TMT Insights – CapEx vs. OpEx in Media: Finding the New Balance

TMT Insights – CapEx vs. OpEx in Media: Finding the New Balance

Andy Shenkler, CEO, TMT Insights

The ongoing debate between CapEx and OpEx isn’t new within the Media and Entertainment Industry. The recent surge in streaming platforms and cloud-based workflows pushed many organizations toward flexible, pay-as-you-go OpEx models. Yet, as the industry evolves, companies are increasingly concerned about EBITDA, investor scrutiny, and market pressures. In today’s environment of high interest rates and limited growth, monthly OpEx charges weigh heavily on EBITDA, driving renewed interest in CapEx strategies that provide capitalization and depreciation benefits.

Where the Shift Started

The urgency of content production, localization, and participation during the “streaming wars” drove rapid decisions. As media supply chains shifted from on-premises to cloud-based models, companies had to rethink organizational structure, pricing, sales strategies, skill sets, and team dynamics to adapt to cloud and AI technologies.

With fast cloud adoption, SaaS and monthly OpEx became the norm—supported by low interest rates and affordable debt, making on-demand flexibility appealing amid unpredictable growth.

Eventually, the industry leveled off, shifting focus back to financial control and strategic planning. Balancing innovation with financial stability became essential.

Finding a Balance

A stronger focus on cost control and profitability has led to tighter financial scrutiny and a renewed effort to manage expenditures—essentially a “re-tightening” after years of loosen practices.
Organizations of all sizes are now working to better optimize financial forecasting. While OpEx models offer lower upfront costs and greater flexibility, they also challenge companies trying to meet EBITDA targets. Businesses must balance financial models with the reality that tools and software often last well beyond the typical three-year depreciation period.

Software is central to this issue. SaaS models shift all costs to recurring OpEx, removing the ability to capitalize software as an asset. Many media companies want to return to ownership when possible. Capitalizing software allows for depreciation, while owning source code or a perpetual license avoids the “hostage model.” This enables internal development or third-party use, offering both predictability and flexibility.

With interest rates potentially declining, particularly in the U.S., companies are increasingly revisiting CapEx strategies. There’s renewed interest in financing methods that support longer-term depreciation schedules. Many are returning to traditional CapEx models, which offer predictable costs and avoid ongoing fees, all while maintaining a cloud presence.

OpEx vs. CapEx in Infrastructure

“Going cloud” is clearly still the key to the M&E industry’s long-term evolution and success. Both small and large media companies, even those who are fully on-premises today, understand the necessity of working with cloud-based technology in the future to unlock benefits of scale, agility, increased collaboration, and advances in machine learning.

Even if a company has clearly built out its cloud roadmap, migrating from current or legacy workflows to a desired future state takes time. Optimizing cloud environments in development for efficiency and cost is a critical component.

It’s also crucial to remember that costs incurred from working in the cloud do not go away on-premises. They convert from OpEx (e.g., monthly storage and compute) to CapEx (and additional OpEx in the form of data center operating costs such as maintenance, cooling, etc.).

Infrastructure tells a more nuanced story. For compute-intensive, bursty workloads like streaming spikes, AI, rendering, or temporary live events, OpEx flexibility is invaluable. But storage as one example can be different. The elasticity of OpEx storage often becomes a proverbial “junk drawer” where poorly indexed assets, labeled “Do Not Delete,” create a hoarding condition which only succeed in accumulating indefinite costs. Fixed CapEx storage—or reserved capacity that mimics it functionally—forces discipline and predictability. For many firms, why pay perpetual monthly OpEx for fixed, predictable storage when it could be purchased, capitalized, and depreciated as an asset?

A New Frontier: Capitalizing Cloud Infrastructure

This debate also raises the possibility of future economic models whereby cloud providers should explore fractional or ownership-based models for infrastructure. If companies could purchase and depreciate storage or compute in the cloud—possibly with a buy-back or resale market when capacity becomes unnecessary or fully depreciated—it would create an entirely new secondary market for cloud infrastructure, potentially financially assisting multiple parties in this type of transaction. Such models could align the benefits of CapEx (predictability, depreciation, EBITDA preservation) with the scalability of the cloud.

Ownership, Optionality, and Control

Recognizing these struggles was a key principle of how TMT designed our offerings to clients.  Offering very flexible commercial structures for both our award winning Polaris operational management platform and the recently announced FOCUS companion solution for unifying decisions across finance, sales, content programming and operations to drive demand signals into the supply chain.  In both cases clients can choose to either support a traditional perpetual license with a one-time acquisition cost or spread that cost over time as a subscription model.  However unique in the offering is the access to all source code and a deployment model that allows either scenario to be fully capitalized in accordance with GAAP.

Which Model is Right for Me?

There’s no universally “right” or “wrong” choice between CapEx and OpEx models—it depends on a company’s financial strategy, operational needs, and goals.

CapEx suits stable, capital-heavy operations, while agile, scalable workflows often benefit from OpEx. Many in M&E now favor a hybrid approach, combining owned infrastructure with cloud services to balance control, cost-efficiency, and innovation. This allows for CapEx investment in core infrastructure, with OpEx used for scaling, innovation, and remote access.

CapEx is ideal for organizations with consistent production needs, long-term infrastructure use, full control requirements, or available capital—like major studios or broadcasters.

OpEx works well for companies needing fast or temporary scale, such as remote productions or event-based campaigns, and is favored by digital-first or streaming startups that prioritize agility.

Ultimately hybrid models are emerging as the most practical path forward—supporting EBITDA preservation and capitalized assets, while leveraging OpEx for flexibility and growth. The decision is now strategic, influencing agility, competitiveness, and long-term control.

Techex – Funding the Software Shift: Commercial Models That Match The Work

Techex – Funding the Software Shift: Commercial Models That Match The Work

Scott Kewley, CEO, Techex

Broadcast infrastructure is being rebuilt while the lights stay on. IP and cloud are no longer experiments. The drivers are familiar — reliability, scale and cost — but the tempo has changed. Over the past fifteen years, viewing has shifted to streaming, social media and on-demand. Rights windows have tightened. Live events now create extreme but intermittent peaks. Cloud economics, meanwhile, have normalized elastic capacity. In that context, tying long depreciation cycles to fixed hardware is a poor fit.

At the same time, multinational media groups are seemingly constantly merging, splitting and re-bundling portfolios to align with direct-to-consumer, FAST and premium subscription models. Each corporate transaction triggers a seismic reconfiguration behind the scenes, with platforms being consolidated or carved out, traffic patterns shifting and estates being re-licensed, re-contracted and re-integrated. The result is constant change at significant scale, presenting both technical and commercial challenges.

