As live streaming has become an integral part of our lives, revolutionizing the way we consume video content is also being rapidly transformed. To meet the growing demand for high-quality live video streaming, Aquila, an Emmy® award-winning* solution, empowers broadcasters, operators, and service providers to efficiently transmit live video content to viewers. With Aquila, you can deliver an exceptional broadcast-like experience, create new revenue streams through digital dynamic ad insertion, and launch OTT media delivery services rapidly. Let's explore the benefits and advantages of Aquila, the leading live streaming platform.

Key Benefits of Aquila Live Streaming Platform • Premium Video Compression Aquila Live Streaming Platform is built on MediaKind's 25 years of heritage in providing streaming compression headends. It offers premium video compression capabilities, ensuring the highest video quality while minimizing the required bit rate. Whether you're delivering SD, HD, 1080P, or UHD services, including support for High Dynamic Range, Aquila optimizes video compression performance for cost-effective transmission and improved viewer experience • Single Solution for All Infrastructures Aquila is one of the few Live Streaming Platforms that provides a versatile solution that can be deployed in various ways to suit your infrastructure needs. Whether you prefer MediaKind reference hardware, dedicated data center hardware, private cloud infrastructure, or public cloud deployment, Aquila offers a seamless content delivery solution. It integrates with industry and technology partners, enabling you to minimize costs, enhance operational efficiency, and seamlessly transition to all IP workflows • Enhanced Operational Efficiency Operational excellence is crucial for delivering a reliable and consistent streaming experience. Aquila's cloud-native architecture, based on micro-services, ensures ease of operation, maintenance, and scalability. Whether you choose software-only deployment, bare metal servers, or private/public cloud instances, Aquila offers flexibility and future-proofing. It enables easy system expansion, upgrades, and compatibility with evolving technologies like all IP workflows and cloud deployment • Flexible Deployment Options The award-winning Live Streaming Platform provides flexible deployment options to suit your specific requirements. You can deploy Aquila as software-only on standard COTS servers or leverage cloud instances, including private data centers or public cloud environments. Cloud deployment offers advantages such as easy software upgrades, scalability for events, testing at scale, and disaster recovery capabilities. Aquila's configuration management and control options, including MediaKind Controller and nCompass Control, ensure seamless management of your streaming infrastructure

Advantages of Aquila Live Streaming Platform  Award-Winning Picture Quality: With Aquila's Live Encoding capabilities, you can deliver the highest video quality across multiple codecs, including MPEG-2, H.264, and HEVC. This ensures an immersive viewing experience for your audience, enhancing their engagement and satisfaction  Universal Device Support: As an advanced Live Streaming Platform, Aquila supports a wide variety of devices and all leading segment and manifest formats, including HLS, SS, DASH, and CMAF. This broad device compatibility ensures that your content reaches a vast audience, regardless of their preferred streaming platform or device  Operational Simplicity: Aquila simplifies media delivery service and server operations by providing a single point of entry. This streamlines your workflow, reduces complexity, and enhances operational efficiency, allowing you to focus on delivering exceptional streaming experiences  Support for All IP Workflows: As the industry moves towards full IP workflows and cloud technologies, Aquila enables a smooth transition. It supports the latest IP standards, including SMPTE 2022 and SMPTE ST 2110, allowing you to leverage the benefits of IP-based infrastructure while ensuring compatibility with legacy systems Aquila's premium video compression capabilities offer several benefits, including reduced transmission costs, the ability to launch UHD channels within existing network capacity, and enhanced overall picture quality. Let's explore each of these advantages in more detail:

How Aquila Adds Value Aquila's premium video compression capabilities provide significant boost to operators and service providers. By reducing transmission costs through optimized compression performance, Aquila enables cost savings and efficient resource allocation. The platform also empowers operators to launch UHD channels within their existing network capacity, eliminating the need for extensive infrastructure upgrades. Additionally, Aquila's focus on enhancing overall picture quality ensures that viewers receive exceptional visual experiences, even at reduced bit rates. With Aquila, operators can deliver high-quality streaming content while optimizing resources and providing an immersive viewing experience for their audience.

