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Cloudy future for broadcasters ?
How are virtualised production solutions helping the content industry keep pace ? “ The media and broadcast landscape is continually evolving ,” notes Tim Burton , managing director , 7fivefive . “ As virtualised production becomes the norm , teams will increasingly rely on cost-effective and scalable virtualised infrastructure . Virtual editing environments must offer a high level of control , in order to meet production schedules and ensure Cloud costs are managed effectively . Keeping teams on track to ensure they can match consumer demand is important , but so is keeping them on budget every stage of the workflow . Virtualised infrastructure should ensure teams can easily monitor the number of users , bandwidth usage , and file access as well as seamlessly connect to on-prem infrastructure , so that data does not become siloed .”
“ Virtualised Cloud implementations of production systems enable a faster time to market , lower CAPEX investments , quicker
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Lockdowns and binge viewing habits have seen content consumed at an ever-greater pace , with the production and commissioning sectors having to adapt to the new reality . What role can solutions such as the Cloud and AI play in helping broadcasters ? Colin Mann sought the advice of a range of industry experts .
upgrades to support new features , and the ability to scale up and down depending on demand ,” advises Ahmed Swidan , director of personalised TV solutions at Ateme . “ These benefits and agility that they give to content owners are key to allowing for the nimbleness needed in today ’ s complex media landscape .”
“ Virtualised production solutions help the content industry create more content more efficiently by giving a team access to a
“ Virtualised Cloud implementations enable a faster time to market .” - Ahmed Swidan , Ateme wider talent pool without the need to relocate someone to work on a specific project ,” suggests Peter Abecassis , senior product marketing manager at Grass Valley . “ It also means production staff can work on more projects as they don ’ t need to travel from one place to another . Because virtualised systems can change in scale and feature sets from one event to another , it removes the huge overhead of buying , shipping , and integrating hardware . What used to take days – or sometimes months – can now be done in minutes .” RICHNESS . “ We see big ambitions by content providers to develop the richness of the user viewing experience ,” reports James Taylor , managing director , InSync Technology . “ Virtualised production allows for very rapid growth in the density and complexity of coverage due to the inherent scalability of virtualised resources .”
“ Technology vendors began preaching the benefits of remote live production well before the pandemic , particularly as an application for 5G networks ,” recalls Brett Sappington , vice president , Interpret . “ At that time , much of the consideration revolved around cost efficiency as the primary driver . None could have anticipated that virtualised production would become a necessity , rather than just a cost savings measure . Virtualisation allows you to expand the scale of coverage with the same sized staff . For example , cameras that can be controlled remotely allow more options , including camera placement in places that were not previously possible or safe . Producers