Net Insight launches next generation of Nimbra Edge for open and agile cloud delivery

Net Insight has announced the launch of the next generation of its Nimbra Edge intelligent video delivery platform, enhancing the system that was released earlier this year.

The new additions are designed to help broadcasters migrate to IP and cloud-based workflows, providing the flexibility, reliability and economics of cloud video for broadcasters, service providers and enterprises.

Media organisations and enterprises need to meet the increasing demand for exciting live content experiences while also driving efficiencies through remote production, distributed workflows and flexible delivery networks.

Nimbra Edge is a fully open, intelligent platform for ingesting and delivering any live media stream, in any format, securely to multiple destinations across any IP network. The new features deliver higher level performance, interoperability and reliability:

Speaking to SVG Europe, Crister Fritzson, CEO at Net Insight, commented: “Cloud technology has clearly accelerated in the last year and the pandemic has definitely pushed that [evolution] forward. Remote production is definitely a benefit [linked to cloud technology] that our customers have seen [over this same period.”

Net Insight CTO and co-founder, Per Lindgren, added: “This has been a very exciting six months [from a technology perspective], even if it’s been sad times for the sports industry. We’ve seen some good things developing.

“[Nimbra Edge] is now a full platform for high end production environments in the cloud. We’re moving everything to more virtualised software and into the cloud. This [release] is moving us into cloud-based workflows, into playouts, social media, and tier two and tier three-type sports events. Customer can integrate this into their existing systems and it helps you migrate into IP and cloud-based workflows. It will move more and more into higher tier sports.”

The Nimbra Edge platform drives maximum benefit from the cloud because it is built on open standards, claimed the company. It supports all major industry re-transmission (ARQ) standards (RIST, SRT, Zixi), enabling service providers to deploy any mix of private, hybrid or public cloud network while also avoiding being locked into any particular vendor.

Support for open standards also means that streams can be handled in any format, simplifying operations and making it easy to work with existing equipment investments.

Noted Fritzson: “Our company is moving from closed systems to fully open systems, from hardware to software, giving much more flexibility of use for our customers.”

By integrating the high end Nimbra and Aperi platforms directly with Nimbra Edge, Net Insight now offers a complete range of agile and secure media delivery solutions for cloud, IP and virtualised networks.

“We’re giving our customers the tools they need to reach the biggest audiences, launch flexible transport services quickly and reduce risk. That means driving cloud transformation that’s built on openness, enhanced agility and efficiency,” said Fritzson.

“The latest version of Nimbra Edge and the integration with our existing platforms mean that our customers can get high quality results with any blend of public, private or hybrid networks. Crucially, they can also build on their existing Nimbra hardware as they move toward the cloud, so they can avoid discarding previous investments.”

Nimbra Edge includes an open API for creating seamless communication with any external service. This gives maximum flexibility to integrate with existing management systems for automatic network control. In addition, built-in authentication makes it easy for rights holders, content owners and service providers to directly publish and monetise live content in the cloud.

Transparency lies at the heart of robust and reliable networks; service providers need access to precise information about the services running on their network at all times. Users need to know that they can depend on IP networks, especially when replacing satellite distribution. Nimbra Edge automatically measures the resilience, success and quality of streams to reduce troubleshooting time and ensure uninterrupted viewer experiences.

The Nimbra Edge system enables automatic time-stamping and stream alignment of live inputs from multiple cameras in any location. This makes it simple to keep video perfectly in sync across all destinations, removing any video skipping, lip sync errors and misaligned camera angles without the cost and complexity of using GPS antennas.

Simple, per-stream pricing gives Nimbra Edge customers full transparency and control over spending, enabling them to accurately predict costs in advance. Additionally, there is no extra charge for handling higher resolution streams. This means users have complete flexibility to offer any combination of 4K, HD and standard definition content without incurring additional costs.

Nimbra is the benchmark for media delivery and trusted by the world’s leading media brands, such as The Switch, Tata Communications, LinkedIn and SVT, to deliver high quality, robust services for premier live events around the globe.

Robert Szabo-Rowe, SVP engineering and product management at The Switch, commented: “We deliver mission critical live feeds for many of the world’s most-watched sports, news and entertainment events. Nimbra lies at the heart of our ability to deliver these feeds in pristine condition, making sure viewers don’t miss a single second of the action. We work with Net Insight because it truly understands what it takes to handle live content on any network with zero compromises on quality.”