Synamedia

Key takeaways

Synamedia belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Synamedia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Synamedia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Synamedia Ltd. (previously Cisco's SPVSS business, and formerly NDS Group Ltd., and later Cisco Videoscape) is a video technology provider headquartered in Staines-upon-Thames, UK. Its products cover content distribution and delivery, video processing, advanced advertising, broadband offerings, and video security.

History The company was formed in 1988 as News Datacom in Israel, offering encryption technology for satellite broadcasts. The encryption technology was developed by Israeli cryptographer Adi Shamir and Amos Fiat. In 1992, the company was acquired by News Corporation and renamed News Digital Systems (NDS). In 2012, Cisco Systems Inc. acquired NDS. It became the foundation of Cisco's Service Provider Video Software Solutions (SPVSS) business. In May 2018, Permira acquired the SPVSS business from Cisco. The acquisition included Cisco's Infinite Video platform, the former Scientific Atlanta video processing portfolio, cloud digital video recording, video processing, video security, and video middleware. In October 2018, the business was launched as Synamedia. Synamedia leadership includes Paul Segre, CEO; Tzvi Gerstl, CTO; Nick Thexton, EVP of Media Cloud Services; Lucy Norris, EVP of Broadcast Technology & Customer Success; Ismat Levin, EVP of General Counsel; Shauna O’Handley, EVP of People and Places, and Julien Signes, EVP of Video Network. The company has offices in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Belgium, Israel, India, and China. Synamedia's clients include satellite and cable pay TV providers, media companies, and others involved in direct-to-consumer OTT distribution. It has over 200 pay TV and media customers. They include Astro, AT&T, beIN, Bharti Airtel, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Disney, Etisalat, Foxtel, Liberty Global, MNC Vision, OSN, Rogers, Sky, Tata Sky, Verizon, Vodafone, and YES. In January 2020, Synamedia entered a partnership with Pearl TV to join the Phoenix Model Market Initiative. In August 2021, Synamedia acquired ContentArmor, a company that develops forensic watermarking software for the media and entertainment industry. In May 2022, it was announced that Synamedia had acquired the UK-headquartered TV and OTT content discovery SaaS platform, Utelly. In July 2022, Synamedia acquired Quortex, a Saas streaming video processing provider.

Products Synamedia's cloud-based platforms for cable, satellite, and IPTV and streaming services include Synamedia Go, Go.Aggregate, Go.Enrich and the Infinite platform. In September 2021, Synamedia announced pre-integrated security and business products with support for Android TV on its Infinite platform. In 2019, Synamedia released its Credentials Sharing and Fraud Insight product. The product enables pay TV partners and OTT companies to track and prevent piracy and password-sharing. In April 2021, Synamedia announced Gravity, a managed service that offers broadband and video capabilities to operators and service providers for their small to medium business (SMB) and residential customers. At the end of 2020, Synamedia worked alongside THEO Technologies to advance the already existent High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (HESP) . They did so by founding the HESP Alliance. This alliance intended to enhance the modern streaming landscape, by bringing video vendors and media companies together, in order to provide a scalable solution for ultra-low latency. The Synamedia Video Network portfolio includes a virtual Digital Content Manager (DCM) which transitions distribution architectures to an IP-based virtualized video processing environment. In May 2020, Synamedia launched a ATSC 3.0 Receiver which can function as both an RF and IP receiver. The receiver is in use today with Fox Television Stations in Orlando, FL. Synamedia acquired Quortex in 2022 adding Quortex Play for just-in-time streaming at scale to the Video Network portfolio. In April 2023, Synamedia released Quortex Link for video distribution. Both are pay-as-you-use, self-service, multi-tenant SaaS platforms. In October 2019, Discovery began using the virtual DCM platform. The Synamedia virtual DCM with Smart Rate Control and Automation provides bandwidth distribution, storage capabilities and High Definition viewing experiences for live and time-shifted ABR streaming. The Synamedia Video Network Service Manager is a micro-services-based platform that helps operators and video producers quickly update their programming line-ups and bundled offers. The Converged Headend is designed to help pay-TV providers transition to software-based services, and can be deployed on premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment. In April 2021, Synamedia released Clarissa, which analyzes critical behavioral and consumption insights for pay-TV and OTT services. Synamedia Iris, an addressable advertising for broadcast, IP, OTT and hybrid, was announced in August 2020. In May 2022, Vodafone Deutschland went live with Clarissa and Synamedia Iris to support its GigaTV service. Synamedia, in partnership with Sky, has developed a personalized ad targeting platform, AdSmart, which serves TV advertisements to households based on their profiles.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Synamedia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Synamedia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Synamedia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Synamedia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Synamedia

In research: Synamedia appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Synamedia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Synamedia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1988 establishments in Israel, Digital Video Broadcasting, Digital television, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Synamedia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Synamedia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Synamedia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Synamedia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Synamedia in simple terms?

Synamedia Ltd. (previously Cisco's SPVSS business, and formerly NDS Group Ltd., and later Cisco Videoscape) is a video technology provider headquartered in Staines-upon-Thames, UK.

Why does Synamedia matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Synamedia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Synamedia.