Covid success story: Signiant

March of 2020, when much of the world went into quarantine, is a month most of us will not forget. For most businesses there was uncertainty and for many there was chaos as they scrambled to set up remote work environments and adapt quickly to new regulations without clarity on how long the situation would last. Since that time, the M&E industry has gone through immense change, and the disruption that the coronavirus pandemic caused has brought new workflows and, in many cases, accelerated changes that were already happening.

On March 12 — a few days before Signiant itself went remote — CEO Margaret Craig announced that Media Shuttle customers would be able to add unlimited users to their accounts at no extra cost, through the end of May. Remote work had become a necessity across the industry — at least for some period of time — and we were glad that our products played a role in helping with that transition for media and entertainment companies around the world. As Media Shuttle is the preferred tool by the industry to provide fast, secure access to media assets from any type of storage, our offer was very well received and, as a result, we’ve seen a massive surge in usage, beginning in March.

Continuing to provide resources to our customers, Signiant became determined to understand the climate of the industry during this period of upheaval and began talking to many companies and industry professionals to understand their perspective. Through these conversations, we launched Signiant’s Pandemic Series, to record the discussions and share insights and stories with the industry on how others were adapting.

While it often felt as though COVID-19 had put us all in a sort of deep freeze, the ironic reality was that this suspension caused rapid and unpredictable changes that organizations had to be able to adapt to on the fly. Stasis created dynamism, and — as it became less clear how long this would last — we received tremendous insights from those we spoke to, ensuring we could better serve the accumulating needs of a world where currently most work is remote.

As a SaaS business, transitioning to remote working was a relatively smooth process for us and we were able to continue to serve our customers and to innovate without disruption. For our customers, the challenges of transitioning to remote varied, but with every company trying to do more with fewer people together, workflows were changing quickly and Signiant solutions played a critical role in helping keep people and systems connected. We saw a huge surge in cloud adoption and with the return of live sports, we’ve seen a lot of new workflows emerge as broadcasters work to create captivating events with far fewer people on site. Incorporating new camera angles, new graphics and AR capabilities, and expanded use of pre-recorded content to fill the void of no fans in the stands, these events have showcased the innovation and resilience of M&E. It’s an exciting time in the industry and many of the changes being put in place look likely to stick for the long term.

While this has certainly been a challenging time for everyone, Signiant is proud of the role we’re playing to help companies adapt quickly and keep content moving. Although there is still uncertainty about when things might return to normal and what that new normal might be, having the speed and agility to address new challenges as they arise will be critical to success and that’s exactly what Signiant’s SaaS platform provides. Onward!

Covid success story: Telstra

Over the last decade, with the likes of Uber, Monzo and Netflix dominating and disrupting traditional industries, we’ve seen first-hand the revolutionary potential of digital transformation. The acceleration of digital technology has become a buzzword yet again in 2020 with the emergence of Covid-19. The pandemic has sped up several incubating trends over the last four months and digital is now a universal requirement for every business that remains in business today. It is also the means to productivity and resilience from future crises and shocks.

Digital transformation is more than enabling state of readiness and remote working, it offers a choice to employees and the public at large of being able to work and play wherever it suits. This has been a benefit for many throughout global lockdown. The explosion in the demand for data has set new records and telecommunications companies, like Telstra, have been working around the clock to maintain international networks.

Online streaming traffic is a major growth area as people wanted to stay entertained with services such as Netflix and well-educated with 24 hour news broadcasts. Telstra has seen international data demand surge by up to 50% since the start of the pandemic; due to the use of video in work, play and education, and large-scale Software as a Service (SaaS) adoption from companies moving businesses online. Telstra keeps the network alive and thriving, due to sufficient capacity and headroom which caters for unexpected traffic peaks.

Aside from a high capacity network, supporting the world’s ability to work remotely requires cloud, mobility and data. Telstra works with a number of global companies and organisations to actively support these areas. For businesses around the world, the use of function applications accessible by the workforce from the cloud, has enabled businesses to continue. Furthermore, teams can use data and AI to create new customer experiences. Digital technology allows various companies to work in disruptive environments. In one case, Telstra developed an online solution to enable 4,000 university students from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology learn and access courses from home, despite location.

Prior to the pandemic, significant investment was made by businesses for setting a transformation roadmap strategy, selecting technology to enable this and setting goals for minimising cost and risk. Priorities changed when Covid-19 hit. At Telstra, we worked with research company, GlobalData, to understand these changes.

One of the most surprising elements was almost a third of the workforce in Europe couldn’t work from home. Companies had no contingency plan to compete with the rest of the world. 80% of businesses have since reprioritised ICT budgets to improve and are now migrating to the cloud, standardising workplace solutions, introducing new online tools to aid productivity and helping staff adjust to working from home.

Surprisingly, when asked whether there would be increased reliance on video conferencing post Covid-19. 100% were in agreement, despite it being rare to get a consensus of opinion. This indicates video conferencing and digital transformation are not trends but are here to stay.

With digital transformation comes increased security risk. Research shows it is our own employees that create this risk. To mitigate this, policy, training and instilling a culture of security can ensure awareness and compliance. Connectivity is our lifeline right now and with businesses and employees being distributed more widely across many points across the network that underpins transformation, controlling access requires more security.

