New features for standalone VOD publishing and live streaming bring platform’s efficient, turnkey online and OTT distribution to customers without cable channels

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, MARCH 18, 2019 – Visitors to Tightrope Media Systems’ 2019 NAB Show suite at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel (Hospitality Suite 739) can experience a sneak preview of upcoming direct-to-consumer publishing features that bring the Cablecast Community Media platform’s rich online and OTT distribution capabilities to a broader range of content producers. Building on Cablecast’s robust, efficient workflow for automating everything from cable playback to streaming delivery, version 6.7 brings turnkey VOD and live stream publishing for the web and OTT to customers such as schools and local governments even if they don’t operate a cable channel. Significantly, Cablecast 6.7’s publishing workflows enable users to maintain control of the presentation of their content in ways not possible with popular third-party services.

The new standalone online and OTT publishing capabilities continue the company’s proven history of empowering community content providers with streamlined workflows for reaching ‘cord-cutters’ and other audiences on non-traditional viewing devices. Recent Cablecast multi-platform delivery advances included last year’s release of Cablecast Screenweave for effortlessly reaching users of popular OTT player appliances, and enhanced-quality 1080p adaptive bitrate VOD and live streaming delivery.

“For many years, we have been building up our turnkey web video features and Cablecast Reflect content delivery network to help traditional community cable broadcasters keep up with growing trends in on-demand and streaming consumption,” said Steve Israelsky, President, Cablecast Community Media. “For stations that are restricted to SD cable distribution and omitted from electronic program guides, our online and OTT features have given them feature and video quality parity with major commercial networks. But content creation and distribution has become such an important part of every industry and institution that with version 6.7, we want to help more new content providers be successful – even those without cable channels.”

Cablecast 6.7’s new digital file upload feature enables content managers to copy media files onto their server from anywhere. Combining previously separate operational steps, users can add metadata information at the same time they submit the content files through a single,unified interface page. Meanwhile, a new thumbnail selection feature lets users scrub through their video clip to select a promotional image for display in program schedules on Cablecast-powered public websites and VOD content libraries – thus ensuring a professional look while avoiding the need to create or upload an external graphic.

Unlike most popular, free, web-based distribution platforms, Cablecast’s online and OTT content presentations do not insert unwanted advertising in front of producers’ videos, nor suggest third-party content – completely out of the control of the producer – to viewers upon completion of the program. “This is important for government and educational customers who don’t want unrelated, problematic, or commercial content being shown in conjunction with a city council meeting or daily lesson,” explained Israelsky.

Cablecast 6.7 with the new standalone VOD publishing functionality is slated for release in May. Content producers and community broadcasters interested in version 6.7 or other new Cablecast introductions can schedule an NAB Show meeting with the Cablecast Community Media team at http://bit.ly/CablecastNAB2019.

“Combining these new features with our turnkey website and OTT publishing tools for dynamically updating content libraries, version 6.7 offers a very compelling alternative to other web-based video distribution options,” concluded Israelsky. “We’re excited to let people get their hands on it at the NAB Show, and for them to provide us with feedback as we finalize it.”

About Cablecast

For over 20 years, the Cablecast Community Media platform from Tightrope Media Systems has enabled exceptional workflow efficiency, usability and versatility to help local cable channels, campus television and other community media providers engage their viewers in the evolving media landscape. The comprehensive Cablecast product line provides complete, tightly-integrated broadcast solutions including station automation, playout servers, Internet video on demand and live streaming. For more information, visit www.cablecast.tv or call (866) 866-4118.