MUMBAI: India’s TV and film production studio Balaji Telefilms has partnered with OTT solutions providers Xstream and Diagnal to power its new OTT entertainment service ALT, which is slated to launch in Q2-2016. The service will be available across connected devices, targeting young, connected and new age audiences.
Xstream’s cloud-based video management system, Xstream MediaMaker, will fuel ALT’s multiscreen solution, whereas Diagnal will be responsible for front-end design, development, big data solution and systems integration.
Announced in 2015, ALT is a part of the Balaji’s strategic intent to extend its creative expertise to the digital domain by developing on-demand, original and exclusive content for digital audiences globally.
“ALT Balaji wants its audience to enjoy compelling stories and does not want technology to be a stumbling block in their experience. We believe that technology is an enabler and if it's invisible to the consumer then we have done a great job,” said ALT Digital Media COO Sunil Nair. “Xstream gives us world class solutions that are flexible allowing us to offer seamless smooth user experience in video playback. Their experience combined with the depth of knowledge of the Diagnal team has helped us very quickly build a fabulous platform.”
“Diagnal’s proven market expertise and product delivery capabilities combined with Xstream’s flexible and scalable platform, their impressive track record of managing high-end, customised Internet video services, proven technology and their ability to act as a solution partner, truly sets them apart from others and made them a natural partner and first choice for us. With Diagnal and Xstream we’ve gained partners who truly understand the complicated OTT ecosystem and we have built a future-proof solution. This enables us to continue to build a platform for our next generation OTT service on multiple devices that we can grow and develop with as we move forward in a speedily evolving market,” adds ALT Digital Media Entertainment head of product Ashish Bhansali.
Launching this summer, ALT will utilise Xstream MediaMaker and Diagnal’s robust technology services to offer the audience in India and abroad an enjoyable experience across various devices.
Xstream MediaMaker is designed to enable operators, broadcasters and content owners to seamlessly create, manage, deliver and monetise future- proof Internet TV solutions across regions and countries with multiple languages & currency on multiple devices- all with an easy and transparent workflow management- simplifying the complexity in Internet TV and allowing their customers to focus on their core business, not the complexity in OTT.
“As the pioneering studio in India, Balaji continues to propel the entertainment industry forward with innovation and quality content. We look forward to support their passion for creating quality content with our flexible, proven and scalable cloud- based OTT platform for delivery of multiscreen video solutions and other innovative and personalized services for engaging and delighting subscribers. ALT Balaji is a great example of a true innovator in Direct-to-consumer OTT services and we are delighted to be working together,” said Xstream CEO Simon Hoegsbro.
“We’re incredibly proud of what the partnership between ALT Balaji, Xstream and Diagnal has achieved in a short period of time – a world class OTT product that is suited to the content needs of the Indian market and is also a pleasure to use,” added Diagnal CEO Reuben Verghese.
The ALT Balaji solution by Xstream is fully cloud- based, using Amazon Web Services. Using AWS, Xstream is able to deliver unparalleled performance and durability to ensure a quality delivery to ALT Balaji subscribers. With EC2 Xstream have access to a perfect solution to operate API's and customer facing services. S3 is used for robust storage of content and assets, which is then served using Cloudfront. Lastly RDS and Redshift are used databases for metadata and statistics. Xstream is proud to be an Amazon Web Services Advanced Technology Partner.
