Akamai Opens Broadcast Operations Control Center to Support OTT Video Providers

New facility combines specialized staff with advanced diagnostic tools to drive superior-quality over-the-top video viewing experiences

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Akamai

Apr 18, 2016, 06:30 ET

LAS VEGAS, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 2016 NAB Show – Booth SL3325 – Further addressing the consumer demand and business requirements for over-the-top (OTT) video quality and experiences that exceed those of traditional broadcast and cable television, Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), the global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services, today announced the opening of its Broadcast Operations Control Center (BOCC). Located at the company's Cambridge, Mass., headquarters, the facility is designed to help ensure the reliability of OTT services through a combination of highly trained technical staff and a host of monitoring, analytics, reporting, quality and availability measurement tools that provide real-time support and unprecedented operational insight for customers delivering critical live, linear and on-demand video content.

Akamai's newly-opened Broadcast Operations Control Center (BOCC) is designed to help ensure the quality reliability of over-the-top (OTT) video services through a combination of highly trained technical staff and monitoring, analytics, reporting, quality and availability measurement tools that provide real-time support and unprecedented operational insight for customers delivering critical live, linear and on-demand video content. The BOCC is located in Akamai's Cambridge, Mass., headquarters.

The BOCC is staffed 24x7 by a team of specialized broadcast issue resolution experts possessing hybrid skills across media and networking to address the unique needs of Akamai OTT customers. The team, which typically averages 12 at any given time but can grow to more than 50 during major events, operates in overlapping shifts to ensure seamless transitions while monitoring every aspect of customer media performance.

BOCC experts have a holistic view of customer workflows via a suite of dedicated tools built upon Akamai's Media Analytics. Live streaming telemetry and beaconing from encoder to end user provide real-time visibility into the health of customer video streams and network conditions, complemented with instant alerts, powerful troubleshooting and rapid issue mitigation. Though workflows can vary, Akamai collaborates with customers to establish optimal encoder profiles and player configurations designed to best address their requirements while supporting multiple adaptive streaming formats.

The BOCC was designed and is managed by Akamai Director of Media Operations Matt Azzarto, a veteran broadcast systems engineer tasked with bringing together best practices from online video streaming, network operations and television broadcasting into a central hub to monitor and support business-critical OTT video services. "With the new BOCC, Akamai is helping to address consumer quality-of-experience expectations for OTT by raising our customer service, support and component-level access into the CDN. We're replacing help tickets and hold time with real-time communication and deep, proactive monitoring designed to alert customers to potential issues before they actually arise," explained Azzarto. "We're taking the ubiquity of Akamai's pervasive network and our Media Delivery Solutions, and empowering a specialized staff who have 'eyes-on-glass' 24x7 to support our customers with a unique set of tools that we believe deliver unprecedented visibility into hundreds of live video streams and linear channels at any given time."

The BOCC is complemented by Akamai's Network Operations Command Centers (NOCC) and Security Operations Centers (SOC), which together provide expansive breadth of insight into global network conditions and potentially threatening traffic activity. The centers form a unique offering that helps Akamai customers securely and efficiently deliver the highest possible quality content to viewers worldwide.

Akamai is demonstrating a model BOCC along with its live and on-demand OTT workflows, from acquisition to playback, during the 2016 NAB Show at Booth SL3325, April 18^th - 21^st in Las Vegas.

About Akamai
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere. To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, failure of the BOCC to operate as expected or to address intended market needs, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.