.

    The channel’s international feeds using Amagi’s cloud technology are distributed in the U.S. through Dish TV, and in Mauritius via Mauritius Telecom. “Amagi made it simple and cost-effective, helping us to launch entirely new feeds in less than two months. Further, with its edge-based playout architecture, we now have the ability to localize content in the U.S. and Mauritius, and support regional advertisers in the future”, added Kapoor.

    Since all its content is now on the cloud, Food Food channel can easily expand into new geographies, significantly reducing go-to-market timelines. From any remote location, the operations team at Food Food can manage the entire channel operations through a simple, yet sophisticated, web-based UI.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • B4U Television Network chooses Amagi’s Cloudport for global operations

    B4U Television Network chooses Amagi’s Cloudport for global operations

    MUMBAI: Amagi announced that B4U Television Network has now chosen Amagi’s Cloudport 2.0 channel play out platform for its global operations following the successful implementation in India last year. 

     

    Utilizing the next-generation channel playout platform, B4U Television Network is now delivering its popular B4U Movies and B4U Music TV channels in the United States, Canada, Caribbean, U.K., Mauritius, and APAC regions as well as its B4U Aflam and B4U Plus TV channels in the Middle East.

     

    Cloudport provides B4U with an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure that integrates well with satellite and fiber-based delivery models used in certain geographies of the TV network’s operations.

     

    “The traditional playout approach we were using was not only expensive but also restrictive in terms of the lack of ability to scale, accessibility across locations, frequent technology upgrades, and disaster recovery safeguards. We needed a playout solution that would reduce costs without compromising broadcast quality,” said B4U International business head Ashok Shenoy.  

     

    “Transitioning from a traditional playout model to a next-generation cloud infrastructure powered by Amagi’s playout platform has allowed us to be at the forefront of cutting-edge technology adoption. Cloudport increases the flexibility of our broadcast workflow, making it easy for us to deliver content relevant to each region while reducing OPEX and CAPEX.”

     

    “Amagi is proud to be B4U Television Network’s global playout partner. We are delighted to extend the efficiencies, cost savings, and flexibility that Cloudport offers to B4U’s bouquet of channels,” said Amagi co-founder K.A. Srinivasan. “As B4U looks to monetize and expand into new geographies in the future, Amagi will enable new feeds to be launched in less than four weeks, supporting multiple delivery models of cloud, satellite, and fiber with a natural extension to OTT multiscreen experience. This is precisely why Cloudport  is a future-ready playout platform.”

     

    B4U Television Network has migrated all of its content assets previously hosted in legacy data centers to the cloud. In addition to remote asset management and playlist scheduling, Amagi’s Cloudport platform supports advanced dynamic graphics capabilities, enabling B4U Television Network to provide a rich viewing experience to subscribers. This feature is especially useful for B4U’s music and movie channels that feature advanced digital video effects.

     

    With content hosted on the cloud, B4U Television Network has transparent and remote access to the entire play out chain and feed, all from Cloudport’s Web-based user interface. By providing more visibility and control over TV channels, Cloudport makes it easy for the network to manage multiple channels with distribution across disparate regions of the world.

     

    Since Amagi offers seamless integration with third-party scheduling, automation, and asset management systems, B4U was able to quickly adopt the Cloudport platform with minimal changes to its existing workflows. 

  • B4U Television Network chooses Amagi’s Cloudport for global operations

    B4U Television Network chooses Amagi’s Cloudport for global operations

    MUMBAI: Amagi announced that B4U Television Network has now chosen Amagi’s Cloudport 2.0 channel play out platform for its global operations following the successful implementation in India last year. 

     

    Utilizing the next-generation channel playout platform, B4U Television Network is now delivering its popular B4U Movies and B4U Music TV channels in the United States, Canada, Caribbean, U.K., Mauritius, and APAC regions as well as its B4U Aflam and B4U Plus TV channels in the Middle East.