Reduced Transmission Costs Aquila's video compression technology allows headend operators to significantly reduce the bit rate required for each service while maintaining the picture quality. By optimizing the compression performance, Aquila minimizes the bandwidth required for transmission. This reduction in bit-rate translates to lower transmission costs, as less data needs to be transmitted over the network. Operators can achieve substantial savings in transmission expenses, enabling them to allocate resources more efficiently and invest in other areas of their streaming infrastructure.

Launching UHD Channels within Existing Network Capacity The Ultra High Definition (UHD) channels require a higher bandwidth compared to standard-definition or high-definition channels. However, with Aquila's advanced video compression capabilities, operators can launch UHD channels without the need for significant network upgrades. Aquila optimizes the compression performance for UHD content, allowing operators to deliver stunning visuals and immersive experiences while utilizing their existing network capacity. This enables a cost-effective transition to UHD streaming, providing viewers with the highest quality content without straining the network infrastructure.

Enhanced Experience for Viewers Aquila's video compression technology ensures that the picture quality remains exceptional even at reduced bit rates. By employing advanced algorithms and techniques, Aquila delivers superior video quality across multiple codecs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC, and more. This means that operators can maintain a high level of visual fidelity while optimizing bandwidth usage. Viewers can enjoy sharp, clear, and vibrant video content, enhancing their overall streaming experience. Aquila's commitment to delivering award-winning picture quality ensures that every frame is rendered with precision and detail.

 MediaKind exhibited at the IBC Show in Amsterdam. The company showcased their most recent innovations in video streaming that are designed for the direct to consumer (D2C) revolution.

There is a problem with the media industry's relationship to the cloud. Indeed, there has been a sharp increase in the competitive services' evolution along with a strong focus on the "need for speed" in the launch of new features and services. However, a lot of the current methods for utilizing the cloud for media services fall short of utilizing some of the most significant advantages that a cloud solution can offer. Therefore, a new strategy for the interaction between cloud service providers (CSP), clients, and technology vendors is desperately needed.

This fact exists at a time when cloud computing is quickly taking the lead as the preferred method for implementing new media services. For cloud-based video streaming systems, Markets and Markets research projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9% from 2020 to 2025. Knowing the various deployment and operating models that are available is essential, as the majority of media firms currently maintain agreements with one or more CSPs independently.

Modernizing the deployment of clouds 

In order to facilitate the delivery of media services by broadcasters, operators, and content owners, the cloud has some obvious advantages. They consist of:

Separating the deployment and lifespan of infrastructure from conventional methods

Allowing for scalability or usage flexibility

Maximizing the ownership cost of them.

Beyond the things mentioned above, however, companies also need to know how new cloud operating approaches can affect their current infrastructures and vendor relationships, as well as what they could signify for their business.

In contemporary cloud deployments, adoption of methodologies like combined development and operations (DevOps) and continuous integration and release (CI/CR) has increased. However, even though some media companies are already using DevOps internally because of its capacity to boost robustness and fast deployment, it's common to go back to the conventional method when integrating third-party components and solutions.

A new application paper from MediaKind titled "Media in the Cloud: The Evolution of Operational Models from On-Prem Integrations to Managed Cloud Applications" outlines the different deployment and operational model options along with the benefits and drawbacks of each. By doing this, we anticipate that operators and broadcasters will be better able to manage their connections with CSPs and make the most effective use of technical vendor knowledge.

The Managed Cloud Applications (MCA) from MediaKind

The paper presents Managed Cloud Applications (MCA), a new operational design created by MediaKind. These are a type of cloud-based software deployment and commercial model that sits in between software-as-a-service (SaaS) and subscription models.

In an MCA deployment, MediaKind installs and maintains the software inside the customer's cloud account. This provides the advantage of leveraging agreements and spending commitments with that CSP for media applications, while also utilizing the customer's preferred CSP provider, which is usually chosen as part of a larger organizational transformation.

MediaKind makes sure the software is kept up to date, the service is kept watchful and accessible, and the solution's entire lifecycle is properly handled. This not only makes sense in light of our current proficiency with software maintenance, but it also saves the customer money by preventing the need to hire specialized internal workers, which would have otherwise been essential. Additionally, it permits remote updates and the automation of maintenance tasks, which lowers expenses and errors.

