Fernando Bittencourt, CTO, TV Globo, has deployed Videoscape in Brazil, and it is widening its portfolio as a result. “Our collaboration with Cisco is helping us to advance our service capabilities in a number of areas, including exploring cloud-powered, second-screen video experiences. Our successful deployment of the video application for The Voice Brasil has us excited about the possibilities to deliver similar experiences to our customers for even more programs to come.”  

Viaccess-Orca

This Paris-based video platform provider had one of the multi-screen solutions Pipeline saw at Mobile World Congress this year. VO’s Connected Sentinel solution is a next-gen video enabler that manages digital rights, protects content, and is interoperable with multiple third-party DRM solutions. Using VO's Connected Sentinel, service providers can distribute content securely to set-top boxes (STBs), tablets, smartphones, and PCs. VO further extended its capabilities with the purchase of SecurePlayer in March. SecurePlayer, a multi-platform media player and DRM solution for premium content, will be bundled into Connected Sentinel and made available on the market as a standalone product.

One of the most innovative capabilities of VO's platform is its search and recommendation engine and its social components. Based on research that reveals how viewers use their additional screens during TV viewing, the company has re-imagined the TV experience. VO's COMPASS content discovery solution that delivers a personalized recommendations in a magazine-like format to a users' second-screen. It's like a personal TV Guide, viewable on a tablet, that interacts with live programming. (If you are interested in the complexities and impacts of content discovery, VO recently published a whitepaper that is available as a free download here.)

Viaccess-Orca has been in supporting companies in the IP Video and broadcast Pay-TV markets for 20 years. The company serves customers in more than 35 countries and recently announced an engagement with Mobistar Belgium.

Content Direct

Content Direct from CSG International is a truly next-generation, comprehensive solution that provides everything service providers need to advance their long-term video strategies. Content Direct is a carrier-grade platform that manages content, entitlements, permissions, and authentication and scales massively from the cloud. The platform encompasses the full video lifecycle, from DRM to CEM. Unlike some products it competes against, Content Direct offers a wide array of marketing, campaign management, CEM, and content monetization tools as well.

NeuMovie, a platform that allows consumers to watch, rent, and purchase movies, recently selected Content Direct to support its Ultraviolet strategy. “We’ve been diligently seeking a partner that can enable our clients to offer the best available content streaming and downloading directly to their consumers,” said Raffi DiBlasio, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Operations at NeuMovie. “We were looking for a way to leverage non-traditional retailers and e-tailers in the home entertainment arena, and CSG Content Direct provides us with the best solution in the market.” 

Ericsson TV Anywhere

The same company that leads the world in LTE network equipment also markets a leading next-gen video platform. Ericsson showcased its Future TV Anywhere vision at Mobile World Congress. This initiative brings modern Web technologies to pay-TV operators, enabling operators to combine the QoS and deep content catalog of Pay TV with the interactivity and multi-screen capabilities of Over the Top (OTT) video. Ericsson recently purchased Azuki Systems, a TV Anywhere platform provider. Cheng Wu, CEO and co-founder of Azuki Systems, commented on the strength of his company’s solution. “Through worldwide deployments of our proven next generation video delivery solution, we have helped accelerate deployment and monetization of TV Anywhere services.”

TV 2.0

While this article focused on full suites, there are also specialized tools available from a multitude of vendors that can help support the transition to next-gen video delivery and monetization. Two that bear mentioning are Avvasi and Anevia. In terms of managing the data log jam created by video, network equipment companies are innovating to reduce the strain on backhaul networks and better manage traffic and network resources. A good example is NSN's edge delivery solutions. 

Delivering and monetizing next-generation video is a very complex challenge. Instead of controlling typical walled-garden paid content ecosystems, service providers must accommodate numerous content owners, different retail models, multiple delivery, authentication, and payment pathways, as well as consistently deliver a compelling user experience. The platforms outlined above offer service providers a full suite of solutions to assist them on their journey to delivering video like it has never been experienced before...enabling the new video experience that many future generations will likely enjoy.