Pixel Power, a Rohde & Schwarz Company – Playout automation: doing more with less
James Gilbert, Pixel Power, a Rohde & Schwarz Company
Automated playout of linear content has advanced tremendously since the turn of the century. Cart machines, various flavors of VTRs and master control switchers are gradually finding their way into museums and no longer does a project engineer need to spend a day conjuring up an RS422 cable that coerces a reluctant piece of equipment into obedience under a device control automation system.
But there are of course plenty of new challenges facing content owners and distributors today; multiple platform delivery, cybersecurity, regulatory requirements, diluted revenue streams and a skills shortage to name but a few. A modern linear playout automation solution must play its part in meeting and addressing those challenges – simply put, doing more, with less.
Viewing habits have changed enormously – it is not just millennials who consume much of their content on-demand. No longer is feed-off to satellite uplink or transmitter enough – broadcasters must deliver over the internet, through catch-up services and via third party aggregators. These multiple deliveries may have different rights and compliance requirements, or even target different countries, requiring careful versioning. The automation system should be configurable to address these needs; for example, metadata-driven slating to manage rights on alternate delivery platforms; rules-based audio shuffling to manage multi-lingual content and support for multiple subtitle languages with modern TTML transported over 2110-43. Continuity graphics and branding must also be versioned for the platform, and this too can be fully automated where the automation vendor has decades of graphics and automated branding experience built into the solution.
Of course, live television is still the foundation of linear channels, whether sports, news or live entertainment productions and a modern automation must deliver a high-quality viewer experience, especially challenging in the unpredictable world of live sports. While one operator can manage a large number of channels of thematic content, improving the ratio for channels with live content whilst maintaining operational excellence remains a challenge. But the latest automation systems can help here too; features like junction preview, allowing an operator to preview critical parts of the schedule with all the ancillary graphics and access service content, allows scheduling or content errors to be checked ahead of time. Some automation systems have a built-in automated content check workflow, ensuring that transferred media files are fully playable. A flexible user interface allows a control surface to be built in an optimal way for the operator role or type of programming being managed, reducing the chance of human error and making sure the critical information is available without any distraction. Monitoring by exception also helps reduce the workload on operational staff without compromising quality; automation features like configurable alarms which highlight the offending part of the schedule and business logic driven automated or operator assisted failover to a backup chain can play their part here. As well as the automation client interface the operators also rely on a multiviewer / monitoring system in their daily work. A close integration between the playout automation and the multiviewer system, including using the monitoring function of the multiviewer to drive business logic in the automation, can alert the operator to potential problems in the various points of the distribution chain and even suggest remedial actions.
To maximize the value and audience for live content it must be made available for catch-up viewing and on-demand services, perhaps with a different break structure and different graphics. In the past broadcasters often had separate workflows for recording and publishing live content, but now this task can be handed to a carefully selected playout automation system. Live events can be recorded for later replay, even a few minutes after the live event starts, and alternative graphics, subtitles and audio overlays can be composited over the recording to version it for different platforms and services. Play while record and the ability to render file-based content from an alternative schedule faster than real time all help streamline the broadcaster’s operations and provide fast turnaround for live programming.
The rising number of geopolitical risks, such as the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts, anti-globalization and the rise of nationalism are leading to increased frequency and severity of cyberattacks, which are often state sponsored. Not only must broadcasters protect their content from being interfered with or pirated, but they must also ensure their infrastructure and operations are as secure as possible. The replacement of hardware control systems and SDI transports with software-defined solutions and IP streams increases vulnerability unless the solutions have security designed-in from the outset. Encryption of control and content in motion, multi-factor user authentication and a resilient architecture are just a few of the many important security criteria to be considered when choosing an automation system. It is also important that the vendor has security at the heart of its own business.
The final challenge for many broadcasters is technical staffing of projects and operations; with a generally ageing workforce, attracting new talent to the TV industry is facing competition from high-tech startups and global internet companies – all with media ambitions. Broadcast engineering and IT skills need to be acquired and public broadcasters can no longer afford to maintain large teams of experts in-house. Here too, the right automation vendor can help fill the knowledge gaps by offering consultancy services to guide the broadcaster into making the right choices around technology and especially workflows which optimize operational efficiency without compromising on quality. The consultative approach fits well with modern agile software development methodologies, delivering an optimal solution which can continuously adapt to the evolving needs of the broadcaster who is under constant pressure to deliver content in new ways to new audiences.
