AD Agencies
Amagi enables virtualized playout with Cloudport 3.0
MUMBAI: Aiming to increase operational efficiency, scalability, and cost savings for broadcasterscloud-based broadcast infrastructure and targeted TV advertising platform Amagi has adopted use Cloudport 3.0, the latest version of its cloud-based playout platform.
Cloudport 3.0 enables TV networks to operate virtualized playout on the cloud. This gives TV networks greater flexibility and agility to spin new channels and create regional feeds instantly to keep pace with changing viewer dynamics and preferences. Available as a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) platform using Intel servers, Cloudport 3.0 can also be deployed at operator headends while retaining full control over operations with the broadcasters.
The new playout platform is IP-enabled, supports live broadcast, and is 4K UHD compatible. Complete with multi-feed monitoring, the platform offers remote playout management, creating a live MCR-like experience on the cloud.
“Building on the successful global deployments of Cloudport, Amagi has further enhanced the platform’s capabilities in response to the broadcast industry’s evolving needs for virtualized playout,” said Amagi co-founder K A Srinivasan. “With Cloudport 3.0, TV networks can respond to market needs quicker, as well as operate multichannel playout and delivery with zero CAPEX when compared to traditional playout and broadcast models.”
Offered as a platform-as-a-service model, Cloudport 3.0 is packed with advanced features such as near-live asset changes to broadcast playlists, real-time social media integration, and enhanced digital video effects for a better end-user experience.
“Given its flexibility to be hosted on the cloud, Cloudport 3.0 can be used to create broadcast-quality OTT feeds. It can also double up as a cost-effective option to meet disaster recovery needs of TV networks. There is no longer a need for broadcasters to stay invested in expensive, traditional delivery models,” Srinivasan added.
Cloudport 3.0 will be showcased by Amagi at the 2016 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 16 to 21.
AD Agencies
The smell that told Mumbaikars which station was next
Tata AIA turns Mumbai’s Parle-G memory into a sharp, city-wise outdoor play
MUMBAI: When a biscuit factory became Mumbai’s unofficial station announcement. Long before smartphone maps and automated announcements, commuters on Mumbai’s Western line relied on their noses. As trains rolled into Vile Parle, compartments filled with the warm, sweet smell of baking biscuits from the Parle-G factory. It was a cue to gather bags, wake dozing children and shuffle towards the door.
Now that memory has been pressed into service by Tata AIA Life Insurance as part of its 25-year anniversary outdoor campaign — a city-by-city salute to the lived moments that shape urban life.
One hoarding, mounted close to the old factory site, reads: “We have been protecting Mumbaikars since Vile Parle smelled of freshly made biscuits.” Spare. Local. Loaded.
The broader campaign, rolled out across major metros, leans hard into contextual storytelling. In Kolkata, it nods to trams. In Pune, to Magarpatta’s transformation. In Bengaluru, to a time before IT parks. In Chennai, to OMR before it led to tech corridors. Each line anchors the brand’s longevity to a shared civic memory.
The Mumbai execution is the most evocative. For decades, the Parle-G factory was more than a production unit. It was a sensory landmark. Residents nearby set their clocks by the factory horn. Office-goers marked their commute by the waft of glucose and flour. When the plant shut, the city lost more than jobs. It lost a rhythm.
By placing the hoarding beside the former factory, the insurer collapses distance between copy and context. The site does half the storytelling. The rest comes from commuters who remember opening steel tiffins packed with Parle-G, or jolting awake as the train slowed.
It is a neat piece of brand positioning. Rather than trumpet balance sheets or policy counts, Tata AIA borrows emotional equity from the city itself. Twenty-five years becomes less a milestone and more a presence — steady, local, embedded.
Outdoor advertising is often a blunt instrument. This one is anything but. It whispers. It remembers. And in doing so, it sells trust without sounding like it is selling at all.
The scent may have faded. The memory has not.
