By Jenna Lynn
Fortifying it’s chosen solution, media tech provider Avid announced a new partnership with Microsoft Azure as its’ preferred cloud hosting platform, during Avid Connect, running concurrently with NAB 2017.
“Avid and Azure agreed to develop numerous Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings, built on MediaCentral, Avid’s collection of creative tools and media workflow solutions,” announced MESA (Media and Entertainment Services Alliance).
It is extremely difficult to “push a workforce from events, back to back, without a consistent workflow” maintains Louis Hernandez, CEO of Avid. For live events, such as Olympics, the audience looks to “experience what it’s like to be at a sports event in HD.” Azure supports “everything from proxy to view in HD. Sports are always the forefront of television production.”
Twenty year Avid sponsor Walt Disney activates use of Radeon Profile 2 (RadeonPro) video graphics cards, in commencing the same work stations that NASA utilizes in its’ space stations, keeping consistent and vivid color space from start to finish. Azure offers Cortana intelligence in data, providing new insights in Augemented Reality (AI), 360 degree capture, and outer space, offering performance and flexibility that the Avid and Azure union supports.
Azure is the trusted cloud in this workflow to operate critical solutions. NBC sports utilized Azure in the Olympics, relaying 2000 separately streamed live events, and 500 HD live channels. Companies such as Showtime and Rakuten boast over 120,000 video titles on constant live stream nationwide and beyond, all utilizing Azure with Avid to “manage the content producer to the content provider.”