Over the past decade the media industry has hailed the adoption of the cloud as a way of introducing new efficiencies, as well as improving content protection and business continuity. For many media companies so far, the cloud has been all about storage. But of course, storing content is far from the only thing the media industry does. In some ways, the current iteration of the cloud, let’s call it Cloud 1.0, is not built for the needs of complex media workflows and what comes next must address these concerns. So where is cloud today and where is it heading, and could Cloud 2.0 be on the horizon?
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Put your hand up if you’re bored of virtual events! Most of you are sitting at your home desk with your hands held high. As restrictions slowly ease we’re seeing plans for more in-person and hybrid events in place for Q4, particularly with IBC and NAB on the move, and we’re all hoping that we’ll get to walk through the gates of a conference centre as soon as it’s safe to do so.
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Cloud playout is not a new idea; it’s been discussed in our industry for at least a decade, including early attempts at creating and supplying solutions. But it’s only more recently that it has become a reality and it’s certainly an important part of the future. Globecast is leading the way.
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While it is generally acknowledged that the broadcast industry roadmap leads to a fully IP-based infrastructure, there is still plenty of uncertainty regarding the exact route that will be taken to get there. Currently the industry can be characterised as being in an extended implementation phase which concurrently overlaps with the R&D efforts necessary to make IP workflows optimised throughout an organisation.
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The world, slowly but surely, is re-opening its tired eyes to what we called ‘normal’ before COVID-19 struck, shutting down everything and anything worldwide. Measures are being reworked and we’re able, in some locations, to return to normality by heading back to the office, going to the movies and resuming face to face contact.
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In the past couple of years, consumers’ insatiable and growing demand has increased content consumption over streaming media. We have witnessed a barrage of new players launching streaming services into the market. Recent examples include the launch of Quibi and Peacock in April 2020, and HBO Max is planning to expand into Latin America by June 2021. The increasing demand has left content creators and owners to scramble for new or repurposed content for these platforms while meeting the platform’s standards in video and corresponding metadata. This critical metadata includes closed captions and, as is the case with video, closed captions must meet standards and style guides mandated by individual streaming platforms.
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This narrative begins in 2006. One of the more forward-thinking European broadcasters began the search for a system to take their single national feed, that was funded through traditional ad break advertising, and produce just over 30 variants of this channel. Every channel (regional feed) would now include some regional advertising content, replacing the national advertising breaks at specific times of the day. Starfish Technologies was awarded the contract to design and supply this system. It was implemented using SDI based technology located at each of the regional distribution hubs, the majority of which were unmanned. This system worked well and generated a significant additional revenue stream, so the broadcaster requested an ‘upgrade’ to this system that would also enable local news bulletins and late changing schedules to be inserted into every regional feed. These requirements were best implemented by moving to a centralised architecture and building a complete regional channel system located at its main transmission centre. The first centralised Starfish Technologies system went live in 2009 and again proved reliable, commercially rewarding and with the significant benefit of providing viewers with locally relevant news content.
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A case study from Rexcel within the performing arts industry.
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We are joined by Object Matrix’s Chief Revenue Officer Nick Pearce to discuss Cyber Security and how their product MatrixStore helps companies to protect their content from internal and external threats.
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Over the last three decades, we’ve seen a shift from specialised units for various video and audio functions, to high performance hardware platforms which can be repurposed on-the-fly to support any AV processing, and now to virtualized media applications and microservices which can be spun up and deployed (and paid for) only when you need them.
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