In this IABM TV interview, Hossein ZiaShakeri (Senior VP, Business Development & Strategic Alliances – Spectra Logic) discusses some of the latest trends in the industry, and some of Spectra Logic’s upcoming projects.
Member Speak – OOONA
Wayne Garb
CEO, OOONA
What is the story behind OOONA? How did you decide to set up the company?
OOONA was founded because we needed a platform to manage internal subtitling work at a localization company in Tel Aviv – Trans Titles. After searching the market for such a platform and seeing there wasn’t one, we decided to hire a company to build it for us. To cut a long story short, things didn’t go well and Gal, now OONA’s CTO, was sent to smooth things over; that was the start of a great partnership. Since there was a gap in the market, we realized that this would be a product that would be of interest commercially to other language service providers (LSPs) too, so we decided to set up OOONA as a separate company, as we don’t believe an LSP can be a software-neutral company.
How did things evolve for OOONA? How did you come to be the company you are today?
OOONA started off as a translation management platform for media localization work – the web-based timed-text tools came later. The original demand for the tools came from our platform clients, who needed timed-text tools to upload materials and have their production teams check them and make edits.
We built the timed-text tools separately and fully integrated them into the management platform, but kept the whole thing modular so clients could choose to license only the management platform, or only the tools or some of them, or go for the complete end-to-end solution, which we called OOONA Integrated. We used to handle only subtitle and caption files, but now we also handle scripts, metadata, synopses and a lot of other information around video content in order to automate and streamline the workflow for our users.
How do you see the company’s place in the market now?
I believe we are the only fully integrated, secure and certified, web-based platform that works on all main operating systems which is not an LSP. As such, I don’t think we have a lot of competition. We offer professional, state-of-the-art tools for audiovisual localization at realistic prices, starting with pay-as-you-go weekly subscriptions, so we can be affordable just as much to freelancers as to large enterprises.
You bring up AWS and security often in conversation – why is that?
As our client base grew over the last few years, we realized we needed to be on AWS and guarantee the security of our clients’ content. Security is indispensable for growth, as no major content owner will trust or be willing to work with vendors that do not satisfy this condition. So we spent an entire year carrying out multiple penetration tests, we got our ISO 27001 certification and we’ve recently passed a number of security audits from major streaming platforms too.
We also invested a lot of money to create a scalable solution. We wanted our system to be elastic in terms of the number of users it can support – and we have thousands of users all over the world. We work with an external company who are an AWS partner and offer 24/7/365 support.
We have multiple servers on AWS and the system scales automatically according to load, CPU usage and traffic. This ensures our users’ experience of the platform is always smooth and it helps me sleep better at night.
What’s on your development roadmap?
We’ve always been driven by market needs and demands. Our primary goal is to be a one-stop-shop for our clients and to be able to serve the global media localization market. We have just rolled out support for Japanese timed text, so I’d say this goal has now been achieved.
We don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, so when a tool already exists that fits a specific purpose well, we use APIs to integrate it so as to be able to offer it to our clients. We wish to offer them a selection of everything they could possibly need, integrated into a single workflow. As an example, we work with AppTek for speech recognition and machine translation because they offer specialized models for the media market. We are also in the middle of a proof of concept with memoQ for translation memory functionality, which is something that is requested a lot by our users. Translation automation in general is a very hot topic right now and it is certainly on our roadmap.
Our aim is to create tools that the end users love to work with, so we use input from translators to guide us on this. In short, we see ourselves at the heart of the localization workflow , as the core platform that integrates everything our clients require to fulfil any need they have.
What is your vision for the company?
A lot of people ask me this question. We don’t see OOONA today as a software company with a set of products; we see it as a complete solution that services all the needs of the media localization market. We strive to offer literally everyone access to great localization software, so even a single subtitler could start their own business and have the comfort of working in the same system that a large company uses and enjoy all the benefits that come with it. It’s about supporting the market and making it sustainable.
We want OOONA to be a brand synonymous with the media market, that can cover any localization need, whether it’s for production, training or resource onboarding purposes. This is why we developed an educational platform as well – so people could continue being trained properly, especially in the midst of the pandemic: there are currently 25 universities and colleges using our EDU platform. It’s also why we took the initiative to create the infrastructure for the POOOL, with the support of many LSPs, academics, unions and translators themselves. We’re actually reaching out to other software providers as we speak, because we would like everyone to be a part of it.
What’s next for OOONA?
We have a great team at OOONA that continuously goes above and beyond expectations and who our clients love working with. So, first of all, we want our staff to continue to feel part of the company and enjoy working here. It’s been a bit like working with family all these years and we don’t want to lose that feeling – that’s important to us. We also aspire to be the industry standard when it comes to enterprise-level tools for the media space. We need to expand as a company, as the market is demanding more and we must expand to meet this demand. We want to keep being the best management and production solution out there while having as wide a reach as possible. So we have plans for expanding in new locations too – but let’s leave that for next time!
