Imagine and HP team up for production, playout and distribution

Antonio Neri

Imagine Communications has expanded its existing relationship with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to enable communications service providers, broadcast and media companies to construct video production, playout and distribution facilities.

Under the agreement between the pair, HPE will resell Imagine Communications’ entire product portfolio virtually worldwide. The deal also aligns Imagine Communications’ core products with HPE’s software, hardware and services solutions, according to Imagine.

HPE will resell products from Imagine Communications’ playout, networking, distribution and ad management solutions portfolios, as well as products and intellectual property from HPE Software and CMS businesses, including Platinum routers, Nexio servers and Versio, the company’s IP playout solution.

The strategic partnership, an expansion of a relationship made public in April 2015, is also intended to include Imagine Communications’ CloudXtream portfolio, comprised of cloud-based solutions that enable service providers to introduce new personalised services.

The scope of the relationship also includes the migration of Imagine Communications’ core products to HPE hardware platforms.

Imagine said that the agreement marked an important milestone in the ongoing fusion of the media and entertainment and IT industries, as well as the overall transformation of video production, playout and distribution operations to IP, cloud, and virtualization.

“Media companies and service providers recognize the urgency to modernize operations to meet the needs of a new generation of video consumers and withstand competitive challenges resulting from disruption to traditional supply chains and business models,” said Antonio Neri, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Group, HPE.

“Together, HPE and Imagine Communications intend to bring faster innovation and risk mitigation to customers as they transform from a pre-IP environment to full IP Cloud and from physical to virtualized infrastructures. At the same time, our deep experience allows us to bring communication service providers the most complete end-to-end solutions and services, accelerating time-to-market and monetization of new multiscreen offerings.”