Telstra’s approach to supporting customers in their digital transformation journeys remains the same as it was before the pandemic. The strategy to devising a successful digital transformation plan and implementation is to put people first, above processes and technology, to understand what they want to achieve.

In a post-Covid world, our infrastructure must move with our people and be strategic. Companies currently at the start of their business transformation journey must begin by accelerating migration to the cloud, invest in videoconferencing tools and choose tools and applications that allow staff and customers to collaborate and socialise which has, and will, continue to speed up tech adoption.

Covid success story: TVU Networks

We’re all in this together. These were the words we came to say and believe as an organization in early spring as the coronavirus spread across the world and began to paralyze the business operations of our customers and the broader community. Even as we were transitioning our worldwide staff to long-term work-from-home arrangements and restricting travel for safety, we were planning and mobilizing as an entire company to help broadcasters to transition from physical studio operations to remote setups in living rooms and other shared living spaces in homes.

As one of the first companies to initiate a Business Continuity Initiative at the outset of the pandemic, we provided immediate assistance by offering the tools and technology needed by our customers and the community with no-strings attached to help keep businesses going. For instance, we provided TV stations with essential remote tools such as our TVU Anywhere mobile app, and many major broadcasters adapted its use for their reporters and anchors for live daily reporting.

Reporters from Tegna stations in the US began using TVU solutions for at-home news production and transmission right away. One of these early adopters was Emmy award-winning meteorologist and reporter Krystle Henderson from KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona. Krystle converted the wine room in her home into a studio where she could produce and report live forecasts with the help of our TVU Anywhere mobile app.

As all of us in the general public looked to our government officials during the early days of COVID-19 for guidance, we as an organization also recognized that local governments such as governor’s offices in the US needed to communicate regular vital information live to their state residents in a simple and effective way. Project Pool Feed was a second community initiative we launched working with news stations and municipal government offices to set up no-cost video pool feeds using TVU Grid to streamline the sharing of critical information on COVID-19. Project Pool Feed allowed TV stations in a local area to share live content between each other as well as with local government. With local stations all connected using TVU Grid, live press briefings could be distributed from the pool. Many states in the US have used our pool feeds for daily public briefings including California, Florida and Georgia for example.

Despite the restrictions of COVID or perhaps because of its restrictions, we’ve also not stopped innovating within our organization or in developing new tools and technology for the broadcast industry. Internally, we’ve transformed our operational and development practices to allow us to react even faster to our customers’ changing needs. It’s now possible for us through the combination of platform tools such as Jira and processes like DevOps to capture user feedback and enhancement requests and have changes made, tested and implemented into production practically overnight. Customers who have experienced our way of rapid development have responded very positively as it allows them to use the tool they need sooner without having to wait months as is the case with traditional development cycles.

In terms of product innovations, our latest solution, TVU Partyline, was developed from the frustration broadcasters we believe experience daily with using consumer grade video conferencing solutions for remote production. We created Partyline as a professional cloud-based alternative to the mass audience video conferencing platforms and designed it specifically for video production teams who require a much higher level of virtual collaboration. While consumer grade video conferencing may have been fine as a stop-gap measure at the outset of COVID, it is not adequate for this next phase of reproducing production quality up to the level of pre-pandemic expectations. This is what TVU Partyline was designed to address.

Although no one can predict the future, it’s becoming apparent business has changed and will not operate in the same way as it was pre-pandemic. While business continuity was the main focus at the beginning of COVID, future success will depend on organizations finding ways to grow and serve. We are focused at TVU on continuing to help our customers and the industry do this.

Covid success story: Zixi

The current climate has certainly spurred a movement towards the virtualization of broadcast media infrastructure. Zixi’s Software-Defined Video Platform can help media companies navigate this transition expertly, without sacrificing continuity of broadcast operations. Despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Zixi has been able to provide continuity and quality of service, both within the company and for our clients and partners.

Zixi is a Software-Defined Video Platform that enables reliable live linear and live event delivery over any IP network, any protocol, any cloud provider, and any edge device. As a provider of software-defined solutions, Zixi has always operated in a virtualized world, and so our transition to working remotely during the pandemic was very natural.

But for most of our clients, some of the biggest names in the media business, it was a different story. As soon as the pandemic hit and operations in big media centers like New York and LA began to mandate remote working for employees, it was clear that to maintain business continuity, companies would need to shift quickly to virtualized infrastructures.

While many had always planned to virtualize their workflows, the pandemic forced some customers to migrate more quickly than they had planned to software-based operations, accelerating a migration process that might have taken several years into a matter of weeks and months.

As a SaaS based platform, Zixi was ready to help media companies navigate this transition expertly. Zixi’s customers leverage IP distribution to gain flexibility and immediacy that is essential when it comes to remote monitoring and operations. Our SDVP helps broadcast and media customers redefine their workflows for people operating remotely, and gives them the tools they need to provide the monitoring, management, telemetry and orchestration that allows them to work from home while still maintaining broadcast continuity and delivery of broadcast-quality live video.