It's something we've created together with our clients and partners, such as our most recent joint service offering with Arqiva to help broadcasters and operators with their cloud migration and cloud delivery issues.

The implications of MCA for operators and broadcasters

In a world where the media landscape is constantly evolving, staying ahead of the curve is essential. With the advent of Over-The-Top (OTT) services and shifts in viewing behavior, consumers now face an abundance of content choices and multiple service delivery options. This has created a demand for a flexible and personalized platform that caters to ever-changing viewer expectations.

Consumers now expect highly personalized and engaging content experiences. As a global change leader in media technology and services, MediaKind has acknowledged these challenges and offers a solution that allows operators and content owners to tailor their services to meet the evolving consumer landscape.

MediaFirst: A Cloud-Based Pay TV Platform

Building on its heritage and driven by consumer-focused innovation, MediaKind has introduced MediaFirst - an end-to-end, cloud-based video platform that has been specifically designed to meet the challenges of the modern media delivery landscape. Let's explore what makes the innovative TV platform a game-changer and how it addresses key market challenges.

Addressing the Demands of Varied Market Segments

As a versatile cloud-based TV platform, it can seamlessly integrate with existing network infrastructures, including IPTV, cable, and satellite. This adaptability makes it an ideal choice for operators looking to transition from legacy systems to next-generation TV offerings. Leveraging MediaKind's expertise in streaming technology, MediaFirst revitalizes and retains subscribers within the ever-evolving media ecosystem.

What makes MediaFirst a Game changer?

At its core, MediaFirst is an end-to-end cloud video platform that enables the creation, management, and delivery of next-generation Pay TV. It offers a personalized TV experience, engaging users with live, video-on-demand, and subscription content tailored to their preferences.

Citrus MediaFirst: Transforming TVaaS

Designed for cable, telco, and internet operators, it provides a cost-effective TV-as-a-Service (TVaaS) product. It leverages modern cloud technologies and web services to offer an agile and innovative solution. With MediaFirst, operators can create, manage, and deliver next-generation streaming services across multiple devices, offering subscribers a more effective content recommendation and personalized experience through advanced data analytics.

Personalized User Experience

One of its standout features is its ability to create personalized user profiles. This allows each user to tailor their media consumption experience, from live channels to video-on-demand, on any device. MediaFirst simplifies content discovery by combining profiles to find programming that everyone wants to watch, eliminating the need to search through individual profiles. Users can save channels, in-progress media, recommendations, and recordings in personalized hubs for easy access.

Content-Based Recommendations and Analytics

The Recommendations feature offers subscribers a variety of personalized recommendations based on popularity and relevance, helping them discover content they love. The solution empowers service providers with unparalleled visibility into user data, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and enhance the user experience.

Built for the Cloud

The platform seamlessly integrates on-premises and cloud capabilities, making it compatible with existing service provider infrastructure. Its Cloud DVR offering allows viewers to access their recordings anywhere, on any device, over any network, providing flexibility and convenience.

Agile, Continuous Delivery

Built using agile software development methodologies, the innovative solution enables operators to deploy new features rapidly, keeping pace with changing market conditions. Moreover, the MediaFirst Management Portal empowers pay TV service providers to operate and control their TV platform end-to-end.

Feature-rich Solution with Unique Advantages

Web-Style TV Innovation: By virtualizing managed and OTT services, MediaFirst TV offers the economics, agility, and innovation of web services.

Next-Gen Consumer Experience: It delivers a personalized, data-driven user experience across all devices, ensuring consistent content access.

Agile DevOps Delivery: The platform’s agile PaaS model reduces infrastructure costs and ensures a future-ready TV platform.

