NAB Show: Tightrope Unleashes All-in-One, Multi-Platform Media Distribution Server

Furthering its mission to help community broadcasters of all sizes reach larger audiences on more viewing devices, Tightrope Media Systems has introduced the new Cablecast VIO OMNI all-in-one, channel-in-a-box system for multi-platform video distribution. Combining channel scheduling, playout, closed captioning, live streaming, and VOD publishing in one space-efficient server, VIO OMNI lets media organizations easily and efficiently bring their content everywhere their viewers want to see it — from cable television and the web to mobile and OTT apps.

Cablecast VIO OMNI is available immediately and will also be showcased in the Cablecast suite at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel April 24-27 during the 2022 NAB Show.

“Every community media organization would love to reach viewers on every possible consumer device,” said Steve Israelsky, president, Cablecast Community Media. “However, until now, smaller centers may not have been able to implement a comprehensive, cross-platform video initiative due to limited staffing or budgets. Cablecast VIO OMNI consolidates our proven channel automation, live streaming, VOD publishing, closed captioning, and bulletin board capabilities in a single box, making it even more accessible and affordable for small operators. It’s a game-changer for single-channel community broadcasters such as public access television stations, school boards, and municipalities providing transparency of their government meetings.”

VIO OMNI’s unified “add once, publish everywhere” workflow makes achieving media platform ubiquity remarkably simple and efficien, the company says. As live or file-based content is added or scheduled for the 24/7 cable channel, VIO OMNI automatically performs any required transcoding for online, mobile, and OTT delivery without any additional effort required. Categorized VOD collections publish identically across all of these platforms and can be dynamically updated with new content based on rich metadata, with zero extra work.

VIO OMNI’s brandable, turnkey web page templates let organizations easily present their live streams, VOD clips and program schedule in a stylish layout. With the addition of Cablecast Cloud Solutions, VIO OMNI also effortlessly brings live and on-demand content to iOS and Android mobile devices; OTT platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Google (Android) TV; and social media outlets including Facebook Live and YouTube Live.

Unlike proprietary video hosting platforms, VIO OMNI lets customers retain full control of their content and won’t insert advertising or suggest third-party content. VOD chaptering lets viewers jump directly to topics of interest in long-form videos such as municipal meetings, and related documents such as meeting agendas can be embedded alongside the video player.

While Cablecast VIO OMNI is deployed as an on-premises enterprise server, users can remotely manage all aspects of the system — from content scheduling to publishing and playout — through its intuitive, mobile-friendly web interface. VIO OMNI servers include SDI input and output for recording and playout alongside support for any number of IP-based input sources including NDI, RTP, RTMP, RTSP and HLS streams. Cross-platform simulcasting of live virtual meetings and events is also available with the optional Cablecast RTMP service.

Closed captions of both live and file-based content can be automatically generated for all viewing platforms through the Cablecast VIO OMNI user interface. Intelligent speech-to-text conversion is performed using Cablecast’s cloud-based captioning engine with a usage-based billing model. Meanwhile, the tightly-integrated Cablecast CG software — included on all VIO OMNI servers — enables organizations to incorporate bulletin boards, crawls and logo bugs into their channels.