Next-Gen Tech Leader Insights: Rob O'Brien
04/07/2024
Based in the UK but with operations in 12 other countries, ITV Studios is a television production and distribution company owned by the British broadcaster ITV plc. Best-known for its output for UK channels such as ITV and Channel 4, ITV Studios is also intensively involved with broadcast production and distribution in the US, Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Israel, France, Spain and Scandinavia.
Overseeing the non-UK technical operations from London, head of international technology Rob O'Brien concisely summarises his main role as being to maintain, organise and innovate. I spend a lot of my time looking at innovation, managing technical teams, and heading up the shift towards a new landscape which inevitably involves a great deal of research around the cloud and computing innovation in general.
Whilst there might seem to be an air of inevitability about O'Brien landing such a role by his own admission he was the geek that teachers asked to help with their IT he insists that he originally studied computing because I was rubbish at everything else! But it's true that I knew from a young age that I was going to pursue a career in technology, and once I had completed my Bachelor of Computer Engineering I started out in the newspaper industry working on picture asset management.
Given his subsequent progression into broadcasting, it was a case of right place, right time' as developers of asset management technology were then beginning to target TV production. Recognising that this is where his aspirations resided, O'Brien had an initial stint at ITV working on ITV's early digital and tapeless initiatives, but also picking up invaluable knowledge of CDNs, transcoding and media distribution. He then spent a period at Sony Pictures, where he added an international dimension to his career by overseeing digital content production distribution for platforms around Europe.
All of this experience meant that he was very well-prepared for his second, and ongoing, stint at ITV Studios. Working as lead technologist in digital creation, O'Brien was tasked with making our use of data more structured and, latterly, working to better align the ITV businesses in the UK and internationally so that they could communicate and create more efficiently. Eventually that evolved into the new role of head of international technology.
Alignment between the different ITV Studios operations continues to be an overriding priority for O'Brien, who works closely with each territory's technology head to ensure that the corporate stacks are working well and that all of the systems we use i.e. for production, data and archiving are effectively organised, and where they differ between operations that they are fully aligned.
Innovation as a Competitive Edge
In terms of both content production and distribution, and the technologies that underpin them, few would argue with the assertion that we are in the midst of a period of profound change. But while this undoubtedly heralds some significant challenges, it also brings with it some exciting opportunities. Innovation is a big part of our world, confirms O'Brien. Everyone is looking at, and comparing us to, the new peers in our market, such as Netflix. That means there is a lot of emphasis on how we can use innovation in order to secure a competitive edge.
It's not surprising, then, that O'Brien keeps a close watch on emerging technology trends, such as the migration of media production to the cloud. Like many broadcast tech leaders, his enthusiasm for the cloud's potential is only marginally tempered by its economic implications. As well as being more reliable for example, in terms of the risk of system failures the cloud offers much greater capacity to change, adapt and scale our operations, he says. So, if we acquire another system, it's very easy to upscale. Plus, there are some fantastic cloud services we can utilise, such as those using AI to deliver translation and localisation services.
O'Brien is also in no doubt that going it alone' for example, in terms of creating a bespoke ITV data centre would be prohibitively expensive, not only in terms of technology, but also in salaries for staff with the necessary technical expertise to run those systems. Building their own data centre would also be problematic in terms of the broadcaster's low-carbon trajectory. Sustainability is a big thing for ITV, we have made a commitment to becoming Net Zero and are on track for that, so it's great that [leading cloud service providers like] AWS and Microsoft support our sustainability targets, he says. We also need to retain the ability to scale up in a way that is sustainable. We are a growing business that is often developing interests in new territories and having that availability of resources whenever we need them is critical.
But he is acutely aware of cloud challenges, especially when working at the kind of scale required by ITV Studios. Of course, there are negatives and cost is potentially one of those. I don't really like the word cloud, I prefer the word rent' because all you're doing, really, is renting someone else's servers. And, if you use too much, it's going to cost more than you expected.
Rapid Content Migration
Many of these strands have come together during the past year as O'Brien has sought a fresh approach to the management of ITV Studios' content archive. Once again, alignment is the watchword here as many of the leading formats are distributed or franchised internationally. If ITV Studios makes a show such
LINK: | https://bluelucy.com/next-gen-tech-leader-insights-rob-obrien/... |
See more stories from bluelucy |
More from Blue Lucy Media
25/11/2024
Blue Lucy takes on The Americas
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES London-based media technology business, Blue Lucy, has set up a US division of the company and appointed Dina Behar Hevert as VP Ame...
17/10/2024
BLAM vs BOLT: what's in a name?
