Orchestrating the Cloud
27/11/2020
Scale, infinite scale for material storage and processing.
Resilience, at a fractional incremental cost.
Security, cloud affords greater security and auditability than on-prem storage.
Access, global access to content enabling remote and collaborative operations.
Economical, almost universally costs are on a consumption basis.
Interoperability, through standardised control interfaces*.
*A very welcome development in the broadcast and media industry.
Whilst there has been a significant increase in the use of cloud for production and content preparation workflows, broadly take-up has not been as rapid as it might have been. Aside from the migration issues relating to file size, covered here, the key reasons cited by media companies distil into three headlines: visibility, cost, and control.
These are genuinely held concerns; below are some real-world statements from media operators and details of how BLAM's functionality answers the issue.
Visibility & Discovery we recently put over a petabyte of media into the cloud as a backup / safety copy but now cannot see what we have without restoring it
This is a simple one for BLAM. The BLAM UI makes all media objects visible and playable'. For video assets, BLAM creates a full resolution browse / proxy version of all material that is brought into the platform so that it may be played within a standard web-browser.
The browse / proxy file is typically encoded at 2Mb/s (this is configurable) so the file stored on disk is between 0.5-4% of the original / master file size. If you are using AWS S3 storage, this means that only the small browse / proxy file is required to sit' at Standard Class. The much larger broadcast or mezzanine format may be archived to the Deep or Glacier class in AWS parlance.
The ability to see media and the relationships between media in this way means that cloud storage and services may be used in an extremely cost-effective way.
Content accessibility is enhanced with discovery tools - principally this means search. BLAM supports accessibility of media through a fast and sophisticated search capability underpinned by advanced metadata management for structured and unstructured data. BLAM provides:
Metadata synchronisation with live systems such as traffic or rights management.
Connectors to a range of legacy platforms for bulk data migration.
Generation of temporal metadata generation using AI and other services.
A powerful search capability to support simplified discovery.
Asset relationship management capability.
Cloud storage tagging tools to persist data at the object level.
With all the promise of scalability, our operation still suffers bottlenecks but, in the cloud, ironically, it is more difficult to see where .
Another form of visibility that has been designed into BLAM is real-time workflow monitoring. BLAM provides real-time status information for all processes that it is orchestrating - both for internal processes, such as checking technical data on a file, or long-running processes, such as transcoding. BLAM provides a single interface through which multiple services from multiple vendors (i.e. multi-cloud) can be monitored and managed. Crucially, BLAM supports the management by exception paradigm through alerts in the case of error. Such alerts provide specific detail so corrective action may be enacted quickly.
Cost It is extremely difficult to calculate how much as specific asset or job has cost us, particularly as we use the services of multiple providers
The fundamental of finance control, when using a consumption-based model, is to understand the aggregate cost of performing a specific function. This calculation is complex when using the services from several vendors - the multi-cloud problem. BLAM tracks fixed and variable costs based on transactions across all services, regardless of provider, and can compute these to provide meaningful management information.
Finance in BLAM is based on transaction units which are calibrated as time (seconds) or size (bytes) although these can be customised. Rates are manually set or applied to transactions dynamically through a service API. Calculating costs is then as simple as multiplying the rate by transaction units (which are tracked within each BLAM Workflows BLidget). Tracking transaction units at the BLidget level means that BLAM records data at the most granular level possible. Cost data may then be presented in an entirely customisable way, be it in a graphic form in a BLAM dashboard or in an Excel-based financial report. A common requirement in the content supply chain context is to see the cost of delivering a media package which includes a breakdown of all the services involved so that this may be recharged. An equally common request is to see the total cost of ownership information. BLAM now displays this as standard in the Media view.
It's the egress costs, that is where they catch you out
The fact is that storing large media files in AWS S3 at Standard class is expensive. It is also a fact that egress costs for large files are not trivial - although this aspect is under increasing
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with URSA Broadcast G2
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
18/04/2024
Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative Savage River Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
18/04/2024
Vislink's DragonFly V - The Company's Smallest-Ever Transmitter Debuted at NAB 2024
Vislink's DragonFly V - The Company's Smallest-Ever Transmitter Debuted ...
18/04/2024
MediaSilo to Offer Camera to Cloud with Atomos
MediaSilo to Offer Camera to Cloud with Atomos Brie Clayton April 17, 2024 0 Comments Integration between MediaSilo and Atomos Cloud Studio unlocking ...
