As pay-TV operators look to meet the growing consumer demand for additional broadcast and OTT channels, cloud-native solutions have emerged as an efficient, flexible and cost-effective solution. During the first two parts of this blog series, we explored the benefits of cloud technology as well as the differences between cloud-native offerings and virtualized appliances. This third installment will examine the unique advantages of Harmonic’s VOS™ cloud-native offerings.
What is VOS on the Cloud? Harmonic offers two media processing solutions powered by the cloud: VOS Cloud and VOS 360 offerings give operators the flexibility to choose which cloud offering best meets their needs. The VOS Cloud solution is a comprehensive, software-based media processing platform that can be used to manage the video production and delivery workflow for broadcast and OTT applications over public or private cloud infrastructure. The cloud infrastructure is managed and operated by the customer.
The VOS 360 solution provides operators with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud media processing service (www.vos360.tv) that is hosted in the public cloud and maintained and monitored by Harmonic. Key Features and Advantages of VOS Cloud Offerings Both VOS Cloud and VOS 360 offerings provide a broad range of unique features and benefits to operators.
For the purpose of this blog post, we’ll take a look at the top 6 advantages of our VOS solutions on the cloud:
1- Increased efficiency and speed. Pay-TV operators have a critical need to introduce new revenue-generating services with speed. The VOS Cloud and VOS 360 offerings are designed to do just that. With the VOS 360 service, in particular, broadcast-quality OTT services can be launched in a matter of minutes rather than months.
Both offerings feature workflows that simplify configuration, deployment and management, taking care of the entire media processing chain, from ingest through delivery, tailoring branding and advertisements based on the distribution method.
2- Pay per use amounts to huge cost savings. Since operators are using one solution for six previously discrete media processing tasks (i.e., ingest, playout, graphics, transcoding, encryption and delivery), OTT distribution is infinitely more affordable. Our cloud-native solutions are based on an OPEX-based business model that gives operators the flexibility to pay for what they use. There are no hidden costs or CAPEX investments whatsoever.
3- Format and codec flexibility. Video quality is important – as a leader in video compression technology, we know this at Harmonic. Encoding and transcoding on our cloud-native solutions are powered by Harmonic PURE Compression Engine™ technology, which offers industry-leading video quality at the lowest possible bitrates. PURE Compression technology also offers true codec independence, supporting MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC transport streams as well as SD, HD and UHD content formats, including constant, variable and adaptive bitrate streaming.
4- Bandwidth savings and better video quality. We recently introduced our EyeQ™ solution as an enhancement to the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine technology. Our EyeQ real-time video compression optimization solution takes bandwidth efficiency and video quality to a whole new level, allowing video content and service providers to deliver a superior viewing experience on HTTP-connected devices while reducing OTT bitrates by up to 50 percent. Customers using our VOS Cloud and VOS 360 offerings have access to the benefits of the EyeQ solution.
5- Reliability meets the cloud. Leveraging cloud architecture (private or public) features such as high-availability zones and by employing redundancy mechanisms on input services and processing nodes, our VOS Cloud solution offers a highly robust ecosystem designed to avoid downtime. For public cloud deployments, our VOS offerings provide total geographic redundancy and operational resiliency.
6- World-class service and support. Harmonic stands behind the VOS Cloud solution with comprehensive support programs, including system design and service deployment. Harmonic has also established an innovative relationship with VOS Cloud users via a VOS community and DevOps team.
The VOS community brings tutorials, videos and articles to users, while the around-the-clock DevOps team includes a global network of professionals dedicated to ensuring your ability to deliver outstanding “anytime, anywhere, any-device” customer experiences.
As one of the first professional grade, native cloud-based media processing services in the industry, the VOS 360 service is maintained and operated by Harmonic DevOps 24 hours a day, ensuring superior quality of experience and service availability at all times. Have we convinced you of the power of cloud-native solutions?
Learn more about Harmonic’s VOS cloud media processing offerings now! – Ludovic Pertuisel, Senior Platform Manager of VOS at Harmonic