Since its launch in 2020, Blue Lucy's flagship product, BLAM, has also been the company's only product. BLAM is a sophisticated workflow orchestration, ...
09/10/2024
Introducing Lucia
Everything you need to know about Lucia, BLAM's new AI assistant. The Blue Lucy team introduced BLAM's new AI assistant, Lucia to the media and enterta...
25/09/2024
Reasons to be cheerful post-IBC
We've been mulling over our experiences at IBC last week and digesting some of the excellent reports and engaging sessions from the likes of Caretta Researc...
24/09/2024
MIPCOM CANNES
Join us at MIPCOM CANNES this October to discover how Blue Lucy can give you effortless access to your content. We'll be showcasing BOLT, the new super simp...
19/09/2024
Blue Lucy to demo asset portal and host FAST roundtable at MIPCOM 2024
Blue Lucy is bringing its new media portal, BOLT to MIPCOM 2024, Cannes, October 21-24th. On stand P-1.C50A at the MIPCOM Innovation Lab 2024, the team will de...
09/09/2024
Strategies to Value
How easy is it for large, broad scope projects to deliver actual business value? It's a fact that our industry is littered with quietly, and not so quietly...
01/08/2024
IBC 2024
Join us at IBC this September and discover what's new at Blue Lucy We'll be showcasing BOLT, our new super simple media portal which gives media execu...
01/08/2024
Blue Lucy to launch asset portal and introduce AI assistant at IBC 2024
Blue Lucy has announced plans today to launch BOLT on stand 6.C29 at IBC 2024, Amsterdam, September 13-16th. Described as an asset portal, BOLT provides effort...
16/07/2024
BBC Studios picks Blue Lucy's BLAM for agile media operations, collaboration and delivery
Blue Lucy has signed a multi-year contract with BBC Studios, who will continue u...
16/07/2024
An agile media operations solution for BBC Studios' asset management and media transformation needs
In the early 2020's the BBC Studios team recognised that the cloud provided ...
04/07/2024
Next-Gen Tech Leader Insights: Rob O'Brien
As head of international technology at ITV Studios, Rob O'Brien is always on the lookout for new technology that can allow the company to work more flexibly...
04/07/2024
AWS hosted BLAM scores goals for national Australian sporting body
The following case study was created by Blue Lucy partner Amber Technology and first published on their website. A major national sporting body overseeing mult...
04/07/2024
Post NAB Thoughts
April 2024: It's been a week, and we've all now seen everyone's takeaways on the trends that emerged at NAB. Here at Blue Lucy Towers we like to do ...
04/07/2024
Blue Lucy wins Blue Ant Media contract for media supply chain automation
International production studio, rights business and channel operator, Blue Ant Media, has chosen Blue Lucy's BLAM platform for media supply chain automatio...
04/07/2024
Voting for (technical) independence
According to Time Magazine, more than half the world's population will go to the polls in 2024. The fact that the UK's election also coincides with Inde...
08/05/2024
It's time to hit refresh on the product roadmap
We're always being asked about our roadmap, when really what most people want to know is what features or integrations we've got planned. And if you thi...
11/04/2024
BLUE LUCY EXPANDS SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
Blue Lucy, has hired accomplished industry expert Alison Pavitt as chief marketing officer. Pavitt's appointment into the newly created role concludes a per...
06/08/2023
Cloud Ground Canal: Blue Lucy at IBC 2023 6.C29
I was quite pleased to be asked recently by a Canadian colleague what our theme would be for the upcoming IBC. For me, theme reflects the ethos of the Blue Lu...
06/08/2023
Cloud Ground Canal: Blue Lucy at IBC 2023
I was quite pleased to be asked recently by a Canadian colleague what our theme would be for the upcoming IBC. For me, theme reflects the ethos of the Blue Lu...
13/06/2023
Media Companies are now paying for RFP's
Media technology suppliers have been complaining about the tendering and Request for Proposal (RFP) process for a long time. Many of their grievances have been ...
17/03/2023
BLUE LUCY LAUNCHES NOTHING NEW AT NAB 2023
Blue Lucy announced today that they will not be launching any new products at NAB 2023, April 16-19, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. The company will, howe...
17/03/2023
BLUE LUCY LAUNCHES..NOTHING NEW AT NAB 2023
Blue Lucy announced today that they will not be launching any new products at NAB 2023, April 16-19, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. The company will, howe...
17/03/2023
BLUE LUCY LAUNCHES NOTHING AT NAB 2023
Blue Lucy announced today that they will not be launching any new products at NAB 2023, April 16-19, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. The company will, howe...
