IBC 2024: Appear Celebrates 20th Birthday with New Innovation

Appear is stepping up its pace of innovation with two major new initiatives at IBC2024 [booth 1.B41]. The first of these is the launch of a flexible, open software platform providing high-performance media processing for live production. The second is a solution ecosystem comprising Appear’s own capabilities alongside other industry-leading solutions, enabling ‘best of breed’ workflows.

“2024 is Appear’s most innovative year in its 20-year history,” says Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO at Appear. “Our first wave of innovation provided the media industry with the most flexible, powerful, and functionally versatile hardware-based live production solutions. At IBC2024, we will complete the live media jigsaw with a software platform that allows media organizations to operate at the highest quality and robustness levels, regardless of their choice between hardware, on-premise software, or the cloud. The launch of our new solution proposition alongside this will provide further technical, operational and commercial flexibility. ”

In addition to these launches, Appear will also unveil important features and functionalities for its award-winning X Platform, the industry leading flexible and highly dense hardware solution. These include:

• 100G IP Gateway Switch

The newly launched 100G IP Gateway Switch module for the X Platform drives cost efficiencies and sustainability by increasing density and significantly increasing media flow throughput.

• Reduced Latency for temporal compression

Latency is critical in live event content production. Appear has further optimized the latency of the AVC and HEVC functions of the X Platform, now delivering end-to-end contribution below 100ms.

• JPEG XS

The new market-leading double density JPEG XS module enables Appear to deliver 8 full HD channels per module, enabling a possible 96 JPEG XS full HD channels across a single 2RU chassis.

• New Compression Module

The new HEVC/AVC X Platform module delivers a significant processing performance increase, combining encoding and decoding, delivering new levels of audio with Dolby Atmos support and HDR / SDR Conversion.

“For much of Appear’s lifetime, private circuit connectivity has been pretty much the only choice for operators connecting the world’s most prestigious live events, initially over satellite and leased lines, but this is changing fast,” says Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear. “Thanks to the increased accessibility of high availability ISP infrastructure and our own 2023 launch of hardware accelerated SRT delivery over higher quality Internet connections. At IBC this year, we are introducing the next generation of Appear by initiating an all-tiers live production software platform and enabling operators to take advantage of our new solutions portfolio.  Individually, both are important, but together we believe that we are building the live production workflows of the future.”

Visitors to IBC2024 will be able to see Appear personnel discuss the future of live production at the following speaking events:

• SVG Sports Production Summit (12^th September, 9:30-9:45 am)

Panel: Advancing Sustainability in European Live Sports Production

Speaker: David Walker, VP of Pre-sales

Location: The Loft – De Hallen Studio’s, Amsterdam

• IBC Main Conference (15^th September, 11:35 am – 12:20 pm)

Panel: Sustainability in Action: Real-World Case Studies from Media Tech Leaders

Speaker: Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, Chief Executive Officer

Location: RAI, room E102

• IP Showcase (15^th September, 2024 3:00-4:00pm)

Keynote: An Update on All Things Timing Related. How time and timing issues are being addressed in linear and non-linear media processing and transport

Speaker: Andy Rayner, CTO

Location: Boat departs from the dock next to the RAI

Appear will also host three presentations on its booth exploring how Appear is leveraging emerging technologies to help media companies achieve their business goals. These include:

• Friday 13^th September, 15:30 – 16:00

Join Andy Rayner, CTO, for a presentation on emerging technologies. Explore the industry’s evolution and how these innovations can help you achieve your business goals.

• Saturday 14^th September, 15:30 – 16:00

Join Martin Paskin, Product Owner, for a presentation on Appear’s new software platform. Discover the agile and flexible platform from Appear, offering high-performance media processing for live production workflows. Learn how the new platform can revolutionize media operations with its capabilities.

• Sunday 15^th September, 15:30 – 16:00

Join David Walker, VP Sales Engineering EMEA, for a presentation on Ground-to-Cloud technologies. Explore real-time cloud processing and its opportunities for broadcasters. Discover the challenges and advantages of streaming media to and from the cloud.