EBU and IABM members come togeer to experience the succeful Sandbox Live IP Producion Sio

EBU and IABM members come together to experience the successful Sandbox Live IP Production Studio project Networked Media Production event explores viability of live IP production from camera to distribution with true interoperability Key players within the Broadcast & Media industry came together in early March in a unique studio environment to examine the business and technology case for the full IP studio.

Facilitated by a collaboration between EBU and IABM, more than 50 members of the combined broadcaster and supplier community participated to learn about and experience the first fully IP studio built in Europe by VRT in Brussels.

Day 1. John Ive, Director of Technology and Strategic Insight who hosted the event, wasted no time getting into the nitty gritty of the issues, chairing two key sessions throughout day, one focusing on the strategic and management viewpoint.

First to be discussed was the background of change in our industry right now, covering the three big drivers of change:

Changing from linear production to cross-media content production

Competition from non-traditional broadcast companies

The need to control costs

And the four main themes behind technology driving the business:

Greater focus on the user experience

The need for more flexible production workflows

Media cyber security

Broadcast Services and distribution services

Echoing throughout the first day were the sentiments of the IABM's Annual Conference in December, that the industry needs greater collaboration between suppliers and broadcasters to roadmap a technology and business plan for the future of the business.

At the forefront of this was the need for assistance from suppliers when broadcasters are investing large sums of money in new or refurbished facilities. Most broadcasters are facing a dilemma when it comes to re-equipping new buildings to take their businesses forward for the next five to ten years. What technology investments need to be made, what workflow dynamics need to be accounted for and what cost-savings can be forecasted to fit within a decreasing budget?

Put simply how much do you commit to future unproven IT/IP based technology compared to known legacy systems based upon like SDI? Will SDI continue to suffice despite a huge growth in media consumption across mobile and internet and the increasing need for broadcasters to be more efficient?

The appeal of IP with its alluring hope of increased flexibility, more agile network and workflow possibilities and potential cost savings is an intoxicating mix for hard-pressed broadcasters. VRT also stated that they were responding to the Digital Shift in production, organizational responsiveness, in consumers and the need to Do more with Less .

The devil is always in the detail and VRT should be hugely congratulated in taking a bold and gallant step to put in to practice one of the first multi-camera studio systems based entirely upon IP. The system is still experimental but has already provided valuable experience and insight.

In summary the technology works, is robust and could deliver savings compared to traditional broadcasting methodologies. Key lessons were learned and imparted:

The need to use open standards

The importance of an easy user and operator experience

The need for reliability and quality

The essential requirement of data security

However, it became very clear that more collaboration was essential in driving the business case for full IP broadcasting forward. There are still some key hurdles to cross that just cannot be done without collaboration, for example -

More work on standards is required

System design, workflows and business models all need to be revisited because reproducing and SDI environment in IP, will in the long term, not deliver the full benefits

There is a huge issue with regards to the softer' issues of change management - changing work practices, skills, expectations and the more human elements associated with moving over to IP

The end of day one ended with two thoughts on everyone's minds - that the live debate on day two was going to be extremely interesting indeed and that the IABM and EBU had a clear mandate from those present to continue to lead this crucial initiative into the future of broadcasting as we know it.

Hans Hoffmann, EBU Senior Manager of Media Fundamentals & Production explored the drivers for the change and what lessons could be learnt from the VRT Sandbox use case. He identified the following key requirements:

Flexible change to adapt to new workflows

Effective in terms of workflow, cost and change

Fast content production and distribution, anytime and anywhere

Scalable with growing Content demands in terms of technical quality

Secure

He summarized the longer term view as follows:

The innovation cycles of ICT are much shorter than we used to have with broadcast systems, we need to speed up and adapt!

Parallel tracks for development and innovations; Technology, Standards, Creatives

Cloud first - business driven approach

IP Networked Media - technology drives innovation

Virtualization and automation - changes the workspace drastically

Mick de Valck, VRT Director of Technology and Innovation, then spelled out The strategic & management viewpoint', discussing the real-world challenges for broadcasters in moving to live IP. He also outlined the mission of the Live IP project:

To build and operate a live TV production studio using IP-based & IT-centric hardware & software

Enabling the digital shift & new workflows

Proving agility andscalability of IP

Proving do more with less

Innovative collaboration of industry leaders

Based on open standards

Next level of interoperability

Many IABM members who participated in the project and were present at the event.

Karel de Bondt, Project Manager and technology architect Woute

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