24/08/2022
IBC '22
The balloon cloud installation at IBC 2018, the cloud in the Rai, as it was known at Blue Lucy Towers, was intended to mark the end of Blue Lucy's participa...
20/07/2022
Six Steps to Successful Service Delivery
On reading our recent article on the Blue Lucy implementation at A E Networks UK, available here, I was reminded that the project was extremely well received by...
06/04/2022
The Media Supply Chain is not enough
Here at Blue Lucy towers, we are constantly intrigued by industry buzz phrases, particularly how even the helpful ones are devalued by overuse and misappropriat...
15/01/2022
The cloud is not enough
Cloud native, software defined, the metaverse; the media technology sector is awash with buzz phrases. And, as with all popular terms which are used too libera...
06/12/2021
The Case Against Consumption Based Pricing
Imagine if TV companies charged consumers by the minute to watch a football match. Or if your office rent increased when you had a particularly busy month. S...
06/12/2021
The case against consumption-based pricing models
Imagine if TV companies charged consumers by the minute to watch a football match. Or if your office rent increased when you had a particularly busy month at w...
09/03/2021
Delivering Efficiency and Precision through Automation
There has been widespread discussion of new, fully digital and cloud based content supply chains, in the media industry since about 2016. Some innovators have p...
27/11/2020
Orchestrating the Cloud
There are probably more cloud-based services providing functional capability for media operations than for any other commercial sector. These services range fr...
24/11/2020
Transform Your Media Supply Chain with Ateme & Blue Lucy
As the complexity of media supply chain operations increases, the requirement for an integrated, business focused approach is vital. ATEME and Blue Lucy expert...
19/10/2020
The Automation Paradox Part 1
The need for content distributors and broadcasters to deliver media to an ever-growing range of consumer platforms has led to a significant rise in the number o...
19/10/2020
The Automation Paradox Part 2
In my recent post The Automation Paradox I highlighted the risks associated with developing a workflow orchestration platform in-house'. Cloud based servi...
15/10/2020
The Automation Paradox
The need for content distributors and broadcasters to deliver media to an ever-growing range of consumer platforms has led to an exponential rise in the number ...
07/09/2020
Automated Content Supply Chain Management in the cloud. Completely in the cloud
Off the Fence (OTF), an award-winning producer and distributor of factual television and feature-length theatrical documentaries, has recently migrated their co...
04/09/2020
Automated Content Supply Chain Management In the cloud, completely in the cloud
Off the Fence (OTF), an award-winning producer and distributor of factual television and feature-length theatrical documentaries, has recently migrated their co...
07/05/2020
Life in the Fast Lane
One of the key requests from our operational focus groups during the early design phase of BLAM-3 was the ability to prioritise workflows, particularly delivery...
30/04/2020
Snowballs, buckets and bill shock
If your content catalogue isn't already in the cloud, you're probably wishing it was right now. Despite the dramatic growth in the media industry's...
07/04/2020
Bring Your Own Bucket
The use of cloud-based storage in the media industry has seen dramatic growth in recent years; more recently the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is driving the ...
07/04/2020
HOW MUCH??? Controlling Budgets in the SaaS Age
Tracking costs, ideally in real time, is an increasingly important consideration for operators in the era of software-as-a-service. While the ability to use hi...
25/03/2020
Snowballing
Content Catalogue too Big to Migrate to Cloud? Try Snowballs, Really One of the principal perceived barriers to migrating a content catalogue to the cloud...
06/12/2019
Outsource Insource
The changing face of service provision in the broadcast & media business. As another production and media content supply chain operator files for bankruptcy and...
06/12/2019
Outsource to Insource
The changing face of service provision in the broadcast & media business. As another production and media content supply chain operator files for bankruptcy and...
06/12/2019
Outsource - Insource:
The changing face of service provision in the broadcast & media business. As another production and media content supply chain operator files for bankruptcy and...
06/11/2019
Technology Special: BLAM Behind the (Beautiful) UI
As an organisation Blue Lucy tends to focus on the business of media operations. The BLAM platform is operationally focused and every function of the platform ...
06/10/2019
IBC 2019 : A visiting vendor's perspective
As we covered in our pre-show blog, this year we decided against taking up our usual spot in Hall 7 of the RAI in favour of attending IBC 2019 as a visiting ven...
28/08/2019
Taking a stand at IBC 2019
It's that time of year again, the late bank holiday is just behind us and thoughts turn to the city of Amsterdam, particularly beautiful in the early autumn...
06/12/2018
TVT & Blue Lucy integrate to create efficient content supply chain workflows
Global content services provider, TVT Media, has integrated Blue Lucy's BLAM Adobe Premiere plug-in into their media management service and software platfor...