Imagine Communications Receives Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering

Imagine Communications has been awarded an Emmy for Pioneering Optimization of Advertising Placement in Single Channel Linear Television Programs by the Technology and Engineering Achievement Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The award was presented January 8 at a ceremony at the Bellagio Hotel during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

This is Imagine Communications’ 10th Emmy award. The company is being recognized for ad insertion technology that originated in the late 1960s but still serves as the foundational technology behind today’s advanced and fully automated advertising sales and traffic systems. The first successful application of computerized automation of business processes within a broadcast operation, this technology remains relevant today and underpins the innovation driving the evolution of Imagine Communications’ ad management solutions.

“We are extremely proud to be honored once again with one of the world’s most distinguished awards for technology excellence,” says Charlie Vogt, Imagine Communications CEO. “This achievement not only speaks to our rich legacy in the broadcast industry, but also validates the positive and enthusiastic reception our next-generation advertising technology is receiving from customers today. The media and entertainment industry is rapidly evolving and now, more than ever, requires technology partners that provide transformational innovation that is guided and informed by a long and distinguished heritage in the broadcast industry.”

This recognition from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is an acknowledgement of the pivotal role this technology played in shaping today’s ad management landscape. Thousands of television and radio stations, as well as content distributors and aggregators, are running automated business process systems that are based on the spot placement algorithm and related procedures introduced nearly five decades ago. The technology originally relied on mainframe and minicomputers, as well as keypunch card systems, to help automate and simplify what had previously been a manual and error-plagued procedure.

“It’s difficult to overstate the importance and the impact of this technology, a radical departure from the people-powered traffic systems that persisted well into the 1980s,” says Bridget Allen, vice president sales, advertising management systems, Imagine Communications. “Today’s media and entertainment industry owes a debt of gratitude to George Beattie and Jack Finlayson, the broadcasting pioneers who are chiefly responsible for this transformative technology.”

Harnessing the power of ad placement automation remains at the heart of Imagine Communications’ comprehensive advertising management solutions portfolio, which is focused on providing broadcasters and media companies with the tools needed to optimize and automate the monetization of ad inventory. The Landmark portfolio includes the award-winning LandmarkOSI Traffic and Sales solutions, as well as a number of new modules that vastly improve a station’s ability to manage the complexity of today’s selling and programming environments.  Imagine Communications recently launched xG Copy and xG Live Log for LandmarkOSI, streamlining the time-to-air for both copy and changes within the traffic system.  In addition, Landmark xG Open, announced in September 2015, is an API-based programmatic solution that allows media companies to automate sales via programmatic exchanges.

George Beattie attended the 67^th Emmy Awards ceremony as Imagine Communications’ special guest. Jack Finlayson, who passed away in 1991, was represented by daughters Bridget Allen and Terry Grinewich, both employees of Imagine Communications.