When our customers were forced to quickly virtualize their operations, they needed to maintain visibility to their live streams and monitor and manage complex contribution and distribution workflows from outside the office. For many within the live video business, the pandemic created a need to move production from on-premise infrastructures to a remote-based set of workflows, which put a lot of pressure on the production environment. Zixi’s ZEN Master helps live video engineers and operations teams diffuse this pressure.

A cloud-based control plane, ZEN Master allows for the orchestration, management, and monitoring of live linear streams, enabling on-premise and remote access to the entire Zixi-integrated chain of software and hardware devices, video streams and signal paths, providing data telemetry and alerting on stream health. For our live customers who had reduced their onsite engineering operations and moved into virtualized operations, the toolsets and benefits provided by ZEN Master allowed them to maintain continuity and quality of their broadcast operations at scale.

In terms of the remote work of Zixi’s staff, it is amazing how efficient we have become. We have leveraged virtual working with a series of connected offices, from New York to Boston to Tel Aviv, and beyond. Like most companies, we have accelerated the percentage of virtual meetings, leveraging the video platforms out there to stay connected and engaged. In terms of fostering team spirit and collaboration, Zixi has embraced weekly social happy hours to make sure we are continually sharing information, staying connected, and engaging with our employees across the globe.

When the decision was made to cancel NAB in Las Vegas in the Spring, we took the opportunity to virtualize our meetings, pivoting to a virtual “NAB” of our own. In September, we are doing the same with a virtual “IBC”, hosting Zixi Delivers, a series of webinars and virtual meetings through which we can virtually connect with customers and partners. We anticipate that this will be another big success and look forward to connecting again with global audiences, to show them how the Zixi SDVP can provide software-based solutions to facilitate the delivery of live and live linear broadcast-quality video around the world.

5G for media and entertainment: from theory to practical use cases

In recent years 5G has very much been the talk of the technological town in general and increasingly in the media industry. People expect it to play a significant role in live production and contribution as well as distribution to consumers. There are trials and real-world 5G deployments and testing of media use cases going on behind the scenes. In this COVID-19 era, the role of 5G in remote production becomes even more relevant to cut production costs while complying with strict social distancing guidelines.

LiveU’s successful live 5G field broadcasts with leading US, APAC and European cellular providers, including AT&T, NTT DOCOMO and Korea Telecom (KT), together with our three-year participation in EU 5G collaborative research and validation projects, have put us at the forefront of 5G-based field production. It’s strengthened our 5G understanding and expertise, resulting in enhanced 5G-native algorithms and implementation across our cellular bonding technology.

We have been actively involved in the EU collaborative research and validation projects, partnering in five 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) projects funded by Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation program. The projects’ goals are to provide the broadcast community and other verticals with insights into 5G performance in real-world scenarios, both in production and in consumption/distribution. LiveU’s bonding technology has been an enabler in several important use cases.

As a result of this commercial and research exposure, I can say on the production side, these are the key media and entertainment use cases (and variations upon them) as benefitting from 5G.

The first is remote production, sending compressed real-time, in-synch multi-camera feeds (including 4K) from the field (venues, events sites, outdoor sports locations…) into the cloud or to the production facility, rather than sending out an OB unit with all the equipment and staff. This is a complete remote production scenario, including in extreme cases multi-room distributed production, such as multiple production staff operating remotely from one another working collaboratively on the same live content. We see strong demand from customers due to the economic and operational benefits and we’ve responded with our LU800 multi-cam and remote production software solution.

Secondly, there’s remote production in the field using private 5G networks (i.e. Non-Public-Networks – NPNs), with uncompressed, or slightly compressed, feeds from cameras sent to the on-site production truck: cableless, non-line-of-sight, high-quality field production.

Then there’s wireless studios: a vision where an all-IP, 5G NPN cableless wireless studio(s) is used, with all A/V devices connected over a 5G network, all IP-based etc.

Lastly, enhanced news gathering for live and recorded coverage and much faster pre-edited file uploading (LiveU FTP), benefiting from the additional uplink capacity and enhanced user density support.

On the distribution side, we see mass HD content distribution for consumer consumption, both live and non-live. More users, watching more content, at higher quality, with no buffering etc. For live content, 5G broadcast and multicast have the important potential to reduce network load, enhance the viewer experience and reduce operators’ costs.

Then there’s AR/VR viewing: consumers on mobile devices experiencing AR/VR, either passively watching or with gaming or other collaborative experiences. The AR/VR content may be live or pre-arranged. The requirement for high bandwidth at very low latency (otherwise physiological phenomena will inhibit usage) is expected to be resolved by 5G.

eGaming and eSports is similar to AR/VR but also requires multi-player synching with very low latency.

In addition, we see possible use cases in other verticals, where video or other media is required, making very good use of 5G. These include telemedicine – high-quality, remote access to medical experts, home treatments etc. We’re also taking about remotely operated, or assisted, medical robots and machinery. Very low latency, high uplink bandwidth and very high reliability are key to this remote point-to-point telemedicine use. COVID is expected to further boost the exploration of these use cases, including remote patient monitoring in ambulances or other out-of-hospital locations.

There are also AI-driven media uses cases where back-office AI is used to analyse and work on high-quality video coming in from mobile field devices for various outputs.

