The new VX open platform empowers Appear customers to create agile, next-gen software production workflows, integrating multiple infrastructures with the ultra-low latency and resiliency of modern hardware.
Appear, a major player in live production technology, has announced the launch of its VX Software Platform at IBC 2024. This new platform is designed to meet both current and future broadcast workflow needs by offering agility and flexibility. The VX Platform empowers Appear’s customers to create next-generation software production workflows that seamlessly integrate with various infrastructure and hardware solutions, all while maintaining the power, resilience and ultra-low latency of today’s leading hardware platforms.
At IBC 2024, visitors to Appear’s booth will get the first look at live demonstrations of the VX Platform in action. These demos will showcase the transmission of live content from stadiums to studios using AVC, HEVC and JPEG XS with ARQ protection, as well as the efficient distribution of affiliate feeds through Appear’s advanced SRT application. The platform can be deployed both in the cloud and on low-cost, fully redundant off-the-shelf hardware. Additionally, the VX Platform offers next-generation node-based workflow management and integrates with Prometheus and Grafana for real-time system monitoring.
Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO at Appear, said: “At Appear, we are highly regarded for the power and flexibility of our modular and award-winning X Platform. We are now complementing this approach with VX, building live production media processing functions in individual software modules. Visitors to our IBC booth will be able to see the functionality we offer in contribution over JPEG XS, AVC, HEVC and SRT as well as how VX enables broadcasters and operators to quickly build, spin-up, adapt and spin-down entire production workflows.”
VX is designed to address the challenges of a fully IP-based infrastructure by offering end-to-end workflows with unified support management, ensuring seamless integration between Appear’s solutions and third-party hardware, software and cloud deployments. The platform also simplifies operations with a unified user interface and API, delivers low-latency media processing and supports easy deployment of software anywhere, anytime, enhancing operational efficiency and infrastructure ROI. Additionally, VX allows for seamless scaling to meet fluctuating demands, with a flexible “pay for what you use” billing model.
Andy Rayner, CTO of Appear, added: “Our X Platform leads the industry because of its modular approach, with configurable modules for different functionalities, compression and file formats. Appear will continue to invest in producing new hardware modules and enhancing existing ones, but the media & entertainment industry also needs new architectures that enable businesses to work with increased flexibility and efficiency.”
Rayner concluded: “The media industry needs to be agile, it wants ‘pay for what you use’ billing. It needs to be free to switch between, and mix-and-match, on-prem hardware, multiple clouds and on-prem clouds. It wants to increase agility through using IT-standard approaches such as containerisation and building workflows out of microservices. It needs to increase the level of workflow control and management as it moves to a software future. It needs to do all of this, not just on one hardware device or one cloud instance, but to distribute these abilities over multiple platforms and hardware solutions. Our new VX Platform enables media and entertainment businesses to do all of this, so that our customers can deploy VX to make the most of the extra dimension of flexibility that software provides.”
Stand 1.B41