Why Procurement Had to Change

Software-defined infrastructure has also changed how estates evolve. Instead of episodic, RFP-led refreshes, teams are adopting iterative deployment that mirrors software development: modular updates, sprint-based releases, continuous integration and automated testing. Techex advocates this continuous engagement model – the aim is to replace one-off projects with a standing collaboration in which capability is added, hardened or retired in place without disruptive cutovers.

Techex is a global specialist in live video transport for Tier 1 media organizations. It develops its own software and architects integrated best-of-breed systems for complex, mission-critical environments. Its North American customers include NBCUniversal and Fox, underscoring a focus on commercial flexibility, premium functionality and operational resilience.

The company’s platform, tx darwin, is a modular, IP-native system used for live sport, affiliate distribution and cloud-edge services. Built from more than sixty modules which gives it immense flexibility, it runs on bare metal, private infrastructure and public clouds. The design is API-first and event-driven: logic blocks can make decisions and control the workflow based on live data and metadata from anywhere in the workflow or from third parties such as TAG Video Systems and Bridge Technologies. Market-leading functions include seamless encoder failover, SCTE-35 generation and normalization, transport-stream clean-up and workflow blueprints. As part of a transmission chain, tx darwin enables uninterrupted encoder switching for cloud playout, cloud-production workflows for live sport, efficient and detailed SCTE-35 signaling for monetizing previously unmonetizable channels, among hundreds of other use cases. Critically, workflows are assembled from only the modules required, delivering technical and commercial efficiency without technical debt.

Flexible, Workload-Aligned Pricing

Procurement is starting to follow operations for many organizations: scale, flexibility and the rise of cloud are forcing commercial models to change as fundamentally as the technology they fund. Techex offers CapEx, OpEx and usage-based licensing so spend can follow workload and timeframe. CapEx suits long-lived, always-on assets such as primary distribution hubs and master control rooms where fixed costs and perpetual licences are preferred. OpEx supports teams iterating on IP workflows, building directly in the cloud or experimenting with new cloud services without long commitments. Usage-based licences fit short-term activations such as tournament coverage, trials or temporary channels. Most organizations blend these models. A global sports network might run core tx darwin capacity under CapEx in a central facility, expand via OpEx for regional roll-outs or testing, and enable event-specific modules on a usage basis – spinning them up for a tournament and retiring them afterwards. Pricing is presented predictably and transparently, helping finance and engineering teams plan multi-year transitions with a clear view of cost and scalability.

Techex aligns its engagement to this rhythm: engineers work daily with client teams, maintain a shared vision  and deliver regular increments while providing a single point of support across Techex and third-party tooling. The commercial model tracks the cadence, so spend follows delivered value rather than procurement timetables. Focused on a defined set of competencies at the IP video layer and offering impartial integration advice, Techex sustains momentum across architecture, delivery and operations, turning estates into continuously evolving platforms rather than a string of one-off projects.

Close Partnerships, Delivery Model and Support

One way in which Techex stands out is in support. The specialist support team and technical team work alongside client teams throughout design, deployment and live operations. Engineers co-develop workflows and ensure integration into wider estates, and Techex provides a single point of support for its own technology and connected third-party tools.

This kind of hands-on approach makes a significant difference. For instance, broadcasters benefit from faster deployment, better reliability and a more joined-up engineering experience. There’s no disconnect between commercial strategy and technical delivery because both are shaped around the customer’s actual infrastructure and organizational structure, not a product sales model.

As software-defined operations continue to expand, Techex’s approach pairs modular technology with deep systems integration and flexible commercial terms – supporting a faster pace of change and turning continuous transformation into an operational advantage.

TAG Video Systems – Efficiency Meets Sustainability in Broadcast Workflows

TAG Video Systems – Efficiency Meets Sustainability in Broadcast Workflows

Paul Schiller, Product Marketing Manager, TAG Video Systems

 

As broadcast and media operations scale to meet growing demand across live, playout, and OTT workflows, the pressure to do more with less has never been greater. Not just from a business perspective, but from a sustainability one. With regulations like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) expanding in scope, energy use, emissions, and even supply chain accountability are becoming operational concerns, not just compliance checkboxes.

The good news is that many of the same strategies that drive efficiency also drive sustainability. When workflows are built around resource optimization, energy savings follow. The challenge is applying this thinking across complex and often fragmented operational environments.

Staying Ahead of Change

Efficiency often begins by reducing operational complexity and the technical debt associated with dedicated, single-purpose hardware. In an era of rapid technological change, specialized broadcast equipment can quickly become obsolete, leading to hardware sprawl and wasted resources. By adopting software-defined monitoring and visualization on agile, COTS/Cloud-based infrastructure, broadcasters can replace rigid hardware with more adaptable, scalable alternatives. In practice, this involves centralized monitoring across multiple locations, with reduced reliance on siloed, fixed-function equipment that often sits idle.

This shift to multi-purpose infrastructure also creates a greater potential for long-term resource reduction. The pace of innovation for COTS hardware—like servers, GPUs, and network cards—is driven by massive R&D investments from the broader IT industry, far exceeding what is typical in the relatively niche broadcast market. As a result, media companies can leverage this rapid innovation cycle, regularly upgrading their hardware to benefit from new generations of chips and components that offer significantly more processing power and efficiency for less cost. This allows them to achieve more with a smaller physical and energy footprint over time, directly translating technical advancements into tangible sustainability gains.

Cloud Efficiency Driving Sustainability

Remote and cloud-based production, fast-tracked by the pandemic and now maturing, have brought these practices into sharper focus. By decoupling personnel from physical equipment, broadcasters reduce travel, on-site energy use, and the need for permanent control rooms at every venue. Workflows that once required OB trucks and redundant infrastructure can now be spun up in the cloud. Some industry benchmarks show that this trend has cut technical infrastructure requirements by up to 70%, delivering meaningful savings in both cost and carbon footprints.

Even modest reductions in physical presence, such as avoiding a truck roll for minor configuration changes, can add up across hundreds of live events annually. That translates to measurable reductions in emissions and fuel costs, while enabling a faster response time from geographically dispersed teams.

Hybrid cloud models further support this migration, allowing permanent control to stay on-prem while using the cloud for overflow capacity. By spinning up resources only when needed, broadcasters align OPEX to demand while also reducing always-on energy demands. This flexibility also helps with emission tracking across broader categories, like employee travel, office utilities, or cloud compute cycles, aligning with CSRD requirements for supply chain visibility.

