A VIVID picture of what NAB and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo would have been for Synamedia’s Video Network

We were ready to go! We were excited to finally meet friends and colleagues face-to-face, tell them stories of innovation and how we see the future of video evolving. We were ready to discuss reliance, perseverance and focus. We were looking forward to seeing our industry come together again, as we have done for many years.

As we fine-tuned demos, planned meetings, and tried on 2019’s suits to make sure they still fit, we learned the organizers of NAB and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo wisely decided not to meet in person until safe conditions could be met for all attendees. Yet, now that we’ve folded away elegant slacks and stopped printing booth collateral, we still have plenty of innovation stories to tell and an urgent need to listen to our customers describe their needs and discover new ones – in other words, plan the future together.

Here is a brief summary of the conversations we would have had:

We were excited to discuss the benefits of a swift migration to a software-defined video architecture with pre-defined portable video-workflows deployable on any cloud environment via a subscription, or as we call it at Synamedia: VIVID Video Workflow solutions. Our suite of VIVID Video Workflows is the newest addition to the Video Network portfolio, an umbrella under which all software-defined, portable, cloud-based, as-a-service video workflows will be commercialized. Check out more of our newest VIVID Workflows-as-a-Service solutions.

The VIVID PowerVu Workflow for Content Providers would have been a great conversation starter at NAB, as broadcasters feel the pressure to vacate satellite spectrum to give room to 5G, to replace existing appliance-based architectures and move to flexible software-based video workflows that enable an agile evolution to monetizable new services.  Now part of the VIVID Workflows-as-a-Service portfolio PowerVu is available as a subscription and deployable in any cloud environment, yes any cloud!

We had a demo station ready to show broadcast-like low-latency OTT with our newest VIVID OTT workflow-as-a-Service.  You could have seen how we seamlessly stream in HLS, DASH and  HESP (High-Efficiency Streaming Protocol) achieving latency levels that allow fast channel change and new high-value experiences like selecting multi-camera feeds in real-time. We even got some awards to brag about like CSI’s Best Live OTT recognizing Synamedia’s pioneering low latency commercial deployments.

We had a live demo ready to demonstrate how we embrace broadcast evolution to NEXTGEN TV with our best-in-class ATSC 3.0 Receiver. The demo showed our software-based receiver architecture that allows us to flexibly configure a receiver capable of processing ATSC-1.0 and ATSC-3.0, its capability to dynamically and intelligently handle fail-over on RF and IP domains, and the most comprehensive dashboard empowered by Triveni Digital. We would have shared stories of how we deployed our ATSC 3.0 technology at Fox Orlando, and how we won industry accolades and awards.

We were ready to mesmerize you with incredibly crisp 8K images produced by our zero-compromise VIVID Compression algorithms running on latest AMD’s EPYC Processors. We call it zero compromise because we achieve 8K compression with the least amount of bits avoiding behind-the-scenes tricks like screen-splitting. Our partnership with AMD announcement shows how we are enabling the 8K economy.  And our AI-based Video-Quality-as-a-Service (VQaaS) captures the imagination of industry experts on how 8K adoption will be accelerated, all while we keep turning every video signal into a digital one!

Our Virtualized Distributed Access Architecture Ad Insertion & Aux Video Core would have been an absolute hit at SCTE’s CableTec. We had a killer-demo showing our single low latency Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) workflow enabling operators to evolve from transport stream delivery to ABR over IP. Our next-generation ad insertion solution allows cable operators to benefit from the flexibility and better targeting of IP.  In addition, operators can still generate traditional transport streams for QAM set-top-boxes from a single low latency ABR workflow.

We had more news to share, stories to tell, and innovation to show, like our EDGE CDN portfolio with its superior approach to traffic management based on deep analytics, or our TSTV and cloud DVR solutions with the most efficient origin and storage management solution, but we would leave those for the next blogpost as we contain our excitement.

It would have been great to see you all in Atlanta or Las Vegas. Especially in these strange times, we are grateful that we can still innovate and produce great technology that empowers the evolution of the video entertainment industry, even if that means telling you condensed stories via blogs, articles, or the omnipresence video-conference. The good news is that we have a little bit more time to make sure we still fit in that 2019 suit as we get ready for IBC in Amsterdam…hopefully!