IBC Reflections: Cisco's Roger Sherwood, Samira Panah on the Cisco Media Blueprint as a Roadmap for the IP Transition The strategy includes a growing emphasis on sports broadcasting By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - 1:53 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Cisco was at IBC 2017 promoting the traction it has gained with its Cisco Media Blueprint as M&E organizations look to transition their operations to IP. Among the major media clients implementing the Media Blueprint, according to Cisco, are NBCUniversal and Viacom.
During the show, SVG sat down with Cisco's Roger Sherwood, global strategy, M&E, and Samira Panah, regional manager, M&E, to discuss the market's reaction to the Cisco Media Blueprint since its launch 18 months ago, how it can enable the move to virtualized infrastructure and the cloud, the broadcast vendors it has partnered with on IP solutions, the company's plans to grow its position in the sports-production vertical, and the importance of security as broadcasters move to the cloud.
Roger Sherwood, global strategy, M&E
What is Cisco promoting here at the IBC Show for the M&E market?
Sherwood: We are focusing on the momentum we're seeing right now with the Cisco Media Blueprint. At NAB [2016], we formally launched the Media Blueprint, bringing together several products in Cisco's portfolio to focus on media and entertainment. At that point, we made an effort to start talking to our customers extensively and looking for the solutions they needed, identifying where Cisco can play a major role. This industry is going through the fastest transition that we've seen in any industry in terms of [transitioning] to IP, cloud, and virtualization. Seven of the world's largest broadcast-media companies have latched onto that initiative, which we announced here at IBC 2017. They've all started deploying in-line with the Cisco Media Blueprint.
When we came up with the idea of Blueprint, we deliberately didn't want to tie anybody into a specific architecture that was all Cisco. There's a whole ecosystem of partners that we know we had to convince to come aboard on this. This is an entirely new space for us, so we are very proud of the global broadcasters that we have been able to attract on this, with the highlight being NBCU, who has adopted almost everything we put into the Blueprint.
Samira Panah, regional manager, M&E
Tell us a bit more about NBCU's adoption of the Cisco Media Blueprint.
Panah: It was really validating to have NBCU's [CTO/SVP of Engineering, Operations, and Technology] Keith Jackson at our [IBC press event] provide a very stellar endorsement of our Blueprint strategy to make their transition to IP across the production studios, postproduction space, and distribution. They are leveraging our infrastructure stack as the backbone for the preparation, management, and distribution of all their content.
Furthermore, we also had Viacom's CTO David Kline come out and endorse where we are going from a content-distribution perspective, which is outstanding. We are setting a template for customers to crawl, walk, run, and Viacom is a great example. They are leveraging our D9800 [network transport receivers] for the distribution of their satellite feeds, and the flexibility of that platform also will allow them to dip into the IP world if they ever want to. Those IRDs are capable of taking on ABR transport-stream technologies, so, if any of our customers leverage those next-gen IRDs, they can always shut down a satellite and move to IP distribution as well. It's great because we can future-proof the platforms that we are coming to market with today.
I think our sports and entertainment customers can look at those major organizations and find commonality.
Whether they're production studios, remote facilities, postproduction, distribution, or all of the above, we have an answer. So it's been really rewarding to see the positive response so far.
Eighteen months ago, many in the industry were skeptical of Cisco's commitment to M&E. How has that sentiment changed?
Sherwood: I wouldn't say that I went in with no doubts at all; we knew we had some challenges and preconceptions to overcome. I think the key for me was the first 12 months. IP has been talked about in this industry since as early as 2009-10, and the initial [projection] was that [the transition] was still five to 10 years away. Even though, today, only about 5% of the broadcast market is actually looking at IP and has a proof-of-concept toward deployment, we are now seeing a domino effect around those early deployments. It's moving far quicker than I think anybody thought.
We are getting to the point where we can take more of a cookie-cutter approach. For example, Grass Valley resells our IP fabric solution completely bundled with their solution. That's how we are going to see this scale very quickly.