Smarter Monitoring, Lower Footprint

However, sustainability isn’t solely related to the location of primary operations or workloads. It’s about how they’re monitored, visualized, and managed.

Traditional monitoring typically relies on large multiviewer walls consuming power, whether or not issues arise. More innovative platforms flip this model with features like ‘monitoring by exception,’ refocusing operators from watching everything to alerting them, or their engineering counterparts, only when something needs attention. Features like the TAG Penalty Box and Adaptive Monitoring (Decoding at greater intervals) display only the streams that trigger defined notification thresholds, allowing hundreds or thousands of channels to be monitored with smaller multiviewer display walls, less compute, and reduced energy use.

In environments like master control rooms (MCRs) or network operations centers (NOCs), this approach keeps the number of required displays and processing resources to a minimum, even as stream counts grow. This helps broadcasters avoid scaling “eyes on glass” in proportion to their content volume, supporting both operational efficiency and energy-conscious practices.

Reducing unnecessary use of bandwidth and compute resources is another practical step toward greater efficiency. Monitoring platforms that support single-ingest workflows, receiving a signal once, including video, audio, and metadata, allow operators to route that signal across multiple locations and teams without additional decoding. This avoids duplicate processing, minimizes resource usage, and supports scalable monitoring without increasing power usage or hardware requirements.

Instead of decoding the same feed at every site or for every team, signals are received once and adapted to the needs of each location. This is especially beneficial in distributed environments where engineering and production teams are located across time zones, regions, or cloud zones. Signal routing becomes streamlined, while infrastructure duplication is avoided.

Software Licensing Models That Adapt

Flexible licensing also plays a role. OPEX-aligned models help teams avoid overprovisioning by allowing resources to scale up or down on demand. This minimizes idle capacity, reduces hardware sprawl, and makes it easier to share resources across departments or remote teams.

In global operations, this adaptability reduces the need to deploy fixed infrastructure in every market. Teams working in one region can spin up the necessary resources temporarily, then hand off to colleagues in another location without duplicating compute or monitoring systems. Less hardware means less power and fewer capital-intensive decisions.

When combined with orchestration, this dynamic licensing facilitates real-time scaling while maintaining low operational overhead. More importantly, it allows technology teams to concentrate on delivering high-quality service without increasing their energy footprint.

Conclusion

In combination, these approaches reflect a shift toward smarter, more intentional workflow designs. Efficiency and sustainability should no longer be viewed as separate initiatives; instead, they should be considered as aligned outcomes of the same operational choices. By adopting software-based, cloud-enabled, and resource-aware practices, broadcasters can meet today’s performance requirements while actively reducing their environmental impact.

As regulatory pressure increases and energy demands continue to rise, the opportunity lies in building workflows that adapt, not just in speed and scale, but in responsibility. Efficiency enables sustainability. Sustainability supports resilience. And both are achievable now.

 

SipRadius – Taking Control: Protecting Content in the IP Era

SipRadius – Taking Control: Protecting Content in the IP Era

 Sergio Ammirata, Ph.D., founder and chief scientist, SipRadius

The move to IP-based infrastructures has unlocked extraordinary flexibility for broadcasters and content owners. Using data circuits, including the public internet, enables distributed workflows that are agile, affordable, and scalable.

Traditional broadcast facilities centered everything around a secure, climate-controlled machine room. Access was strictly limited, and the physical boundary itself provided protection. Today, with software-defined architectures, production resources can be anywhere: in a data center, at a remote location, or in the cloud. That agility comes at a cost, because the physical barriers are gone but often not replaced with equally rigorous digital protections.

The result is a growing security gap. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Cybersecurity Outlook reported that 35% of small organizations (the size of many media companies) consider their cyber resilience inadequate. That figure reflects a widening gulf between the protections deployed by large enterprises and the often minimal practices of smaller businesses. Media companies cannot assume they are exempt. High-value content and live broadcasts make them an obvious target.

The Real Threats

The risks are not theoretical. Ransomware has paralyzed global retailers and public institutions. Imagine a similar attack minutes before the Super Bowl or a World Cup final, locking your control room and demanding cryptocurrency. Or consider a distributed denial of service attack wiping out contribution feeds mid-event. Beyond extortion, hijacked streams could replace programming with propaganda, creating both reputational and political consequences.

A breach of a streaming system rarely stops at the video. Attackers may find pathways into wider IT systems, exposing personal data, financial information, or business plans. The cost goes far beyond the immediate disruption to transmission.

Beyond Protocols

It is tempting to believe that choosing the right transport protocol solves the problem. Standards such as RIST, HLS, DASH, and WebRTC all include encryption and authentication. This is a strong foundation, but not the whole picture. Security must be audited end to end, because an unpatched encoder or weak login can undermine even the strongest encryption.

Every device in the chain has its own operating system, often a general-purpose Linux build. Unless updates and patches are managed, vulnerabilities creep in. Some professional encoders have been found storing passwords in the clear or leaving maintenance backdoors wide open. Compact devices designed for remote productions can also be misplaced, giving attackers time to extract routing data and access credentials.

Human Factors

Technology is only half the battle. People introduce their own risks: weak passwords, reuse across devices, or poorly managed privileges. A talkback operator should never be able to reconfigure routing tables, but without role-based access, this can happen. On the move, crews may overlook an encoder in a flypack, leaving a security hole as damaging as a missed firewall rule.

Communications and Control

Beyond the content itself, intercom, messaging, and file sharing introduce additional vulnerabilities. An IP address or password sent in plain text on a consumer app instantly negates the encryption around video streams. Platforms like Zoom or Teams add further exposure, storing conversations and files on external servers outside your control. Control circuits also deserve scrutiny, as remote access to camera settings or sound consoles could derail a broadcast.

Taking Back Control

The principle that underpins modern security is zero trust: never assume a device or user should be trusted simply because it sits inside your network. Every endpoint must be authenticated and the chain continually tested.

Private cloud strengthens this approach by giving organizations sovereignty over their infrastructure. Unlike public cloud services, it keeps media, communications, and enterprise tools within a self-hosted environment, encrypted end to end and protected by controlled access. With servers, firewalls, VPNs, and redundancy managed on your own terms, the attack surface is minimized.

In practice, private cloud places the entire media and IT environment inside a secure framework that can be hosted anywhere and scaled as needed. For broadcasters and content owners, it unifies security across content, communication, and collaboration.

