Industry leader is founding member of organization dedicated to advancing transition to IP through industry standards
Imagine Communications, empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation, announced its membership in the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), an independent media and entertainment trade association formed to foster the adoption of standards to facilitate the broadcast and media industry’s transition from SDI to IP. A founding member of AIMS, Imagine Communications is a leading proponent of the advancement of the industry to an agile and cost-efficient technology foundation that promotes the development, standardization and adoption of open protocols for media over IP.
“The broadcast and media industry is facing monumental changes in how video is produced, managed, and consumed, and this is driving the need to rapidly transition from traditional networks to much more efficient and flexible IP technologies,” said Steve Reynolds, CTO, Imagine Communications. “Critical to this transition is the adoption of standards that enable open and interoperable mechanisms for the exchange of video, audio and metadata over IP. This open standards approach avoids vendor lock-in and will encourage innovation and interoperability to accelerate the modernization of broadcast and media facilities.”
AIMS is driving industry-wide support of standards that foster the transition of the broadcast and media industry from SDI to IP through education, awareness and the promotion of solutions that support those open standards. AIMS is also chartered to work with various organizations, including the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to advance new standards by providing support and testing in real-world environments. AIMS is initially focusing on the promotion of interoperability of four standards: SMPTE 2022-6, AES67 and VSF technical recommendations TR-04 and TR-03, providing specific development guidance in its bylaws to its members and to the broader industry via the AIMS Roadmap.
For more than two decades, the broadcast and media industry has utilized open standards for the Serial Digital Interface (SDI) that have enabled the transport of uncompressed video in broadcast and media facilities. This open standards approach has significantly benefitted the industry by allowing the seamless interconnection of SDI-compatible equipment, regardless of technology supplier. The goal of AIMS is to ensure that this same open standards approach is implemented for media over IP, enabling widespread multivendor interoperability and creating an open and competitive marketplace. Imagine Communications is also collaborating with leading computing and networking leaders, including Arista, Brocade, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and Microsoft, to advance new, open standards-based IP technologies in the IT industry for video production and playout environments.
“The foundation of AIMS is the pursuit and acceleration of open standards aligned with the media and entertainment industry,” said Charlie Vogt, CEO, Imagine Communications. “The transition to IP, SDN and cloud solutions is essential for our clients to create, move, manage and monetize video content in the most efficient, flexible and agile manner. Without AIMS, the industry would be required to adopt proprietary approaches that hinder innovation, reduce deployment flexibility and paint broadcasters into a single-vendor corner that isolates them from the economic and performance benefits of an open ecosystem and marketplace. By working closely with AIMS and its member community, Imagine Communications will continue to embrace industry standards and collaboration to ensure our clients have the freedom to select best-of-breed solutions and enable the graceful transition of media operations to IP.”
Imagine is a leading proponent of the migration to IP-based infrastructure, having been among the first to demonstrate end-to-end systems for IP contribution, origination and distribution. In addition, the company has been instrumental in the development of key emerging standards, playing a leading role in the definition of SMPTE 2022 and as a contributor to the VSF.
With a more-than-50-year history in the broadcast industry, Imagine Communications is a long-time supporter of open standards and multivendor interoperability, and the company was recently awarded the IBC2015 Best of Show honors from TV Technology for its collaboration with EVS to deliver an open standards-based IP solution for live production, slow motion and instant replay operations. The company also holds key positons in multiple standards bodies and industry trade associations and is a staunch supporter of open standards to drive innovation and technology advances to benefit the entire ecosystem and lead to generational advances in agility and cost efficiencies.
For more information on AIMS, please visit www.aimsalliance.org. A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is also available.
For more information on Imagine Communications, please visit www.imaginecommunications.com.
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About Imagine Communications
Imagine Communications empowers the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation. Broadcasters, networks, video service providers and enterprises around the world rely on our optimized, future-proof, multiscreen video and ad management solutions every day to support their mission-critical operations. Today, nearly half of the world’s video channels traverse our products, and our software solutions drive nearly $50 billion in global ad revenue for our customers. Through continuous innovation we are delivering the most advanced IP, cloud-enabled, software-defined network and workflow solutions in the industry. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com for more information, and follow us on Twitter @imagine_comms.