![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
Andy Warman, senior vice president of product, Imagine Communications, details how leveraging cloud infrastructure can reduce operational costs and help the planet at the same time!
By Contributor
Published: February 29, 2024
Andy Warman, senior vice president of product, Imagine Communications, details how leveraging cloud infrastructure can reduce operational costs and help the planet at the same time!
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
The public cloud offers media companies new business opportunities and a chance to radically rethink some of the foundational choices in television distribution. At the same time, many media organisations - driven by remote workforces and workflow simplifications - are looking to consolidate broadcast centres or transition to smaller facilities, also enabled by systems modernisation. These two forces are conspiring in a way that has the potential to improve broadcasters' bottom line, while also improving the carbon footprint of the television industry.
Reduction in facilities and infrastructure One lasting effect of the global pandemic is the sea change in workplace presence. Television production and operations teams learned to work remotely, in many cases from home, and the productivity was good. Many media enterprises were already in the process of reducing physical real-estate footprints even before the work-from-home trend, but WFH makes the economics even better - reducing the requirements for in-person office space significantly.
A similar transition has been underway in machine room spaces. As Moore's Law scaling has steadily reduced the size and thermal load of computing and networking equipment, the equipment stack (and related power and cooling) required to produce a finished television channel gets smaller each year. These savings are only realised when operators transition to new equipment, which means the steps of reduction are quite large when they happen. This allows companies, as a byproduct of tech stack modernization, to reclaim and repurpose space once consumed by technology infrastructure - or simply take it off-lease entirely.
Peak demand and steady demand Television production and distribution is a combination of peak demand workloads and steady-state workloads. Linear channel playout is historically a 24/7 operation, requiring a seamless, uninterrupted solution. Resource consumption for these types of channels is predictable with little variation over time. But during high-viewership hours, it can be worthwhile to create multiple versions of channels with different advertising delivered to different viewers in regional or demographic splits - ramping up the resource footprint temporarily. Regional sports and news breakouts also drive up the number of concurrent playlists temporarily, as does systemic redundancy.
Traditionally, technical infrastructures have been built to handle the worst-case demand - even though that demand only materialises a few days a year. This seeming inefficiency (or underutilisation) is often cited in making a case for cloud-based operations as a supplement to on-prem. It is easy to see the potential savings in finding the right mix of on-prem and remote/cloud operations if the technology platform allows a flexible mix of the two technologies.
The goal of most operations teams is to optimise the high-revenue channels with complex advertising and last-moment schedule changes - especially where there is an operational workflow component such as studio and live integration - while using heavily automated, exception-driven (and increasingly cloud-hosted) deployment models for FAST and thematic (non-live) channels.
The cloud is a shared resource - of nearly infinite capacity The public cloud is built and maintained to serve the largest cross-section of potential customers from a vast array of industries, which all have different needs and goals. It is built to be shared, securely, including sharing enormous amounts of network bandwidth. The public cloud is also inherently remote from the users, the content, and the distribution point of view.
The public cloud gets its operating efficiency from scale. Users leverage the cloud provider's dedicated teams who deal with maintenance, system refreshes, security and all the other services that would normally require support from local staff. These cloud provider resources are shared by all users of the cloud platform.
Famously, the public cloud is pay-as-you-use; you do not have to engineer for peak usage - indeed, each day can define a new peak. Being able to use the cloud for peak-demand operations and business continuity means your local plant does not need to dedicate space, power, air conditioning or racks of equipment to the peak demand, but only to the steady-state demand. This provides real, measurable savings in capital, power, and of course real estate.
How much can you save? How much you can save and how much you can reduce your environmental impact by using the cloud will depend on the mix of channels you plan to run there and what you will continue to run on-prem. Some systems are best left running on-prem, while others are well-suited to the cloud. A growing number of users place their high-value linear channels and critical redundancy systems on-prem, but use the cloud for DR, FAST channels, occasional use, and special and live events.
In practice, you should plan for hybrid environments that let you mix on-prem systems and the cloud in a way that works best for your business.
For many users, the greatest benefit of the public cloud is the ability to turn resources on and off as needed. Couple this with the fact that you are effectively outsourcing compute, storage and networking to the provider, and the benefits multiply: the ability to quickly take channels on and off line; a reduct
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)....
26/07/2024
by Ianeta Le'i
I honestly don't remember the first time I met Bryson Ch...
26/07/2024
(L-R) Louise (Karen Gillan) and Antonina (Margaret Sophie Stein) strike up an un...
26/07/2024
Last month, Spotify's annual Songs of Summer predictions made their return, ...
26/07/2024
Summer is peak season for some of our favorite sports and events. Whether you're rooting for the home team at the ballpark or cheering for your country as i...
26/07/2024
Nine talented young professionals completed their vocational training at SGL Carbon in Meitingen from the beginning of June to mid-July, achieving an overall gr...
26/07/2024
Orders1 of $5.2 billion; book-to-bill of 1.0x
Revenue of $5.3 billion, up 13%
...
26/07/2024
(Editor's note: TVTech reached out to several station groups to determine the impact of the CrowdStrike outage on operations. Many, including NextStar Media...
26/07/2024
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. Bitcentral has integrated Pixalate's ad fraud protection, privacy and compliance analytics solution Post-Bid Analytics and Reporting i...
26/07/2024
Aldous Huxley's classic novel Brave New World is a science fiction thriller set in a murky future with a highly ordered society. While Huxley and other sc...
26/07/2024
Hollyland Adds Pyro 7 All-in-one Video Monitor, TX and RX to Pyro Series
Brie Clayton July 26, 2024
0 Comments
Seven-inch 2.4/5GHz wireless monitor wi...
