IBC SPECIAL - SEPTEMBER 2017 IBC_SUPPLEMENT_SEPTEMBER_2017 | Page 10

C
Metrological powers
Technicolor OTT STB
loud-based OTT Application Platform
specialist Metrological has confirmed
that STB technology provider
Technicolor is adopting Metrological’s
Application Platform and Web-Platform for
Embedded (WPE) on the Technicolor 4K Ultra
HD hybrid cable and IP set-top boxes (STBs).
The WPE browser and cloud-based architecture
simplify the onboarding of premium OTT
content, provide a unified framework for IP
based video delivery and enable operators
anywhere in the world to support integrated
user experiences.
“Operators are making major investments in
new generation STBs supporting OTT as one
of their main differentiators. This is creating
demand for new, flexible and innovative
solutions that engage subscribers and generate
new revenue streams,” said Mercedes Pastor,
Valossa secures
$2m funding
Video Artificial Intelligence
(AI) company Valossa has
completed a $2 million
round of investment. The
investment will help the
company expand its product
team and its global sales
and marketing.
The round was led by
London-based 01 Ventures,
followed by Finland-based
Reaktor Ventures, the
strategic investment arm
president of Europe, Middle East and Africa
(EMEA) Technicolor Connected Home.
“By bringing open solutions to the operator
community, Technicolor and Metrological are
creating opportunities to literally think outside
the box by opening the door for new ways to
engage with subscribers, while simplifying
and integrating how consumers interact with
existing services.”
The Metrological Application Platform and
WPE consist of an open source browser and
framework architecture with software plugins.
WPE supports operators such as Liberty Global
and Comcast to deploy high performance
rendering of HTML5 apps, next-generation
been completely untapped
until today. Valossa recently
released its first commercial
product, Valossa AI, a cloud
service that is the industry’s
most comprehensive AI
video recognition platform.
Valossa AI watches videos
at a superhuman speed
and produces detailed
descriptions for every second
of the video. The Core
recognition engine is available
as an on-premise, API and
SaaS platform that detects and
of renowned software identifies people, visual and
development and design audio context, spoken topics,
firm Reaktor, and Finnish themed video categories, and
venture capital firm Butterfly explicit content from large
Ventures. Jari Ovaskainen, a volumes of video data.
noted Finnish business angel
integrated user experiences and third-party
services on any STB. WPE brings popular
plugins such as Netflix, offering pre-integrated
and pre-certified software code by which new
services can be launched in months instead of
years.
“We are excited that Technicolor and
Metrological share a common goal to ensure
that operators have the full range of options for
delivering compelling content and integrated
TV-experiences to their customers,” said
Thijs Bijleveld, senior vice president of sales
and marketing, Metrological. “This open,
browser based, approach allows operators
to integrate apps and Premium OTT content
into a single viewer experience. We are proud
that Technicolor is adopting our Application
Platform and WPE allowing their customers to
leverage modern browser based technologies.”
Valossa is completing
has already been at the movie discovery experience,
forefront of advanced video www.whatismymovie.com,
AI for the past few years. to become standardized
Their technology understands throughout the industry, as
video in the same way a video-based companies seek
human does, moving well greater monetization around
beyond simple descriptions of content using intelligent
scenes. This takes the field of
video AI and Machine Vision
investor best known for his several pilots and trials with technology a big step forward,
investments in Finnish mobile its AI-based products for while unlocking a whole new
game developers Supercell, corporations and enterprises set of commercial uses for
Next Games, and PlayRaven, that own and use volumes customers that has never
has also invested in Valossa. of video in their businesses, been possible - until now.”
Eeswaran Navaratnam, including several Fortune from 01 Ventures, and Ville Global 500 companies.
Heikkinen, from Butterfly
“The market opportunity
Valossa recently announced
that deep video search
capabilities will be included
Ventures, will join the board for AI in the video industry is in its online service. The
of directors of Valossa. huge, and Valossa are already search feature will enable
discovery features.
“We are now at a tipping
point for AI’s utility in the
video industry, and we
feel that Valossa AI can
readily serve the needs
of all stakeholders in the
industry, from OTT providers
to broadcasters to on-
demand providers,” said Mika
Rautiainen, co-founder and
among the clear leaders in customers to gain scene- CEO of Valossa. “Valossa is
Global Video Index, by 2021, this emerging space,” said level understanding of t