Imagine Communications Introduces EPIC, a Next-Gen Operational Management Platform

Imagine Communications Introduces EPIC, a Next-Gen Operational Management Platform posted: 17/04/2016

First EPIC product is UHD-ready multiviewer optimized for hybrid SDI-IP production environments

Imagine Communications, empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation, today introduced EPIC , a next-generation operational management and orchestration platform designed to facilitate the seamless assimilation of IT-based environments into the broadcasting realm. The company also unveiled the EPIC Multiviewer (EPIC MV), an operational monitoring solution and the first product built on the EPIC platform.

The software-based and UHD-ready IP multiviewer is optimized for hybrid and high-powered production, acquisition, origination and distribution requirements, providing broadcasters and other media companies a single solution for SDI, IP and hybrid environments. Powered by Zenium , the groundbreaking media processing platform from Imagine Communications, EPIC MV is designed to seamlessly scale and evolve to meet future monitoring requirements.

Today's broadcast facilities are undergoing significant evolution. In addition to the need to create and distribute content across a broad set of formats to a wide range of platforms, broadcasters and other media companies are also addressing simultaneous technology transitions, including the evolution to higher resolutions and the migration of operations to more agile and versatile IP-based environments. The ongoing evolution of the broadcast plant has created the need for signal monitoring technology that is more scalable, flexible and multi-faceted than ever before.

The Imagine Communications EPIC MV establishes new benchmarks in versatility, scalability and adaptability. Capable of handling an array of formats - from production to multiscreen delivery - the next-generation monitoring solution empowers broadcasters, content distributors and other media companies with a single system for scaling their multiviewer capabilities to unprecedented levels. The software-based nature of the advanced monitoring system also guards against obsolescence, as the EPIC MV is able to seamlessly incorporate new formats and technologies as they are introduced into the market.

We designed EPIC with a focus on both the current and future needs of today's broadcasters and media companies, said Brick Eksten, Chief Product Officer, Imagine Communications. The software-based nature of the platform will allow us to seamlessly blend operational monitoring and orchestration in a way that leverages the state of the art in enterprise-class IT solutions, while catering specifically to the needs of broadcasters - both now and in the future.

EPIC MV, the first solution based on the new platform, is a fully integrated IP multiviewer with out-of-the-box support for displaying UHD signals. Its ability to handle both SDI and IP signals will help enable broadcasters to significantly simplify their monitoring environments, while at the same time unleashing unprecedented performance, scalability and adaptability to future technologies. Designed with rapidly evolving operational environments in mind, the EPIC MV was built to provide broadcasters, content distributors and other media companies with cutting-edge performance for years to come.

The new EPIC MV is powered by Zenium, the groundbreaking software framework that enables media companies to future-proof their infrastructure investments through seamless and continual integration of new technologies and formats.

EPIC MV delivers all of the features of the award-winning Platinum SX Hybrid and select features from Platinum SX-Pro multiviewers, while raising the bar for all-in-one monitoring solutions.

Advanced capabilities include:

Delivery of exceptional Video Quality (VQ)

Support for high-capacity SDI over IP, 3G-SDI and linear compressed IP sources

Scaling to thousands of sources and hundreds of displays

Support for UHD outputs and UHD-capable inputs

Providing sophisticated monitoring-by-exception functionality

The new multiviewer runs on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) servers and other standard commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms, leveraging hardware-acceleration options to provide the density and performance required for facilities of any size. The system provides native support for MPEG2 and H.264/AVC compressed video streams delivered over IP-connected networks. Hardware acceleration provides advanced display processing, along with Imagine Communications' own pluggable input modules for high-capacity SDI over IP, and 3G-SDI baseband video reception.

EPIC MV builds on Imagine Communications' rich history in operational monitoring and multi-image display technology, extending many of the features and capabilities of the company's award-winning multiviewers to high-bandwidth monitoring in IP- and UHD-based environments.

Scheduled for commercial availability in June, EPIC MV will debut at NAB Show 2016. It is an IABM Game Changer Awards Finalist 2016 in the Test Quality Control & Monitoring category. Winners will be announced on April 19. For a demonstration, please visit booth N2502.

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 revenue enablement 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 close to a third of global ad revenue. Through continuous innovation we are delivering the most advanced IP, cloud-enabled, software-defined network and workflow solutions in the in

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