Cerberus secures funding boost for cloud-based SaaS live video platform

Cerberus Tech has been awarded public funds for a project that it hopes will transform the way in which live video and audio content is delivered globally.

Livelink 2.0 will be a cloud-based SaaS live video delivery platform that is globally accessible, offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model and is said to make it easy for users to monetise their video content.

The funding has been provided by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. Innovate UK is said to “drive productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas, including those from the UK’s world-class research base.”

Cerberus Tech will use the funding to bring Livelink 2.0 to market. Its predecessor, Livelink 1.0 is the company’s IP cloud teleport solution for transporting content from source to destination without reliance on expensive, traditional infrastructure.

With the next generation, Cerberus Tech said that it aims to “enhance the cloud platform to give content owners and affiliates UX-driven choice and control when it comes to video delivery and ingress and egress formats, as well as enabling seamless scaling capabilities.”

Livelink 2.0 will also facilitate cloud-based video edit and manipulation so that customers can edit content on-the-fly. This can be done to increase personalisation and monetisation of content based on widespread, local or even niche consumer demands, the company said.

Chris Clarke, the chief executive of Cerberus, discussing the funding award said: “Livelink already tackles the challenges of live broadcast and that was the initial driver behind creating our flexible, scalable platform for video transport. However, in the increasingly competitive media landscape, our customers are challenged with finding new ways to improve engagement and monetise content while keeping costs low.

“At the same time, they need to be able to scale fast to handle extra capacity during busy periods, such as live sporting events. Livelink 2.0 aims to solve these challenges and this support from Innovate UK is critical to bringing it to market quickly. We are excited by the prospect of seeing it become a reality in the marketplace”.

Over the next 18 months, through innovation, customer and supplier collaboration and a progressive release of platform updates, Cerberus will deliver a whole host of new services on a SaaS basis to the market, fundamentally changing the way that content owners approach management, manipulation and distribution.

Former Minister of State for Trade Policy at the Department for International Trade George Hollingbery, who recently announced that he was stepping down as MP for Meon Valley in Hampshire where Cerberus is based, added his congratulations.

“I’m delighted a high-tech company in this constituency has received this money to develop a product that will have a global impact,” he said.

“I wish it the very best and I look forward to many updates on Livelink [2.0] in the months and years to come.”