Online video and multiscreen vendors Quickplay and You.i TV have partnered to enable their customers -- many of which are pay-TV operators and content programmers -- to create customized multiscreen applications. The aim is to speed the process for traditional media players looking get their content streaming over-the-top to multiple connected devices like Roku players, iOS and Android devices.
Quickplay will provide the platform muscle of the partnership: the company offers a managed video platform that features a software-defined headend, secure streaming of live and on-demand content, and features like adaptive bitrate, digital rights management, dynamic ad insertion and other components. The vendor boasts Tier 1 operators like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) among its multiscreen customers, along with programmers like Bloomberg and Accuweather.
Meantime, You.i TV will effectively be the front-end part of the combined solution, enabling clients to build customized user interfaces and OTT apps that are compatible with major streaming devices and platforms. The product features a direct plugin to Adobe Creative Cloud to add additional customization to UI designs.
"You.i Engine grants operators and content providers unprecedented freedom to build truly delightful, immersive custom applications on every screen, and unshackles them from the fragmented, proprietary device marketplace," said Jason Flick, CEO of You.i TV, in a statement. "This partnership enables our customers to leverage the additional cost, time-to-market and service quality benefits of QuickPlay's software-defined headend capabilities and 24/7 managed service for Next Generation TV services."
The partnership between these two vendors reflects an ongoing move in the online video marketplace to reduce the amount of complexity involved in taking content over the top. While many OTT delivery solutions are touted as "end to end," the process of getting a video stream from a broadcast facility to a viewer really involves multiple steps and participants.
To reduce the number of figurative hands a stream must pass through in the OTT ecosystem, companies are either forming strategic partnerships or are straight-up buying the vendors that have the components they need -- for example, IBM's recent purchase of Clearleap. You.i TV and Quickplay teaming up provides an example of a less drastic, and hopefully cost-effective solution for programmers trying to launch an OTT component quickly.
Update: Harmonic on Thursday announced it also is partnering with Quickplay, making both their solutions available to IP video content and service providers. Harmonic's forte is scalable, software-based video workflows including transcoding, and the two vendors said they will work together to offer "complementary capabilities to accelerate and evolve new business models in premium online video" delivered via Harmonic's video platform.
For more:
- see the release
- and the Harmonic release
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