IBC 2024: Appear Introduces New APX Solutions Suite
At IBC 2024, Appear (booth 1.B41) is introducing APX, a cohesive and integrated solutions suite consisting of technology, services and operational support tools. APX enables media organisations to efficiently deploy and operate live production workflows carrying the highest value content. APX marks a pivotal shift for Appear, transitioning from a product technology vendor to holistic solutions provider. It is a next generation solutions suite, designed to enhance operational efficiency and foster long-term collaboration at scale and with minimal risk.
“Our strategic direction for APX reflects both Appear’s growth journey and the operational, technical and business complexity that our global customers are increasingly facing,” says Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO at Appear, when discussing the APX launch.
“We have designed APX solutions to solve these challenges together with our customers, and at the same time we are enabling them to combine the advantages of the ‘best-of-breed’ multi-vendor approach. Our primary aim for APX is to solve today’s media processing and delivery challenges, while preparing the industry for future innovation,” concludes Jørgensen.
The APX solutions suite includes hardware, cloud-based solutions, software, flexible licensing models, and professional services, all designed to optimise live production workflows. APX integrates award winning services with best-of-breed tools and technologies from Appear and its industry partners, addressing challenges across the live video delivery value chain.
APX will enable a complete workflow for cloud-based live remote production, with end user choice of key functional components. This will facilitate both hybrid and full-cloud production architectures. The solutions suite will de-risk multi-vendor component production architectures by verifying interoperability of open interfaces in both linear stream and compute connectivity.
Introducing flexible licensing models and self-service access to all required resources, the APX customer portal will allow for efficient and rapid scaling as business and technology needs evolve. This will provide Appear’s customers with increased commercial and operational flexibility, empowering them to take control of their workflows.
APX Estate Management will also significantly reduce the operating cost of lifecycle management by providing a centralised tool to perform tasks such as software upgrades, health monitoring, and provisioning. Through encompassing the X Platform, the recently launched Appear VX media processing software platform and third-party products from Appear partners, APX delivers the next phase of Appear’s vision to increase the flexibility and functionality of live production workflows.
“Our APX proposition is an exciting opportunity for us to broaden our offering to the marketplace as we start to embrace a more significant breadth and depth of capability,” says Andy Rayner, CTO at Appear.
“We will continually evolve APX, integrating third-party solutions in the suite to provide flexible and holistic live media production workflows based on our commitment to open standards. We will be addressing an ever-increasing portion of the production chain, with Appear’s own development and key industry partners. For our customers, APX will significantly reduce risk and enhance the opportunity of world-leading solutions in today’s increasingly complex workflows,” concludes Rayner.
Appear’s solutions and services portfolio is accessible through APX, including:
- X Platform: A high-capacity, ultra-low latency hardware-based platform for high-speed video networking, enhanced IP security, and advanced compression, deployable in 1RU (X10) or 2RU (X20).
- VX: A resilient framework of functional software components used to build media transport and processing workflows, delivering high-value video content for next-generation cloud and datacentre-based production