The Advantages of Etere as Compared with Imagine Versio Playout

Why Etere is simply more effective, we provide a comparison of key features and an analysis of how Etere can go the extra mile for your investment, because results matter.

■ Interoperability and Flexibility
Etere is a highly flexible and open system. Etere works with a wide variety of standard servers with different types of hardware and software configurations. It can be used with standard video cards including BlackMagic Design, Matrox and other acquisition cards for playout, preview and ingest. This provides you with more options when making a choice or when making changes to your system. With Etere, you can customize your system to fit your requirements perfectly. Etere also interfaces with other systems including Adobe, Baton, Digimetrics and Harmonic Carbon Coder as well as common storage systems including Hitachi and Tivoli.

Imagine Versio is a proprietary video server (Nexio + ADC Automation) and it works only with Imagine software. Imagine Versio is also designed to work only on HPE servers (DL380 G9). Cost is one of the disadvantages of proprietary systems. Without a choice, you will have to fork out the cost for the license as it is, whether it fits your requirements or not. As companies and technologies evolve, so do requirements. A proprietary system may get in the way of quick decision making, agility to respond to market needs, having control of the system and what it can do for you.

■ NDI-Enabled
Etere supports both SDI and full IP playout with Newtek NDI support, including the insertion of graphics, logos, crawlers and secondary events. With Etere IP solution, you are able to encode, transmit and receive multiple streams of video and audio in real-time, with low bandwidth consumption and CPU impact. There is very low dependency on hardware. The only requirement is standard Gigabit cable. It utilizes a point-to-point IP connection with fail-over and automatic re-connections. Etere Full IP solution features an open protocol technology, ready to evolve with your needs regardless of industry standards.

Imagine supports the SMPTE 2022 standards which feature interoperability based on compatibility. Completing an IP migration based on SMPTE standards often require replacing parts of a station’s infrastructure, for example network cables. For some, the migration to SMPTE standards signifies dependency on large-scale upgrades and workflow synchronizations from one generation to another.

■ Virtual Machine Support
Etere IP solution allows the use of virtual machines to manage all operations including MAM, ingest, transcoding and playout with significant cost savings in hardware and maintenance costs. With Etere full IP setup, you need only SDI cards for the ETX-M IP Multiviewer.

Imagine Versio supports only cloud-based virtual machines based on its server.

■ Integrated Quality Check, Transcoding and Reports
Etere is able to analyze clips with its integrated quality check and transcode clips with Etere Transcoder based on the powerful FFMPEG conversion tool with low resource consumption. It is able to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux and filter almost any media used in the broadcast industry. Additionally, Etere Reporting Service empowers every business user with interactive, personalized, and relevant reports.

Imagine Versio Zenium is a real-time transcoding used for playout, it consumes server resources at a very high rate. Additionally, Versio manages its own codec LXF and supports a limited number of codecs for playout including MXF and MOV.

■ Fully Functional Automation Even in the Event of SQL Failure
Etere provides a playout automation that is able to function independently even in the event of a MS-SQL failure, making it a truly fault-resilient system.

Imagine Versio's redundancy is based on the model of keeping a redundant pair of automation in sync.

■ Improve Content Monetization, Cost Efficiency and System Connectivity
Etere features asset form in its system design, it is a structured framework where all related information regarding an asset is stored. Etere provides a media library to manage all assets forms containing information including metadata, media files, rights, workflows and operation logs. Media library allows you to create new assets, search, preview and amend saved assets. The shared media catalog empowers content creators to re-purpose content easily for distribution, delivery and monetization.

Metadata matters for both business and operational reasons. With a good strategy to manage metadata, there is increased resource efficiency, faster access to business intelligence information, historical records maintenance, increased asset value and relevance of assets. In the constant quest for new content, older assets can become less visible. Metadata helps you to find the resources you need quickly without numerous time-wasting searches. Existing content can be re-purposed quickly, thus increasing the value of media assets. All data associated with the asset in the system can also be connected easily to produce information revealing critical business intelligence information.

Imagine Versio is designed to interface with HPE library and other related Imagine software. It does not utilize asset forms for the storage of essential metadata of files. Database storage for clips and asset data is also unavailable from Imagine Versio.

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