Value for Service Providers: A Partner That Scales with You

Robustness: Offers a carrier-grade experience, constantly monitoring the consumer experience

Simplicity: Its managed cloud deployment model simplifies deployment and maintenance

Flexibility: API-driven, with rich platform and client APIs for tailored experiences

Value for Consumers: Enabling Immersive Media Experiences

Unbound: Provides a seamless, unified experience across devices, networks, and regions

Unified: It unifies content types and offers a continuous content experience

Personalized: Users can curate their content space for a personalized experience

Our relationship with media has been irrevocably transformed by streaming. The move away from traditional Pay-TV bundles and toward mobile-first packages encapsulates the "anytime, anywhere" mentality that the majority of audiences now embrace. In one of the most intense media industry competitions in recent memory, technological behemoths are pouring billions of dollars into brand-new services and content in an effort to grow their digital audiences.

Operators who include streaming into their entertainment offerings reap a number of advantages, not the least of which is a greater consumer offering and possible revenue growth. However, operators must adopt new technology, collaborate with bigger competitors, and create new value propositions if they want to thrive in a world of giants and keep the sales engine running.

The development of aggregators

Since operators have such a close contact with their clients, they are given first priority when establishing collaborations and creating new media services. In order to connect people with mobile services, connect households with broadband connectivity, and provide a centralized bill at the end of each month, it is essential that mobile business units build efficient and unified billing systems.

Operators have embraced the role of service aggregators as a result of the provisioning of additional services under a single utility bill. The inclusion of well-known streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and ESPN+ in MVPD packages has been warmly received by operators. With little effort or extra expense, it gives its clients on-demand access to well-known OTT content. The option to pay with only one bill, as straightforward as it may appear, is the other essential value addition for the customer.

The transition of operators into the position of super aggregators is the following stage. They are in a great position to offer a sophisticated commerce engine that aggregates mobile, video, and wider entertainment offerings thanks to their measurement of audience consumption patterns and provision of unique billing. The mix of TV, video, and gaming platforms offers operators the chance to position themselves as the orchestrator of entertainment services while facilitating access to next immersive formats like 360-degree video and virtual reality services.

Change is sparked by innovation

In a world where most media is consumed via mobile devices and the cloud, operators have largely changed. They either developed their own cloud services or collaborated with bigger players like Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure to achieve this. They have also actively contributed to this change by establishing cloud infrastructures and initiating the global 5G rollout.

In the present, broadcasters, operators, and service providers are creatively combining their respective technological platforms. Any media service may now be delivered on any device thanks to improvements in cloud-based rendering, more powerful computing capability, 5G, and mobile video streaming. Operators must consider the entire media ecosystem and use cloud-first technology in order to fully realize the potential of their services.

Consumer behaviors are altering as a result of the transition to a streaming-first world. Our daily connections to social, employment, and educational services now rely heavily on operators. We can also see how technological advancements streamline conventional value chains and change how broadcasters, content owners, and consumers interact. Operators may now orchestrate well-liked entertainment services thanks to direct-to-consumer (D2C) propositions, which creates opportunities for open, transparent conversations between businesses and customers. I think operators' reach and coverage will be increasingly important to the vast majority of service providers. The impact of the pay-TV provider TIM, which, according to Digital TV Europe, paid almost 40% of DAZN's new rights fee to carry DAZN's linear channels and its new Serie A soccer content in Italy, is one recent example.

We at MediaKind have always held the view that innovation is the real force behind change. With the support of our end-to-end solution portfolio, operators can get the most out of their media services. This includes streamlining the distribution process, recommending the ideal user interface, and ensuring that the MVPD products' latency and image quality are always adjusted.

The Dawn of Super Aggregation

The media landscape has effectively integrated the aggregation of streaming services. But as of right now, the aggregators we use to get media only include the top five or six streaming apps. The difficulties with content licensing and streaming services' desire to maintain exclusive access to audience insights are the main causes of this. It will take time to develop into a true super aggregator, and to live up to user expectations, consistent channel and app aggregation is required.

Delivering an aggregated service at scale necessitates the use of universal search and discovery, which is both difficult and essential. The user experience is distorted and inconsistent if one service provider or one app is isolated among multiple other apps. Any program that offers results must be proposed in a truly aggregated search function.

In order to provide a great user experience, a wide variety of combinations of content distribution techniques must work together seamlessly in our hybrid media landscape. The ability of cloud-based technology to integrate many workflows and channels from the content supplier to the customer is often optimum, but timing is a recurring problem.

