Espial (TSX:ESP) and Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) announced a partnership under which Espial's Elevate SaaS video platform will integrate Harmonic's VOS360 media processing SaaS. The combined solution is intended to provide MVPDs with an end-to-end solution to launch new IP and OTT services quickly and with minimal investment.
The integrated offering is designed to enable control, processing and delivery of video content and services to a range of devices from set-top boxes, to media players like Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire, to smart TVs and mobile devices.
Espial's Elevate SaaS video platform is designed to focus on management and control of video services, client applications and user experience. It also provides cloud tools for operations, product, marketing and engineering teams.
Harmonic's VOS360 SaaS is designed to unify ingest, transcoding, encryption, packaging and origin. It's hosted on public cloud infrastructure platforms and is designed to support app-based TV across a variety of devices.
Eric Armstrong, vice president of SaaS solutions at Harmonic, said: "Both Harmonic and Espial have been offering next-gen IPTV and OTT services for years, and together we have an extensive list of customers who are powering millions of active subscribers and devices. Working together, we are now able to offer operators a fully-integrated solution that is proven at scale, and can help operators quickly launch next-gen video services."
Jaison Dolvane, CEO of Espial, said: "MVPDs need to address the needs of various subscriber segments - from millennials and premium subscribers, to traditional users, and more - in order to remain relevant and competitive. The ability to price, package, segment and analyze their various offerings is critical to avoid churn, retain subscribers and grow revenues. Getting to market quickly and risk-free, using TVaaS solutions, allows operators to focus their resources on selling, improving business metrics through data, and optimizing their services offerings."