5G offers a range of key technologies to enable and support these cases. The main ones are higher bandwidth, both downlink (mainly) but also uplink; edge computing that enables latency reduction in some uses; support for increased user density – to reduce congestion both for production and consumption; slicing and orchestrated virtualised services using 5G Core to enable QoS “guarantees” for paying customers in stand-alone (SA) networks; NPN networks and NPN-PN roaming and collaboration models; and broadcast/multicast support.

The issue is to close the huge gaps between the promised performance and the current or imminent 5G network deployments, if and when all these 5G “goodies” are enabled and fully deployed. This requires a lot of research and validation – technological, operational and economic (return on investment). Then there’s the capital investment, including spectrum, basic infrastructure, optional advanced infrastructure and more expensive end-user technologies; we all need to understand the possibilities versus the limitations. Then there’s the issue of how widely networks are deployed and network resources allocated. It depends on investment priorities and ROI analysis, which are in competition with other verticals/use cases/markets/businesses such as IoT, smart logistics, autonomous vehicles, smart cities etc. Such full 5G deployments are some way off, though in some countries that see 5G as an engine to drive their economy, rollouts will be earlier than in others.

Being at the heart of the testing and validation of these innovative use cases, especially in production, we can assess the advantages, limitations and market viability of these advanced 5G technologies. We see, and experience in our work, bonding multiple links is required to fully enable these cases. It simply ensures the maximum effective use of current and future 5G capabilities. On the one hand there’s fluctuations in service levels, limited consistent uploading for any single modem, partial deployments, sub 6GHz spectrum penetration and propagation issues, and NSA (Non-Standalone) deployments are the standard (using 4G cores and sometimes jumping between 4G to NR (New Radio) in the middle of transmission). On the other hand, there’s increasing demand for 4K production, multiple-cameras, remote production in news and across top sporting events. LiveU multilink combining any 5G connection, with or without additional 4G or Wi-Fi, is essential in satisfying the strict requirements of these use cases.

As an aside, I am proud to have become 5G-IA Tests and Pilots International Stream Chair, where I will be trying to promote global collaboration around trials.

LiveU is a proud partner in these EU 5G collaborative research and validation projects: 5G-Solutions (#856691), 5G-Tours (#856950), 5G-RECORDS (#957102), COPA EUROPE (#957059) and 5G-Xcast (#761498).

In Conversation with Nextologies

In this IABM TV interview, Sasha Zivanovic (CEO, Nextologies) discusses their upcoming product releases, and how 5G in North America affects their business.

5G will revolutionize broadcast production and delivery

As you may know, the world of broadcasting is a constantly moving feast. Changes are happening all of the time. One significant change that’s always worth keeping an eye on is the ongoing deployment of 5G networks. In this article, we will explore 5G broadcasting, including how 5G networks are more efficient for mobile and the impact they will have on broadcasting specifically. And, of course, we’ll cover the widespread misconceptions. Let’s delve in, shall we?

What is 5G?

5G is the fifth generation in terms of mobile internet connectivity. With global consumption of mobile video content expanding at astronomical rates, consumers are always demanding more. You can expect more reliable Internet connections, as well as faster speeds. By combining the very latest research and cutting-edge technology, 5G will provide connection speeds that are multitudes quicker than 4G. Soon, it will be the baseline norm to have an average download speed of around 1 gbps.

We have already seen 5G networks launch, and 2020 has seen a worldwide push to further roll out the technology across the world. Verizon became one of the first companies to do so. However, their 5G network is still only available in certain areas. AT&T has rolled out 5G in a number of cities too. In the UK, EE and other mobile carriers are leading the charge as 5G becomes more and more accessible. However, we are still very much in the early stages in terms of mass adoption.

Some Asia-Pacific (APAC) territories are well within the more advanced stages of 5G rollout – with China, Japan, Australia and South Korea taking advantage of early 5G launches to cement the foundations for further rapid expansion. The benefits will be widespread across multiple instances, including mobile broadband and the internet of things – marking it as a top priority for multiple industries.

What isn’t 5G?

Forget what your neighbour might have heard from local Facebook groups and comments on the internet – there is no evidence that the presence of 5G is detrimental to your health. Earlier in the year, we even saw theories that 5G was somehow linked to the Coronavirus. This ultimately led to acts of vandalism carried out on new masts, at a time where connectivity was more important than ever.

The fears and conspiracies that surround 5G have a long history preceding them. Most theories can be traced back through the development of 3G (remember that?), and even the introduction of mobile phones themselves.

As 5G moves through its adoption phase, expect to see such theories lose momentum. Until 6G is formally announced, of course.

5G and broadcasting

Despite the fact that 5G networks are not universally available at the moment, we have already seen 5G in broadcasting. At its core, 5G represents a more efficient mechanism for delivering linear services and content to mobile devices across the world. It’s something that we have already experienced in a limited capacity within the UK. BT Sport and EE conducted their first-ever 5G two-way broadcast at the end of 2018. Moreover, the EE Wembley Cup was the first-ever sporting event in the world to broadcast utilizing 5G-enabled remote production. It makes sense that premium live sports are embracing 5G, as subscribers demand the next level of quality.

Broadcasting technology may not be directly aligned to 5G – but we will continue to see broadcasters and media organisations explore new opportunities for 5G. Fundamentally, broadcasters will be looking for the ability to directly reach expanding mobile audiences with the next generation of connectivity.

