Sinclair, Gaian Developing 3.0 Platform

India based OTT/cloud solutions company Gaian Solutions, Sinclair Broadcast Group and its subsidiary ONE Media 3.0 have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to create a Next Generation Broadcast Platform (NGBP) to support Sinclair’s ATSC 3.0 vision and plan to deploy a proof of concept before the end of the year.

“Working with Sinclair, Gaian Solutions GAIATV cloud-based solutions are aiming to create a true OTT-OTA hybrid solution to bring innovation and new business models to the global broadcast industry,” said Chandra Kotaru, CEO-president of Gaian Solutions.

“We are working with Gaian with the goal to power the Sinclair NGBP platform with the Gaian Solutions GAIATV Platform. Our goal is that the platform will provide a framework for Sinclair to run its own ATSC 3.0 developed applications as well as integrate with other partners’ apps to create a common user experience and a platform to unlock vast new business opportunities for broadcasters to drive richness, interactivity and synchronicity of content across consumer devices,” said Mark Aitken, Sinclair VP of advanced technology.

NGBP will deliver UHD-quality content, customized IP-based interactive services, personalized and location-based advertising, fixed and mobile broadcast service and emergency alerting. At NAB 2018, Sinclair and Gaian will showcase a suite of new ATSC 3.0 based services including ad exchange, dynamic ad insertion (DAI)-server-side and DAI-client-side; data mining and analytics; cloud playout; broadcast localization; interactive sports experience; social messaging stream; and automotive in-dash experience.

“While Gaian Solutions was attracted to Sinclair and ONE Media for the leading role they have played in developing the ATSC 3.0 standard and associated new broadcast business models, Sinclair was attracted to Gaian Solutions because of the experience it has gained developing OTT and cloud solutions technology,” said Aitken.

Although initially targeted for the U.S. television industry, Sinclair and Gaian Solutions envision expanding use of the platform to the rest of the world as Next Gen TV hybrid OTA-OTT network deployments extend around the globe. Gaian Solutions ultimately expects to be able to help in expanding the global ecosystem for next-generation broadcasting using its cloud and advertising innovations, “The company will share its core infrastructure with global companies to come up with convergent business models that will create new business platforms,” said Kotaru.