Finding opportunities in the face of disruption
Disruption has been with us through the millennia . The best known disruption came when early mankind learnt to cook his food over fire . This was perhaps the disruption that separated him from the other species and allowed mankind to progress into where we are today . Subsequent disruptions , such as the wheel , the printing press , the steam engine , electricity , the morse code , the radio , the aeroplane , and , of course , television , all helped to establish mankind as the most intelligent species on this planet . All disruptions have resulted in turmoil for established incumbents and lots of progress for newbies , writes AALE RAZA .
“ In a new world , we need to keep moving . The pace may not be set by us , but the rewards will go to the first mover .”
— AALE RAZA Director , Whiteways Systems
Television itself was a disruption in the ’ 50s and the ’ 60s . It disrupted the radio and newspaper industries . Now , after reigning supreme for more than 50 years , it is being disrupted . The disruption is coming from multiple fronts .
Over-the-top ( OTT ), integrated broadcast broadband ( IBB ), virtual reality ( VR ), immersive graphics , 360-degree cameras , virtual digital assistants , wearable cameras , emerging drone technologies , 4K / Ultra HD ( UHD ) and 8K resolutions , high dynamic range ( HDR ) technology , social media , Smart TV , subscription TV , ‘ always on ’ Internet access via 4G / 5G , and so on , are all disruptions to a traditional broadcaster .
The disruption is forced upon broadcasters because of consumer behaviour . The younger generation , to a large extent , and the older generation , to a smaller extent , are consuming TV in far different ways than they used to in the past . The change is irrevocable and irreversible .
Broadcasters are wondering how many times , in how many ways , will they have to change in order to cope up with the changing consumer behaviour . The thing to notice is that all broadcasters are reactive instead of proactive and have gone from denial to acknowledgment to action to bewilderment .
Regardless of this , the disruption moves on , with the latest addition being the “ digital assistants ” from the likes of Apple , Google and Amazon .
The digital assistant shows the latest news on the Android phone , which does not come from the TV website ; it comes from an Internet website . Does Google make money from it ? You bet . The client does not go to the browser ; he types his choice of news website . He does not even click on the app on his mobile phone ; he just asks the digital assistant to give him the latest news .
In the meantime , our broadcast customers want to know how to tackle this growing threat to their business . What will this disruption lead to ? Where does it stop ?
While Google , Apple and Facebook continue to bite bigger slices of the cake that used to belong to broadcasters , the disruption becomes bigger . Consider this : telcos are launching 5G soon . The bandwidth speeds are breathtaking and the lack of connectivity , slow downloads , searching for hotspots , asking for passwords and so forth will be a thing of the past .
Broadcasters who get their news from newswires need to do a re-think . By the time they make their own news story , shoot the news segment and transmits it , every one already knows the news . Your best chance is to go with live news . Hence , the key to success as far as news is concerned , lies in OB vans , digital satellite newsgathering , live streaming news and , of course , the backpack with the bonded SIMs — although that may become irrelevant due to the incoming 5G .
Just as banks re-structured and became software power houses instead of counting money , broadcasters will need to become tech-savvy . They will need to
set up the architecture to tackle the online world . This means setting up a video-ondemand ( VoD ) facility , having a full suite of customer relationship management ( CRM ) system , an intelligent search engine that keeps providing new leads to the viewer , an advertising engine that has the classical overlay , an ad insertion system , banner ad displays and so on .
The system has to have a detailed reporting to get to know the number of people online , what they are watching and indicate the changing trends . And finally , broadcasters have to have a payment gateway — to authenticate and get payment on a pay-per-view basis . Only when they have the full suite of offerings , will they really understand the benefits . In a new world , we need to keep moving . The pace may not be set by us , but the rewards will go to the first mover .
In time , we will reach a place where the pace of disruption slows and we can settle into a new space . In every disruption , there are winners and losers . The winner will , of course , be the one who embraces the new technology quickly and get the first-mover advantage .
For broadcasters , they have to shed the old ways of dealing with technology suppliers . They have to work closely with the systems integrator and up-end their entire workflow . They have to re-train their staff and hire new ones with skills that were not even known a few years ago . They have to treat this disruption as an opportunity , and find the systems integrators who will take them through to success .
10 systems integration 2017