Virtualization is the next thing. Now that [the industry] is accepting that IP is going to happen, the question becomes, What can we do with it? And the first step is to get those proprietary hardware systems into a virtualized software stack. That's the next thing that I think we will see a lot at NAB [2018]. From there, we'll see that trickle-down effect across the entire industry.
How important is it for Cisco to partner with established broadcast vendors in pushing this transition to IP?
Panah: In general, Cisco's strategy as we build our own products has been to partner, acquire, and then to co-innovate. Of course, there's going to be applications that exist within our customer base that are dependent on [existing vendors] like Grass Valley, Evertz, Imagine, Snell [Advanced Media], and we are going to be able to work with them end-to-end on our stack. I think the partner e
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...
05/05/2024
A special evening performance by multiplatinum singer Becky G will provide a memorable conclusion to TeievisaUnivision's Casa Cultura upfront event on May 1...
05/05/2024
Giant media buyer Publicis is telling network sales executives that it does not think Nielsen's new panel-plus-big-data currency is ready for this upfront....
05/05/2024
WASHINGTON Glenn Kirschner, legal analyst at NBC News, blasted the media for referring to the New York trial of former President Donald Trump as a hush-money ...
05/05/2024
Catchy Comedy's weekend marathon sees The Beverly Hillbillies on the weekend of May 4-5. The event kicks off Saturday, May 4 at 11 a.m. ET, and runs through...
05/05/2024
NBC Sports has the 150th Kentucky Derby Saturday, May 4. The coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock and the feature race at Churchill Downs in Louis...
04/05/2024
NEW YORK As the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month kicks off in May, Nielsen has released an extensive new report diving into their media habits with data sh...
04/05/2024
PHILADELPHIA As National Military Appreciation Month gets underway, Comcast has announced several new initiatives to help veterans, service members, and their f...
04/05/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced a tentative agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled...
04/05/2024
The Broadband Forum has announced major enhancements to key 5G convergence standards that the group said will help advance next-generation applications, improve...
04/05/2024
Spotify Wrapped Campaign Spot Graded With DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 3, 2024
0 Comments
Blackmagic Design today announced that Colorist M...
04/05/2024
Three Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alums Nominated for Tony Awards An additional eight alums and two current students performed in nominated productions.
...
03/05/2024
An innovative learning tool to help media and civil society better understand ho...
03/05/2024
PARK CITY, UTAH - JANUARY 21: (L-R) Actors K stutis Cic nas and Greta Grinevi i t , Director Marija Kavtaradze and Producer Marija Razgute attend the 2023 Sunda...
03/05/2024
If you aren't familiar with Danny Ocean's music, it's only a matter ...
03/05/2024
Spotify has an unwavering commitment to supporting emerging artists across all genres, to helping them launch and thrive in their careers, and to connecting the...
03/05/2024
Como uno de los sonidos de mayor expansi n en el mundo, la M sica Mexicana va m ...
03/05/2024
As one of the fastest-growing sounds worldwide, M sica Mexicana is more than jus...
03/05/2024
NEW YORK FuboTV reported that it lost 110,000 subs in Q1 2024 but it exceeded its guidance for the quarter with double digit year-over-year increases across key...
03/05/2024
Only 3 Weeks Left To Enter The Creative Industries Most Award
Brie Clayton May 3, 2024
0 Comments
Creativepool is giving a last call to the creative i...
03/05/2024
WePlay Studios Transforms the Future of Live Event Storytelling with AJA Gear
Brie Clayton May 3, 2024
0 Comments
By 2032, the esports market is expec...
03/05/2024
WASHINGTON Shannon Bream, Fox News Sunday anchor and chief legal correspondent, sat for a keynote chat at The Business of TV News, with Tom Umstead, senior co...
03/05/2024
WASHINGTON Asked how important is local news, Martha Raddatz, who has covered foreign conflicts for decades and moderated presidential debates for ABC News, s...
