The companies behind the Netherlands’ first Android TV service
The first Android TV service in the Netherlands was launched by Youfone on 3rd August, and the companies behind the platform and solutions have been talking about their involvement in the service.
The launch is seen as a notable move in a competitive Dutch market, with the service proposing a “next-generation converged OTT, VoD and live TV experience” for consumers on TVs and mobile devices.
Sister companies Amino and 24i are providing the platform and devices that deliver what they describe as an ‘end-to-end solution’ that has enabled Youfone to “completely refresh its user experience and expand the reach of its TV service”. The service is run on the 24i Video Experience Platform with Amino providing the set-top boxes and operating system.
Youfone’s CEO, Valentijn Rensing, said, “The unique power, flexibility and breadth of the integrated 24i and Amino solution meant that Youfone launched the Netherland’s first Android TV service in just 5 months, rather than embarking on a major engineering project of a year or more if we had followed another path.
“A key advantage of the 24i and Amino solution is that it is truly end-to-end: covering all the functions we need from content ingest, encoding and transcoding, management, customer care, content distribution, all the software required from front-end to back end and even the set-top boxes serving our TV viewing customers,” he concluded.
Youfone, whose TV service was initially launched in 2017, enlisted 24i and Amino in December 2019 to deliver an expanded TV and OTT offering. This is the first joint deployment announced since 24i became an Amino Technologies group company in July 2019.
Mediability and Arti bring cloud AR to Nordics
Arti and Mediability have announced an agreement that will see Mediability become an Arti reseller in the Nordic region.
“We’re excited to partner with Arti and bring their innovative augmented reality platform to our customers,” said Mediability CEO Nils Olav Sundsteigen. “As we’ve seen recently, it can be challenging to engage audiences when broadcasting from outside a traditional studio. Because it’s cloud-based, the Arti platform makes it easy to deliver high-quality AR video from anywhere.”
According to the company, Arti is “like an AR studio that fits in your pocket”, and is a software-only, cloud-based AR platform that can be used anywhere and only requires a camera, a laptop, and an internet connection “to create engaging AR videos that can include embedded 2D and 3D objects, Twitter feeds, web browsers, and more”.
Yaron Zakai-Or, co-founder and CEO of Arti, added, “Mediability is a recognised leader for providing products and services to broadcast media and video production companies across Scandinavia. We are proud to have them representing Arti to their clients in the region.”
ChyronHego releases PRIME Graphics 3.6
In other news, ChyronHego has announced the release of PRIME Graphics 3.6, which is the newest version of the company’s platform for real-time graphics authoring and playout. The release seeks to extend PRIME Graphics to support augmented reality graphics in live studio environments while adding new productivity tools that “simplify and accelerate design workflows”.
“PRIME Graphics has evolved into a uniquely robust and powerful platform for graphics authoring and playout across a wide array of applications,” said Olivier Cohen, senior vice president, marketing at ChyronHego. “Version 3.6 offers new features that give designers even greater agility and creative freedom in bringing dynamic graphics to air or to large-canvas video walls. The platform’s support for augmented reality goes one step further, enabling placement of spectacular graphics within the studio space. Augmented reality is available in 4K and HDR to create stunning visuals.”
