SwitchStream 3.0 introduces Audit Central, Event Dashboard and Map View features to give MVPDs and programmers verification reporting and efficient control of alternate content events.
THIS TECHNOLOGY announced a major upgrade to its cloud-based SwitchStream™ Alternate Content Delivery System for QAM and IP environments. Version 3.0 of SwitchStream, the first-to-market solution of its kind in alternate content, introduces a vast array of new features for MVPDs and programmers. These include Audit Central for event verification and audit reporting, Map View for zone creation and event execution mapping, and Event Dashboard for event execution status and system health management. The new feature set puts key operational, system and compliance information front and center, while bringing efficiencies to the alternate content delivery process.
“SwitchStream changed the alternate content delivery game last year, supporting both existing QAM and IP delivery in one system for MVPDs and programmers” said Denise MacDonell, vice president of product management, THIS TECHNOLOGY. “SwitchStream 3.0 is a generational leap, featuring full auditing and verification support, and an extensive graphical operational dashboard, delivering tremendous benefits to our deployed customers.”
MVPDs and programmers use SwitchStream for the delivery of regionalized content to the right audience, alternate content in instances where content is not cleared for distribution via certain platforms or regions, and market protections when there are schedule changes. Content distribution agreements have become more complex in a multiscreen world, including requirements such as restricting content to certain devices and more granular regional content delivery. SwitchStream 3.0 simplifies the execution of these requirements, and provides real-time auditing and compliance information through new features that include:
Audit Central which provides reports verifying event execution and associated event policies that can be used to demonstrate compliance with partners such as sports leagues and programmers. Audit Central also includes a view of change history indicating all system activity related to setup and configuration of alternate content events, templates, acquisition systems, source feeds and execution. This information is made available in a full audit report on alternate content event execution.
Map View which simplifies the creation of content delivery zones, viewing event execution and defining acquisition system locations on a map-based graphical user interface. Map View provides the ability to define content delivery zones as a radius from a point on a map and automatically generate all associated zip codes, include all zones in a polygon, and point and click to select or remove specific zip codes from a zone definition. Map View also supports the ability to define device-based restrictions within a content delivery zone, an important requirement in a multiscreen world. These changes provide tremendous efficiencies to MVPDs and programmers in the alternate content delivery process, which today is largely performed by poring over spreadsheets.
Event Dashboard which features a complete operational view of all important information pertaining to scheduled and in-process alternate content events. This includes insight into the status and systems supporting active, pending and completed events across networks, acquisition system health showing the health status of these systems and detailed map views that put all this system information in geographical context. The result is complete visibility into alternate content execution.
The release of SwitchStream 3.0 follows the announcement of a recent alternate content delivery solution partnership that THIS TECHNOLOGY entered into with Harmonic and the successful deployment of the solution with a tier-one MVPD. To learn more about SwitchStream, visit www.thistechnology.com or see a demonstration at NAB Show® in THIS TECHNOLOGY’s booth N1619.
