Unicorn Upgrades its Online Video Platform

Unicorn Media today announced its Media-as-a-Service 4.0, a platform that both offers a soup-to-nuts online video platform (OVP) and presents modular solutions for third-party vendors using Unicorn's APIs.

Key to the new version is a rights management function that allows customers to support unlimited multiple users or sub-accounts within a single account. One set of users, for instance, might be able to administer transcoding and ingest, but not analytics, or vice-versa.

Bill Rinehart, the founding CEO of Limelight Networks, started Unicorn Media in 2008, and was soon joined by another former Limelight exec—David Rice, who is Unicorn's chief strategy officer. For lack of a better term, Rice says, it makes sense to call Unicorn an online video platform, but he adds that the company believes its solutions are more robust and more specialized than the typical OVP.

Content owners can choose to use Unicorn as a full-service OVP with the complete Unicorn Media Room, which includes each step in the process from ingest and transcode through syndication and analytics. Unicorn Media Room Lite features only the transcoding and player management components.

More advanced users can select any of the individual modules—ingest and transcode, asset management, player customization, live streaming, syndication, distribution, monetization, and analytics—and integrate them with their existing systems.

Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net