Zixi IBC 2023 Review
IBC 2023 was truly a phenomenal event in every aspect from seeing record demand from our customers and partners to having our largest booth activity at IBC that was used to demonstrate Zixi’s ground-breaking compute and protocol efficiency developments that are focused on sustainability and the lowest total cost of ownership.
In case you missed the show, here is a quick summary of some key highlights:
Very informative and sold out, the Devoncroft Executive Summit offered the most up-to-date industry market research and analysis from Devoncroft Partners, including their Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) that provided key insight into trends of the global media industry in 2023 and highlighted what categories remain a top priority for decision makers. Zixi is the market leader in IP video delivery, and it was exciting to see that investments in IP video transport are the number one executive priority and expected to increase even though the CFOs are scrutinizing every expense and demanding engineering teams do more with less. IP video transport enables significant cost reduction over traditional methods and allows customers to redirect their budget to other segments of the business unlocking new commercial opportunities. Zixi’s SVP BD and Marketing, John Wastcoat kicked off the event with remarks focusing on the total cost of ownership being an important consideration for the decision makers in addition to sustainability being on top of the customer’s mind. A panel of CEOs with peers from Zixi Enabled Network partners Google Cloud, and Amagi along with other industry leaders joined Zixi CEO Gordon Brooks where they discussed trends in broadcast, IP and cloud deployments and the state of investment in media companies.
IBC Showcase Theatre:
CEO Gordon Brooks moderated a lively panel discussion including David Travis, Group Director of Content, Broadcast & Platforms at Sky and Ralf Jacob, EVP Global Broadcast Engineering, Televisa Univision at the IBC Showcase Theatre. The group discussed best practices in live IP video delivery and the use of the Cloud, and how major global media organizations are achieving the lowest TCO with deployments that are not only the most cost-effective solutions available, but also drastically improving sustainability. Sustainability initiatives are important to the media and entertainment industry, but especially effective when made to be financially attractive to adopt. The panelists offered their views on how these modern workflows are accelerating new content acquisition, new business models and opportunities to generate revenue.
Zixi Innovation Recognized: Zixi is continuously innovating and while solving customer problems is the ultimate reward, it is encouraging to receive recognition by peers and industry experts for all the hard work and incredible innovations the Zixi team has delivered. The company was truly honored to be the recipient of several awards at IBC, including Zixi’s advancement in 5G solutions by leveraging the MEC architecture and bonding being awarded Best 5G technology by CSI Magazine as well as “Best of Show” by TVB Europe. Zixi’s industry-leading Software Defined Video Platform (SDVP®) with its latest performance upgrades saving on compute and bandwidth costs resulting in the lowest total cost of ownership won the TV Tech “Best of Show” award. Zixi’s 5G projects with its partners BBC, Neutral Wireless and BT were awarded the IBC Accelerator award.
Highlighted Zixi Innovations at IBC:
As part of the exhibition, Zixi released a diverse set of new features and enhancements across the various product lines. Among these were:
Integration with TAG Multiviewer – enables users to utilize a unified control plane, ZEN Master, to feed sources into TAG MV layouts and transmit these mosaics to desired targets, streamlining control and simplifying operations.
Intelligent Data Platform (IDP) – unveiled broadcst automation advancements powered by advanced AI and ML analytics. These enhancements include features like Auto Incidents employing Multi-Object-Correlation-Analysis (MOCA), which expedites root cause analysis (RCA) for rapid issue resolution.
Zixi Broadcaster v17 was showcased, exemplifying improved processing capacity that requires 95% less compute while reducing egress costs by up to 50% compared to other industry solutions. This efficiency allows organizations to maximize resources, minimize expenses and consistently deliver high-quality video content.
The partnership between Zixi and AWS was also highlighted, including the integration of SDVP in AWS Wavelength Zones. This integration empowers customers to leverage 5G’s power and establish widespread adoption of low-latency 5G MEC architecture.
Zixi Partner Highlight: Videon
Videon is a pioneer in edge computing and has worked closely with Zixi to integrate the SDVP natively in its LiveEdge® platform, a powerful container-based edge compute ecosystem with sub-second glass-to-glass latency. This integrated offering enables live events to be encoded and transported reliably to the cloud with broadcast quality streaming, ultra-low latency and bandwidth and distributed securely from the cloud to the global Zixi Enabled Network. LiveEdge devices with the native Zixi integration include EdgeCaster EZ, EdgeCaster VCP, LiveEdge Node, the new LiveEdge Max, and across multiple form factors, including LiveEdge 2Go Mini, LiveEdge 2Go, and LiveEdge Rack
“As Videon’s footprint rapidly expands, becoming an embedded and critical component in major workflows, our customers recognized the value of Zixi’s dependable and scalable broadcast-quality video delivery,” said Lionel Bringuier, Chief Product Officer at Videon. “While Videon empowers users to harness edge computing, ingesting live video, audio, graphics, and data feeds to simplify first-mile workflows and create new revenue-generating opportunities, our collaboration with Zixi further elevates this capability, offering the industry’s lowest TCO and unmatched management of linear and event channels at scale through the SDVP integration.”
“With its unmatched efficiency and scale, reduced infrastructure requirements and transport stream egress cost reduction, Zixi opens new possibilities for growth, innovation, and enhanced video streaming experiences.,” said John Wastcoat, SVP BD and Marketing, Zixi. “The integration with LiveEdge and partnership with Videon expands our ability to deliver exciting use cases like live betting, video assistant referee and dynamic, unique in-stadium second screen experiences.”
Upcoming Events: October features several exciting events that Zixi will be attending.
October 24th: SVG Transport
Zixi will be in attendance and please join Emeka Okoli, VP of Customer Success, on an exciting panel discussion on ‘Plotting Your Transport Roadmap for the Future: CDI, JPEG XS, RIST, RTMP, SRT, Zixi, BitFire, and Beyond’ from 1:30pm-2:15pm EST. See session details here.
October 25th-26th: NAB New York
Zixi will be attending NAB New York and its CEO Gordon Brooks will be hosting a tech chat on the lowest TCO in the industry discussing how Zixi’s award-winning SDVP saves on cost freeing up capital to other pursue other revenue streams. See session details here.
Zixi Staff Spotlight: Chris Fellows: Solutions Engineering Manager (International)
At Zixi we strive to bring cutting-edge solutions to our customer applications, which is only made possible with the help of our extremely knowledgeable staff. Chris Fellows is an excellent example of this as he leverages his years of experience deploying broadcast workflows to uniquely solve customer problems. He does so with an open mind and a big, infectious smile that reflects his passion for customer success.
Starting his career as a broadcast engineer, Chris has always focused on developing a deep understanding of the problem before coming up with a solution. This has led him through various customer-facing roles and eventually joining Zixi, where he oversees an International team of solution engineers. Chris has championed many technical initiatives pushing the boundary of what’s possible in live broadcast, including a recent project where he demonstrated error-free live video transmitted using Zixi over LEO satellite connection without bonding.
In addition to being exceptional at his day job, Chris is an avid adventure seeker, regularly participating in triathlon, ironman and bike riding competitions, challenging his mental and physical capabilities. Along with a few other Zixi employees, he recently participated in a sustainability bike ride from London to Amsterdam organized by Zixi Enabled Network partner TATA. Chris is a father of two kids, Remy and Marley, who keep him on his toes. In his free time, he likes to play with his kids and watch football, a loyal football fan of his home team Nottingham Forest. Chris regularly joins us at events and exhibitions, and next time you have the opportunity, please stop by and say hello.
