Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) BroadcastAsia2016 Show Daily - Day 2 | Page 16
16 BROADCASTASIA2016 SHOWDAILY
16
1 June 2016
The flexibility of software-centric broadcast
by joe khodeir
The demands of ‘anytime, anywhere’ video
content consumption are putting pressure
on traditional broadcast production and
playout facilities around the world.
The Asia-Pacific market is particularly
complex, encompassing a wide range of
demographic and economic profiles. High
adoption rates of pay-TV, fixed and mobile
broadband in the region, alongside a regional tendency towards mobile content
consumption, are responsible for some of
the most innovative over-the-top (OTT)
ecosystems in the world, according to Pyramid Research.
Competitiveness in this kind of environment demands a flexibility and costeffectiveness that most traditional hardware-dependent broadcast facilities simply
cannot achieve.
Severing the broadcast industry’s dependency on specialised hardware is the key
to successfully navigating the demands of
modern consumers. In fact, moving operations towards a software-centric, or virtualised, operational model based on generic
computing resources will deliver immediate
benefits on a number of important counts.
This IT-inspired way of working enables
broadcasters to tear down the age-old
barriers that have prevented traditional
broadcasters from pursuing lucrative
monetisation opportunities.
In a hardware-dominated environment,
a new channel launch is capital-intensive
and time-consuming. In the past, this has
discouraged media companies from taking
risks around potential new monetisation
opportunities, causing them to miss out in
regions like Asia-Pacific.
The ability to quickly launch ‘pop-up
channels’ is an example of the agility provided by a software-based infrastructure.
When media processing and playout
operations are executed on commercial
off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment such as the
software-based Imagine Communications
Versio playout solution, a channel launch is
nearly as easy as pressing a button. Med ia
companies can try new markets with the
freedom to get creative or even fail without
huge monetary consequences.
Another benefit of an IP-based facility emerges from the staggering financial
losses that can be caused by an event that
takes a broadcaster off the air, even for just
a few hours. Instead of building out and
maintaining a mirrored playout system at
the same location or at a remote site, which
mostly sits idle, broadcasters can call upon
a virtualised offsite environment off site
almost instantaneously.
In a cloud-based disaster recovery or
business continuity situation, a rapid transition can be performed from the primary
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playout to a virtualised backup system located in a data centre anywhere in the world.
Best of all, backup operations only cost the
broadcaster when they are needed and used.
Finally, a software-centric environment
ensures a broadcaster is ready to face the
technology upgrades that mark the broadcast world. By freeing functionality such as
transcoding and master control from its
dependency on specialised hardware, media
companies can support new standards faster
and more cost-efficiently.
Decades-old geographical constraints
can be overcome as operations are executed
from anywhere, saving on both human
and technical resources. A software-centric
infrastructure also exploits the price/performance benefits of COTS equipment, which,
according to the dictates of Moore’s Law,
double every couple of years.
This doesn’t mean, however, that broadcasters must bin their current equipment to
wipe the slate clean. They can choose to roll
out a hybrid operational model in a more
staged manner, in a bid to maintain their
initial appliance-style approach and monetise existing hardware investments as they
complete a longer-term transition towards
a software-centric makeover.
Imagine Communications’ hybrid transition approach is anchored by its Magellan
SDN Orchestrator management and monitoring system, which provides a software
Imagine Communications’ hybrid transition
approach is anchored by its Magellan SDN
Orchestrator management and monitoring
system.
overlay that allows media companies to
control both SDI and IP-based components
of the network with familiar interfaces and
control surfaces.
A virtualised business continuity application is also a great way to ease into an
all-software based production environment.
Broadcasters and other media companies
can transfer primary facilities to a softwarebased environment, one channel at a time.
Ultimately, the key to a successful transition to the virtual world is to partner with
a company that can guide the broadcaster
through the process and tailor a plan of action to maximise the return on investment
from existing technology. ❑
Joe Khodeir is senior
vice-president AsiaPacific, Imagine Communications (booth
5B3-03).
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