IBC 2019: Imagine offers support for legacy equipment to ease transition to the software future
As part of its commitment to provide continuing support for broadcasters and media companies at any point in the transition towards software-defined solutions, Imagine Communications (stand 1.D61) is developing several new offerings.
Across the industry and around the world, broadcasters rely heavily on aging equipment, which may be out of warranty and nearing end of life. As part of the Imagine Communications “your path, your pace” philosophy, MyCare provides continuing support for these legacy installations, assuring the quality and reliability of the current platform while preparing for next-generation solutions. This support is delivered by a dedicated team within Imagine Communications, which boasts more than 2500 years of media industry experience.
MyCare includes a number of services, including the new Health Check Program. A team of experienced architects and engineers provides an evaluation of existing infrastructure, identifies hidden risks, and delivers recommendations on how best to provide continuing support for mission-critical components. As part of this service, Imagine experts can assist with migration planning, helping the media company refine its plans for a software-based infrastructure transition.
Another option offered by Imagine is the new Extended Care program. This program provides additional years of protection for customers’ existing SDI equipment. For select legacy Imagine equipment that has been previously announced as “end of support,” Imagine now offers Extended Care as a way of providing customers peace of mind until they can invest in new IP-defined environments.
An additional offering is Imagine Service Fortress, an alliance with Fortress Solutions, which provides repair support for multi-vendor installations. Imagine Service Fortress can support equipment from all the major media vendors, providing complete reassurance.
These continuing support services include service and spares, as well as product updates. The aim is to manage the risk of ageing equipment and single points of failure, providing high availability and redundancy for critical on-air systems. The approach also means that, as elements are replaced with software-defined technology as part of a managed transition, the same levels of operational flexibility and resilience are maintained.
“At Bell Media, we were looking for assistance to analyze our current ingest and edit systems,” said Tod Madden, director, TV & network engineering for Bell Media. “The goal was to maximize the lifespan of our current technology without risking operations or making changes to the workflow.
“The Imagine team applied diagnostics to our Nexio servers, editing systems, and networked storage, and to the third-party ethernet switch,” Madden added. “The recommendations made by Imagine provided us with a plan to see which elements needed extended support, as well as a path for upgrading to a next-generation infrastructure.”
Chris Sjerven, vice president of operations and customer service for Imagine Communications, added, “MyCare is an essential part of our ‘your path, your pace’ philosophy. Our customers want to make an orderly transition to the software-defined, IP-connected future, but they have to be able to plan the path through the transition that best meets their operational requirements, and respects existing investments and capital plans. With MyCare, they can be confident that if they have five nines uptime today, they will have five nines uptime throughout their transition. That allows them to concentrate on building for the future.”