Practical Lessons from the Field

The theory is clear, but practice makes the point. One major media group, for example, needed to share content seamlessly across hubs in multiple cities, with editors and executives accessing live and archived feeds from anywhere. Security was embedded into the servers themselves, with content distributed through secure nodes so that streams were never exposed to unnecessary decryption points.

At large sporting events, dozens of commentary positions often require ultra-low latency access to live feeds. Secure devices have enabled rights holders to receive synchronized content without risk of piracy.

These two projects highlight a truth: resilience and security are not barriers to flexibility. With the right design, secure networks can be just as agile as insecure ones, and far more reliable.

The Way Forward

Securing streaming and IP-based media is not about ticking boxes on encryption standards. It is about recognizing that every component, every login, every update, and every process can be a potential weak link. Effective protection requires a complete audit of the chain, strong password and privilege management, physical security for devices, communications and control wrapped in the same model as the video, and a zero trust mindset tested continuously.

The industry has been fortunate so far. There have been incidents, but not yet the catastrophic event that knocks a global broadcast offline or leaks unreleased content to the world. That fortune will not last. A determined cyberattack on a media enterprise could cause financial ruin, reputational collapse, or worse.

The solution is not to retreat from IP, but to take its risks as seriously as its opportunities. By embedding security at every layer – from transport protocols to private cloud infrastructure, from human processes to physical devices – we can protect both our content and our businesses. If streaming and media over IP are to continue driving the industry forward, we must ensure there are no weak links.

 

Signiant – The Real Cloud Strategy in Post: Flexibility, Not Absolutes

Signiant – The Real Cloud Strategy in Post: Flexibility, Not Absolutes

Chris Fournelle, Director, Content and Marketing Production, Signiant

There is this dream in our industry that eventually everything in post will live in the cloud; apps, storage, workflows, the whole pipeline. A clean, centralized model where local infrastructure becomes obsolete.

It’s a compelling idea, and in certain corners of the industry, it’s already happening. But for the vast majority of post teams we work with, things are more layered, more distributed, and more hybrid.

Why Hybrid Is the Norm (and the Now)

In reality, content today lives in a lot of different places – on-prem storage, cloud buckets, private archives, and third-party systems. Creative teams are spread out across cities and time zones. Every partner brings their own infrastructure, tools and preferences to the table.

Choosing the right storage isn’t about forcing everything into a single platform – it’s about what works best for your business. Real-world production teams make decisions based on a mix of performance needs, cost, and what they know works. Hybrid isn’t a compromise – it’s the natural result of practical choices shaped by the economics and specialization of post-production.

It’s Not About Where – It’s About Access
The bigger question isn’t “Is it on-prem or in the cloud?” It’s “Can I get what I need, when I need it?”

That’s why storage independence is such a big deal right now. If you’re working across multiple systems (and almost everyone is), you need a way to see and interact with files without having to constantly move them around. The more often you copy, sync, or duplicate content just to make it accessible, the more time you lose. And the more risk you introduce. And for highly sensitive productions, minimizing touchpoints is a key part of protecting both the content and the business.

What’s helpful are tools that let you connect the dots, giving you visibility and access across all your storage without treating one location as the default. That saves time, keeps security tighter, and simplifies the mess that naturally comes with post.

The trick is doing it across disparate locations and systems.

Practical Lessons from the Field

Having spent years in post myself, I remember trying to get assets across disconnected systems. Maybe it’s buried in an archive. Maybe it’s Amazon Glacier. Maybe it’s on someone’s external drive. Maybe it’s been sitting untouched in a production MAM for six months. You waste creative time just trying to find the thing.

When teams have a way to see where their assets are, preview them, and move them only when necessary, it changes the rules. You don’t just go faster, you buy back time to make better creative or technical decisions. Time to fix something and try something new, and even the time to deliver a better version of the work.

Some platforms tackle this head-on, offering features like on-demand proxies and deep metadata searches across connected storage. That’s especially helpful in the early stages of post, before the final work gets handed off to a MAM or archived. It gives teams the breathing room to stay creative while keeping things organized and doesn’t mess up an archive..

Chaos Is Part of the Job

Let’s be honest: post production can be organized chaos. Even the most stringent can, at times, be overwhelmed by the amount of materials to keep track of. Every project has a different team, a different setup, a different mix of tools. Clients, vendors, freelancers, editorial, VFX, audio — everyone’s working in parallel and often in different places. The job isn’t to eliminate that chaos, it’s to manage it better.

That means using tools that are flexible enough to handle the variability. Something that IT teams can configure and secure, but also intuitive enough for editors, producers, and assistants to use without a manual. That’s not always easy to find, but when you do, it makes everything run smoother. And frankly, it’s what makes creative collaboration sustainable at scale.

Why Storage-Agnostic Matters

Post professionals and business owners want the freedom to use what works best for them whether that’s for performance, security, or budget reasons. The goal isn’t to standardize everything – it’s to make everything work together.

That’s why storage-agnostic tools are so important. They let teams evolve over time instead of starting from scratch every few years. They don’t force you into a particular ecosystem. And they give you room to experiment and scale without disrupting the flow of work.

The point isn’t to make your workflow conform to the tool. It’s to use tools that meet you where you are.

What’s Next

There’s no doubt cloud is a big part of post. From rendering to remote review to distribution, teams embrace cloud workflows where it makes sense. But that doesn’t mean on-prem is going away. For a lot of high-performance, latency-sensitive work, it’s still the best option.

So, the real shift is about connectivity and about tools that can bridge all these environments so content can move (or not move) in a smarter, more intentional way.

That’s what hybrid is really about. Not compromise and not “cloud later.” But building something flexible enough to keep up with how post actually gets done.

Most teams I know aren’t chasing an all-cloud future or clinging to old models. They’re focused on staying adaptable, making smart decisions about infrastructure, and keeping their attention where it belongs – on the work.

Ross Video – Inspiring the Next Generation of Broadcasters at Essex International Jamboree

Ross Video – Inspiring the Next Generation of Broadcasters at Essex International Jamboree

At this year’s Essex International Scout and Guide Jamboree, over 4,500 young people, gathered from across the globe, had the unique opportunity to dive headfirst into the world of broadcast television, thanks to the support of Ross Video and their partner dB Broadcast. For seven days, participants were immersed in the behind-the-scenes magic of television production, gaining hands-on experience through interactive Tech Labs.

