Turner Selects Kayak for Multi-Screen Operations

Turner Broadcasting System has chosen Digital Rapids‘ Kayak dynamic workflow platform as the technology foundation to power Turner’s media processing operations for its current and future multi-screen video initiatives. The two companies have expanded their relationship, collaborating on advanced workflows to bring Turner’s extensive range of premium content to audiences across an expanding range of viewing platforms.

As the technology platform powering the upcoming version 2.0 of the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager high-volume media processing software, Kayak integrates with existing transcode manager deployments while adding new levels of automation and new video processing functionality.

Turner’s initial use of Kayak and Transcode Manager 2.0, processing and transforming content for multi-platform distribution, showcases the capabilities of the Kayak platform.  Incorporating tasks from multi-stage image processing and transcoding to packaging the media into the multiple formats required by varying viewing devices, the Kayak-based workflow addresses the challenges of processing a vast back-catalog of content with widely varying technical characteristics.

Leveraging its metadata handling and continuous analysis of the media on a frame-by-frame and sample-by-sample basis, “Kayak’s intelligent, logic-driven automation adapts the workflows to the source content, minimizing manual effort while maximizing processing efficiency and eliminating unnecessary steps,” according to Digital Rapids.

Kayak’s modular, component-based architecture and rich development environment also aid the integration of custom-developed functionality directly into the Kayak architecture.

“We have developed our own custom Kayak components, enabling seamless integration with Turner’s existing business systems,” said Brooks Tobey, SVP sales solutions and multi-screen development and delivery at Turner, “and we are pleased to partner with Digital Rapids to further our digital encoding initiatives.”

“We’re proud that Turner Broadcasting, a pioneer in the multi-screen delivery of premium content, has chosen Kayak as the foundation of their media operations,” said Brick Eksten, president-CEO of Digital Rapids. “Kayak is the ideal platform to enable forward-thinking media organizations to execute on their ideas, while freeing them to focus on their core business rather than the technology that supports it. We’re also thrilled to be building on our successful relationship with Turner with our new strategic partnership, through which both of our companies will benefit from our close collaboration.”