Imagine Communications joins VRT-EBU LiveIP Project as Technology Partner

Imagine Communications has become involved with the LiveIP project, a collaboration of Belgian public broadcasting company VRT and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), as a technology partner. The LiveIP project, driven by the VRT Sandbox incubator program and the EBU, has developed a fully functional IP production studio based on industry standards that is designed to demonstrate a high level of interoperability and leverage the unique benefits of IP to create efficiencies, such as remote production and automation.

“Imagine Communications is excited to join this unique industry initiative and further demonstrate our commitment to the managed transition of media operations to next-generation architectures based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment,” said Brick Eksten, Chief Product Officer, Imagine Communications. “Demonstrating that IP-based production facilities are ready for primetime today, as well as providing an environment for media companies to test and validate innovative solutions, is of paramount importance and Imagine Communications is proud to assist the LiveIP project in meeting these timely and vital objectives.”

Imagine Communications’ SelenioFlex Live encoding solution and the recently introduced EPIC Multiviewer (MV), a software-based hybrid SDI-IP monitoring solution, will be part of the LiveIP Studio production set-up. VRT and EBU announced last week that its LiveIP production facilities will be used by IBC TV to produce some of the programming scheduled for the IBC2016 conference and exhibition in Amsterdam, 8-13 September.

The EPIC MV, designed to handle native IP uncompressed, compressed and SDI inputs, will be used to monitor all video sources and destinations. IBC TV will leverage SelenioFlex Live to stream IBC2016 programming to Internet-connected devices. The LiveIP project’s collaboration with IBC TV is also being supported by the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), an industry association dedicated to promoting the advancement of IP-based standards and products based on those standards.

“We are pleased to welcome Imagine Communications into the LiveIP multivendor community,” said Félix Poulin, lead Live & IP production at EBU.