This is an updated version of an article first published within the GLOBAL InBroadcast magazine, August 2021. It includes references to functionality that was not available in the OOONA platform when the original interview was published.
A major breakthrough in augmented reality for live sports broadcasting
Tell us about the tech breakthroughs that led Supponor to be able to deploy this multi-area, live virtual advertising solution for ISG for Lega Serie A matches and the Supponor AIR platform.
UK-based Interregional Sports Group (ISG) and Supponor have combined with Lega Serie A to scope, build and deploy the most ambitious and advanced integrated virtual media technology project ever attempted in live sports broadcasting.
Known commercially as Supponor AIR™, this new technology platform integrates powerful augmented reality overlays with traditional broadcast quality solutions. This dramatically enhances the value of media and marketing rights for mass-audience sporting events for sports rights holders, their brand sponsors and broadcast partners. Supponor AIR™ drives the exponentially growing commercial value of TV visible signage during live broadcast of sports events. It offers a fully software-based end-to-end solution, integrated downstream from the production workflow and operated completely remotely.
Simon Burgess, joint CEO of ISG
“This deep collaborative partnership with Supponor in the optimisation & deployment of this advanced technology has enabled ISG to achieve what would have been unthinkable and impossible no more than 12 months ago. In these strange times, not all news is about crisis management, this is a huge positive, a massive game changer for the commercial sports industry.”
Supponor AIR™ technology builds on the strong heritage of Supponor DBRLive, widely adopted for over 10 years in top-tier live sporting events. Supponor AIR™ uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to deploy virtual advertising on any surface, in any sport, and in any weather condition. Now commercially and technically proven, Supponor AIR™ provides leagues and clubs with a flexible and powerful marketing tool to continue positioning themselves at the forefront of technical innovation to dramatically increase their commercial inventory and provide sponsors and brand partners with targeted and global reach into local markets.
When delivered remotely, Supponor AIR™ requires no physical integration with the live broadcast production and virtual system operations no longer take place at the venue, and instead can be delivered from a different location, or even different country, regardless of the contribution and distribution format (e.g., satellite, fibre, IP). The insertion of the virtual advertising and the creation of as many virtually modified feeds as required for international distribution, can be enabled fully downstream from the live broadcast production, working on both clean and dirty program contribution feeds.
This revolutionary new AI supported platform operates out of the new Serie A International Broadcast Centre (IBC), just outside of Milan, Italy. The Serie A IBC is one of the most technically advanced and complex broadcast centres in the world. From there, over 100 technicians and production personnel produce all live matches and archive remotely all the Serie A TV, radio, web via 4k production from stadiums across Italy connected via optic fibre. Deployed in record time, the centre was operational from commission to going live for the first game of the season in approximately 18 weeks. ISG's team operates, integrates, and produces virtual goal mats, virtual perimeter VLED, virtual centre circle mats, Virtual 'bench/dugout’ and some bespoke additional virtual media for all 380 championship matches a season, including Coppa Italia draws.
Luigi de Servo, CEO of Lega Serie A
“This is a real world first, as we launch one of the world’s most advanced broadcast centres, and as Serie A continues the development of its media division…We build upon our previous six years of successful partnership with ISG; launching the most exciting & ambitious virtual media project in broadcasting history. This initiative unlocks the potential for all 20 clubs in our league, generating commercial opportunities in different markets and regions across the world. We are confident that ISG and Lega Serie A will continue their strong union for many more years to come.”
Give us a brief history of Supponor
Supponor was founded in 2001 as a pioneer operating at the intersection of technology and commercial opportunity in live sports marketing. Through continuous innovation, the company has continued to grow to become the market leader in delivering virtual replacement technology of TV-visible signage for real-time broadcast and streaming of in-venue sports advertising. As a pure-play technology solutions provider, Supponor has over 15 years of experience in research, development, testing, integration and commercial deployment.
Supponor has commercially deployed its virtual advertising replacement solutions at hundreds of live broadcast events across 10 major broadcast territories in Football (LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A, The FA), Hockey (NHL), Motor Racing (F1), American Football (NFL), Basketball (NBA) and other Tier 1 Sports.
Supponor is based in London and Helsinki, with additional presence in Barcelona, Köln, New York and Australia, and is management owned and backed by leading VCs, strategic partners and institutional investors.
Supponor’s technology is based on 100% proprietary, and wholly owned IP which has been developed in-house by the Supponor R&D team in Europe over the past 20 years.