Transforming production

There is no denying that 5G is one of the most exciting progressions for broadcasters. There are a number of reasons why this is the case. When it comes to the production of live sports coverage, remote production is much more efficient. This means fewer camera operators are going to be needed at matches and events. Staff can work on a number of different events in one day because they can do so via a centralized location, rather than staff needing to all attend each event. To give you a better understanding of this, the National League in the UK is now entirely produced remotely. The greater speed and reliability that is offered by 5G makes this possible.

Whilst 5G is still in its early stages, 2020 has seen incredible movements in the direction of mass adoption. Of course, there are still a lot of cities and towns that do not have access to 5G. As with any technology in recent years, this can change in the blink of an eye. This is especially the case if broadcasters need to power remote production in your area. It is exciting to see what lies ahead in the ongoing deployment of 5G and the impact it has on broadcasting specifically.

At PlayBox Technology UK, 5G represents a truly exciting prospect for both us and our customers. On our end, we’ll be taking advantage of the advancements made possible by 5G in our Production AirBox and Cosmos products. For our customers, it could completely redefine their linear content delivery – staying ahead of the mobile revolution and making their content more accessible to mobile audiences than ever.

Will life ever be the same again – supporting customers in a socially distanced world without tradeshows

Ever since news first broke of the coronavirus pandemic at the start of 2020, all the usual rules of customer engagement have been suspended in the broadcast & media tech industries. NAB was first to fall, and this has been followed, almost inevitably, by other global events such as Broadcast Asia and IBC.

For any organization – whether you are on the customer or the tech vendor side – things have been tough (and for many continue to be so). But we will emerge on the other side. The big question is how are companies managing to either disseminate or acquire the industry knowledge they require to operate their businesses?

Seemingly forever, NAB and IBC have been cornerstones of the industry. So how have companies accommodated their demise this year, and are there lessons to be learned and positives to come out of the virtual environment that has replaced these mega events? We discuss this issue with Scott Murray, Vice President of Marketing at Telestream.

So Scott, by losing NAB, what challenges does this pose to Telestream in terms of engaging with its customers?

The greatest value of NAB is meeting with our customers and partners, many of whom have been friends for years. It’s so great to greet them with a smile and a handshake, catch-up about life and discuss how we can help them achieve their business objectives. By losing NAB, we have had to transition to video conferences, phone calls and remote demos, which are great, but there is nothing like sitting down and talking directly to our customers. We are confident that, sometime in the future, we will be able to greet our friends and customers like we have in the past.

Flipping that coin, how big an issue is it for our customers not to be able to meet with us at NAB?

This is interesting because there have been both positive and negative issues around this. When a customer comes to NAB, they not only learn about the new solutions we have that can help their business, they also learn about products that we had previously announced, but maybe they didn’t know about. We like to think our customers are always up on our latest & greatest, but the truth is that we may have introduced something a year ago and at NAB, our customer may just get their first introduction to it. No fault of theirs, they are busy running their business and have so many vendors to pay attention to. So, by not having NAB, it is hard for customers to know about all the great tech that’s out there in the video world…you discover a lot by wandering around the show floor. On the positive side, we’ve had to switch to virtual meetings and our customers have been able to have many more people attend than would have attended in person at NAB.

How quickly did the size the challenge become evident to our team after the announcement of NAB’s cancellation?

When news started spreading about COVID, we began speculating about the potential of not having NAB and what we would do. Then, as the pandemic progressed and several companies started cancelling their attendance, we seriously began putting a ‘Plan B’ in place. By the time NAB was officially cancelled, we were well under way. The great thing is that we learned a lot by hosting all of our webinars and are making some great adjustments for fall now that IBC has been cancelled.

What was more important – to act fast and get a strategy of customer engagement in place; or to reflect and take time working out the correct engagement strategy?

Abraham Lincoln said, “When I have six hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” So, it’s always better to #1, not panic. Pause, take a deep breath, assemble your team of experts and determine the best strategy…then go like gangbusters on the execution!

Do customers need to tell their vendors what information they need, moving forward, or is it the responsibility of vendors to present all that info?

The responsibility falls on both parties. Our objective is to help our customers be successful. With that comes the responsibility from the customers to explain the projects they are executing on so they can run their business. Our responsibility is to clearly articulate how our solutions can be integrated into their business ecosystem to ensure a successful outcome. The interesting thing about this is customers need to trust us and value our solutions and our expertise. We like to be seen as someone our customer can trust and turn to when they need help figuring something out.

What new activities have worked best and why?

Our own employees have been working from home and so we have had to find way to, for example, play ‘unplayable’ media files. Hence, we developed GLIM to solve our own need and realized it was perfect for our customers.

GLIM is designed for ingest QC, engineering, master control, news, postproduction, and more, GLIM enables media professionals to play full resolution, mezzanine grade media files from their centralized storage over the Internet in a web browser.

GLIM was developed to solve well known remote work challenges where remote employees waste hours every day downloading mezzanine grade media files just so they can be played back. Many collaborative video production applications require transcoding prior to uploading to the site. GLIM allows users to play files immediately, from a browser interface, without any delays caused by transcoding and uploading. It supports playback, frame scrubbing & stepping and display of file properties and metadata. The GLIM playback experience is vastly superior to remote and virtual desktop techniques.

