38 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Sony
Acquisition, production and delivery
transforming the way they do business and enabling more agile and efficient media supply chains. “We engage with a multitude of different customers and they’ve all got different needs,” says Almond. “Some of them are trying to think about how they speed up and become more efficient in their workflows around acquisition and production. Some want to automate more, or they want to introduce AI and cloud into their workflow because they want to do a lot more OTT delivery, and are looking for efficiencies. We have services, we have products and we have development capability, training capability and support capability. We can deploy with this customer and work with them as a strategic partner.” VARIETIES OF SERVICE The depth and breadth of the tools in Intelligent Media Services may surprise those who have engaged with Sony products only within a narrow production parameter. Many in the industry may not be aware that Sony offers a fully managed OTT service, for example. The company’s Ven.ue suite encompasses an end-to-end digital media management and distribution solution, which offers OTT delivery along with a full content management suite. Ven.ue, like the other tools in the Intelligent Media Services portfolio, can be fine-tuned to each customer’s needs. Some video distribution companies look to Ven.ue for content amalgamation, with a business model around buying content from multiple vendors that needs to be quality controlled and put through its player for end user consumption. The proliferation of VOD services make this an increasingly common scenario, and the need for a solution that brings divergent sources into one workflow is an essential part of building a robust VOD platform. There are also distributors who need to send multiple types of content to outlets worldwide. BBC Studios, for example, uses Ven.ue across workflows to capture different types and lengths of content, and the multitudinous different versions of that content, that need to be distributed across multiple countries worldwide as part of the BBC Studios delivery program.
Content management, archive and preservation
Cloud migration and AI services
Intelligent Media Services
Processing, distribution and playout
OTT and eCommerce services
In other cases, Sony uses Ven.ue to provide customers with a complete, fully managed OTT service, right up to building the end user website and managing subscription services on behalf of the customer. People are familiar with Sony’s archive and storage solutions, but its move to the cloud is increasingly expansive. The Intelligent Media Services include cloud- based archives on-premises, disaster recovery, strategy and solutions and its popular MAM-based systems, especially around news production platforms. Sony’s cloud microservices notably extend the toolkit available to content owners. Sony Virtual Production, built on AWS, is an on-demand cloud production service that provides a toolset for multi- platform simultaneous streaming. The entirely cloud-based, on-demand system allows customers to stream to a virtualised switcher using any browser. Cloud production capabilities are further extended with Ci and Media Backbone NavigatorX, which allow studios,
broadcasters and media content creators to work more closely across different teams. Ci, which was originally developed as an asset sharing tool at Sony studios, is a fully collaborative online workspace. “People often don’t realise that we’re big on software,” says Almond. “We have massive development capability within our organisation. We don’t just sell products, we’re a systems integrator. And that’s what Intelligent Media Services delivers. It’s a portfolio of open technology and services. “If we have customers who want to stream live news across multiple platforms, we’ve got it covered. If there are production teams wanting to access content anywhere without constraints, we can also do that. Or if we have customers who are providing OTT services and need better distribution or media processing services within their workflow, we can look, too. And if you’re starting to think engaging your audience with different types of platforms, be it VR, mobile or using social in different ways for news, we have solutions. The key thing for us is that every customer who comes to us has a business. At the end of the day, they’ve got two objectives: they want to stay in that business and they want to grow it.” UPPING THE SERVICES GAME Sony has upped its game in the services area of its business in response to the
PEOPLE REALLY WANT OPEN TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS THEM TO PICK AND CHOOSE BEST OF BREED
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