In the early days of streaming, we had to contend with OTT services being inferior to their truly live counterparts. In this initial implementation, live sporting events frequently lagged the main stream sent over cable, satellite, or terrestrial TV by tens of seconds. Given that it was a novel technology, the buyer frequently tolerated this. Given that this has grown more typical in all aspects of our lives, Cloud-based technology is frequently As Things have required to drastically improve over the past few years as this has become more commonplace in all of our lives and is more of a de facto means to consume material. Nowadays, delays are frequently expressed in fractions of seconds. The battle against scale and latency, however, is far from ended! A fantastic article on this topic was written earlier this year by my colleague Chris Wilson.

In this sense, synchronization has been beneficial, but it is also evolving on its own. New forms of highly customizable programming are currently being tested, allowing viewers to choose from a variety of different streams to create their own personalized experiences. The realm of motor racing, where driver-cams and the ability to instantly switch to other fixed cams around the circuit have been tested for numerous years, is an early exponent of this idea. Younger viewers particularly want to play an active, involved part in the content experience in the era of gamification. There may be an increase in demand for personalization in the upcoming years.

MK Engage: You get to decide

Our engineering teams have been struggling with this for a while, and it has finally been resolved as part of a recent update to MK Engage. The whole launch and operation of a live streaming service, including subscription and advertising levels inside a high-quality video experience, was the subject of our IBC 2022 demonstration.

A synchronized video playback capability that lets users coordinate the video player frame with the front end and create new use cases for live streaming is new to the MK Engage streaming platform service. We have been able to synchronize access to both our CMS and Aquila Live Streaming services thanks to these additional features that increase the value of MK Engage. It also makes it simpler to comprehend how MK Engage functions and what it offers, improving the user experience.

Now that MK Engage is available, our customers can construct their streaming systems faster and for less money. In order to give a framework that guarantees a consistent result and the resources to create interesting new types of experiences, it covers numerous platforms, including smart TVs, phones, tablets, and consoles. Additionally, it provides additional revenue streams, personalization, and real-time audience interaction while ensuring that our customers have unmatched control and administration over their service. 

A sports presenter might, for instance, indicate which player is in possession of the ball and give the viewer the option of switching to a tracking camera if one is available. Alternately, show a golfer teeing off while simultaneously giving an interactive map that displays the ball's trajectory and is fed by a different stream.  A viewing experience that satisfies the requirements of the casual viewer, the stat-junkie fan, or even perhaps a group viewing where the members are in separate locations but share an experience, may now be created.

Additionally, there are a few highly useful advantages for commercial or hospitality settings. For instance, it makes it possible for locations presenting live games, such as bookmakers, clubs, and stadiums, to guarantee that all content on all devices is synchronized. This implies that every goal, touchdown, and home run are shown simultaneously, independent of the feed's latency or the platform or device being used.

FASTer still and responding to a hybrid world

The development of advanced synchronization technologies will continue, but MK Engage has been improved in other areas as well to address the world of increasingly hybrid content. Our new improvements provide media businesses the ability to launch free, ad-supported TV channels that viewers can access without logging in, giving on-demand content libraries new life. This may also entail turning live feeds into easily produced, swiftly distributed, and profitably monetized VOD material. 

A highlight reel of all the wickets and sixes from the final overs of a cricket match, for example, or a complete segment, like the final quarter of a basketball game, a penalty shootout at the conclusion of a football game, are all acceptable types of content. Although sports are the obvious choice for this kind of technology, the same approach may be used to offer a montage of shows based on a topic using a selection of top news stories or even content from an existing back catalog library. 

The future potential is likely to mix and mingle subscription, ad-supported, and even totally free programming - depending on the geography, device, and monetization needs. Although generally falling under the Free Ad Supported Television (FAST) category.

The capacity of MK Engage to scale up in the cloud - inside a cogent and highly integrated workflow - is what connects superior synchronization and the swift ability to repackage live and catalog information. With the addition of entitlements on top of this layer, MK Engage combines the best features of the MediaKind portfolio, including encoding, platforms, and stream manipulation. Additionally, it's all contained within a single straightforward experience.