Haivision Acquires LightFlow From Epic Labs to Boost AI, Cloud Orchestration Portfolio

Haivision has acquired LightFlow Media Technologies, the advanced media optimization business of Epic Labs. This acquisition adds artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to Haivision’s portfolio to form the basis for advances in content-aware video encoding, content indexing, object detection, as well as optimization of video contribution, distribution, and delivery for low-latency live feeds or video on-demand.

LightFlow’s technology suite also gives Haivision an advanced media cloud orchestration architecture, a foundation to accelerate the company’s cloud strategy of creating an ecosystem of modular video streaming and management technologies. The LightFlow team also led the development of the DASH.js implementation that includes low-latency CMAF support, which adds to Haivision’s overall market leadership with the SRT open source initiative and the development of the Haivision SRT Hub intelligent cloud media routing platform.

“Haivision is a recognized leader and pioneer in video streaming with the Makito series of video encoders and the open-source SRT initiative. Epic Labs is a cutting-edge innovator in cloud development and AI for video streaming,” says Mirko Wicha, founder and CEO of Haivision. “By bringing our visions together, we are poised to enable the delivery of revolutionary new end-to-end media solutions that will transform low-latency streaming workflows – from contribution and distribution, all the way to delivery and monetization.”

The LightFlow team, based in Madrid Spain, now augments Haivision’s global development organization, which is headquartered in Montreal, with additional R&D offices in Portland, Chicago, Austin, and Hamburg.

“LightFlow brings a vast expertise and technology to improve video workflows leveraging artificial intelligence,” says Alfonso Peletier, Founder and CEO of Epic Labs. “LightFlow finds in Haivision the scale and reach of the world leader in performance streaming. The joint team and technologies will accelerate our shared vision of delivering revolutionary cloud workflows to the market and the community.”

“Innovation is at the heart of Haivision’s cloud development efforts,” says Mahmoud Al-Daccak, Haivision’s CTO and EVP of Product Development. “Haivision is pioneering next-generation cloud video services made possible through intelligent media routing, AI-optimized media and metadata processing, as well as blockchain-enabled decentralized federated content distribution, opening new opportunities for more content providers to deliver video to ever-expanding audiences.”

“With so much real-time data available throughout the media workflow, the magic dwells in understanding, learning, and adjusting continuously to achieve optimal results,” says Miguel Serrano, CEO of LightFlow Media Technologies. “By applying artificial intelligence in different layers of the video workflow, we can harness the combined power of the cloud and edge processing to reinvent the way broadcast and media organizations produce, deliver, and monetize their content.”