     

    Cloudport provides B4U with an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure that integrates well with satellite and fiber-based delivery models used in certain geographies of the TV network’s operations.

     

    “The traditional playout approach we were using was not only expensive but also restrictive in terms of the lack of ability to scale, accessibility across locations, frequent technology upgrades, and disaster recovery safeguards. We needed a playout solution that would reduce costs without compromising broadcast quality,” said B4U International business head Ashok Shenoy.  

     

    “Transitioning from a traditional playout model to a next-generation cloud infrastructure powered by Amagi’s playout platform has allowed us to be at the forefront of cutting-edge technology adoption. Cloudport increases the flexibility of our broadcast workflow, making it easy for us to deliver content relevant to each region while reducing OPEX and CAPEX.”

     

    “Amagi is proud to be B4U Television Network’s global playout partner. We are delighted to extend the efficiencies, cost savings, and flexibility that Cloudport offers to B4U’s bouquet of channels,” said Amagi co-founder K.A. Srinivasan. “As B4U looks to monetize and expand into new geographies in the future, Amagi will enable new feeds to be launched in less than four weeks, supporting multiple delivery models of cloud, satellite, and fiber with a natural extension to OTT multiscreen experience. This is precisely why Cloudport  is a future-ready playout platform.”

     

    B4U Television Network has migrated all of its content assets previously hosted in legacy data centers to the cloud. In addition to remote asset management and playlist scheduling, Amagi’s Cloudport platform supports advanced dynamic graphics capabilities, enabling B4U Television Network to provide a rich viewing experience to subscribers. This feature is especially useful for B4U’s music and movie channels that feature advanced digital video effects.

     

    With content hosted on the cloud, B4U Television Network has transparent and remote access to the entire play out chain and feed, all from Cloudport’s Web-based user interface. By providing more visibility and control over TV channels, Cloudport makes it easy for the network to manage multiple channels with distribution across disparate regions of the world.

     

    Since Amagi offers seamless integration with third-party scheduling, automation, and asset management systems, B4U was able to quickly adopt the Cloudport platform with minimal changes to its existing workflows. 

  • Amagi deploys Cloudport playout for Magic of Cinema

    Amagi deploys Cloudport playout for Magic of Cinema

    MUMBAI: Amagi, the cloud-based broadcast infrastructure, has announced a full-fledged deployment of its Cloudport Edge Playout servers for Magic of Cinema (MOC), a 24×7 free-to-air movie channel across 17 digital cable platforms.

    Using cloud technologies, Amagi has enabled MOC to launch its channel at a fraction of traditional satellite/fiber infrastructure costs. The entire playout is managed at Amagi’s Data Operations Center in Bengaluru. Amagi’s Cloudport edge servers and its cloud-based unified management user interface has dramatically simplified channel playout across multiple cable platforms for MOC.

    “We evaluated several platforms and finally chose Amagi for its technology superiority and an attractive PaaS business model. It allowed us to avoid high capital expenditure and upfront investment without compromising on the broadcast quality. As our viewership expanded over time, Amagi helped us scale our business giving us the required flexibility and reliability. Amagi has been a true partner in our growth” said MOC CEO Sricharan Iyengar.

    Amagi’s Cloudport platform runs on the cloud, with benefits of unlimited storage and accessibility. Amagi has already implemented its cloud technologies in more than 10 countries covering multi-country feeds. The platform has advanced features such as dynamic graphic overlays and sub-parting that met MOC’s exacting quality and feature requirements.

    “MOC is a fast growing movie channel with a line-up of rich and contemporary content. Amagi’s advanced technology platforms coupled with uninterrupted 24×7 playout and monitoring service has successfully and consistently met MOC’s evolving needs. We are very positive about MOC’s potential and Amagi is fully equipped to support the channel’s growth aspirations” said Amagi cofounder Srividhya Srinivasan.

    MOC has a wide array of over 1,500 Hindi cinemas, and is available on leading digital cable platforms including Hathaway, DEN, Siticable, UCN and Incable.