The collaboration between Ross Video and dB Broadcast brought state-of-the-art technology to the event, enabling the young attendees to explore every aspect of television production within a fully equipped studio. From stepping into the shoes of a presenter to working with sound, operating cameras, and experimenting with green screens, the scouts and guides were given a rare chance to experience the complexities of broadcast media. One of the highlights was the use of Ross Video’s powerful Carbonite production switcher, which allowed the young people to produce an authentic magazine style programme, showcasing the intricacies of live television.

This initiative provided a fun and educational experience. The hands-on approach allowed participants to challenge themselves, make new friends, and discover potential future careers in the media and technology sectors.

Lewis, one of the scouts who participated, shared his excitement: “It was very interesting; I had no idea it was that complex with all the different screens.”

Mike Bryan, Technology Director at dB Broadcast, said: “Introducing young people to broadcast technology in a fun, hands-on way is key. It sparks curiosity and lays the foundation for future media innovation.”

“Working with these young people was inspiring. Their enthusiasm and curiosity were contagious, and it was great to see them dive into the world of broadcast technology with such excitement. It’s been a joy to watch them learn, create, and have fun along the way,” said Hayley Farrar, Demo and Training Specialist at Ross Video.

The Essex International Jamboree has always been a celebration of Girlguiding and Scouting, but this year’s event, powered by the expertise and technology provided by Ross Video and dB Broadcast, added an exciting new dimension, ensuring the young participants had an unforgettable experience.

Karen Packer, Joint Jamboree Chief, said: “We’re immensely grateful to the technology providers for this opportunity. Thanks to their support, our young people explored an area many of them may not have encountered before, sparking their creativity and expanding their horizons. This experience has opened doors to new possibilities.”

This hands-on experience has truly powered the potential for the next generation of media technology professionals, inspiring them to explore exciting future careers in broadcasting. Most importantly, they left the event with new skills, fresh inspirations, and memories that will last a lifetime.

 

Riedel – Bridging the Gap: How AV and Broadcast Boundaries Are Dissolving to Create a Unified Production Ecosystem

Riedel – Bridging the Gap: How AV and Broadcast Boundaries Are Dissolving to Create a Unified Production Ecosystem

Joyce Bente, President and CEO at Riedel North America

In recent years, the distinction between professional AV and broadcast has begun to erode — not by chance, but through a shared evolution in technology, user expectations, and production goals. Once distinct markets with different tools, workflows, and stakeholders, AV and broadcast are converging into a unified production ecosystem.

This convergence is reshaping how content is created, managed, and delivered across a wide range of environments — from stadiums and theme parks to corporate campuses, houses of worship, and cruise ships. The result is a new production landscape where the demand for agility, quality, and scalability is universal, and where technology must meet the needs of both traditional broadcasters and modern AV users.

 

A Convergence Rooted in Shared Standards and Shifting Expectations

At the heart of this shift is the widespread adoption of IP-based workflows and industry standards such as SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67. Once confined to live broadcast control rooms and OB vans, these protocols are now being implemented in stadium AV systems, corporate networks, and even cruise ship infrastructures.

These standards enable interoperability, decentralization, and scalability — capabilities increasingly demanded across the board. Whether coordinating a live sports production or managing a multi-campus university’s AV setup, the expectations are the same: low latency, high reliability, remote control, and real-time communication.

As AV systems become more networked and software-defined, they start to “speak” the same language as broadcast, making it possible for solutions to serve both worlds.

 

New Users, Familiar Demands

The rise of hybrid workplaces, remote learning, immersive events, and large-scale live experiences has introduced AV end users to a level of production complexity that was once reserved for professional broadcasters. And with that complexity comes a rising bar.

From IT teams managing video distribution on cruise ships to entertainment staff coordinating parades in theme parks, users now expect broadcast-grade performance without the steep learning curve. They want:

  • Intuitive control interfaces
  • Seamless integration with existing IT systems
  • Cloud-enabled and remote capabilities
  • Reliable, scalable infrastructure

This isn’t just a change in technological demands; it’s a change in mindset. No longer exclusive to broadcast studios and control rooms, production is happening everywhere, and it needs to be supported accordingly.

 

Real-World Outcomes: A Unified Approach in Action

Take SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, for example — a venue that functions simultaneously as a sports arena, concert venue, and content production hub. Here, a unified comms and signal transport infrastructure supports everything from NFL games to concerts and media broadcasts.

Or consider major cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, where AV and broadcast systems converge into a single network to support theater shows, ship-wide announcements, bridge communications, and guest entertainment. Technologies like fiber-based video, audio, and data distribution, along with IP-native intercoms, streamline operations across thousands of moving parts — all orchestrated with broadcast-level precision.

Houses of worship are also upgrading their production capabilities. For example, Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the U.S., has implemented a unified solution, integrating intercom and signal distribution across its worship and media facilities to support large-scale services, live broadcasts, and special events with professional-grade reliability and quality.

These aren’t isolated cases. Similar integrations are happening in other venues, houses of worship, universities, theme parks, and government buildings. The production ecosystem is expanding and unifying.

 

Technology That Crosses Boundaries

Certain technologies are proving especially effective in bridging AV and broadcast:

  • Intercom systems, originally built for live sports broadcasts and events, now underpin communications in venues, campuses, and hospitality spaces.
  • Signal routing platforms designed for real-time, multi-format transport are being deployed in AV scenarios requiring low latency, high availability, and flexibility.
  • PTZ cameras, once AV-centric, are now fully integrated into remote broadcast workflows.
  • Cloud and virtual production tools, once novel in AV, are becoming crucial in broadcast for remote and distributed teams.

These solutions are not watered-down versions of broadcast tools. Instead, they are robust, resilient systems adapted to environments where reliability still matters, yet simplicity, speed, and user experience matter more.

 

A Shift in Strategy, Not Just Sales

For vendors crossing into both markets, this convergence is more than a revenue  opportunity, as it represents a strategic shift in how products are developed, deployed, and supported.

AV projects often have faster turnaround times, tighter budgets, and different purchasing dynamics than broadcast. They prioritize ease of integration, lower total cost of ownership, and support from trusted integrators and consultants. Broadcast suppliers must adapt and rethink how they engage customers, design user interfaces, and package their offerings.

In return, working in AV sharpens a company’s approach to products:

  • Simpler UX design benefits all users
  • Scalable software models accelerate innovation
  • Cloud-native architectures offer flexibility across verticals

Broadcast suppliers entering AV aren’t just growing their reach in a new vertical, they’re future-proofing their product portfolios.

