Pac-12 inks video distribution deal with Imagen

The Pac-12 Conference has signed a deal with Imagen to use the company’s Imagen Pro offering for video distribution.

The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports with members including Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington and Washington State.

In addition to its media partnerships with top national broadcasters across the country, the Pac-12 also owns and operates its own media company with Pac-12 Networks.

As part of its operations, the Pac-12 broadcasts, captures and disseminates several hundred collegiate sporting events a year, across many sports.

In doing so, one challenge they have faced is the considerable amount of time required to transcode content into multiple formats, as needed by its member universities for delivery.

Using Imagen Pro, the Pac-12 will be able to distribute content almost instantly. While previous lead times needed to package video content, attach correct metadata and distribute to universities could take several hours, now with built-in Imagen automations these processes will be reduced to just a few minutes.

“After seeing the great work Imagen is doing with the NBA we became excited with the prospect of utilizing the same technology to deliver content to our institutions faster than ever before,” said senior director, content production Bob Schmelzle.

“This will change the way we work, speed up our operations and ultimately benefit our universities, student-athletes and fans.”

Olivia Cianci, account manager at Imagen, added: “This use case is Imagen at its best and a testament to the continued development we’ve put into supporting the sporting market segment.

“We are delighted to be working with the Pac-12 to improve their content operations and media asset management.”

Known as the “Conference of Champions,” the Pac-12 has won more National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team national championships than any other conference in history at 544 titles and counting, and is dedicated to the development of the next generation of leaders by championing excellence in academics, athletics, and the well-being of their student-athletes.