18/04/2024
MultiDyne Updates its SilverBULLET Series to Serve More Fiber-Optic Links
MultiDyne Updates its SilverBULLET Series to Serve More Fiber-Optic Links Brie Clayton April 17, 2024 0 Comments MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions intro...
18/04/2024
Cinedeck Partners with Paramount to Revolutionize Content Delivery Process
Cinedeck Partners with Paramount to Revolutionize Content Delivery Process Brie Clayton April 17, 2024 0 Comments Cinedeck, a pioneer in integrated de...
18/04/2024
Unreal for video adding rocks and foliage
Unreal for video adding rocks and foliage Graham Quince April 17, 2024 0 Comments Welcome to my series on learning Unreal Engine for After Effects u...
18/04/2024
Best Budget Beginner-Friendly 4k Drone
Best Budget Beginner-Friendly 4k Drone Sean Alami April 17, 2024 0 Comments Potensic Atom 4k 3 axis Gimbal Drone, ideal drone for beginners. Some con...
18/04/2024
Race or Just Have Fun at Rocky Mount Mills for a Good Cause, Not Your Run of the Mill 5K
Rocky Mount Mills will be overflowing with runners, families and friends, all fo...
18/04/2024
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship Lee, an assistant professor of composition, creates music based on unconventional and nonlinear struc...
18/04/2024
Ben Sherwood, Former ABC President, Named CEO at The Daily Beast
Ben Sherwood, former president of Disney ABC Television Group, has been named CEO and publisher at The Daily Beast. Joanna Coles, former chief content officer a...
17/04/2024
Sundance Institute Launches RFI and RFP Process to Explore Host Locations for the Sundance Film Festival in 2027 and Beyond
Opening today, the exploration is aimed at selecting a location that will preser...
17/04/2024
Spotify's Michael Krause Talks Industry Trends Ahead of Our Music and Podcasting Summits in Germany
On April 18 and 19, experts from across the audio industry-including artists, pu...
17/04/2024
Spotify Brings Entrepreneurs and Trailblazers Together to Talk the Future of Tech in the UK
With its particular combination of talent, ambition, culture, and, of course, wo...
17/04/2024
NextGen Partners With Howard University Professor Nikole Hannah-Jones on Student Podcasting Course
At Spotify, we want to equip student creators with the tools and resources neede...
17/04/2024
Strengthening Australian Industry Capability Through Sovereign Sustainment Support
L3Harris Communications Australia Field Service support continues to grow with a...
17/04/2024
L3Harris Team Aligns 10 Mirrors for NASA's Roman Telescope
An optical technician lays on a diving board suspended between NASAs Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes primary and secondary mirrors. The photo is a projected ...
17/04/2024
Graham Media Selects Bitmovin Playback
DENVER Video streaming infrastructure providers Bitmovin has announced that the Graham Media Group has selected Bitmovin Playback to enhance its viewer experien...
17/04/2024
Survey: LGBTQIA+ TV Visibility Drives Viewership Among Young Americans
LGBTQIA+ representation in TV content boosts viewership among young (18-34) Americans, according to a new report from Horowitz Research....
17/04/2024
New NVIDIA RTX A400 and A1000 GPUs Enhance AI-Powered Design and Productivity Workflows
New NVIDIA RTX A400 and A1000 GPUs Enhance AI-Powered Design and Productivity Wo...
17/04/2024
Frezzi Unveils SunLight 2: The Ultimate High-Output Lighting Companion for ENG and Broadcast Production
Frezzi Unveils SunLight 2: The Ultimate High-Output Lighting Companion for ENG a...
17/04/2024
Peakto Search for Lightroom - Find at a glance among thousands of photos AND videos
Peakto Search for Lightroom - Find at a glance among thousands of photos AND vid...
17/04/2024
Simone Pilon Appointed Executive Director at Berklee Valencia
Simone Pilon Appointed Executive Director at Berklee Valencia Pilon, who has served as Berklee Valencia's interim executive director since March 2023, has a...
17/04/2024
CBS Cuts Off Billy Joel Concert Telecast (Updated)
CBS will re-air Sundays Billy Joel concert telecast this Friday (April 19) after several CBS-affiliated stations abruptly cut part of Sundays telecast of the si...
17/04/2024
Jacqueline Matter Named Co-Host on WTTG's Good Day DC'
Jacqueline Matter has been named co-host of Good Day DC at WTTG Washington. Effective immediately, she co-anchors the 4 a.m. newscast with Stephen Graddick, rep...
