IBC: Imagine Aviator Streamlines Premium-Quality Linear Services With Essentials Channel Offering

Imagine Communications is adding new functionality to its Imagine Aviator platform with the launch of the Essentials channel origination option for its Make TV cloud playout solution. Designed for channels that do not require high levels of interactivity or support for live workflows, the Essentials option makes operating and monitoring simpler linear channels straightforward and more cost-effective. Essentials will make its debut at IBC 2022 (RAI, Amsterdam, Sept. 9-12, stand 2.B49).

The Essentials option rounds out the Make TV solution’s Standard and Premium channel offerings, which support high-end features and sophisticated workflows. Essentials channels deliver high video, audio, and graphics quality, ensuring that the focus on premium-quality viewing experiences at the heart of Aviator is maintained in even the simplest channel origination applications.

As part of the groundbreaking Aviator platform — which combines scheduling, rights management, channel origination, VOD, ad sales, ad placement, ad serving, campaign management, and more into a single cloud platform — Essentials channels integrate with the end-to-end Plan, Make, and Monetize capabilities in a cloud-native implementation that allows media companies to continue to deliver and monetize content.

“The Essentials offering allows our customers to quickly deploy new channels that leverage the power of the Aviator platform and deliver great value and the ease of use needed for thematic-style channels,” says Rob Malcolm, Imagine Communications chief product officer. “As media companies of all types and sizes search for new ways to address how consumers want to watch, Essentials channels provide lower-cost options to stand up and operate channels that utilize the efficiencies of the public cloud — making it easier than ever to address broadening advertising opportunities and create highly impactful and dynamic channels with genuine appeal to viewers.”

The Essentials offering is designed for 24/7 scheduled channels such as movies and episodic content, FAST channels, local and regional broadcast applications. It is also suited to popup and occasional use channels, as well as business continuity/disaster recovery and evergreen use cases. Essential channels share the same user interface as the more sophisticated Standard and Premium channels, maintaining a uniform operating interface for all channel types in the system.

While the operation of Essentials channels is simple, the underlying technology uses the latest container-based management and deployment connected to a full suite of monitoring and analytics tools. The playout engine that manages frame-accurate playout of video, audio, triggers and graphics runs on a Linux operating system, which, the company says, drives down channel launch costs and reduces total cost of ownership.

The graphics engine uses HTML5 overlay graphics and supports real-time external dynamic data and playlist data insertion. SCTE trigger insertion supports broadcast and OTT ad insertion, including integration with Imagine’s SureFire broadcast-quality video ad server and other common dynamic ad insertion solutions.

As with the rest of the Aviator platform, Essentials channels run in the public cloud. Only a web browser and internet connection are needed to securely access and operate all aspects of each channel, placing control at the operators’ fingertips wherever they are based ― at the office, a remote location or when working from home. It offers the flexibility of running in a media company’s own cloud account or in Imagine’s SaaS environment, where it is monitored, managed and maintained by Imagine, allowing customers to reap the benefits of operational efficiency, while maintaining control of all creative aspects of their content.