Exclusives

LAS VEGAS — New application using GenAI, multi-CDN steering for everyone, and staying on top of the rapid adoption of FAST. Here’s what Vubiquity, Qvest, Synamedia, and Whip Media brought to the recent NAB Show.

Vubiquity

An entirely new web site, demonstrations of the latest version of its MetaVU title management SaaS solution, a heap of interest in its premium localization services, and showing off how it can get your VOD and FAST content to a global audience like nobody else.

Oh, and an NAB 2024 Product of the Year Award to close things out.

It was a wonderful week to be Vubiquity, with a slew of booth traffic and interest in the company’s global distribution and media supply chain solutions. Start with MetaVU, the winner of NAB’s top honor: the solution consolidates title data — externally sourced and linked data included — into a centralized platform that eliminates silos and removes the headaches around juggling multiple metadata sources. Using AI and metadata enrichment MetaVU helps content owners curate audience experiences at scale.

On the media supply chain services front, Vubiquity made a specific point to share how its title metadata management and content mastering services are being utilized. And Vubiquity’s turnkey FAST offering can see a new channel built and monetized anywhere you’d like.

MGM, Disney, MAX, Lionsgate, Paramount and more look to Vubiquity to integrate AI and ML in their operations and make the most of media supply chain, covering everything from mastering to quality control, localization to monetization.

NAB 2024 showed the Amdocs-owned company is just getting started.

Qvest

For Qvest EVPs Vanessa Fiola and Christophe Ponsart, there may have been other things going on at NAB 2024, but it was GenAI that deserved most everyone’s attention.

“With GenAI we take what’s possible and turn it into reality,” Ponsart said. “Our studio clients know our expertise in this environment, that we can empower human potential.”

Fiola added: “With GenAI evolving so quickly, every client is worried about investing in something that will be different in three months,” she said.

Qvest made it a point to show how its GenAI solutions can enhance current media supply chains and help companies remove what Qvest is calling “analysis paralysis” around the current state of GenAI investment worries.

And that starts with having a clear strategy for GenAI.

Qvest believes most companies in the GenAI space understand how AI can be applied and are in the midst of getting pilot projects off the ground.

But few have an established governance structure, and most don’t have data properly used to train AI or the ability to fully leverage AI to gain a competitive advantage (yet). We’re a ways off from AI being embedded fully in most company’s culture and operations across business units.

“GenAI impacts all parts of the business,” Ponsart said. “It’s a continuing process to truly leverage all of its capabilities. You have to start somewhere.”

For Qvest, start with TV Buddy, a conversational-Ai entertainment tool that responds to questions about live events and shows in one-on-one messenger form; look at qibb, the company’s vendor-agnostic automation and integration platform featuring more than 20 integrated AI services pushing GenAI into existing production and distribution workflows; and add TVXRAY, the AI-based SaaS solution that offers personalization and interactivity for live content.

Qvest also came to NAB to showcase upgrades to its studio server clipbox and the cloud playout automation solution Makalu, with 20-plus new features, including live source switching, audio channel mapping, and improved metadata management.

Synamedia

For Synamedia’s distinguished CDN architect Gwendal Simon, and Alain Durand, senior director of business development, there were two key words around their NAB booth demos: “unique” and “affordable.” There’s no better way to describe the company’s multi-CDN steering system, allowing providers complete control over their delivery, with seamless switching between multiple CDNs for uninterrupted viewing. Synamedia’s solution is geared specifically to help anticipate traffic balancing needs and is based on based on HLS and DASH specifications.

The company also showed how video service providers can now report full quality of experience data in real time to all tenants by integrating the Common Media Client Data (CMCD) standard into a new open caching logging interface of Synamedia’s Fluid EdgeCDN; showcased a collaboration with castLabs, demonstrating DRM for secure real-time streaming for applications like online betting; and unveiled a new generation of video codecs that reduce CDN costs and improves viewing quality, leading to as much as 30 percent in efficiency gains.

But perhaps what Synamedia was most excited to show off was its improved ability to help partners shut down piracy, with one demonstration showing a network of approximately 10,000 pirate users using the same shared token blocked within seconds of detection.

Whip Media

Whip Media had already come into NAB with a big win: Switzerland’s Video Solutions AG, a global FAST channel and AVOD provider, had recently announced it would implement Whip Media’s FAST and AVOD reporting and royalty payments system FASTrack, marking approximately 20 total customers to rely on the Whip offering to get the most detailed performance reporting on viewership and revenue from programming.

“The launch of FAST projects has been going really well, and the uptake has been excellent,” said Mike Sid, chief strategy officer for Whip Media.

While the rapid adoption of FAST and solutions to keep it profitable are loud positives for Whip, it’s the company’s TV Time app and associated Fan Feedback IP Tracker that’s been quietly catching the eye of studios, networks, and streaming platforms.

A recently introduced data solution, Fan Feedback IP Tracker is a direct line to content owners from TV Time’s millions of content users hailing from more than 150 countries, providing real-time insights on the demand for certain titles.

“It’s the ‘why behind the watch,’” Sid said. And launched just this quarter, and offered once a week, Whip Media has partnered with four content companies to offer up a survey of recent content offerings to TV Time users to provide an “unmatched picture of consumer sentiment, [resulting in] an enormous amount of data.” The focused feedback direct from viewers could prove pivotal in content owner decision-making around what to offer, when to offer it, and maybe even to decide if a dead property is ready to be revived.

“FAST is driving so many things right now,” Sid said. “Even in just the last year and a half the growth has been so rapid. FAST is becoming the new TV.”