James B Gambrell, CEO Supponor
“Through continuous innovation we have established ourselves as trusted partners to deliver market leading virtual advertising solutions that maximise returns for rights owners, brands and broadcasters in top tier sports around the world”
What’s next for Supponor?
We aim to support the delivery of virtual advertising or signage solutions for any rights owner, in any sport, on any surface, anywhere and at any time.
Therefore at Supponor the next driver is to continue delivering our proven broadcast quality solutions but at a huge scale. Scale to us concerns production and distribution. In production, scaling will relate to the sheer number of events we will be delivering effectively and efficiently for partners across the globe. We will achieve this using multiple methods as we have always done to support the working practices of our partners, but as the industry itself transitions, we will have an increasing focus on centralised, remote and even cloud based operations, the latter already an area in which we are seeing exciting progress. Similarly, on the distribution side, we are already seeing increasing demand for more output feeds. Technology is opening up opportunities to deliver ever more increased personalisation in both linear broadcast, utilising cost effective, high quality and resilient point-to-point (PTP) delivery over the internet, but also within the exploding OTT and D2C live sports market, which can be either rights owner operated or pure play OTT sports aggregators, where hyper-targeting and almost individualised personalisation becomes a reality.
Our focus has always been on partnerships, but even with this primary focus we realise that with the opportunities ahead of us we need resources, so over the course of this financial year we plan to double our global headcount to support the rapid increase in the number of events Supponor is delivering and to support further expansion in Europe and rapid growth in the Americas, Australia and Asia.
We fully expect to continue our growth from an average of 100 events a year 2 or 3 years ago, to over 1,000 in 2021/22 to an already planned 2,500+ in 2022/23 and onward to 5,000 events a year within the next three years.
James B Gambrell, CEO Supponor
“This is a remarkable time for Virtual Advertising and for Supponor, as we continue to transform the market with our highly disruptive technologies and solutions. We have been a trailblazer in the development of innovative, software-based, scalable Virtual Advertising solutions and this is what has helped us record such great market success. As the market transforms, we will be scaling our business to support the growing market opportunities as we grow and consolidate our market leadership position within Virtual Advertising.”
Need for balance – how to match your TV channel business model with the playout technologies and services available? What about taking back the control?
Martti Kinkar
Head of Development and Innovation, Levira
At the end of 2021, and for the foreseeable future, both national and international TV broadcasters face the challenges of how to find the balance between fast-changing external market forces, the business model chosen, and the technologies implemented to gain market success.
In the real world, there are always discrepancies between the fast-moving market environment, the business model available, creative needs, and the technologies & services available to balance it all. Levira has kept its eye on these changes and our customers’ needs and has reached conclusions which informed our next steps.
Levira’s base of operation is the Tallinn TV tower, where we are servicing some 50 channels and distribute them to the broadcasters’ desired markets and affiliates in Europe and beyond. Alongside our other media businesses, play-out services and solutions are our focus. Levira’s customer base is quite wide with many well-known broadcasters and brands in the mix utilizing one of the largest independent playout facilities in the Nordics.
At Levira, we have adopted a very open approach towards servicing our customer. Regular communication with our clients and indeed future clients, is essential for gathering useful knowledge of the needs and wants that Levira needs to cater for. We are convinced that the broadcasting industry business challenges have gained even more momentum than technologies and technical services providers can keep up with today and in the predictable future. Hence, our approach is to again empower the broadcasters and allow for more flexibility to meet their rapidly evolving needs.
Broadcasters still need and will need channel origination with higher flexibility - and cost-effectiveness - compared to the options available today.
Currently broadcasters can choose the playout tech vendor most suitable to their needs, buy the playout system, and start operating it. This model requires high CAPEX followed with staff & other operational expenses. To avoid high CAPEX, there is the opportunity to opt for a full playout service model, defining the functionalities and budgets required fora fixed period into the future. The choice has been rather binary.
There is the alternative to choose a public cloud play-out model, rely on the functionalities available today and hope that the cloud consumption budget will not surprise you due to hidden costs while you are running with it.
Step by step this has led us to move towards the Playout Platform as a Service (PpaaS) business model, tailored to meet individual customer needs. You may need a healthy balance between functionalities, flexibility, sustainability, CAPEX and OPEX in a future-proof manner. This is exactly the point where Levira would like to start the discussion with you!
The process starts with understanding the customer’s workflows and needs. We´d like to get insight into your requirements to implement and configure a Levira PpaaS solution tailored to your individual business needs. We can add extra flexibility for you and combine the Levira PpaaS solution with Levira managed playout services simultaneously. This would be valid in the case of the broadcaster wanting to employ its own staff for business hours operations and outsource the remaining playout hours to Levira.