What activities have not worked so well and why?

With the shutdown of essentially all sports, live production has taken a hit. In addition, episodic production in Hollywood has also been put in hiatus. A lot of our NAB story has been focused on production and it’s tough for customers to get excited about some of our advances in areas that may be on hold for a period of time. We’re seeing signs that this is changing and we’re excited for customers to learn about our new production solutions.

How big a deal is it that IBC has cancelled now? Does it make a difference that there will be no big tradeshows in 2020 – would it have been easier to bridge the gap up to September or doesn’t that make much difference?

We’re not surprised IBC was cancelled. What is super interesting is that this gives us an opportunity to rethink our fall production announcement lineup. Given that we will be doing these announcements virtually, it gives us the opportunity to make it a worldwide event, not one that mostly is a European focused event.

When the big shows start up again, do you think they will follow the traditional model – if not, what changes do you think we will see?

I believe in tradeshows…but augmented with virtual presentations and meetings. I predict companies will look at their financials this year and ask themselves, did I really get my money’s worth out of that investment…did I miss NAB and IBC? Tradeshows are notoriously hard to analyze the return on investment. But in the 30+ years that I’ve been involved in NAB I’ve only ever heard pitches about how to “Spend more! Get greater return! Bigger Booth!” when in reality, I believe we need to “Spend Smarter”. No one in any of the trade organizations has ever come to me to say “OK, looks like we’ll be able to give you more space for less $”.

Has non-NAB taught us anything new about customer engagement – will we continue any of the new activities to support our attendance at the tradeshows?

NAB provides a great service to the industry (as all trade shows are intended to do). The bringing together like-minded individuals to discuss the latest technology trends and how best these can be deployed for the entertainment, and betterment, of society. The conference & technical sessions associated with trade shows are invaluable for any industry. What we really missed this year were these technical sessions and the face to face meetings.

Do you think our customers will stand to gain anything from this whole experience?

With vendors doing webinars and virtual demos, it provides exposure to more people who can’t attend the tradeshow. This is a plus and something that we saw. The key is going to see if we can do both…host an awesome booth where we can meet our customers face to face, and for those unable to attend, provide them with a compelling experience.

And finally, how much of a watershed moment will the 2020 pandemic prove be in the broadcast industry’s evolution – for example, will it rank alongside the introduction of color television?

Probably not as big as the shift to color (and BTW, I was a wee lad when color came out). However, 2020 will be seen as a year when the “world shifted” in so many ways. There are so many issues to tackle in society today.

IABM Members Speak – ETERE Pte ltd

Tell us a bit about the history of Etere

Etere was started in 1987 in Tolentino, Italy, by the partners, Fabio Gattari and Fabio Mazzocchetti. Fabio Gattari remains the founding director of the company today. From its beginnings, Etere believes in preparing users for the future of technologies with continuous innovation and service excellence. It is an early adopter of transformative innovations that allow its users to enhance their adaptability in the market.

The company was initially named Societa Italiana Software (SIS) and was launched to leverage the new efficiencies of personal computer networks which had just been launched on the market. One of its first products was the SETA, a management system for legal offices that was compatible with personal computer networks. Leveraging new technologies, SIS sought to help companies to improve their workflows and reach new levels of efficiencies.

Talk us through the development of the company

In 1989, SIS started the development of Etere software for private broadcasting. Etere was launched to solve the administrative problems of broadcasters and advertising agencies. It was adopted by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for its implementation for the whole of Italy.

1991 was the year that SIS introduced a radio automation system that was adopted by a majority of radio stations in Italy. This marks full circle as 28 years later in 2019, the company re-entered the radio market and launched the software, Etere Radio-Live, as part of its ecosystem.

This was a milestone software only solution, in an area that was hardware only. It comes with a contract for remote support, using analogue modems. It was a product for the future.
By 2000, SIS was renamed Etere and moved its database to a SQL platform to leverage its speed, data security and interchangeability. In 2003, Etere presented at NAB a software-only Channel-in-a-Box solution that was absolutely the first of its kind worldwide.

The year 2012 saw an expansion move by the company with the setup of a new headquarters in Singapore, the hub for a worldwide company. The company continues to expand its global network of customers, distributors and partners from all round the world.

With more than 30 years of experience and still going from strength to strength, Etere is an established brand that has been adopted by users from all around the world. As a trail-blazing innovator, Etere strives to prepare its users to be future-ready at every step of the workflow.

Give us an overview of the company, its solutions and customer base today.

Etere is a worldwide provider of broadcast and media software solutions backed by its mark of excellence in system design, flexibility and reliability. Engineered in Singapore, the revolutionary concept of Etere Ecosystem promotes real-time collaborations and enhances operational efficiency across the entire enterprise. Etere solutions are built with an integrative Web and Windows architecture that are customisable to fit perfectly in any system.