03/05/2024
Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management have made a $26 billion cash offer fo...
03/05/2024
CBS announced its 2024-2025 primetime schedule, which features the new dramas NCIS: Origins, Matlock and Watson, and new comedies Poppa's House and Georgie ...
03/05/2024
Sports-focused streaming service Fubo said it reduced its red ink in the first quarter, despite losing 110,000 subscribers since the end of the year....
03/05/2024
Walmart is reportedly about to release a new 4K streaming box/smart speaker hybrid device for Google TV that could retail for as low as $50, according to a repo...
03/05/2024
Enhancements to its Delivery Workspace solution provide increased content delivery robustness and security
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: May 3, 2024
Enha...
03/05/2024
According to reports, if the bid is successful, Sony would be the significant majority shareholder of the new private company
By Jenny Priestley
Published: M...
03/05/2024
Located in Manchesters Spinningfields district, the course aims to equip students with the skills, knowledge and industry insight for a career in the creative s...
03/05/2024
Lightbridge has created a new Cine Reflect Lighting System kit, dedicated to enabling artistic lighting with consideration of today's productivity practical...
03/05/2024
Broadcast media systems integrator BeckTV and Lawo worked together on a large-scale AES67 build of radio control rooms at KPBS, San Diego's NPR and PBS memb...
03/05/2024
Raleigh, NC, April 12, 2024 SmallHD announces PageOS 6, a powerful software update free for owners of SmallHD monitors, featuring increased functionality, exp...
03/05/2024
SmallHD announces the Quantum 32 a new 31.5 OLED monitor designed to provide reference HDR/SDR images for post-production final color grading, as well as cri...
03/05/2024
By 2032, the esports market is expected to grow to $9.29 billion, bolstered by a global player count and fan following that both continue to climb. The 2023 Lea...
03/05/2024
Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV (CTV), today announced that the 11th edition of the Amagi Global FAST Rep...
03/05/2024
Riedel Communications today announced that Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) is relying on a media and intercom network based on Riedel technology for the renewal of...
03/05/2024
Broadpeak , a leading provider of content delivery network (CDN) and video streaming solutions for content providers and pay-TV operators worldwide, announced t...
03/05/2024
Media technology innovator Limecraft will exhibit the latest updates to its online platform on stand G79 at the 15-16 May 2024 Media Production & Technology Sho...
03/05/2024
Audio interface specialist Prism Sound is partnering with console manufacturer Solid State Logic, professional monitor manufacturer PMC and acoustic panel and d...
03/05/2024
Intinor, Sweden's leading developer of products and solutions for high-quality video over the internet, is set to join forces with its UK partner Zest Techn...
03/05/2024
NAKIVO Inc., a fast-growing software company dedicated to protecting physical, virtual, cloud, and SaaS environments, announced its Q1 2024 financial results to...
03/05/2024
Hiltron Communications announces an addition to its range of satellite communication products and systems: a field-upgradable motorisation kit specifically desi...
03/05/2024
Visit LiveU at Stand D30
With this year an exceptional one for major sporting events alongside multiple, key elections, the power and flexibility of LiveU'...
03/05/2024
Agile Content, the leader in the development of technology and solutions for the provision of television services over the Internet, announces Koldo Unanue as i...
03/05/2024
Eight co-signers representing streaming services, pay TV operators and public interest groups have sent a letter to Congressional leaders urging their Committee...
03/05/2024
BOSTON Brightcove has announced that it has implemented Amazon Q Business, a new generative AI assistant on Amazon Web Services (AWS)....
03/05/2024
NEW YORK CBS has declared that it will finish the 2023-24 season as Americas Most-Watched Network in primetime for the 16th consecutive season....
IBC Reflections: Cisco's Roger Sherwood, Samira Panah on the Cisco Media Blueprint as a Roadmap for the IP Transition The strategy includes a growing emphasis on sports broadcasting By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
