Applications
Xsolla | September 21, 2023
Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, has announced a new online destination called Xsolla Mall. This platform allows video games to host multiple landing pages where players can access exclusive in-game items, game discounts, and premium experiences directly from developers and publishers or via campaigns with content creators and payment providers.
Developers can showcase and monetize content from their games on a specific branded landing page within the platform, even the entirety of a game. There is already a growing library of cloud games accessible through the Xsolla Mall, supported by the Xsolla Cloud Gaming solution. Xsolla Mall also merges video game content and the convenience of multiple local payment methods with the power of content creators and influencers into one cost-effective platform, providing a wide range of generating incremental revenue for games.
Xsolla Mall provides developers and publishers with a new distribution channel, reducing overall customer acquisition and retention costs, growing brand awareness, increasing player engagement, and generating more profit for their business.
"Xsolla Mall unlocks a new direct-to-consumer distribution channel for delivering games and in-game content on the web," said Chris Hewish, CEO of Xsolla. "We aim to help developers tackle current market challenges like the high cost of acquiring and retaining players, high distribution fees, and increasing the number of paying players so they can earn and keep more of the profits from the sale of their games and in-game content. Xsolla Mall perfectly aligns with our mission to bolster the gaming community by providing developers, influencers, and players with a safe, practical, and engaging platform."
About Xsolla
Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the video game industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and cities around the world, Xsolla supports major gaming titles like Valve, Twitch, Roblox, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Take-Two, KRAFTON, Nexters, NetEase, Playstudios, Playrix, miHoYo, and more.
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Solutions
Media and Entertainment | September 14, 2023
Entertainment technology industry leader IMAX Corporation® (NYSE: IMAX) and PFT, the creator of AI-powered technology solutions for the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry, today announced plans to expand their strategic relationship beyond theatrical and into the streaming ecosystem.
Under the arrangement, IMAX will expand access to its Stream Smart™ technology to PFT customers across Europe, Asia, and Australia. The expanded partnership will dramatically increase the global availability of Stream Smart™, which helps streaming platforms deliver maximum picture quality while significantly reducing distribution and storage costs.
"We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with IMAX, an industry trailblazer with a remarkable legacy of revolutionizing the global entertainment industry," said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Global CEO of PFT. "For over a decade, CLEAR®, our flagship product, has spearheaded digital packaging and delivery services for prominent streaming platforms worldwide. CLEAR® & Stream Smart will help optimize our customers' encoding pipeline, so they deliver better streaming quality while optimizing CDN & storage costs."
"Many of Hollywood's biggest streaming platforms use Stream Smart™ to ensure quality and reduce costs, and we're excited to work with our partners at PFT to extend the reach of our technologies throughout key markets in Europe, Asia, and Australia," said Vikram Arumilli, General Manager of Streaming and Consumer Technology at IMAX. "Our suite of streaming technology products, including Stream Smart™, provides a best-in-class service for direct-to-consumer broadcast and streaming companies, and PFT's' ability to leverage this for their customers is a win-win for both organizations."
PFT and its parent company, DNEG, are industry leaders providing a full suite of technology and creative solutions, including IMAX post-production and 3D mastering.
IMAX and DNEG joined forces in 2022 for post-production, which included Indian films like Jawan, Pathaan, and RRR. This extended partnership will build upon the established theatrical relationship between IMAX and DNEG to develop a comprehensive video optimization solution. Stream Smart™ is an enterprise software product designed to deliver the best image quality and optimize delivery to unlock cost savings. This product was built from cutting-edge scientific advancements, state-of-the-art engineering, trusted studio relationships, and rooted in a real-world at-scale Emmy®-winning collaboration with Disney Streaming Services and SSIMWAVE.
Stream Smart™ will be the centerpiece of the IMAX showcase at IBC 2023. Sign up to meet with PFT and IMAX Streaming & Consumer Technology group at IBC:
About IMAX Corporation
IMAX, an innovator in entertainment technology, combines proprietary software, architecture, and equipment to create experiences that take you beyond the edge of your seat to a world you've never imagined. Top filmmakers and studios are utilizing IMAX systems to connect with audiences in extraordinary ways, making IMAX's network among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event films around the globe.
IMAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles, with additional offices in London, Dublin, Tokyo, and Shanghai. As of June 30, 2023, there were 1,718 IMAX systems (1,638 commercial multiplexes, 12 commercial destinations, 68 institutional) operating in 87 countries and territories. Shares of IMAX China Holding, Inc., a subsidiary of IMAX Corporation, trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code "1970."
