Almost Live from NAB: Mirror Image Creates Live Video Syndication
[Note: This sponsored interview was recorded at NAB 2015.]
Live video is seeing fantastic growth online, and dynamic delivery network Mirror Image is perfectly positioned to help content owners create advanced live viewing options. At NAB, Mirror Image CRO Charlie White explained a project his company recently completed with news agency Reuters.
"What I feel like we've really introduced is one of the first real opportunities to see and experience live video from a syndication perspective, as well as the ability to distribute that," White said. "Reuters has actually brought their ability to capture live content from across the globe and make that a part of a syndication product and include it right into what they call Reuters Live Online, which is part of their Media Express product line."
This unique live news syndication service uses Mirror Image's content delivery system to stream feeds to subscribers.
"What we really actually looked at doing is how do they cover all the news events that are out there today? How many of those live events do they try to capture at a given moment in time?" White explained. "How does that get clipped and put out for syndication across all of their subscribers, in a very natural real-time manner and then enable it for syndication through their players, syndication through Mirror Image's CDS, as well as syndication through their client's CDS. So we've really taken a very unique middle ground to help enable them to grow as fast as they can."
As Mirror Image and Reuters improve the product, they'll build in more monetization methods and new distribution functionality. For more, watch the interview below.
Eric: Hi, I'm Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, Editor of Streaming Media Magazine and I'm here at NAB 2015, with Charlie White from Mirror Image. How are you doing, Charlie?
Charlie: Great, Eric. Good to see you again.
Eric: Mirror Image has some pretty cool things going on, one of which is a project you've done with Reuters.
Charlie: That is correct.
Eric: Can you tell our audience what that is, and what sort of capabilities you've brought to Reuters with this?
Charlie: I have to say, we're really excited about what we put together with Reuters. As many people know, Reuters is the top news gathering organization in the world or one of the top, I'll be politically correct. We've had an opportunity to work at a really deep level with some of their top video experts to try and figure out how to bring something new to the market. What I feel like we've really introduced is one of the first real opportunities to see and experience live video from a syndication perspective, as well as the ability to distribute that.
So today, as a video professional that's been in this industry for ten years, you see all kinds of VOD content that you can actually take and make it a part of your experience. But now Reuters has actually brought their ability to capture live content from across the globe and make that a part of a syndication product and include it right into what they call Reuters on Line, which is part of their Media Express product line.
Eric: You mention how you worked very closely with the video experts at Reuters. This sounds like it was a custom solution that you helped build for them. Is this sort of custom solution that you helped build for them. Is this sort of custom solution something that's new for Mirror Image?
Charlie: It's not new.
Eric: Uh huh.
Charlie: But what I would do is take the opportunity to back up and say that a lot of what we do is built off of standard APIs within our Publisher product, which as you know is one of our online video platforms.
Eric: Right.
Charlie: But ultimately we took those APIs and incorporated direct connections back into parts of their system as well as introduce some new services as part of the overall experience. One of the things I would talk about for a quick second here, is that what we really actually looked at doing is how do they cover all the news events that are out there today? How many of those live events do they try to capture at a given moment in time? How do we get enough live streams to be able to come into a centralized editorial CMS experience, where somebody can actually look and decide when does an event start? When does an event end? How does that get clipped and put out for syndication across all of their subscribers, in a very natural real time manner and then enable it for syndication through their players, syndication through Mirror Image's CDS, as well as syndication through their client's CDS. So we've really taken a very unique middle ground to help enable them to grow as fast as they can.
Eric: Right, and are you continuing to work with Reuters Live Online? Building new features, adding in new capabilities?
Charlie: Absolutely. We're looking into adding additional monetization methods in the very near future, introducing new functionality across certain parts of the distribution line, as well as always trying to figure out a way to keep them one step ahead of the competition.
Eric: Right, right. Exactly. Now what other new developments have there been at Mirror Image? I think the last time we spoke was at Streaming Media West, last November.
Charlie: Yeah. That's right. We have continued to push deeper on the audio side. We're actually in the next months going to actually adapt additional parts of our platform that are going to support more on the audio side ...
Eric: Okay.
Charlie: And truly some custom audio on the players side as well as the ability to bring in different types of advertising as well.
Eric: Okay. Great. Well, we'll look forward to hearing more about that in the future as well. Thanks for sharing the work you've done with Reuters Live Online. I'm Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen with Streaming Media and Charlie White from Mirror Image here at NAB 2015.
This article is Sponsored Content
Related Articles
The popularity of live streamed video has many publishers looking for more advanced tools. Publisher 5.0 is ready for action.
30 Dec 2014