 

The Future of Production: One Ecosystem, Many Use Cases

Over the next five years, production will be categorized less by labels like “broadcast” or “AV” and more by purpose and technology. Shared technologies and protocols will support a wide range of use cases.

The industry will see:

  • Interoperable platforms that support everything from content creation to distribution, regardless of venue
  • Hybrid teams where AV, IT, and media professionals work side by side — or may, in fact, be one person with combined talent
  • Centralized control systems that manage decentralized workflows across multiple locations
  • A continued push for cloud flexibility balanced with on-prem reliability

Rather than eliminating differences, convergence is ultimately about recognizing where goals and challenges align — and building systems that empower content creators, operators, and technicians across every space.

 

Final Thought: This Is Not a Trend — It’s the New Normal

The boundaries between AV and broadcast are dissolving — not because of technological coincidence, but because user needs and production environments demand it.

The most successful companies in this space will be those that understand both worlds and build for a future where the experience matters more than the label of broadcast or AV.

Whether it’s a concert in a stadium, a keynote on a corporate campus, a live-streamed lecture, or a live sports event, the expectations are clear: It has to work flawlessly, scale easily, and deliver professionally.

That’s not just AV. And it’s not just broadcast.

That’s the new ecosystem.

 

Quickplay – Engaging the Next Generation of Talent with Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Built into Your Company Culture

Quickplay – Engaging the Next Generation of Talent with Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Built into Your Company Culture 

Paul Pastor, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Quickplay

The media and entertainment industry has long been a catalyst for social change, shaping perspectives through the stories we tell and the voices we amplify. Yet when it comes to creating truly inclusive workplaces that entice diverse talent, many of those in our industry are still writing their next chapter. While we can certainly make the claim that progress has been made, the reality is the finish line is not yet in sight. We must fundamentally transform how we define company culture, ensuring that there is a clear encouragement of all professionals, including leadership, to be their authentic selves.

Leadership Diversity: Setting the Tone from the Top

The most successful diversity and inclusion efforts begin at the top. When leadership teams genuinely reflect diverse perspectives—not just in demographics, but in lived experiences and worldviews—it creates a ripple effect throughout the organization. At Quickplay, for example, our internship program seeks to find and cultivate the next generation of talent via the Onyx Initiative, an organization dedicated to closing the systemic gap in the hiring, retention and promotion of Black college and university students.

Leadership diversity ensures that inclusion becomes more than a policy—it becomes truly embedded in the DNA of the company. Without it, the company would not be what it is. Lived experiences are crucially important to corporate decisions, and encouraging the sharing of those experiences from leadership down creates an intended, and lasting, feeling of inclusion that not only builds stronger teams, but more impactful products as a result.

Building Authentic Company Culture and Reputation Through Visible Allyship

Creating welcoming spaces requires more than diversity training and employee resource groups. It demands visible, consistent allyship from colleagues at every level. In the media and entertainment industry, where LGBTQ+ professionals remain underrepresented compared to other sectors, the power of authentic allies cannot be overstated.

Effective allyship manifests in multiple ways: leaders who champion diverse voices in creative meetings, colleagues who amplify underrepresented perspectives, and organizations that create safe networking spaces at industry conferences.  I wholeheartedly believe that everyone needs a “personal board”—a group of voices to help guide their career. I had that at Disney, and a passion project of mine to pass that concept forward by helping others find their own.

 

The key is making allyship actionable. This means training managers to recognize and interrupt bias, creating mentorship programs that connect diverse talent with senior leaders, and ensuring that inclusive behavior is recognized and rewarded in performance evaluations. When allies show up consistently—whether they’re coworkers, friends, or family—it creates a multiplier effect that strengthens the entire workplace ecosystem.

Retention Through Authentic Belonging

Attracting diverse talent is only half the equation; retention requires creating environments where professionals can bring their whole selves to work without fear or compromise. This is particularly crucial in today’s reality of DEI initiatives being challenged by those who don’t understand their goals, forcing some companies who don’t include it as a part of its DNA to pull back.

The key to retention is to focus on authentic belonging rather than surface-level inclusion. Simply put, this boils down to being genuine, transparent and intentional in your actions. Share real world experiences instead of trying to fit a mold. Most people see right through this and it impacts, negatively, your believability. By being transparent and heartfelt, you subconsciously build a sense of both trust and feeling valued.

This ties back to the  “personal board of advisors” I mentioned earlier. It recognizes that career advancement often depends on relationships and insider knowledge that may not be equally accessible to all employees. By formalizing mentorship opportunities and creating structured pathways for connection, organizations can level the playing field.

The Business Imperative Remains Strong

No matter current headlines, diverse teams drive stronger ideas, broader audience reach, and better financial performance. In an industry where understanding audience preferences and cultural nuances is critical to success, homogeneous teams are simply a competitive disadvantage.

The challenge for media and entertainment leaders is to maintain momentum during uncertain times. This requires courage—the willingness to challenge industry norms and push for representation at decision-making levels even when it’s uncomfortable. It means continuing to invest in diverse talent development, maintaining inclusive hiring practices, and ensuring that diverse voices are heard in strategy sessions and creative reviews.

Moving Forward: From Policy to Practice

The future of diversity and inclusion in media and entertainment lies not in grand gestures, but in consistent, intentional actions that create lasting cultural change. This means embedding inclusion in everyday operations—from how meetings are run to who gets invited to key discussions to how success is measured and celebrated.

Organizations that succeed will be those that recognize diversity not as a compliance exercise, but as a strategic advantage. They’ll invest in creating pathways for underrepresented talent, foster authentic allyship, and ensure their leadership teams reflect the communities they serve. Most importantly, they’ll understand that building inclusive cultures is not a destination but an ongoing journey requiring sustained commitment and continuous learning.

The media and entertainment industry has the unique power to shape culture and influence perspectives on a global scale. By getting diversity and inclusion right within their own organizations, these companies don’t just improve their bottom line—they model the inclusive future they’re helping to create for audiences worldwide.

The Quickplay Intern Class of 2025 included nine incredible interns from Onyx Initiative, Queen’s University, and University of Waterloo. They have joined teams across the company—from product to marketing and beyond.

 

NStarX – The Live Sports Broadcasting Crisis: How AI Can Navigate the Perfect Storm

NStarX – The Live Sports Broadcasting Crisis: How AI Can Navigate the Perfect Storm

The Industry’s Growing Pains

Live sports broadcasting stands at a critical inflection point. What was once a straightforward linear television model has fractured into a complex ecosystem where fans need multiple streaming subscriptions exceeding $800 annually just to follow their favorite teams. The migration from appointment television to streaming platforms has created unprecedented technical and business challenges that threaten both viewer satisfaction and industry profitability.

