[SatNews] Thomson Video Networks has released their MediaFlexOS video operating system that includes support for virtual machines (VMs) and cloud-based video processing resources.
The updated MediaFlexOS is an important component in the company's new Behind Every Screen strategy — an all-encompassing video infrastructure for broadcast and multi-screen services that leverages both on-premises and cloud resources for the highest video quality and lowest cost of ownership. MediaFlexOS is the video operating system powering Thomson Video Networks' award-winning ViBE™ family of encoding, transcoding, and contribution solutions — including the ViBE VS7000 multi-screen and HEVC encoder and the all-new ViBE XT1000 high-density transcoder. MediaFlexOS provides a software layer that enables live transcoding, branding, and other A/V processing functions in the cloud and on virtualized platforms, in addition to physical, on-premises resources. The software suite optimizes physical, virtual, and cloud services through a sophisticated load balancer that takes maximum advantage of all available resources.
In a typical deployment based on the Behind Every Screen approach, MediaFlexOS can be used to operate multiple platforms at once. For instance, the operation might rely on a group of dedicated on-premises Thomson Video Networks products acting as a typical compression headend, with a separate group of VMs provisioned in a private generic data center to enable fast deployment of broadcast services when needed, such as when adding video channels during a special sporting event. Finally, additional compression services can be deployed in a public cloud infrastructure. Since MediaFlexOS can automatically manage and control all of these resources through a single dashboard, operators are free to focus on other aspects of the broadcast. Plus, they can pick the resource or platform most appropriate for a particular service and launch the service quickly according to marketing requirements.
"Previously, video operators had a choice between dedicated hardware solutions that offered the necessary computing performance but required time-consuming provisioning, or non-optimized virtual or cloud solutions with poor redundancy, under performing compression, and complex management," said Christophe Delahousse, president, Thomson Video Networks. "This release of MediaFlexOS gives video operators the best of both worlds. All they need to do is take care of the service creation and characteristics. MediaFlexOS is able to use a combination of on-premises resources and, if necessary, a cloud infrastructure to meet the operation's requirements. In this manner, the operator can find the ideal balance of lowered operational costs and optimized, broadcast-grade performance."
At IBC2014, Thomson Video Networks will feature initial components of the Behind Every Screen strategy. In the second half of 2014, Thomson Video Networks will begin a phased release of the cloud-enabled version of MediaFlexOS.
Further information about MediaFlexOS and other Thomson Video Networks products is available at https://www.thomson-networks.com/.
