Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) @ConnecTechAsia Show News - Day 1 | Page 13

@ConnecTechAsia2018
www.apb-news.com
26 June 2018
TUESDAY 13
The prospects for live production
BY JASON LI
Live production is the last part of the
broadcast chain to move towards IP
connectivity. The reason for that is
clear: it has been hard to establish
open standards to allow real-time
interchange between different sys-
tems.
The simultaneous evolutions
from HD to 4K/Ultra HD (UHD), SDI
to IP, CapEx to OpEx, and so on, are
impacting all media operations, but
the disruption is felt more acutely in an
environment in which precision and
reliability are bedrock requirements
— and mistakes can be ruinous to
both reputation and annual revenue.
For broadcasters, live production
is the source of the most compelling
content, including sports and live
event entertainment. Broadcasters
use live event television — like
Dancing with the Stars or The X
Factor — to build and retain huge
audiences, and deliver them to adver-
tisers. These audiences are also very
active on social media, and if you
are not watching at the moment of
transmission, you cannot belong to
the programme’s community.
What spor ts and live event
For broadcasters, live production is the
source of the most compelling content,
including sport and live event entertain-
ment, says Imagine Communications, who
is exhibiting
with Broadcast
Engineering
Services (booth
6F3-04) and
Broadcast
Technology
(booth 4T1-01).
entertainment have in common is
a reliance on very high production
values, using large numbers of cam-
eras and multiple replays. They both
demand the highest in image and
sound quality, so high dynamic range
(HDR) and 4K/UHD are also targets.
This constant push for higher quality
and production values would be a
challenge for traditional technology,
which is why solving the live IP issues
was so important, and why it is now
transforming production.
At Imagine Communications, we
recognised that this was going to be
a challenge earlier than anyone in
the industry. We drove the discussion
forward, not least by being one of the
founders of the Alliance for IP Media
Solutions (AIMS), the pan-industry
group which has led to the rapid
establishment of ground-breaking
standards like SMPTE ST 2110.
With the recent publication of
ST 2110, production companies can
now invest in IP infrastructure with
confidence that their vendors are
working from a stable foundation of
published standards. As a result, spe-
cialist operators of outside broadcast
(OB) trucks are increasingly looking
towards an IP architecture rather than
a traditional SDI infrastructure.
The big reason for the move
is flexibility. Reconfiguring a tradi-
tional outside broadcast truck is
time-consuming. The truck is an
expensive asset, and if you can get
extra revenue by covering an opera
between football matches, then you
have to take that option.
The agility of a software-defined,
IP-connected truck means that you
have no hard reconfiguration at
all. A click of a mouse will reset the
system from the monitor stack to the
outputs. The truck can cover cricket in
HD one day and a theatre relay in 4K/
UHD the next with no need to return
to base, change hardware or impose
any workarounds.
That is why the new generation of
OB trucks is built on software systems
and IP connectivity. The transition
reflects the broadcaster’s need to
create more live content and make it
more engaging. It means the function-
ality is ready for new services like HDR
and 4K/UHD, when they are needed.
Most importantly, it will change
the commercial model, shifting
from traditional capital-based sys-
tems towards a licencing/opera-
tional model, providing a direct link
between the cost of production and
service delivery to the revenues it
generates.
Jason Li is sales director, Asia-Pacific, Imagine
Communications.
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