IBC 365: Cloud Playout: Covid-19 Fuelling Increased Migration as Broadcasters Seek Greater Flexibility
Implementing some degree of cloud-based playout has been a marked trend for a while now, but this year's momentous events are certain to accelerate developments. In this article, Executive Vice President Ciaran Doran, alongside other industry personalities talks to David Davies about the changes in broadcast workflows.
In the context of the profound changes that have impacted most aspects of broadcast workflows during the past few years, it was surely only a matter of time before playout underwent a similar quiet revolution. That has now arrived in the form of cloud-based playout, which opens the way for broadcasters to enjoy greater flexibility and cost-efficiency, either as a sole platform or as part of a hybrid playout infrastructure that typically includes on-premise facilities.
Markus Placho is vice president of video products at SES, a leading provider of global content connectivity solutions via satellite, which currently manages playout for more than 525 channels and delivers over 8,400 hours of online video streaming per day. There is more and more demand [among our customers] for cloud-based playout, primarily due to flexibility and the opportunity to scale up and down more easily, he says. Pop-up or temporary channels - for example, those connected with sporting tournaments - would be a good example here as they allow playout to be achieved without the need to invest in hardware for a short period of time.
For SES, this realisation has recently led to the development of its own bespoke cloud playout infrastructure together with Microsoft Azure; Placho envisages that many of its customers will want to migrate some or all of their services to this platform . But as the following round-up makes evident, innovation is hardly in short supply elsewhere in this market, with numerous vendors bringing new or updated cloud-based systems to launch over the past 18 months.
Cloud playout overview
Cinegy's software playout product, Cinegy Air, has been available to run in the cloud for more than three years as a BYOL or rental offer. It comprises two key components - Cinegy Playout Engine and Cinegy Air PRO operator interface - which can be run independently on different instances.
Michael Jacobs, the company's head of professional services, highlights a specific USP from an operational cost perspective: One of the advantages of using our software is that we can make extensive use of any Nvidia GPU, which is available to offload CPU cycle costly jobs such as encoding of output streams with H.264 or HEVC and insertion of complex graphics. This means that running an HD channel with branding can be achieved on a very modest cloud instance with associated costs.
The advantages of cloud-based playout are now firmly established and further underlined by the impact of Coronavirus, indicates Jacobs, who says the primary benefits for Cinegy's customers are the reduction in capital expenditure, reduction in time for deployment of pop-up channels for large-scale sporting events, and the flexibility which comes from not being tied to a hardware deployment. Additionally, given the current climate, there is the ability to [enable] their engineers and operators to continue their day-to-day tasks without being in the same building as their colleagues and equipment.
Software company nxtedition's offer revolves around the use of on-premise virtualised private cloud infrastructure. According to creative director Adam Leah, its customer base of regional and national broadcasters has geographical borders, and therefore the elasticity and scalability of a public cloud is not necessary for their day-to-day playout requirements. Instead, their requirements focus more on speed and cost.
As a dynamic live led' playout system, the area of adoption nxtedition sees the most is the recycling of content made by the client through the day, either live-on-air or to live streams, apps, VOD, web or social media. Moreover, the use of localised private cloud technology allows not only the minimisation of latency and bandwidth load, but also the creation of smart channels that are populated with the content of either searches or linear playout of live material in the correct order, without the content moving anywhere else.
Ciaran Doran, executive vice-president at Pixel Power, positions playout within the frame of a broader trend towards virtualised services which can run in the machine room, the corporate data centre or the cloud. Hence the company's development of products such as Gallium and StreamMaster, and the pursuit of a licensing philosophy that entails each aspect of the functionality remaining the same, wherever that functionality is implemented. Broadcasters determine their own business case, and will make their own decisions on how to implement their own systems.
But where cloud-based playout is desired, one frequent motivating factor is the need to open pop-up channels, for instance around a major sporting event, notes Doran. The fully transferable licensing model means that - rather than adding to the risks of the pop-up channels by operating them remotely - stable and proven channels [can] be moved from the premises to the cloud, leaving capacity free for the pop-up channels to be spun up under the direct control of the engineers.
Channeling playout
Amagi's main offer in this area is the CLOUDPORT cloud-based channel playout platform, whose primary selling points including the leveraging of significant automation for processes such as playlist generation and quality checks for configurable parameters. As well as pre-recorded content, CLOUDPORT can also be deployed to manage live broadcast and is able to ingest content from multiple live sou
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
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, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
29/04/2024
(L-R) Mark Gatiss and Polly Walker on set
Monday 29 April 2024 Further casting is now confirmed for Bookish (6x70), a brand-new drama created by Emmy Award-wi...
