TORONTO and PLAYA VISTA, CA – Toronto-based TV apps developer Digiflare Inc. is part of a team that has created the first-of-a-kind, comprehensive video-streaming solution for the Television Academy and the voting members in the 67th Emmy Awards Show.
Eschewing traditional DVD screeners this year, the Television Academy was able to securely deliver content as well as a high-quality viewing experience for all of their more than 18,300 voting members. The new digital platform provided voting members with a range of viewing options via the Web, iOS, Android, Roku, and Chromecast to access all the episodes they needed to see before casting their ballots.
The move to digital drove down production, distribution and environmental costs, and it allowed the voters to vote in more categories. Traditionally, each Television Academy member had been able to vote for a maximum of four Blue Ribbon Panel categories during Primetime Emmy balloting. Once a member chose the categories, the Television Academy mailed multiple DVDs to each member. This year, final-round voting was expanded beyond the four-panel limitation to enable eligible voting members to vote in all 15 program categories. The increased voting pool was the impetus to build a viewing platform capable of screening all Emmy-nominated content.
“We wanted to give our members a simple way to view Emmy nominees’ programming across all of their devices at their convenience, without needing to produce hundreds of thousands of additional DVDs,” said Maury McIntyre, Television Academy President and COO, in the news release. "This new platform allowed us to streamline the voting process, while meeting today’s viewer’s expectations of instantaneous, seamless and secure digital experiences.”
To launch the viewing platform in time for voting, the Academy selected Digiflare’s Videa platform and Verizon Digital Media Services’ Video Lifecycle Solution. Using the combined offering, the Television Academy was able to roll out a polished, multi-platform solution in just two months.
Digiflare said that Videa is a highly scalable, highly flexible system for designing, developing and deploying the applications that are providing Television Academy voters with a flawless viewing experience across web browsers, mobile phones, tablets and connected televisions.
“Here at Digiflare, we’re proud to be part of this move to bring the organization devoted to the advancement of the television industry together with the modern TV viewing experience,” said CEO Mano Kulasingam.
