2015年1月14日
By 1月时特约编辑
专题文章

新任首席执行官为索伦森传媒带来重大产品变革

索伦森 Squeeze is one of the most revered 产品s in the streaming media space, 一个是我每周都用的, 如果不是每天. But let’s face it: The software-encoder space has never been a market to make a venture capitalist salivate, and the only hockey stick 索伦森 was ever likely to see was at a hockey rink.

去年年初，我很好奇索伦森聘请新首席执行官 马库斯Liassides (右), a serial digital media and broadcast entrepreneur with several impressive successes under his belt. 随着最近一系列产品的发布, Liassides made his strategy loud and clear—leverage existing compression-related knowledge and IP, 以及广播领域的关系, to sell a 新 line of 产品s and services to broadcast markets.

I spoke with Marcus about this strategy in a video that you can watch below. 以下是我们讨论的要点.

The first major 产品 announcement is kind of a reverse re-branding; instead of putting a 新姓名老产品，索伦森正在老名字写在新产品. 这是, 索伦森 360 was a traditional online video platform primarily distinguished by its review and approval capability within 索伦森 Squeeze, 但几乎没有独立的市场渗透.

索伦森360将继续存在，但现在它被称为挤压流. 新挤压360 is a service designed to enable broadcasters and other content owners to deliver live and VOD content to computers, 移动设备, 和OTT设备. 最初的目标客户是美国的地方电视台.S. that need to get online but may not have the in-house expertise.

“We’re very focused on a turnkey solution to get customers up and running very quickly without needing any technical expertise on staff, “Liassides评论.

该产品有两个组成部分, a turnkey appliance that’s installed on the customer site and provided at no charge so there's no up-front capital outlay. This sends a stream to 索伦森’s cloud facility, which does all the encoding and transcoding. The service is HLS-based, with 128-bit AES encryption and closed captions. It plays on computers, iOS and Android tablets and phones, and other connected devices.

Liassides elaborated on the service’s focus: “One of the big differences around the task we set out to solve is that this isn't just a video stream on the internet. 这是一种将电视转播到极致的方式. 所以它有字幕, AES, lots of things that come from the TV space that haven't really been considered so much in the online space. It takes an understanding about TV and digital to really fuse these two together.”

根据Liassides的说法, pricing will use a simple formula based on time and the number of streams, 高清视频无需额外收费. The 产品 is being piloted by several existing 索伦森 customers today, 应该会在2015年初上线. While the first version won't have an electronic program guide (EPG), 未来的更新将包括一个, 以及其他增强可发现性的元素.

The second major announcement places a 新 suite of 产品s under a familiar name, 索伦森火花. 很久以前，火花 was the video codec used by Adobe Flash prior to On2’s VP6, and it’s still s老 by 索伦森 to device manufacturers that need low CPU requirements and power consumption.

In late December, 索伦森 announced three 新 broadcast-focused services; 火花光线影业该公司通过智能电视提供实时分析，火花增强, which makes connected TV advertising more targeted and addressable, and 火花接触, which lets broadcasters add interactive content such as polls, 小测验, 和他们的线性视频比赛.

很明显, 挤压360 and the 新火花 line represent a major pivot, 或者像利亚塞德斯喜欢的那样, 这是索伦森核心业务的演变.” Yet, despite the 新产品s, 索伦森 remains firmly committed to the 老.

“对我们来说，挤压是一个非常棒的产品线,利亚塞德斯解释道, “not least of all for the customer base and relationships that we have. We learned a lot from being in the online video space with Squeeze 产品s and we see a lot of the transition that happened in online video happening in television. So we’re bringing some of that learning, more importantly, the IP technology, into television. 哪个才是最后的数字前沿.”

在我们的讨论中, Liassides noted that 索伦森 recently released significant updates to Squeeze Desktop 10, 和挤压服务器3, 并承诺在2015年及以后的未来更新.

在关闭, Liassides commented that 索伦森 benefited from the simple shareh老ing structure under Jim 索伦森, which allowed them the funding to develop the 新产品s and services.

“It’s afforded us the opportunity to invest heavily in 新 technologies and 新产品s, 我们将继续这样做,利亚塞德斯说. "We have 产品s in development that are as exciting as the ones that we’ve announced now.“