29/04/2024
A groundbreaking initiative offering training and mentoring to 30 women journali...
29/04/2024
Even though we've been doing this for over 40 years, a spark of excitement r...
29/04/2024
L3Harris is delivering manpack radios to U.S. Army CH-47 Chinooks as part of the Air-to-Ground Networking Radio program, providing seamless, resilient communica...
29/04/2024
He writes in Defense One: Despite the near-universal acknowledgement throughout the U.S. government and defense industrial base of the criticality of resilient ...
29/04/2024
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/04/2024
Codemill aims to revolutionize media workflow efficiency at this years NAB Show by introducing Just-In-Time (JIT) playback technology in Accurate.Video Validate...
29/04/2024
April 29, 2024
-- TF1 Chooses Broadpeak to Power Targeted Advertising for New...
29/04/2024
LOS ANGELES Allen Media Group (AMG) has partnered with LG Electronics to bring 223 Local Now FAST channels to LG's free streaming service, LG Channels, avai...
29/04/2024
OTTAWA Ross Video has announced the introduction of Raiden, a data-driven weather graphics software that combines data gathering, processing, and visualization ...
29/04/2024
Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision's end-to-end service offerings for...
29/04/2024
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that it has received a patent on its technology for dynamic autho...
29/04/2024
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that Rally Access Workstation, a fully managed solution for editing in...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, a premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality remote commenta...
29/04/2024
Glookast has chosen Jigsaw24 Media as the only UK channel partner to represent their portfolio of ingest and workflow optimisation products. The agreement, sign...
29/04/2024
Clear-Com played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Leveraging its cutting-edge Eclipse HX Digital Matrix i...
29/04/2024
PlayBox Neo will promote its complete range of television channel management, graphic branding and playout solutions to EMEA region media content owners and bro...
29/04/2024
Lingo, RuPaul's word-twisting game show, returns for season two on CBS Friday, May 24. Two episodes air that night, and stream on Paramount Plus, too....
29/04/2024
ESPN and Amazon Prime Video are reportedly close to scoring television rights to the National Basketball Association, according to published reports....
29/04/2024
Judge Judy and Hot Bench, CBS Media Ventures' genre-leading court shows, have been renewed through the 2025-26 TV season in more than 95% of the country, Gr...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, an Irish-based premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality re...
29/04/2024
The awards celebrate the craft of behind-the-scenes TV talent and the best programmes of 2023
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 29, 2024
The awards cel...
29/04/2024
The team at Milk had to create and deliver the VFX and environment work for the royal residences featured in the drama from scratch
By Jenny Priestley
Publis...
29/04/2024
CEO Bob Bakish is expected to leave the company as early as today, with a new leadership committee likely to run the company on an interim basis
By Jenny Pries...
29/04/2024
Albena Ivanova, director, media and entertainment and strategic products at CHAOS talks to TVBEurope about her route into the industry
By TVBEurope Staff
Pub...
29/04/2024
The acquisition gives Grand Technix the opportunity to expand its footprint in the audio visual and broadcast technology sectors
By Jenny Priestley
Published...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
29/04/2024
Capitol Broadcasting recently became the inaugural company honored with inductio...
29/04/2024
April 29th, 2024 UNINTERRUPTED AND TRIBECA ENTERPRISES PARTNER FOR SECOND-ANNUA...
29/04/2024
Rebrand and refresh: SailGP talks bringing its graphics operations inhouse for a...
29/04/2024
Reflecting on a Storied Career: Sean McManus Looks Back While Keeping an Eye on ...
29/04/2024
Drones Take Flight Inside MSG: How Sky Candy Studios is Upping the Excitement fo...
29/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Announces a Diverse Lineup of Polish Titles to Debut i...
29/04/2024
Tonight on Smoke and Mirrors: Fanyana feels embarrassed about his sexual mishapDon't miss Monday, 29 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Sm...
29/04/2024
Talk about commitment. When startup SEA.AI, an NVIDIA Metropolis partner, set out to create a system that would use AI to scan the seas to enhance maritime safe...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
IBC 365: Cloud Playout: Covid-19 Fuelling Increased Migration as Broadcasters Seek Greater Flexibility 
