Telestream automates IMF package creation and enhances IP and cloud monitoring

Also new is Telestream’s Inspect 2110 IP video monitoring for broadcast, production and distribution operations, and OptiQ Monitor, cloud-based monitoring-as-a-service. 

Vantage IMF Producer is an option that automates the creation of IMF (Interoperable Master Format) packages from Premiere Pro. A Vantage panel within the NLE provides direct access and significant workflow efficiencies for editors. 

IMF packages are the preferred method to deliver show masters to companies like Netflix, Disney and many others. Through the use of automated processing, editing staff can focus on the craft without worrying about the complexities of the IMF delivery format. 

“While IMF has become the delivery format of choice for many media-service providers and production companies, Adobe Premiere Pro users need to primarily focus on the storytelling process,” said Sue Skidmore, head of partner relations for Adobe video. “Having a plug-in panel to Adobe Premiere Pro for Vantage’s automated IMF packaging workflows gives editors confidence they can deliver compliant IMF masters right from their timeline.” 

IMF is a SMPTE standard for a single, interchangeable master file format and structure for the distribution of content, providing a framework for creating a true file-based final master. Part of the Vantage Media Processing Platform, IMF Producer automates the creation of all files required in an IMF package from a single output render of a Premiere Pro timeline. Besides generating the primary package, editors can create additional sequences, which become supplemental IMF packages that contain different versions of audio, subtitles, edit points, Dolby Vision HDR metadata and more. 

“The ability to manage IMF workflows in an application like Adobe Premiere Pro is an economical and highly powerful way of managing IMF supplemental package requirements,” said Scott Matics, Telestream’s director of product management. “Creating IMF packages that properly conform to specifications is a complex endeavour, and by automating the task, we ensure that humans and computers focus on the skills they are best at.” 

Telestream’s upcoming Inspect 2110 IP video monitoring is the latest in its IQ Solutions monitoring family. It will monitor ST 2110 video streams at broadcast and production facilities and ensures video flowing across the network is correct, working as expected and synchronised, enabling broadcasters to make the shift from SDI to IP video. 

With IP video streaming across Ethernet instead of SDI, video operations need visibility and diagnostics to make sure live production, synchronisation and redundant networks are working properly. Inspect 2110 solves the problem of monitoring complex, growing and dynamic broadcast IP networks with limited staff. Any individual programme can be tracked throughout the network to ensure that the video content on any particular stream is exactly what it should be in terms of media, format, audio and metadata. It also ensures that both sides of a redundant system are the same and that there has been no degradation to either side. Inspect 2110 also confirms PTP system synchronisation, that network traffic is correct and operating as expected. 

The newly available OptiQ Monitor enables real-time deployment of live adaptive bit rate quality monitoring at scale in more than 70 global geographic regions and is designed to give broad visibility into the health and performance of live OTT channels delivered through CDN partners. 

“We introduced the OptiQ Monitor service to the international broadcast industry during the 2019 IBC Show in Amsterdam and it generated strong interest from attendees. We’re thrilled to say it’s now available,” said Kenneth Haren, Telestream’s OptiQ product manager. “OptiQ Monitor is a cloud service that radically changes the approach for on-demand monitoring and analytics, delivering real-time performance and quality insights of OTT channel quality. For the first time, customers can spin up a multi-cloud hosted service in an automated and orchestrated fashion.”