17/04/2024
TV Usage Takes March Dip While College Hoops Help Cable
Television usage took its usual March dip, dropping 3% from February, according to Nielsen,...
17/04/2024
BET, Tyler Perry Extend Content Agreement Through 2028
BET Media Group, part of Paramount Global, said it and Tyler Perry had reached an agreement extending their content production deal through 2028....
17/04/2024
Warner Bros. Discovery Names David Porter Head of Ad Research
Warner Bros. Discovery said it named David Porter head of ad sales research, data and insights....
17/04/2024
Lionsgate Signs Exec VP Lee Hollin To Long-Term Deal
Lionsgate said it signed a new multi-year employment deal with Lee Hollin, its executive VP, television and head of current programming for Lionsgate Television...
17/04/2024
Jessica Rosenworcel Speaks at the Paley Museum April 16
Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel sits for an interview at the Paley Museum in New York April 16 at 12:30 p.m. ET. Moderated by Nick T...
17/04/2024
Travis Kelce To Host Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?' on Prime Video
Travis Kelce will host Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, a spinoff of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, that will stream on Prime Video....
17/04/2024
Amy Alvarez Named News Director at Telemundo's KULX Salt Lake City
Amy Alvarez has been named news director at KULX Salt Lake City, the Telemundo station in the market. She comes from KVDA San Antonio, another Telemundo outlet,...
17/04/2024
Frndly Launches Channel Store, Adding 4 Subscription Services to Lineup
Frndly TV, the low-priced, family-friendly streaming service, said it launched a channel store where users can sign up for subscription streaming services....
17/04/2024
TV Tech Announces Winners of Best of Show Awards at 2024 NAB Show
TV Tech has announced its Best of Show Awards for the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas. The awards are judged by a panel of industry experts on the crite...
17/04/2024
Colorfront showcases upgrades across product range
Colorfront has introduced AI vision-analysis tools to assist master QC operations with detecting framing anomalies, dead pixels, bright titles and sparkles By ...
17/04/2024
Meet the Founder and director
By Matthew Corrigan Published: April 17, 2024 Rory Springthorpe, founder and director at outside broadcasting company Vivid Broadcast, talks to TVBEurope a...
17/04/2024
Riedel Enhances Interstellar Technologies Space Launch Wi...
Riedel Communications today announced its collaboration with Interstellar Technologies, a pioneering space transportation company based in Hokkaido, Japan, to o...
17/04/2024
Riedels Simplylive Production Suite Empowers Lafayette Co...
Riedel Communications announced that Lafayette College, a liberal arts college in eastern Pennsylvania and one of 10 core members in the Patriot League, is usin...
17/04/2024
Slovak Telekom and T-Mobile Czech Republic Upgrade Video...
24i, the video streaming platform expert, today announced that Slovak Telekom and T-Mobile Czech Republic, part of the Deutsche Telekom (DT) Group, have extende...
17/04/2024
OpenDrives Recognized on the 2024 CRN Storage 100 List
OpenDrives, Inc., the global provider of software-defined media workflow solutions and data management capabilities, is honored to announce its inclusion in the...
17/04/2024
Goldbach to Leverage Operatives new converged advertising...
Operative is pleased to announce a new and expanded partnership with Goldbach Media, one of the leading media sales organizations in Switzerland. This partnersh...
17/04/2024
Roberts Communications Network Selects Appear X Platform...
Appear, the global leader in live production technology, and Roberts Communications Network (Roberts), the leading worldwide video distribution and wagering dat...
17/04/2024
Mobilelinks Chooses Appear for UHD Upgrade of DSNG Trucks
Appear enables Mobilelinks to meet updated technical requirements. Appear, the global leader in live production technology, has been selected by Mobilelinks to...
17/04/2024
Appear and Skyline Communications Strengthen Partnership...
The expanded solution offers enhanced visibility and automation of production and distribution workflows for live event contribution applications Appear, the g...
17/04/2024
In a major step in its growth strategy Econocom launches...
Econocom, a sustainable digital enterprise and pioneer of the circular economy in Europe, today announced the launch of an ambitious campaign as part of the rol...
17/04/2024
Newsmax Extends Relationship with 24i to Rapidly Launch P...
24i, the video streaming platform expert, today announced that its 24i Video Cloud for OTT service providers is powering the new Newsmax+ subscription service, ...
17/04/2024
AIMS Welcomes Kakadu Software and 7thSense as New Members
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced its newest members: Kakadu Software provider of the world's leading JPEG 2000 development toolk...