New Page, New Chapter, New Opportunities!

We have so much to be thankful for. Despite the challenges we faced in 2020, it was also a year of great expansion and growth for the Media Cloud with the release of the popular App Builder with even more real-time control over your connected Apps, the Pay-Per-View Manager for real-time control of your Pay-Per-View Events and the Analytics Pro Suite. Furthermore, for the 4th time in a row, we were awarded the prestigious Streaming Media Award for the 50 most influential streaming companies and named one of "10 Best CDN Solutions Providers” by Industry Era Magazine. Read more: https://www.lightcast.com/awards/

We rounded up last year’s best new products & features to help you do more with your Lightcast tools in 2021 :)

The App Builder
This is a one-of-a-kind product in the leading multi-platform OVP, the Lightcast Media Cloud, which set a new industry-standard. Manage your app's navigation structure in real-time, such as adding, removing and sorting Channels (Categories) to further control your App's Home Screen, as well as enabling SubChannels/MediaGroups for your Apps, adding/removing videos ads, changing the settings for pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ads, configuration of the time-out feature for your linear streams, Subscription and Pay-Per-View control and much more!

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The Pay-Per-View Manager for Ticket Sales
Perfect for: event organizers, artists, sports events, tournaments, music festivals, conventions and conferences, film festivals, book signings, fan events, fundraisers, and more.

Once you are set up for PPV service you can create and modify PPV products across all your connected publishing properties, TV Apps, Mobile Apps, Web Apps, Web Players, in real-time in your Media Cloud

The Analytics Pro Suite
Select Lightcast VIP Customers already have access to the Stage One Beta Release of the new Media Cloud Analytics Pro Suite. This tool will increasingly become a game changer for every publisher's business strategy, content refinement and audience targeting, setting a new standard in the industry. Stay tuned and watch the free updates over the upcoming months, including a new “Report Builder” which will allow you to build, save, export and email your custom analytics reports, as well as additional data metrics, such as playtime, unique viewers and device connections within any selected timeframe.

The Premium Layout for Mobile Apps
This layout became so popular that we decided to make it available for all clients. It displays your Video Gallery images and/or SubChannel/MediaGroup images on the Home Screen, rather than the Channel images, which triggers the viewers reflex to click on videos to watch immediately. The layout and navigation is similar to your other TV app layouts which provides consistency across your apps.

New Platforms: Spotify and TuneIn
Reach millions of additional viewers and listeners on Spotify and TuneIn. Auto-publish your Audio Podcasts from your uploaded audio archives, or auto-generated from your video uploads, to Spotify and TuneIn and multiply your audience.

Trailer Feature in Apps
Assign trailer videos to any of your videos/movies to provide your viewers a sneak preview of your content. It is a popular tool for subscription content (but also available for free content), allowing viewers to watch a preview before they decide to purchase a subscription.

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For a full picture of our 2020 Releases, check out our Release page at https://support.lightcast.com/019256-Release-Notes

Preview of Upcoming Features for the Media Cloud and for TV and Mobile Apps in 2021:

• Analytics Pro Suite Vs. 2 with Custom Report Builder and additional data metrics, such as playtime, unique viewers and device connections within any selected timeframe.
• New features and improvements to the mobile app framework
• New Support Center with improved Help Guides, article search and ticket system for even faster and better support.
• App Builder expansion with even more real-time controls and features for Apps.
• And last but not least: Further extension of our transcoding farm and private Cloud infrastructure to accommodate the fast growing customer base, content uploads and massive amounts of media publishing.

And many more Media Cloud extensions for greater real-time control are planned for 2021, such as real-time control of subscription products, ad-serving configurations and many more. Stay tuned!