HITS

LAS VEGAS — New storage solutions, advances in artificial intelligence and the latest in file-transfer solutions all got heavy space on the floor at the NAB Show.

Here’s a look at what IBM Watson Media, Signiant, Qumulo and Veritone brought to Las Vegas.

Signiant

Just ahead of the NAB Show, file transfer software specialist Signiant made noise about its standing in the media and entertainment space, with most every major studio using the company’s accelerated file transfer technology, playing a role in all the top 10 films of 2017. Signiant’s Media Shuttle product recently passed the 200,000 user mark, with 25,000 companies in more than 200 countries employing the solution.

“Our mission, in a nutshell: move large files fast,” said Jon Finegold, chief marketing officer for Signiant. “We have customers that have five employees and we have customers that have 50,000.”

Virtual reality firm Jaunt is among those recent editions to the Signiant customer family. “The ability to securely and efficiently transfer large media files is critical to us and our customers. Signiant allows us to do just that and focus our engineering on our core technologies. Embedding Signiant File Transfer into our XR Platform was simple to roll out and enables our customers to seamlessly benefit from Signiant’s accelerated file transfer,” said Olaf Brandt, Jaunt’s VP of software for client platforms.

Qumulo

Qumulo came into the show ready with its new QF2 NVMe All-Flash solution, which combines Qumulo File Fabric (QF2) software with high-speed NVMe, Intel Skylake SP processors, high-bandwidth Intel SSDs and the latest 100GbE networking.

The company’s calling it the first-ever enterprise ready and cloud integrated NVMe All-Flash File Storage.

“We’re driven by customers pushing us to take the Qumulo they already know and love, and make it better,” said Joel Groen, principal product manager for the company. “We want to be able to support any needs that our customers have.”

The Qumulo P-Series provides an ultra-high performance NVMe all-flash file storage solution, with throughput of 4GB/s per node, or 16GB/s for a minimum-configuration four-node cluster. The Qumulo P-Series is meant to handle demanding workloads, including next-gen genomic sequencing and analysis, uncompressed 4K, scientific computing and large-scale datasets for machine learning applications.

Veritone

Veritone used the NAB Show to tout its aiWARE platform, calling it the industry standard for how enterprises and institutions can effectively and profitably engage with AI. An open platform, aiWARE allows clients to configure cognitive capabilities based on organizational needs, enhancing workflows, while prioritizing accuracy and speed.

“Artificial intelligence is imperative for industry, and we are able to apply state-of-the-art machine learning techniques with innovative platform features that make AI not only accessible but truly scalable in short order, setting the standard for enterprise AI,” said Ryan Steelberg, president of Veritone. “With Veritone, clients and partners have access to future-proof cognitive engine technology and the ability to integrate their own applications, engines, and systems with aiWARE to employ artificial intelligence for competitive advantage.”

The recent introduction of the aiWARE real-time framework allows users to unlock insights and value from most any type of data. The self-service development environment within aiWARE – dubbed Veritone Developer – gives customers the ability to create both public and private applications.

“With Veritone Developer, we were able to swiftly and seamlessly develop an integration that introduces leading-edge artificial intelligence to our Media Library customers,” said Heiner Lesaar, chief technology officer of Elements. “Incorporating the cognitive capabilities of Veritone aiWARE brings AI to our media workflows and ensures our continued commitment to client success.”

IBM Watson Media

Toward the end of the NAB Show, David Mowrey, director of product development for IBM Watson Media, came away impressed: media and entertainment companies are catching on quickly to the benefits of AI and machine learning technologies, and what it can do for their business.

“It’s really exciting what’s going on at NAB, with machine learning [being] uncharted territory for media and entertainment,” he said. “It has the potential to impact monetization, operational workflows, and efficiencies.”

IBM Watson Media and its machine learning tech has already been used for the Grammys, the U.S. Open, and the Masters golf tournament, with the upcoming World Cup the next major broadcast event to take advantage of the tech, offering broadcasters search-and-discover capabilities related to their live like never before. The availability of automated video recognition tools means faster turnaround for highlight clips, and better recommendations for viewers.

Next on IBM Watson Media’s machine learning plate is a new solution for live broadcast closed captioning, with more than one broadcaster currently testing the solution, Mowrey said.