Never before has it been so easy to stand up an OTT service, from the simplest workflow to the most complex, says Matt Smith of Anvato.

The cloud is transforming the way video content is created and distributed to a growing universe of connected devices, all the while changing and adapting to the way users engage with this content.

In recent years, the adoption of OTT technologies has emerged as a critical platform for delivering rich audio, video and other media via the internet.

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Matt Smith of Anvato

OTT adoption is rapidly accelerating. Many programmers, broadcasters and service providers are looking to the cloud and its powerful workflows to better understand how they can help.

These platforms help businesses in the media and entertainment industry (among others) to scale their video infrastructure efforts and deliver high-quality, live video and on-demand content to consumers on any device — be it their smartphone, tablet or connected television.

Transformative workflows

Those audiences are growing and are reshaping the ways in which they (and others) consume content - perhaps faster than any other delivery method in history.

This means that organisations of all shapes and sizes are sprinting to deliver their video to every screen and need transformative workflows that enable them to be more flexible, adaptive and nimble.

Embracing the cloud

One very transformative change we continue to see is the departure from legacy, on-premise hardware dependent solutions to modular, cloud-based ones.

Just a few years ago, the on-premise approach was the only game in town. If you needed to process a library of VOD content to deliver to your audience, or had several live channels to stand up as OTT offerings, old iron hardware was the way to go.

But today, you can launch a new OTT channel by pushing a contribution stream into the cloud in mere minutes. Need eight renditions from that source to reach Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast as well as Android and iOS? No problem.

Similarly, those ten thousand VOD titles that need to be prepared for the same screens with the ad breaks automatically recognised, marked and ready for VOD monetisation via ad insertion are easily accommodated with this approach.

Never before has it been so easy to stand up an OTT service, from the simplest workflow to the most complex. Whether you’re seeking a robust, reliable platform to deliver a single live, linear stream or if your needs are much more complex and you have a subscription package with thousands of titles, various price points and optics into subscription revenue, churn and user consumption — solutions exist to meet your requirements.

This article was first published at IBC2016.