Cisco, Imagine Communications Demo Collaboration on IP-Transition Solutions
Imagine Communications (Booth N2702) and Cisco (Booth N802) are demonstrating their collaboration on technologies to help media companies transition to the next generation of IP playout and hybrid-IP facilities.
The two companies’ partnership spans critical aspects of broadcast and media operations. Imagine Communications’ Zenium workflow manager and VersioCloud platform have been certified to run on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS), a next-generation data-center platform that unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization into a cohesive system designed to reduce total cost of ownership and increase business agility. Also, media companies transitioning from baseband to IP infrastructure are able to manage Cisco’s Nexus IP switches with Imagine Communications’ Magellan Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Orchestrator.
“We are excited to be collaborating with Imagine Communications and leading media customers to seamlessly evolve legacy production infrastructures to next-gen IP and cloud platforms,” says Paul Bosco, VP, market development, Cisco. “With VersioCloud running on Cisco UCS, we are able to effectively address rapidly growing and evolving media-customer requirements with a world-class, highly agile, data-center cloud platform.”
VersioCloud IP-enabled, playout-in-the-cloud platform features 100% software running on commercial, off-the-shelf IT platforms. With VersioCloud, all of the traditional integrated channel playout functions are cloud-enabled, including automation, branding, graphics, master-control, and file-server functions. The platform is powered by Zenium, an agile software engine for designing, deploying, and managing extensible, customizable software-defined workflows. Bringing these advanced software services to the Cisco UCS next-generation data-center platform enables media companies to capitalize on Cisco’s IT-market expertise and paves the way for increased innovation and business acceleration.
“The Cisco UCS decouples scale from complexity and accelerates the delivery of new services simply, reliably, and securely,” says Imagine Communications CTO Steve Reynolds. “This collaboration brings Cisco’s leading IT infrastructure together with Imagine Communications’ advanced IP, software, and cloud solutions to ensure that media companies realize maximum benefits from their next-generation–architecture investments.”
As media companies move from baseband to IP, they need to address investment, workflow, and operational challenges simultaneously. Magellan SDN Orchestrator, Imagine Communications’ software control system for hybrid baseband and IP networks, ensures both the integrity of content today and the optimal benefit of investments now and into the future. Running Magellan SDN on Cisco’s Nexus IP switches ensures a seamless transition and gives media companies the assurance that their investments will deliver maximum value with minimum risk going forward.