About Prime Focus Technologies
Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) is the creator of CLEAR® and CLEAR® AI. It offers streaming platforms, studios, and broadcasters transformational AI-led technology and media services powered by the cloud that help them lower their Total Cost of Operations (TCOP) by automating their content supply chain. PFT works with major companies like Walt Disney-owned Star TV, Channel 4, ITV, Sinclair Broadcast Group, A&E Networks, Warner Media, PBS, CBS Television Studios, 20th Century Fox Television Studios, Lionsgate, Showtime, HBO, NBCU, TERN International, Disney+ Hotstar, BCCI, Indian Premier League and more.
About DNEG
DNEG (www.dneg.com) is a world-leading visual entertainment services company for the creation of feature film, television, and multiplatform content, with worldwide offices and studios across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
DNEG's critically acclaimed work has earned the company seven Academy Awards® for Best Visual Effects and numerous BAFTA and Primetime EMMY® Awards for its high-quality VFX work. Current and upcoming DNEG projects on behalf of its Hollywood and global studio and production company partners include Spy Kids Armageddon (September 2023), No One Will Save You (September 2023), The Gilded Age S2 (October 2023), Nyad (November 2023), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 2023), Lift (January 2024), Dune: Part Two (March 2024), Mickey 17 (March 2024), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (April 2024), Garfield (May 2024), Borderlands (August 2024), Furiosa (2024), That Christmas, Coyote vs. Acme, The Gorge, and Animal Friends.
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Media and Broadcasting
Kaltura | September 12, 2023
Kaltura, the Video Experience Cloud, announced today that leading French multiservice provider Bouygues Telecom, with over 4.8 million subscribers, has unveiled its selection of Kaltura’s technology to power its next-generation IPTV and OTT digital TV service.
Bouygues Telecom chose Kaltura’s proven Cloud TV technology as the foundation for its TV service. The next-generation TV service will be powered by Kaltura’s cloud-based TV Platform providing content, service, subscriber, household, and offer management. Bouygues Telecom is set to migrate its existing TV service from an on-prem deployment to a cloud-based operation. This move will enable the next-generation TV service to leverage the agility and interactivity of the cloud alongside broadcast-grade scalability and resilience, while also reducing service complexity and costs.
“We are thrilled to have been selected as the vendor of choice by Bouygues Telecom, a truly premium service provider,” said Shuki Eytan, General Manager Media & Telecom at Kaltura. “By embracing today’s Cloud TV, which combines the best of IPTV and OTT, telcos can embark on the digital transformation that enables them to provide leading-edge offerings. We very much look forward to finish implementing and launching an advanced, next-generation TV platform to Bouygues Telecom that enables the operator to successfully pursue its TV content strategy, and to deliver a next-level entertainment offering to France’s consumers and partners.”
Bouygues Telecom relies on CommScope’s telecommunications expertise to integrate and roll out the project to Bouygues Telecom. "We're delighted to be working together with Kaltura to deliver a leading-edge technology platform that will help Bouygues Telecom provide an advanced next-gen video entertainment service to subscribers," said Ray Bontempi, VP, Product Management ANS at CommScope.
Kaltura's TV platform will support Bouygues Telecom in its TV content and services strategy. The operator will be able to offer its subscribers an advanced service that brings together popular multimedia content from its partners, seamlessly combining the operator's own content with multiple third-party services to create a customer-centric offering that is both compelling and personalised.
Jean Paul ARZEL, Chief Technical Officer at Bouygues Telecom said: “We are developing our next-generation TV service to offer an attractive and best-in-class experience, providing agility and efficiency to integrate new services, with systems and functionalities that are always up-to-date.”
Moving traditional on-premise functions and infrastructure to the cloud enables the operator to be more flexible, to adapt, and to embrace media evolution, while optimizing network and other resource management. Bouygues Telecom joins operators around the globe that have turned to Kaltura, with its extensive Cloud TV know-how and array of state-of-the-art solutions, to help with their super-aggregation journey.
About Kaltura
Kaltura’s mission is to power any video experience for any organization. Our Video Experience Cloud offers live, real-time, and on-demand video products for enterprises of all industries, as well as specialized industry solutions, currently for educational institutions and for media and telecom companies. Underlying our products and solutions is a broad set of Media Services that are also used by other cloud platforms and companies to power video experiences and workflows for their own products. Kaltura’s Video Experience Cloud is used by leading brands reaching millions of users, at home, at school and at work, for events, communication, collaboration, training, marketing, sales, customer care, teaching, learning, and entertainment experiences.
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