Etere systems are developed by four different groups in different countries to ensure reliability and quality. Etere delivers on its service excellence commitment with its dedicated team and 24/7 worldwide support. Etere users with a valid support contract enjoy unlimited access to software upgrades and updates. Its portfolio of digital technologies and market-proven remote/on-site solutions including consultancy, training, installation and demonstrations are ready to run with your business no matter where you are. Etere enhances your adaptability for the future and empowers you with the software tools to drive your business to greater heights.

Etere is proud to celebrate its anniversary for over 30 years in the business. Currently the Etere team includes over 50 staff in Singapore, Italy, Russia and Ukraine. It features a strong and diversified portfolio of Etere Ecosystem software solutions spanning the complete media lifecycle including Media Asset Management, Channel-in-a-Box, Newsroom, Ad Insertion, Airsales, Automation, Broadcast Management System, Censorship, HSM Archive, Logging, OTT/VOD Delivery, Radio-Live, Subtitling and Captioning.

How has Etere responded to the move to IP and cloud-based solutions by broadcast and media companies?

IP migration is increasingly becoming a reality. Etere’s market-proven full IP solution allows you to leverage the benefits of IP and gain a competitive advantage way ahead of other solutions such as SMPTE 2110, Aspen and AIMS. Newtek Network Device Interface (NDI) is a new open standard for live production IP workflows over Ethernet networks. Etere enables you to build an NDI playout that allows you to launch multiple channels without the associated costs and is less expensive than a traditional solution. It is a complete solution that includes Ingest, Media Asset Management (MAM), Transcoding, Quality Control, Playout, Graphics, Etere ETX-M Multiviewer and Closed Caption. It is also capable of managing 4K, HD and SD.

While no one video over IP standard does it all, with Newtek NDI, there is no limit with what you can do as long you have the right computing power, network bandwidth and storage resources (local/virtualised/cloud). With virtualisation, you can have unlimited streams at a much lower cost and easy maintenance as compared to an SDI setup. Moreover, NDI allows you to be more cost-efficient and ready for the future with no hardware dependencies and an open system that can be compatible with future standards. The opportunity to be future-ready is one we cannot miss and NDI helps Etere users to be ready for the future.

What is Etere’s ‘special sauce’?

Etere offers unrivalled flexibility and control of all processes and media assets in the company. Without an effective control, you cannot achieve a high level of performance even with the best specifications in place. Etere Ecosystem features a seamless connection across Etere modules and third-party applications. It gives you real-time updates as well as fast and accurate information exchange processes between multiple departments. With a single system, you can have complete control and visibility of your workflow processes, media assets, monitoring consoles, resources and user rights management. Additionally, you have centralized resource planning that allows users to create, preview, accept and approve tasks with an interconnected network. Etere adopts big data technologies that give you valuable insights to understand how much each task costs, where are your performance bottlenecks, how to improve operational efficiency and increase revenue. Beyond the confines of the studio, Etere MAM provides both Windows and Web interfaces that allows your team to share resources, collaborate and drive workflows from anywhere in the world on multiple platforms including tablets, laptops and PCs. Etere is a system that is scalable and adaptable to fulfil your business needs today and the future. With its 24/7 worldwide support and unlimited software updates and upgrades, it is a system that is ready to grow with your business.

How has the Covid pandemic affected Etere and its customers? What are you doing differently now, and will those changes ‘stick’ for the future?

Etere has been diversifying our marketing strategies since 2010 and going digital has been a part of our company DNA. This year, we will continue to focus on our digital marketing strategies and enhance our cloud and web solutions. In this first quarter, we rolled out our upgraded remote demo, training and installation solutions. On top of that, our web platform, EtereWeb allows our users to drive their workflows and manage their media files from anywhere in the world on any internet browser. Etere offers one of the best support services in the market with 24/7 worldwide support for its users. Breaking geographical boundaries, Etere continues to provide a full suite of remote installation and consultancy services including multiple users connectivity, workflow creation, system configuration, workflow design solutions, troubleshooting and remote connectivity to your system. Etere is a software-only solution. As a result, there is no need for delivery and installation of hardware. Our solutions are an agile approach that prepares you for the future. The good news is, even in the midst of the Covid-19 situation, we are ready to run!
 

Have you missed demonstrating your products and meeting prospects at exhibitions? How have you compensated for this during lockdown? What do you think the future holds for exhibitions when it’s safe to hold them again?

Exhibitions used to be mainstay across many industries and it will definitely take a while for people to have confidence to attend large-scale gatherings in the near future. While nothing quite replaces a face-to-face interaction, often the initial point of interaction between a company and its customers is not all that defines a customer journey. The customer journey in the broadcast and media industry as well as many B2B industries is not an immediate gratification but it is a prolonged but fulfilling one. At Etere, we place importance on understanding the customer’s story and how to provide the best solutions to his or her problems. In this aspect, technological tools help us to bridge the geographical gaps we face in the pandemic and even beyond that. Even though face-to-face interactions will never go away, we think that digital marketing will reduce the importance of exhibitions in the future.

What benefits do you get from IABM membership and what are the most valuable IABM resources in conducting your business?

IABM helps us to connect and engage with like-minded professionals, it is an invaluable platform that brings the industry together. Some of the resources that we regularly access include the IABM journal and knowledge hub for the latest news and developments in the industry as well as the IABM future trends theatre to share insights and analysis with our industry’s partners and peers.

