Getting in the NAB Zone

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by Tony Emerson, Industry Solutions Manager, WW Media & Cable

The Las Vegas Convention Center is buzzing today as everyone moves in for the 2013 NAB Show. Tomorrow marks the official opening of the show floor, and we have exciting news and updates to share. Throughout the show, we will be showcasing a full spectrum of devices and services that help media companies bring their content and business into the cloud.

As you heard last year, Windows Azure Media Services is a set of cloud-based services designed to make creating, managing, and delivering media to any device easier than ever before. From encoding to delivery, Windows Azure Media Services gives broadcasters of any size a ready-to-use broadcast ecosystem.  We’ll have several partners onsite to share their solutions built on Windows Azure Media Services.  For example, Digital Rapids will be will be showcasing its Kayak-powered Media Processors for Windows Azure Media Services. Kayak provides content processing and workflow capabilities that will scale seamlessly and maximize efficiency with minimal up-front investment. 

Last week, Taras Bugir pointed out that our customers want to watch what they want, when they want, no matter what device they are using – and Windows 8 enables a seamless viewing experience across devices.  By utilizing Windows 8, which was designed to leverage the cloud as a delivery platform, media organization can create new multi-platform user experiences geared towards finding and consuming content. In our booth, you can hear from Uicentric, who has developed more than 40 applications for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Xbox 360.  They will be showcasing app development on these three screens at the same time.

We are all aware of the loads of big data companies are faced with, from many different internal and external sources.  At NAB, we will also talk about how our data platform allows media and cable companies to manage data of all types and sizes with the simplicity of Windows, enrich data with a connection to cloud services such as Windows Azure, and deliver insights to all users via familiar products such as Excel and SharePoint.  You can also hear about big data solutions from our partners.  For instance, cVidya Networks Revenue Intelligence solution allows cable and satellite operators to increase revenues by identifying revenue leakage and fraud schemes. Based on the data collected and the analysis performed, cVidya is able to optimize the three most revenue impacting activities: pricing, sales and billing.

Finally, we invite you to join us for one of these speaking sessions at the show:

  • Cloud Implementation Case Studies (4/9 at 9:00 with Jason Suess)
  • Delivering Protected Content in the Windows Ecosystem (4/10 at 2:30 with Jonathan Tanner)

We are excited to share the Microsoft product and partner teams that have gathered in our NAB booth (#SL5110) to bring our cloud vision to life.  If you’re at the show, we look forward to talking with you onsite.  If you can’t make it, watch this space for updates on the experiences we are delivering at the show and for customers around the globe.