Haivision and Aviwest: A Shared Vision for the Future of Broadcast Contribution

In case you missed the news, Haivision recently acquired Aviwest, an industry leader in mobile IP-based video contribution systems and a pioneer in the transmission of live video over cellular networks. The acquisition marks an important expansion for Haivision, providing customers with a video contribution solutions portfolio that now includes 5G transmission, mobile video contribution, and network bonding technology in addition to its existing low latency, high-quality video encoding and decoding, stream routing, and cloud video network solutions.

“We are excited to add Aviwest’s impressive technology and deep domain expertise to Haivision’s product portfolio, helping us further deliver on our goal of developing innovative solutions to better serve our customers. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Aviwest to the Haivision family. With complementary technology and a shared vision, we are uniquely positioned to shape the future of video contribution.”  Mirko Wicha, Haivision President and CEO.

The two companies have many common values and synergies as well as a shared vision for the future of video contribution, which were explored in our recent webinar, Haivision & Aviwest: The Future of Broadcast Video Contribution.

Changing the Game for Broadcast Contribution

We’re very excited to see our technologies coming together. The strength of the combined Aviwest and Haivision solutions will empower our customers to change the game for broadcast, notably for live sporting event production, as well as for news coverage, and live entertainment.

Common Values and Synergies: Reliability, Quality, and Low Latency

Traditionally, Aviwest and Haivision have addressed similar broadcast challenges with different but complementary approaches; Haivision providing video encoders and the SRT protocol, and Aviwest focusing on mobile field transmitters and the SST protocol. Common to the two companies are the core values of reliability, quality, and low latency upon which they have built and developed their industry-leading and pioneering technologies as well as their excellent reputation. It is these essential values that matter most for successfully producing live events.

Combined Technologies to Address Broadcast Contribution Challenges

Wired & Wireless

The use of IP technologies is increasingly common for live production and one of the biggest production concerns is network connectivity – both in venues where wired networks are available, and in dispersed outdoor locations, where cellular connectivity is critical (and where Aviwest’s support for low latency 5G transmission will be a game changer). Thanks to our combined technologies, we can provide high-quality, synchronized video streams with robust quality of service, no matter what the network challenges, offering a unique solution to manage complex live production workflows.

Stationary & Portable

It’s not just the network that is wired or wireless, but cameras that are stationary or portable, or both, which requires different types of encoders depending on the workflows. This could mean battery-powered, camera-attached encoders or rugged, rack-mounted encoders. The combined Aviwest and Haivision technology portfolio always ensures the highest quality video encoding at the lowest latencies possible.

Local & Remote

In the past few years, accelerated by the pandemic, the use of remote production workflows has rapidly increased. Haivision and Aviwest solutions support both local workflows (those located onsite at the venue, for instance in an outside broadcast truck) and remote workflows (where IP video is transported from the venue back to a centralized production facility) to ensure a successful live production. Furthermore, our products provide return video and IFB audio back to the field, while also enabling remote control of production equipment, decentralized collaboration between field-based staff, remote talent and technical staff, the central facility, confidence monitoring from anywhere, and more.

First Mile & Cloud

Whether it is via Aviwest mobile transmitters or Haivision fixed video encoders, low latency video is critical for live broadcast contribution, known as “the first mile” for delivery to either on-premise production facilities, or to cloud production. Together, our technologies address both on-premise and cloud-based production workflows as well as the routing of media worldwide from where it originates to where it needs to be consumed.

A Shared Vision: End-to-End Technology Solutions Powering the Future of Broadcast

Whether it’s for IP contribution for remote production, IP contribution from anywhere to anywhere, decentralized collaboration, or distribution of live linear video to affiliates and OTT centers, Haivision now has one of the most comprehensive product portfolios to address the needs of broadcasters.

The shared vision for our combined companies rests on three key pillars:

• The ability to provide versatile contribution for any kind of situation, whether it’s roaming cameras with cellular mobile connections, whether it’s fixed cameras, or mobile devices, all synchronized.
• A universal gateway, either a physical device, a virtual machine, or a cloud deployment is fundamental, to take streams from various locations and bring them to where they need to go, in the format they need to be in.
• The concept of any destination is also critical here, it means any destination in the world, which is not reliant on proprietary receivers, rather an open mechanism through which content can get from any event to any destination as efficiently as possible.