Soliton Announces New Products to be launched at IBC 2018
Soliton Systems, innovators in miniature H.265 encoders for live outside broadcast, have announced they will be launching the brand new Zao Media Gateway solution at the IBC show in September.
The Zao Media Gateway solution is a new development from Soliton that enables TV production companies specializing in live streaming, to adopt the current trend of utilizing cloud-based architecture for management and creating of IP streams for IP based live workflows.
Soliton’s range of Zao broadcast products enables sports production companies and news gathering teams to easily live stream from a camera without the need of a satellite truck or RF infrastructure. Using the latest in video compression with H265 HEVC, these miniature encoders are connected to the camera and can utilize publicly available 4G connections for live transmission back to a broadcast center. In addition, they can bond multiple mobile network providers together for high reliability and low latency, typically under a second from the remote camera to ingest at the broadcast center. The Zao’s can work reliably in congested areas or places with low signal strengths. Soliton are further enhancing these solutions with a new decoding system at the receiving end allowing customers to take advantage of cloud-based platforms for ease of management and installation.
Many broadcasters are now migrating from older baseband technologies to IP and cloud solutions, with inter-operability and commoditising of products being viewed as distinct advantage.
The Zao Media Gateway is typically used as the decoding engine to recreate the video stream which traditionally was done at the receiving end but can now be done in the cloud on an Azure platform, or for more secure customers, can be installed on-premise. It can support up to 12 simultaneous encrypted live streams which can then create an IP stream of either RTMP, RTSP or NDI.
"Soliton recognizes the move to cloud based and IP solutions within both the Broadcast and Public Safety fields and the need for innovation in interoperability."
commented Shinya Hyakutake, the Head of Broadcast Group at Soliton KK in Japan.
"The new Zao Media Gateway is a cloud platform that provides efficiencies in terms of new workflows and integration into existing IP workflows. The Zao Media Gateway with its flexible deployment can be used as a service, or as a unique approach, it can be installed by our customers either on their own Azure platform or in their own data."
In addition, the Zao Media Gateway will have a management platform allowing users to easily manage all their deployed Zao units in the field through a standard browser interface from any location.
Though the industry is migrating to IP products, there is still a big demand for uncompressed video such as HD-SDI. Soliton’s existing decoding products will continue to do this, but Soliton are also selecting to work with encoding partners, such as T-21, who can take an IP stream from the Zao Media Gateway and create a remote live HD-SDI feed in multiple locations. This allows users to utilize a universal cloud decoding platform for all their different Zao products, including the Zao-S and smartphone apps, and still use HD-SDI and/or IP as necessary.
At IBC, Soliton are also demonstrating their new H265 streaming app for Android as well as their other collaborations with T21, NewTek and Canon. They will be demonstrating their live streaming solutions and the new Zao Media gateway in Hall 2, stand B.11.
