Akamai®Technologies, Inc.
(NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for delivering secure,
high-performing user experiences to any device, anywhere, todayintroduced the
new Sola Media Solutions portfolio. A comprehensive set of cloud‑based,
integrated services, Sola Media is designed to offer customersa powerful, yet
easy-to-usewayto address the challenges of online media workflow, storage and
delivery.Sola Media, including newly available transcoding and stream packaging
capabilities,will be introduced and demonstrated to attendees at the upcoming
IBC 2012 (Stand 7.K36), taking place September 7-11, 2012 in
Amsterdam.
According to a recent report, industry analyst firm
Gartner, Inc. forecasts, “more than 1 billion connected devices — including
smartphones, media tablets and ultrathin notebooks — capable of consuming all
forms of media will be in the hands of consumers by 2015.”[1] The report further
states that, “On the operational side of things, moving aspects of the content
creation, distribution and licensing processes into the cloud holds the promise
of not just lowering costs, but also removing friction — in the form of fairly
manual processes in today's systems — from many of these
processes.”[2]
Meeting theincreasing demand for content that is
available when and where viewers want it, ona wide variety of devices, and with
the highest quality possible can present challenges. Content providers want the
cost advantages of efficiency, agility, and flexibility that cloud‑based
solutions offer, while ensuring that the platform they choose has the
flexibility to incorporate technologies that address their varying content and
audience requirements.
“Success in providing a truly engaging online
audience experience is incumbent on several factors coming together seamlessly,”
explained Mike McGuire, research vice president, Gartner, Inc. “Content
providers of all types want to simplify the process, speed time to market and
prepare for future advances – all without sacrificing the quality which is
crucial for keeping viewers satisfied.”
Built on the Akamai
Intelligent Platform™,Akamai’sSola Media is designed to provideunmatched scale
and reliability to support customers’objectives for their online video
initiatives and meet a range of requirements across the entire content
lifecycle.
Sola Media consists of the following:
·
Sola Sphere –At the foundation of the Sola Media Solutions portfolio is Sola
Sphere. Building on a decade of innovation, Sola Sphere is designed to provide
unmatched scale, reach, performance and reliability in cloud-based storage and
content delivery services.Further, Sola Sphere is designed to support a variety
of video delivery technologies including progressive media downloading
andadaptive bitrate streamingthrough existing and emerging industry standard
protocols – such as MPEG-DASH –tohelp customers address the challenges of
delivering to a variety of player platforms over varying network conditions, all
while maintaining a high quality experience.
· Sola Vision –Sola
Vision is designed to address three critical areas of the online video content
lifecycle – the need to adapt content for efficient, engaging online delivery;
to protect content at a level appropriate to the application; and to simply and
efficiently connect viewers to content providers, operators, advertisers, and
other participants in the online media delivery ecosystem. Sola Vision
introduces powerful new capabilities in the area of cloud-based transcoding and
stream packaging thatare expected to simplify the workflow for delivering
content across multiple environments. In addition to support for industry
initiatives such as TV Everywhere and UltraViolet, Sola Vision is designed to
support multiple levels of content protection, from player verification through
a variety of studio-grade DRM technologies. Akamai’s platform is architected to
enable customers to monetize video through advertising and different methods
they may pursue. The architecture’s flexibility is designed to allow content
owners and providers to match content protection levels and monetization
strategies to the specific content and target audience.
· Sola Media
Analytics – The ability to understand how viewers are consuming content and
visibility into the overall quality of their experience are paramount to
successful engagements. Sola Media Analytics collects both real-time quality and
post-event audience engagement information required to better understand viewer
behavior and reveal opportunities for improving the viewer
experience.
· Luna Control Center –Sola Media’scapabilities are
managed through the Luna Control Center, a unified web user interface that
supports all Akamai solutions. Content owners can simply specify the target end
devices and desired security levels for a given library of media titles andSola
Vision’s integrated expert system is designed to determine the appropriate
renditions, bitrate settings, protocols, and dozens of other settingsrequired
for optimized viewing and delivery. User interfaces are architected to
automatically update as new device types, protocols, and technologies are
introduced, intending to make it easy for customers to incrementally adapt their
content to embrace these changes in the future.
Architected for
openness and flexibility, Sola Media capabilities may also be accessed through
open APIs to allow customers to integrate Sola Media functionality into their
existing content workflows. In addition, Sola Media’s open platform approach is
designed to support the integration of a variety of third-party security/DRM and
advertising /monetization technologies and platforms, in order to maximize
choice.
Akamai is working with partners within the online video
ecosystem to provide the broadest array of choices available to meet customer
needs.
“Bringing seamless television experiences across devices is a
great market opportunity that requires content providers to tackle major
challenges including platform fragmentation, monetization, buffering between
content and ads, and understanding who is watching the content,” said Jeremy
Helfand, vice president, Monetization at Adobe. “Customers can easily deploy
Akamai’s Sola Media Solutions together with Adobe Project Primetime components
such as HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) technology, ad insertion and
industry-leading DRM solutions to address several of these important media
workflow challenges.”
Sola Media Solutions is available now. The
latest offerings include cloud-basedtranscoding for on-demand content and stream
packaging which is designed to adapt a single file or live stream on-the-fly for
delivery to multiple viewing devices.The portfolio will be highlighted for
attendees at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam.
“With Sola Media Solutions, including
the cloud-based transcoding and stream packaging capabilities introduced in Sola
Vision, we’re offering content providers an effective way to address the
increasing audience demand for high-quality online video,” said Bill Wheaton,
senior vice president and general manager, Media Division at Akamai. “Through
our industry-leading technologies, and by working closely with our partners in
the ecosystem, Akamai is dedicated to providing our customers with solutions to
help them succeed in the rapidly evolving world of online
video.”
About Akamai
Akamai® is the leading cloud
platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user
experiences on any device, anywhere. At the core of the Company's solutions is
the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing extensive reach, coupled with
unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise. Akamai removes the
complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7
consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud.
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