Software-based integrated playout solution receives 2015 Product Innovation Award

Imagine Communications, empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation, has earned NewBay Media’s 2015 Product Innovation Award for its Versio™ integrated playout solution. The award honors outstanding product introductions, and winners were selected by a panel of professionals working in television, pro video and radio.

The latest version of Versio, introduced at IBC2015 in September, brings video server, branding, master control and automation functionality into an integrated software-only solution that runs on commodity compute and networking infrastructure. Versio fully supports compressed and uncompressed video, combining best-of-breed integrated playout and full support for both baseband and IP workflows.

“This prestigious recognition is the perfect end-cap for what has been a monumental year in the evolution of our integrated channel playout solution,” said Steve Reynolds, CTO, Imagine Communications. “Broadcast media companies from around the world are utilizing the power, performance and flexibility of Versio to modernize their production and playout facilities, powering both traditional and new media operations with unprecedented levels of agility and cost efficiencies.”

In April of 2015, Imagine Communications announced that Disney/ABC Television Group, one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world, had adopted Versio to move its channel origination and playout operations, including master control, into a virtualized environment. Two of the most influential broadcasters in the Middle East, Al Rayyan and Alrai TV, unveiled deployments of Versio in 2015 for business continuity and primary playout applications.

“We have customers deploying Versio on six continents,” added Tim Mendoza, vice president of playout product management at Imagine Communications. “Versio is 100-percent software-based, making it both versatile and adaptable across today’s production environments. Functionality can be located in premises-based equipment, private datacenters, the public cloud or even dedicated appliances. Versio is also adaptable to any input/output scenario — baseband, IP or hybrid combinations of the two.”

Earlier this week, Imagine Communications was also honored with an Emmy® for Pioneering Optimization of Advertising Placement in Single Channel Linear Television Programs by the Technology and Engineering Achievement Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Emmy®, the company’s 10^th, was in recognition of groundbreaking ad insertion technology that originated in the late 1960s but still serves as the foundational technology behind today’s advanced and fully automated advertising sales and traffic systems used throughout the world.

NewBay Media’s Product Innovation Award, launched in 2013, recognizes excellence in manufacturing of products to serve the TV/pro video and radio/online audio industries. Winners are selected by a panel of professional users and evaluation criteria include innovation of concept and design, creative use of technology, price value, and suitability for use in a broadcast TV/pro video or broadcast/online radio environment.

For more information, 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.