Levira can provide the playout platform which corresponds to your business needs today and in the foreseeable future. In addition, Levira can add extra functionalities and services layers based on future-proof standards.
Onwards to a more practical approach
Levira has conducted a playout proof of concept system using a SMPTE ST2110 playout network. The platform consisted of equipment required for setting up fully functional channel chains. The system comprised playout automation, video servers, nearline storage, 2D/3D graphics engines, signal gateways, uncompressed AV IP stream analyzers, software based multiviewer, distribution encoders, compliance recording and SDN orchestration.
Initial testing was divided into three categories and was carried out on the functional domain. Our secondary objective was to verify the maturity of the SMPTE ST2110 standard and the stability of the platform, followed by the operational model testing. Proof of concept continued with functionality testing. While Levira was concentrating on the stability and interoperability aspects of the SMPTE ST2110 based play-out platform, our partner, the broadcaster, concentrated on the functional requirements and channel ops. The system was benchmarked against 300+ test scenarios. What makes the test remarkable was that the playout operator was controlling the platform a few thousand kilometers away.
The remote playout operator was able to control the playout via automation GUI and see the multiviewer mosaic screens, showing the system status and stream outputs of the playout, with unnoticeable delay, low-latency program output signals. The testing was positively concluded. Levira continued the collaboration project by selecting the best playout vendor for the live platform build during the coming years.
The base need for the whole platform resides in the latency. End to end signal chain latency is minimal due to low latency compression technologies and uncompressed signal-chains used, making it hardly noticeable for the channel operator.
The second obstacle was to provide the platform in the most flexible manner possible. Initial ideas went towards the public cloud immediately but costing structures and technical challenges seem not to favor this approach coupled with the idea that private cloud solutions seem best suited for 24/7 live dynamic channels. Hence a more cost-friendly (for Levira AND the customer) private cloud approach was selected, coupled with public cloud if needed. Public cloud is a good tool for pop-up or event-based channels that gain something from the cloud logic… The speed of set up and pay as you go.
In terms of the private cloud set up – Levira can utilize COTS hardware and hence meets the flexibility and efficiency requirements triggered by the software driven system architecture.
Take back control
Today, Levira PpaaS is available as a true Playout Platform as a Service, where Levira handles the platform, i.e., the whole technology and upgrades, and the broadcaster is free to operate the content/channels on the platform. Hence, no technological pains, no upgrade needs, no research costs – the broadcaster is free to focus on their main task – delivering the best content to their viewers.
Therefore, do not hesitate to contact us for advice, expertise or just information you may need; take advantage of our real-world experience to help you take back control and deliver great content efficiently and cost-effectively.
In Conversation with Avid
In this IABM TV interview, David Colantuoni (VP Product Management, Avid) discusses the newly launched NEXIS | EDGE and its key features.
In Conversation with Vialite Communications
In this IABM TV interview, Richard Jacklin (Global Sales & Businesss Development Director, Vialite Communications) gives an update of Vialite’s previous year, and what’s to come in 2022.
In Conversation with Bridge Technologies
In this IABM TV interview, Simen Frostad (Chairman & Co-Founder, Bridge Technologies) discusses Bridge Technologies’ successful 2021, and the new integrations and functionalities being developed for 2022.
In Conversation with PHABRIX
In this IABM TV interview, Phillip Adams (Founder and CEO at PHABRIX Ltd) gives an overview of 2021 including their nomination for IABM’s BaM Award. Phillip also discusses the latest from test and measurement from PHABRIX, and what to expect in 2022.
Irdeto Report: The Era of Extreme Vigilance and Zero Trust
It is both a blessing and a curse to live in the connected world. The very things that make it one of the most exciting eras in our history, also make it the least secure. Because behind every development, every technological advancement and every connected device, lurks a pirate or hacker, ready to capitalize on vulnerabilities and profit off of weaknesses.
Preparing for the peak
Although 2021 was the most prolific year for cyberattacks and piracy, Irdeto experts predict that we’re far from seeing the peak of activity. Cyberattacks and piracy are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and recruitment of new pirates and hackers is at an all-time high, partly driven by the Covid pandemic. But another key driver is consumer demand: from video entertainment and video games to connected cars with the latest amenities, customers demand the best that technology can offer. But companies that rush to deliver on that demand can become the architects of their own demise.
Like many companies, Irdeto applies a Zero Trust Architecture approach to keep its own systems safe. That includes continuous employee training, multi-factor authentication to access the company network and any sensitive data, and automated defense systems that alert us whenever any unusual activity occurs. After all, breaches can happen anywhere, at any time, with even the slightest human error.
In Conversation with VSN
In this IABM TV interview, Toni Vilalta Boqué (Global Product Manager, VSN) discusses the main news on VSN’s products and some major trends in the industry such as remote workflows.