Traditional vendors and newer market entrants have jumped at the opportunity to build platforms and tools that enable communications service providers (CSPs) to deliver the future of video. While this guide is certainly not exhaustive, the following are promising full-suite solutions that can help service providers continue to play in the video space.

Saffron Digital

Saffron Digital offers a comprehensive content management system, storefront services, application design and development as well as a secure proprietary player with built-in DRM. The company has been enabling video delivery for mobile devices since 2007. In 2009, the company expanded its capabilities to focus on the delivery of premium content to smartphones and other devices. Saffron Digital enables CSPs to “deliver premium services at a quicker time to market for a lower cost,” said Dan Peters, SVP, Product Management, in an interview with Pipeline.

Saffron’s solutions are flexible and easily interface with existing systems. “Our platform primarily is an end-to-end platform, but it’s also built as a set of modular services,” explained Peters. “It’s easy to integrate with third parties and a service provider’s own systems.” A common example might be integrating into an existing payment and authentication system. As self-proclaimed “premium content experts,” Saffron Digital manages all of the licensing rules and restrictions and business logic to support all of the needs of the service provider.

Major service providers seem to agree and are leveraging the platform for their next-gen video strategies. Deutsche Telekom, for example, uses Saffron Digital for its VideoRise solution. VideoRise powers the first subscription video on demand (SVOD) service launched in Switzerland. Other notable Saffron Digital customers include KDDI, Sky, and ITV.

Cisco VideoScape

Combine the networking expertise of Cisco with the power of the cloud and a compelling video platform and you get Videoscape. The company calls Videoscape an “experience platform,” explaining that “it powers amazing subscriber experiences that are personalized, synchronized, and more social than ever before, delivering business results to pay TV providers and media companies.”

Cisco officially brought the Videoscape platform into the cloud in January, 2014. Combined with Cisco’s recently announced $1 billion investment in cloud computing, this is a platform to be reckoned with because it addresses infrastructure needs as well as all of the other key elements in the video ecosystem. Videoscape is not a cloud-only solution, however; its software suites can operate across a combination of performance optimized hardware appliances, cloud software, and cloud-service-based deployment options.

There are currently five tools in the Videoscape toolbox: Cisco Videoscape Multiscreen Cloud DVR; Cisco Videoscape Video Everywhere; Cisco Videoscape IP Video Over Cable; Cisco Videoscape Connected Video Gateway; and Cisco Videoscape Express.

Hubert Cariou, Director, Bouygues Telecom, commented on the advantages of Videoscape for service providers in January.“Together with Cisco, we have tested and proven the value of innovative cloud-powered services. With shorter development and deployment intervals for new products, we view cloud as a way to help lower the costs of introducing new services with extremely flexible scalability.”