Imagine Communications, less than a month old as a standalone company, continues to grow and define its new focus for broadcasters competing with online video and pay-TV providers in the growing IP video space by acquiring IP- and file-based media processing solutions provider Digital Rapids.
Imagine itself was spawned March 17 when the Gores Group split Harris Broadcast into two separate, privately-owned companies--Imagine Communications and GatesAir. The Digital Rapids acquisition demonstrates Imagine's focus on the TV Everywhere space and how broadcasters can effectively play into it with IP-based products and offerings, said Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications.
"Digital Rapids' advancements in software-based workflow management and transcoding strategically complements our pillars of innovation and rounds out our capabilities," Vogt said in a press release. "Additionally, their expert team, which is based just miles from our development center in Toronto, brings a rich history in pioneering software solutions for high end media processing applications that strengthens our TV Everywhere business and company."
Digital Rapids has, among other things, developed a software framework that improves workflow agility by automating video processing operations for those pushing their video content into the mobile TV and IPTV space. According to the Imagine press release, the addition of Digital Rapids will "also create the world's most comprehensive portfolio of processing and compression solutions for TV Everywhere."
That, said Digital Rapids President-CEO Brick Ekstein, is because Imagine's "senior management team understands that flexible, software-defined workflows are essential for media companies to efficiently scale to new opportunities and quickly launch new, differentiated services."
Broadcasters, for the most part, have lagged cable, telco and even satellite providers in taking full advantage of the interactive IP media space. Imagine, as an equipment supplier, is attempting to bridge the differences between the pay-TV models and broadcasters in the competitive residential market.
"Multiscreen to us is critical because it's the way consumers are going to watch (content). It's natural for us to be in that market," said Vogt. "Personalization is the future of how we're going to watch TV. Telecom has been working on this for the past five years."
For more:
- see this press release
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