Synamedia Acquires Quortex To Accelerate SaaS Offerings

Synamedia, a global independent video software provider, says it has acquired Quortex, the privately-held provider of a cloud video delivery platform optimized for just-in-time processing of live video streaming.

With this acquisition, Synamedia says it will enhance its cloud video network capabilities, complementing its VIVID Workflow as-a-Service (WaaS) with a set of innovative solutions for OTT content processing, disaster recovery, long tail content processing for large service providers and live events.

Using a patented, industry-first, pay-as-you-stream model, Quortex’s just-in-time technology provides exactly the resources required at any given time. If no-one is watching a channel, it simply frees up those resources. This methodology, Synamedia says, “provides time to market and considerable cost advantages over existing cloud approaches, while ensuring that every deployed resource has a purpose. For example, for long tail content Quortex’s technology reduces cloud costs up to 67%.”

Synamedia says Quortex’s multi-tenant SaaS technology “builds video streams on-the-fly, based on the end users’ requirements and matched to viewers’ locations, devices and time zones. It adapts to unpredictable network, infrastructure and audiences, and automatically scales cloud resources up and down, leveraging spot instances that take advantage of spare cloud capacity at a fraction of the typical cost, while maintaining quality of experience.”

The service is designed for any live streaming provider including telcos, cable operators, direct-to-consumer (D2C) players, and broadcasters.

According to Synamedia, Quortex is a founding member of Greening of Streaming, and as energy costs spiral and organizations commit to cutting CO2 emissions, “Quortex is well positioned to play an important role in sustainability strategies.”

Julien Signes, Synamedia EVP and general manager of video network, said: “By pioneering just-in-time video streaming processing and delivery, Quortex has broken new ground with live services that dynamically spring to life when processing a user request. This radical change in the economics of cloud processing will accelerate the migration of live video services to the cloud. We see enormous potential as we expand Quortex’s reach globally — for the fast-growing D2C live streaming market as well as our traditional service provider customer base who want to reduce infrastructure costs and meet their CO2 reduction commitments.”

Ben Keen, independent analyst and adviser, said: “True innovation often derives from a dismantling of legacy approaches to a problem and Quortex has brought some timely fresh thinking to video streaming technology. Reversing the traditional ‘push’ architecture, the Quortex team has come up with a potentially more efficient scalable ‘pull’ process that uses bandwidth only when it is required. The addition of this true SaaS proposition to the portfolio should allow Synamedia to offer live streaming services to a far broader range of increasingly cost-sensitive and environmentally-aware customers.”

Marc Baillavoine, Quortex CEO and founder, said: “With our breakthrough just-in-time approach, we have turned the live streaming model on its head, ditching the need to wastefully provision streaming resources just-in-case. We believe that with Synamedia’s global reach and complementary product lines, we can accelerate our mission to transform the agility and cost of streaming and slash its carbon footprint.”