Primestream
Creating Workflows that Streamlines Media Distribution

One of the essential elements of the Cisco ecosystem, Cisco TV provides video production, creative services, engineering, and connectivity for the company's internal and external meetings and events. To keep up with the modern requirements, Cisco required a single, end-to-end management solution that can help production teams ingest, manage, archive, and automate its media for output to various systems. The tech giant analyzed several systems in the market from which Primestream stood out. With Primestream'sXchange™ media asset management (MAM) platform, Cisco TV's 18 record and 16 playback channels capture live HD signals from the Cisco TV main studios from across four global locations. On the other hand, Primestream'sWorkflow Server automates all asset management and makes assets available for search, review, and repurposing. Further, the Workflow Server sends stored content to NetApp SAN and is organized into "smart folders" in which metadata can be used to filter, sort, and track content.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Cisco TV moved to 100 percent remote working. With nine virtual studios and six control rooms powered by Primestream's solutions, Cisco's team was able to collaborate remotely and expand its capabilities as required. The company’s shows have become more elaborate, incorporating elements like PowerPoint graphics, lower thirds, and roll-on videos. With the Xchange™ platform, Cisco has produced more than 1,000 shows remotely and conducted its impact national sales meeting in which the production teams played out more than 180 pieces of content to an audience of 22,000 people. "COVID 19 has taught us the importance of remote workflows and how little actually needs to be done on-premises," says John Williamson, Senior Manager Cisco TV Global Engineering Worldwide Sales and Marketing Team. "The Workflow Server and Xchange MAM solutions, coupled with Primestream's outstanding support, are critical elements as remote capabilities continue to grow and evolve into the future."

Miami, FL-based Primestream is a leading provider of asset management, automation software, and workflow orchestration solutions for media and production operations that are scalable and highly configurable across markets, platforms, and infrastructures to ensure long-term flexibility and value. Leveraging deep expertise, insight into market trends and customer requirements, Primestream's products connect content creation, collaboration, asset management, production, and delivery in an optimal workflow. Enterprise giants such as Microsoft, Cisco, Verizon Media Group, Cisco Global Television, NFL Networks, and Disney use Primestream's solutions in their production facilities.

The shift to IP and the cloud has rendered legacy broadcast systems useless. Not only do video producers and platforms need to be able to ingest non-baseband sources, but they also need to be able to use the entire gamut of IP-based protocols, and sometimes several of them during the same production. Today's production teams require fast, frictionless ways to transcode feeds and files in multiple formats and distribute them all over the globe. With studios shuttered, broadcast operations centers empty, and OBS trucks parked, video technology companies and producers have turned to IP-based production like never before, embracing its efficiency, flexibility, and ability to cost-effectively meet rapidly changing requirements.

“Integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud, Xchange Media Cloud provides the tools required for geographically dispersed teams to store, access, produce, and manage all of their media assets as well as collaborate on projects from anywhere in the world

Primestream's IP-based systems receive inputs from several protocols (SRT, WebRTC, HLS, RTSP). It provides output for live multi-camera monitoring through an ethernet switch, real-time transcoding to house formats, live editing, and finally publication, distribution, or re-transmission on IP. The recorder can switch the file formats in real-time as per requirements and then send the file to an editor located elsewhere to edit and further relay the file to multiple devices via web distribution or send a signal to a satellite or television transmitter. "With IP, the possibilities are almost limitless. Today, we see broadcasters don't need to drop SDI entirely— IP streaming, NDI and SDI can coexist in the same workflow," says Claudio Lisman, CEO of Primestream.

For remote working, Primestream has Media I/O and Xchange Media Cloud™ (XMC) that make it easy for teams to assemble a central or distributed IP Network Operation Center. As the "new normal" becomes simply "normal," the firm enables broadcasters and production teams to work remotely.Primestream's Media I/O, an advanced solution for video production and distribution, allows capturing of video content from practically any source (IP stream, camera, or broadcast source, including SRT, NDI, HLS, and even SDI) and transcodes it live for integration into production, management, and delivery workflow.

Over the years, Primestream'sXchange media asset management (MAM) platform has emerged as the gold standard in the industry. Integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud (including Premiere, After Effects, and Photoshop), Xchange Media Cloud provides the tools required for geographically dispersed teams to store, access, produce, and manage all of their media assets as well as collaborate on projects from anywhere in the world. It equips production teams to work with both baseband and SDI sources and IP files and streams so Xchange Media Cloud can work alongside existing Xchange installations or can be launched independently from Xchange.

The paradigm shift from broadcast operations centers and satellite trucks to IP-based network operations centers was well underway before 2020. However, the COVID 19 pandemic has forced production firms to make the switch now. With Primestream's Media I/O and Xchange Media Cloud, streaming organizations have the tools required to respond to the current events and position themselves for the future.