TAG’s New updates to its platform bring MXL support, containerized deployment and expanded audio, subtitle and lip-sync QC to cloud production workflows.
At IBC 2026, TAG Video Systems will show new developments to its software-based, realtime media monitoring, multiviewing and quality control platform. The updates focus on TAG's cloud and virtualisation expertise and include support for the emerging MXL (media eXchange layer) standard and containerized deployment, both of which aim to make making full cloud production practical, along with deeper automated audio, subtitle and lip-sync QC.
As media companies move more of their operations to virtualised and cloud environments, TAG helps avoid reliance on on-premises hardware. TAG's platform innovations focus on flexible software, deployable anywhere, and on the emerging standards supporting cloud production.
Both components of the platform – MCM multichannel monitoring, and the media control system, MCS – are now available as a Docker container, enabling automated, on-demand deployment across cloud and virtualised infrastructure. Monitoring can be launched where and when it's needed, without dedicated appliances.
TAG was among the first to support MXL (media eXchange layer) workflows and has a full MXL implementation. At IBC, TAG will demonstrate advanced MXL interoperability with AWS – an initial version was first shown at NAB 2026 - and will present a new collaborative MXL demo with Sony. MXL allows software components to share video, audio and data directly in memory, reducing latency, minimising unnecessary data copying, and improving efficiency across software-defined workflows.
Reduced latency on ST 2110 streams - as low as 1.5 frames at 50fps and 2 frames at 59.94fps (MCM input to MCM output), together with CIR (Cyclic Intra Refresh) encoding on MCM output, makes it practical to monitor and perform quality control inside live and cloud production workflows, not just downstream. The Intra-Refresh video encoding technique can help improve bitrate stability, error recovery and visual consistency.
Support for the Mellanox ConnectX-7 network card enables monitoring of 200 and 400 Gbps links, scaling to many more uncompressed ST 2110 video streams – further evidence that software can meet demanding, high-density uncompressed environments.
Automated QC and Compliance
Alongside these cloud developments, TAG has been investing in quality and compliance needs by extending automated checks beyond video into audio, subtitles and synchronisation. For instance, a new set of audiovisual tools is added to automatically QC audio content, broadening quality assurance beyond video.
Also, image-based DVB subtitles are now converted to text through OCR. This means they follow the same QC and display path as closed captions, strengthening accessibility and regulatory compliance monitoring. A new integration with Hitomi Matchbox enables precise measurement of audio-to-video synchronisation – that is, lip-sync – across a project facility.
Further enhancements in this release include support for the alpha (transparency) channel in NDI streams and automated test-pattern loopback detection and comparison.
"Our users are re-architecting how they produce content. They're moving off dedicated hardware, into containers, into the cloud, with open approaches like MXL leading the way. For their operations, that means monitoring that is launched everywhere, anywhere and scales to formats and volumes that once needed a truckload of appliances," said Michael Demb, VP of Product Strategy, TAG Video Systems.
“It also brings a meaningful reduction in the hardware footprint that used to define the cost of doing this. At IBC, we're showing what that looks like live: software-defined monitoring, at scale, with none of the dedicated boxes.”
TAG's latest innovations will be shown at IBC2026, Stand 1.D33, RAI Amsterdam, 11–14 September 2026. tagvs.com
