As part of its commitment to providing media companies with practical migration paths to the cloud, Imagine Communications announces its partnership with Vizrt — integrating its Viz Vectar Plus cloud live production solution with the Imagine Aviator Make TV cloud playout solution.

By expanding the capabilities and workflow integrations of its award-winning Aviator platform, Imagine continues to broaden the appeal of cloud-based solutions. The partnership between Imagine and Vizrt brings dynamic live production and playout in the cloud together in a well-orchestrated solution. Enabling live production workflows for sports, news, and live events to feed downstream live linear workflows, it combines the dynamic and fluid nature of live production with the content acquisition, playout, branding, master control switching, SCTE decoration and ad insertion at the heart of Aviator.

“The demand for cloud-based production and playout continues to grow,” says Brendon Mills, General Manager of Networking and Playout at Imagine. “By partnering with Vizrt, we’re making it easier than ever for our mutual customers to leverage the flexibility and agility of the cloud to quickly respond to evolving market demands.

“Vizrt’s live production in the cloud is based on tried-and-true products and Imagine has a proven track record in cloud-based solutions. Combining the low-latency live production power from Vizrt with the system orchestration and premium-quality cloud playout capabilities of Aviator makes the resulting solution a powerful and compelling way to solve the most pressing problems our industry faces in the continued migration to cloud.”

The Vizrt Live Production system runs in the cloud and is operated via web browser or via a physical control panel. The user can access incoming live streams uplinked from on-prem and remote locations for contribution. These streams, along with clip and graphics resources accessible to Viz Vectar Plus, are combined to deliver the final production output. This output is available to Aviator, along with all other accessible live streams in the cloud. The production feed can be switched to air by Aviator based on a schedule or as needed with its master control solution to break into live programming. Aviator will return to the playlist after the live production based on the schedule — or unscheduled if the live event ends sooner or later than expected.

Each Aviator playout channel supports up to two live inputs per channel at any one time and controls cloud routing via Imagine’s Magellan Control System. It switches seamlessly between live streams, between live and clip-based content, and between two clips simply by selecting the appropriate source in the web browser user interface — no delays and no configuration required — delivering immediate on-air results. This includes support for DVEs for each input for both live and clip content. As a result, the combined Vizrt and Aviator approach offers the flexibility and immediacy of cloud production with the agility of cloud playout that can handle demanding multi-source workflows in a vast array of practical scenarios.

“Cloud production isn’t ‘the future’, it’s happening now,” states Ulrich Voigt, Global Head of Product Management, Vizrt Group. “Whether a broadcaster wants the flexibility to create in the cloud, or hybrid, our partnership with Imagine and its Aviator platform enables new possibilities in live production and playout workflows in the cloud. It’s guaranteed, tried and tested and the results are indistinguishable. The benefits of low-latency video workflows, including true scalability, remote collaboration, and cost and carbon savings, are pioneering a new era of live production. We are proud to work together with Imagine to see pure cloud production become reality.”

Imagine will demonstrate this advanced, end-to-end cloud workflow at the 2023 NAB Show (April 16-19, Las Vegas Convention Center).

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