OpenVision® Pitcher/Catcher

A Powerful Open Standards-Based Solution for the Distribution
and Management of Digital Content

The IMAKE OpenVision® Pitcher/Catcher is an efficient, seamless user-friendly solution that automates and simplifies digital media asset management and distribution. The product provides a range of dynamic workflows that provide visibility and control into:

• Content Authoring
• Asset Management
• Pitching and Catching
• Overall system distribution and status

OpenVision® Pitcher/Catcher’s customized network intelligence capabilities help resolve technical issues, lower operational costs and enhance revenue opportunities by bringing assets to market faster. The world-class workflows and intuitive user interface provide an efficient, seamless and user-friendly solution.

Using organizational business rules, OpenVision® Pitcher/Catcher creates customized, automated pitch scheduling with priority, distribution dates, view dates and error retries. The automated default value templates enable the setup of metadata values for content that is used repeatedly, reducing errors and saving time.

IMAKE’s proven OpenVision® Pitcher/Catcher has been deployed in both centralized and decentralized environments and is currently serving more than 150 cities across the United States.

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Boxes shaded in light blue indicate other OpenVision® products, though the Pitcher/Catcher can be integrated to similar products from other vendors.

OpenVision® Pitcher/Catcher is part of IMAKE’s open standards-based solution suite that easily integrates with existing systems–enabling a total solution with best-of-breed components from multiple vendors. The highly scalable OpenVision® suite grows with your needs, making it possible to cost effectively add applications to your existing infrastructure as service offerings expand.

Benefit Highlights

• Comprehensive solution for the distribution of content, including CableLabs® compliant packages.
• Adaptive Forward Error Correction (FEC) delivers content and metadata in the absence of a back channel, minimizing retransmissions.
• Enables pre-encryption of content (such as Motorola’s OLES) at a central location, reducing costs and time.
• Automated transcoding to formats such as Windows Media 9, Real Media and MPEG 4.
• Automated management and integrity validation of pitched content and associated metadata throughout the entire distribution process.
• Flexible ingestion and output formats such as CableLabs®, XML and Excel.
• Dedicated operations engineers monitor customer networks from the IMAKE Network Operations Center.

Feature Highlights

• Management, scheduling and pitching of various content types such as VOD, broadcast ads (for linear ad insertion) and VOD advertisements
• Configurable pitcher can automatically deliver assets across any terrestrial or satellite network
• Superior ingestion and authoring, workflow monitoring and management
• Automated distribution and tracking
• Content profiles apply business rules to metadata and associated content
• Easy, scaleable system expansion
• Encryption support capabilities with multiple CAS/DRM vendors
• Event log tracks content delivery and provides details on each transmission
• Automated advertisement and On Demand settlement and usage log retrieval
• Automated content ingestion and pitching (catch and re-pitch) for use by aggregators
• Automated pitch list generation and distribution
• Centralized asset management
• Integrated with multiple satellite distribution systems
• System-wide status monitoring and reporting
• Browser-based user interface
• Highly reliable and efficient satellite multicast with FEC
• Control, visibility and prioritization of the transmission queue
• Transcoding I/F support built into the solution
• Low cost USB disk drive burning option available