The core problem isn’t just technological—it’s systemic. Rights fragmentation has scattered premium content across numerous platforms, from Amazon’s Thursday Night Football to Netflix’s Christmas games, creating a consumer experience that resembles digital whack-a-mole. Meanwhile, the technical infrastructure struggles under massive concurrent loads, with events like Peacock’s NFL Wild Card game consuming 30% of US internet traffic and demonstrating the internet-breaking potential of live sports streaming.

Real-World Impact: When Systems Crack Under Pressure

The industry’s growing pains manifest in measurable ways. Amazon’s Thursday Night Football, despite averaging 13.2 million viewers and demonstrating successful CTV scaling, represents just one piece of an increasingly fragmented puzzle. When Peacock’s exclusive NFL playoff game became the most-streamed US live event at 23 million average minute audiences, it revealed both the massive opportunity and the infrastructure stress points that plague the industry.

These technical challenges extend beyond mere buffering issues. NBCU’s Peacock experience highlighted the delicate balance between low-latency delivery and system stability. Achieving sub-10-second glass-to-glass latency while maintaining quality, server-side ad insertion (SSAI), digital rights management (DRM), and accurate measurement creates a technological house of cards that can collapse under peak concurrent loads.

The fragmentation extends to advertising and measurement, where marketers struggle with cross-publisher identity resolution and frequency management. Without unified measurement currencies, buyers juggle Nielsen ONE, iSpot, VideoAmp, and Comscore, creating operational inefficiencies that directly impact revenue optimization.

The Revenue Hemorrhage

These challenges create direct revenue impacts across multiple vectors. Fragmented rights and blackout complexities drive subscriber churn, with confused fans abandoning services when they can’t find their games. The technical instability during peak viewing moments—precisely when advertising rates are highest—results in failed ad deliveries and viewer abandonment.

Cross-publisher deduplication failures lead to frequency waste, where a small percentage of households consume disproportionate ad impressions without proper campaign controls. Meanwhile, the rising tide of connected TV (CTV) fraud, with DoubleVerify estimating 65% as bot-driven, directly erodes advertising effectiveness and buyer confidence.

The measurement limbo creates additional revenue leakage. Without real-time, unified metrics across linear and CTV platforms, media buyers cannot optimize campaigns effectively, leading to suboptimal spending allocation and reduced advertiser return on investment.

AI as the Great Orchestrator

Artificial intelligence emerges as the natural solution to orchestrate this complex ecosystem. AI’s pattern recognition capabilities can predict and prevent the concurrency issues that break streaming infrastructure. Machine learning algorithms can analyze historical viewing patterns, weather data, game importance metrics, and social media sentiment to forecast demand spikes with unprecedented accuracy.

For advertising, AI-powered identity resolution can create probabilistic matches across walled gardens, enabling true cross-publisher frequency management without compromising privacy. Real-time bidding optimization through AI can maximize ad revenue during those crucial peak moments when technical systems are most stressed.

AI-driven content delivery networks can dynamically route traffic, pre-position content, and adjust encoding parameters in real-time to maintain quality under varying network conditions. Predictive analytics can identify potential piracy sources and implement automated takedown procedures, protecting premium content rights.

Enterprise AI Strategy: Building the Foundation

A simplified representation of what an AI-native system can help better solve the current challenges.

Figure 1: This is how the AI-powered broadcasting architecture would look like

Enterprises should approach AI adoption through a systematic lens, starting with data infrastructure consolidation. The fragmented nature of current systems means AI initiatives must begin with creating unified data lakes that aggregate viewership, engagement, technical performance, and revenue metrics across all platforms and touchpoints.

Clean room technologies, such as AWS Clean Rooms, provide the foundation for privacy-compliant data collaboration between publishers, advertisers, and measurement providers. This enables AI algorithms to optimize campaigns and content delivery without exposing sensitive competitive information.

Companies must invest in real-time AI capabilities rather than batch processing systems. Live sports demand immediate decision-making for ad insertion, content routing, and technical issue resolution. Edge computing integration allows AI models to operate closer to viewers, reducing latency while improving personalization capabilities.

Legacy System Integration Challenges

Broadcasting companies face unique AI adoption challenges due to decades-old infrastructure investments. Legacy systems often lack the APIs and data standardization necessary for AI integration. Broadcast control rooms operate on specialized hardware with vendor lock-in scenarios that resist modernization.

The cultural challenge runs equally deep. Broadcasting operations teams have developed complex manual procedures refined over decades. AI systems must demonstrate clear value without disrupting mission-critical live operations. The high-stakes nature of live sports broadcasts creates natural resistance to automation that could potentially fail during crucial moments.

Integration complexity multiplies when considering existing vendor relationships, union contracts, and regulatory compliance requirements that govern broadcasting operations.

Resolving Legacy Constraints

Successful AI integration requires a hybrid approach that respects existing investments while gradually introducing intelligent automation. API development should focus on creating data bridges between legacy systems and modern AI platforms without requiring complete infrastructure replacement.

Pilot programs should target non-critical operational areas first, building confidence and demonstrating ROI before expanding to core broadcasting functions. Shadow AI systems can operate alongside human operators, providing recommendations while humans retain final control during the learning phase.

Change management becomes crucial, with extensive training programs helping technical teams understand AI capabilities and limitations. Clear escalation procedures ensure human oversight remains available when AI systems encounter edge cases beyond their training parameters.

The AI-Powered Future Landscape

Full AI adoption transforms live sports broadcasting into a predictive, self-optimizing ecosystem. AI-powered demand forecasting enables infrastructure pre-scaling that prevents technical failures during unexpected viral moments. Dynamic content delivery adapts in real-time to network conditions, device capabilities, and viewer preferences.

Advertising becomes truly addressable at scale, with AI managing frequency, competitive separation, and creative optimization across all viewing platforms simultaneously. Revenue optimization occurs automatically, with AI adjusting ad rates, content recommendations, and subscription offers based on real-time engagement patterns.

Fraud detection operates proactively, identifying suspicious traffic patterns before they impact legitimate viewers or advertiser metrics. Rights management becomes automated, with AI monitoring global content distribution and automatically enforcing territorial restrictions.