26/07/2024
Geddy Lee Asks Are Bass Players Human Too? Graded Using DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton July 26, 2024
0 Comments
Blackmagic today announced that t...
26/07/2024
Another reminder of the popularity of ad-supported connected TV comes in a survey by Premion and Advertiser Perceptions which found that 61% of the marketers th...
26/07/2024
Nielsen's Gracenote unit said it is selling its metadata about the content of television shows and movies for use in targeting connected-TV advertising camp...
26/07/2024
CBS premieres 13 Days in Ferguson, a special about the aftermath of a police shooting of a young Black man in 2014, on Friday, August 9. The special features Ce...
26/07/2024
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced the launch of their long-awaited premium streaming bundle for the United States. For $16.99 per month, subscribers w...
26/07/2024
It provides multi-voltage output (14.4V, 28V, and 48V) through two XLR4 outputs and one XLR3, offering power to cameras, monitors, and lighting equipment
By Je...
26/07/2024
The lawsuit submitted by investor Scott Baker claims the deal would cost Paramount shareholders $1.65 billion
By Jenny Priestley
Published: July 26, 2024
...
26/07/2024
Florida-based Video Village Miami provides on-set video assist for local commercials and music videos. Frank Collins established the outfit in 2019 after a 20-y...
26/07/2024
QuickLink, the leading global provider of multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, will present QuickLink StudioPro at IBC 2024 (Stand ...
26/07/2024
Relo Metrics (formerly GumGum Sports), the leading AI-powered sponsorship analytics platform for real-time data decisions, today launched an industry-leading in...
26/07/2024
Anton/Bauer, a leading provider of mobile power systems for the film and television industry, has announced the launch of the VCLX LI 1600. The latest evolution...
26/07/2024
Bitcentral, the leading provider of professional media solutions for broadcast and digital video, today announces that it has integrated Pixalate, the ad fraud ...
26/07/2024
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that Secure Automated Backup with Compass , a cloud backup-as-a-s...
26/07/2024
VisualOn IBC2024 Exhibitor Preview
Sept. 13-16
Amsterdam
Stand 5.A52
As video streaming consumption surges, service providers face significant challenges wi...
26/07/2024
Quanteec
IBC2024 Exhibitor Preview
Sept. 13-16
RAI Amsterdam
Stand 1.A05
Quanteec, a global provider of video delivery technology for broadcasters, will s...
26/07/2024
Witbe
IBC2024 Exhibitor Preview
Sept. 13-16
Amsterdam
Stand 5.F84
At IBC2024, Witbe will showcase the power of its automated testing and proactive monitori...
26/07/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The Federal Communications Commission has announced the launch of its new Mobile Speed Test app. The new app features an enhanced user interfac...
26/07/2024
LONDON In a notable landmark for the use of cloud-based services at the Olympics, Alibaba Cloud and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), has today announced the...
26/07/2024
NEW YORK As part of a $2.5 billion media rights deal with the NBA announced on July 24, NBCUniversal and the NBA have also announced an 11-year agreement for ri...
26/07/2024
BEAVERTON, Ore. Versatile Video Coding (VVC) promises to play a pivotal role in driving advancements in video compression technology, with organizations across ...
26/07/2024
COLUMBUS, Ohio The political news channel PurpleTV has expanded it reach with news that it has launched on Channel 25.1 in Columbus, Ohio on TV Station WXOH, wh...
26/07/2024
NEW YORK As part of a push into the contextual advertising business, Nielsen's Gracenote has announced that it is developing new contextual categories to gi...
26/07/2024
Puget Systems Returns to SIGGRAPH 2024 to Demonstrate its On-Premises Generative...
26/07/2024
Dreamtek Delivers Innovative A/V, Live Production and Post Workflows with Blackm...
26/07/2024
Dejero to bring even smarter' mobile internet connectivity solutions to IBC...
26/07/2024
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games are about to begin, and Capitol Broadcasting is rea...
26/07/2024
Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2024 Emmy Awards Twenty-one Berklee alumni received Emmy nominations this year for music composition, sound mixing, and sound editi...
26/07/2024
Jennifer Lyons, president and general manager of WBBM Chicago, is moving into a ...
26/07/2024
Kennan Oliphant has been named VP of news and station manager at WWJ Detroit. He will report to Jennifer Lyons, who has added a regional GM role that gives her ...
26/07/2024
Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose, a four-part docuseries, debuts on HBO and Max July 24. The series details the life of the baseball superstar, includin...
26/07/2024
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games present a unique and exciting opportunity for local...
26/07/2024
Paris 2024: V varo Providing Live Media Transport Services for Leading Internati...
26/07/2024
Paris 2024: BBC Sport on Its Remote Production Workflow for the Summer Games By Heather McLean, SVG Europe
Friday, July 26, 2024 - 7:31 am
Print This Story...
26/07/2024
Paris 2024: BBC Sport Unveils the Olympic Storytelling and Breathtaking Scenery ...
26/07/2024
Paris 2024: Taking a Step Forwards with BBC Sport's Olympic Studio Combining...
26/07/2024
Paris 2024: Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe Provides a First Look at Its Ol...
26/07/2024
Live From Paris 2024: NBC Olympics Set for Historic Opening Ceremony Unilateral coverage builds on impressive OBS production as NBC dives deep into Team USA cov...
26/07/2024
Live From Paris 2024: SVG's Onsite Editorial Team Breaks Down Opening Ceremo...
26/07/2024
True-crime documentary, The Body Next Door to launch on Sky Documentaries and NO...