Telstra Broadcast Services: five years of global growth driven by a start-up mentality

Carlos Farias

Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS) celebrates five years of managed media and broadcast services, innovation and industry firsts.

Since its acquisition by Telstra in 2015, TBS has gone from strength to strength and seen great success in the broadcast industry. It has experienced exponential growth over the last five years supported by a large global company while still successfully maintaining a small business culture. Operating as a subsidiary, TBS has been equipped with a unique and agile business model more akin to a start-up than a major global player on the broadcast stage which sees the company promoting knowledge sharing and autonomous operation for its employees and value creation for its customers while excelling in the fast-paced broadcast industry.

TBS provides customised, managed content delivery, media solutions and broadcast operations to customers backed by Telstra’s global subsea infrastructure, satellite services and IP capabilities. It very much has its own business structure within the organisation and has created an agile and dynamic team of industry experts that can move with accuracy and speed wherever they are most needed. Services provided to customers include end-to-end management, enhanced monitoring and real time reporting services, ensuring high quality content is delivered to audiences.

Telstra has allowed TBS to operate separately to the main body of Telstra to cater to the unique demands of the media and broadcast industry. Carl Petch, a longstanding TBS employee says, “You’ve got to give credit to Telstra and the Telstra team at the time for allowing us to do that, to notice that the media market was different and it needed a well-funded, well backed small company with small company ideals.”

Many employees credit this business model and the small business team culture that has resulted as championing the success of TBS; consistent success being a result of a consistent team. Karen Clark, Head of Sales for Australia and New Zealand says, “I recall one senior customer say to our Telstra leadership team ‘We like these guys, don’t break them’. It was that voice of the customer that helped secure the model that has been key to our success.”

So, what are the keys to keeping the start-up culture intact even as TBS has shifted through the gears to being a global player at the forefront of innovation in several key broadcast areas? There are several, with a firm concentration on their employees and ensuring their individual success being a key factor at the forefront. Internal training and upskilling is thus highly prioritised in order to stay one step ahead of the competition and ensure that the company always consists of a team of highly trained professionals.

TBS also reflects the start-up ethos in that it is comprised of subject experts across all fields relating to broadcast from sales to field operations, who function at a level of autonomy and consistency that is consistent with the start-up culture. It balances this by also being comprised of long-term employees — something a start-up cannot do! — who provide a familiar face for customers while providing high quality services. TBS has many longstanding customer relationships maintained by a dedicated sales team focused on catering to the individual needs of each customer.

The company has also seen great success in the international market supported by Telstra’s infrastructure and IP transit delivery capabilities and capacity to run remote production services. These capabilities in remote production have been the standout development of TBS in the last five years affording customers the ability to have content delivered to a remote production hub, dramatically lowering costs for customers and benefiting the environment. Anna Lockwood, Head of Global Sales says, “Our remote production capabilities reduce occupational health and safety risk, are cost effective, and increase sustainability.” In line with industry trends, TBS continues to dedicate significant time and resources to increasing autonomy to improve efficiency in its internet-based delivery and remote production capabilities.

Probably its most high-profile success to date in the field was in architecting the broadcast services of the Rugby World Cup from Japan in 2019. Up to 21 high bitrate video feeds were sent from the International Broadcast Centre in Japan to London via redundant routes — Path A via the Suez Canal, Path B via Los Angeles — where they terminated in two of Telstra’s London PoPs before being passed on to IMG’s production facility. Latency over the 16,000km circuits was measured at around 223 milliseconds.

What’s more it was the team’s ability to come together in the face of adversity that enabled it to happen. Its expertise was tested even before the tournament started with the arrival of the dangerous Category 4 storm Typhoon Faxai. This made landfall on 9 September and took out two of the primary circuits out of Tokyo as well as causing undersea cable damage. The normal timeframe to restore such damage is measured in months, but Telstra was back up and running in days, mainly due to the fact that it has ensured it still runs a combined operation. The on-site video engineers were able to communicate directly with the Network Operations Centre based in Hong Kong and swiftly arrange alternate routes for the signals, something that more corporate-structured organisations with more management layers would likely struggle with.

TBS has made a huge contribution to the Telstra brand in the broadcast industry making use of the infrastructure and harnessing its previously unrecognised broadcasting capabilities. This has not only continued to build the reputation of Telstra but provided customers with a service featuring unmatched resilience and stability. The major successes of TBS, according to Head of TBS, Andreas Eriksson, are the delivery of its professional services offering (known as Broadcast Plus), developments in remote production capabilities, and the sheer volume of high-profile sporting events that are broadcast using TBS services. In Australia the company built a dedicated remote production network, known as the Distributed Production Network (DPN), to transport HD feeds across almost 16,000kms from 27 venues to production hubs for Tier-1 sport and soon Tier-2 and 3.

All this success has been made possible by the industry leading TBS team, alongside long-standing industry relationships, the unique mobility of TBS as a business unit, and the stability provided by the support of Telstra and its infrastructure. It is predicted that TBS will continue to experience continuous growth and expansion of services powered by an agile structure of the business unit that lends itself to collaboration and knowledge sharing; providing its customers with a wide range of customised services to suit their individual needs — big business solutions with small business customer service.