Uncovering AI Blind Spots

Despite AI’s transformative potential, enterprises must acknowledge inherent limitations. AI models trained on historical data may fail to predict unprecedented events or rapid changes in viewer behavior. Algorithmic bias can create unfair advantages for certain demographics or content types.

The black-box nature of some AI systems creates accountability challenges when automated decisions impact revenue or viewer experience. Regulatory compliance becomes complex when AI systems make real-time decisions that affect content distribution or advertising delivery.

Continuous monitoring and human oversight remain essential, particularly for edge cases that fall outside AI training parameters. Regular algorithm audits help identify drift in model performance and potential bias introduction over time.

Conclusion: Navigating the Intelligent Future

The live sports broadcasting crisis demands sophisticated solutions that match the industry’s complexity. AI provides the orchestration capabilities needed to manage fragmented rights, technical scaling challenges, and revenue optimization simultaneously. However, successful implementation requires strategic planning, legacy system integration, and ongoing human oversight.

Companies that invest in AI infrastructure today will emerge as leaders in the post-fragmentation era, delivering superior viewer experiences while maximizing revenue opportunities. Those that delay AI adoption risk becoming casualties of an increasingly complex and competitive landscape where technical excellence directly translates to market success.

The future belongs to broadcasters who can seamlessly blend human creativity and judgment with AI’s analytical power and scale, creating viewing experiences that satisfy both fans’ expectations and business imperatives.

References

  1. Reuters. “Amazon Thursday Night Football 2024 Viewership Data”
  2. Nielsen. “The Gauge Platform Share Analysis”
  3. Tom’s Guide. “NFL Streaming Costs Analysis 2025-26”
  4. NBC Sports. “Peacock NFL Playoff Streaming Records”
  5. Associated Press. “Internet Traffic Analysis During Live Sports”
  6. Comcast Corporation. “Peacock Streaming Infrastructure Reports”
  7. NFL.com. “Netflix Christmas Games Announcement”
  8. Netflix. “WWE Raw Acquisition Details”
  9. EMARKETER. “CTV Advertising and Measurement Trends”
  10. Marketing Dive. “Cross-Publisher Identity Resolution Challenges”
  11. Streaming Media Magazine. “Frequency Management in CTV”
  12. DoubleVerify. “CTV Fraud Detection Reports”
  13. Mux. “Low-Latency Streaming Technical Analysis”
  14. Disney Advertising. “Server-Side Ad Insertion Guidelines”
  15. Amazon Web Services. “Clean Rooms Technology Overview”
  16. Amazon Ads. “Frequency Management Solutions”

MRMC – Remote Production: The Key to Greener, Smarter Media and Entertainment Workflows

MRMC – Remote Production: The Key to Greener, Smarter Media and Entertainment Workflows

Paddy Taylor, Head of Broadcast, Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC)

With much of the media and entertainment industry now placing sustainability front and center, remote production is growing in importance to help deliver on environmental objectives. With teams now able to manage studios from thousands of miles away, the benefits of the model are becoming more apparent all the time. Instead of flying operators to every location, for instance, remote infrastructure and processes allow productions to reduce travel, accommodation and equipment transport requirements, cutting emissions and streamlining logistics in the process.

But what’s driving this fundamental change of approach? In legacy production processes, every stage of the process consumes energy and resources, often at a significant scale. As broadcasters and production companies work to align with corporate ESG goals and emerging regulatory standards, the environmental impact of traditional workflows is coming under increased scrutiny. At the same time, consumer expectations are shifting, with audiences and advertisers favoring brands that can demonstrate responsible practices. In this context, sustainable production is no longer just a matter of compliance or reputation; it’s a practical route to some essential benefits, from reducing costs and improving efficiency to future-proofing operations.

Doing More with Less

In examining the role of remote production, the underlying philosophy is not just about removing people from locations; it’s about rethinking production workflows to do more with less. As demand for content continues to grow across just about every platform, production teams are under pressure to increase output without expanding their budgets or environmental footprint. This makes efficiency a critical success factor, driving the need for smarter tools and more integrated operations.

Automation also plays a central role in the industry’s shared efforts to become more sustainable. Features like automated tracking and centralized control of camera systems and production tools allow leaner teams to manage more outputs while maintaining high production quality. With the right systems in place, operators can scale their impact and avoid duplication of effort across what are becoming increasingly complex productions.

Then there are remote-controlled camera technologies, whose precision and repeatability reduce the risk of errors or reshoots, which in live production can be especially costly. Taking the technology a stage further is the emergence of advanced robotic systems, which allow studios to maximize usage across different formats and time slots. For example, robotic arms used in live broadcasts can be easily reconfigured to produce stings, promos or commercial content during downtime, helping operators drive more value from existing space and resources.

In the drive for physical efficiency, robotic systems typically require less space, fewer lighting resources and simpler rigging. When equipment does need to be transported, its compact and lightweight design helps reduce freight emissions. Applied across a full production schedule, these marginal gains add up fast.

Quality and Quantity

None of this needs to come at the expense of cost or quality. With careful planning and the right technology mix, automation can maintain creative standards while driving down environmental impact. Don’t forget, the motivation shouldn’t be on reducing headcount; it should be about enabling skilled staff to work from fixed hubs or home bases, cutting the need for travel without compromising the final product.

Remote production can also scale, and whether it’s adding new camera angles, increasing event coverage or managing simultaneous productions, these workflows can expand without a proportional increase in personnel or infrastructure. That makes growth more manageable and sustainable, even under tight deadlines.

Driving progress at scale, however, requires collaboration. When broadcasters, technology partners, facilities and regulators align around shared goals, real change becomes possible. This is especially true in virtual production, where integration is essential across lighting, graphics, robotics and control. With the proper coordination, these components can be planned and programmed as part of a highly efficient, end-to-end workflow.

With AI and machine learning increasingly baked into these workflows, automated tracking and camera switching are becoming more commonplace. This results in lean workflows with efficient production that saves energy, time and money, all while reducing the carbon footprint.

Of course, remote production still presents its challenges. Achieving the quality associated with traditional broadcast studios requires careful design and configuration. But with remote acquisition, where cameras are rigged locally and operated remotely, broadcasters can dramatically reduce on-site crew numbers and travel emissions without losing creative control.

Ultimately, delivering on sustainability objectives takes clear intent. Some broadcasters already factor environmental performance into vendor selection, while others still require a clear business case, where efficiency, savings and impact are clearly aligned. But for those willing to rethink legacy processes, the long-term financial, operational and environmental benefits are now well within reach.