
Blue sky thinking: Sky Sports' Alex Judd on the challenges of using cloud in sports broadcasting audio By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, July 18, 2022 - 11:55
Print This Story
Alex Judd, technical specialist and A1 at Sky Sports
After gaining a BA in Music Technology from Thames Valley University in 2005, Alex Judd joined Sky a year later as a sound operator. His career at Sky saw him move into a sound supervisor role, a position which included planning all the audio aspects of production for Sky's 3D broadcasts, and then as a team leader.
This means that Judd has been part of broadcast audio's evolution through a series of tumultuous changes, from 5.1 to 3D to immersive audio, and the switch to IP workflows and remote production. All of this means he is ideally qualified to talk about the next paradigm shift in audio production methods - mixing in the cloud. Here we talk to Judd about what cloud means to him.
_______________________________________________________________________
From a broadcast perspective, what does cloud mean to you?
Personally it means re-imagining signal flows within public-based cloud providers' architecture.
We're talking the internet, not dark fibre here. The ability to potentially move production tech costing to an OPEX model allows for a much more appealing start up value investment. By proving the possibility of this we are allowing more flexible entry points and allowing more live content and productions to get to air.
From a tech perspective it is the evolution of Remi production whereby we separate the processing to a virtualised platform sitting in a public cloud provider.
From a broadcast industry perspective, what are the perceptions of working in the cloud? Is it remote control of a physical processor cloud or does it have to be processed on the public internet? Does remote access of on-prem and edge processing from a PC count?
Cloud is a data centre, whether your company owns it and it's on your premises (on prem), or it's in one of the public cloud providers' data centres. I think what we're really interested in is the virtualisation of production elements such as vision mixers, sound mixers, intercom and MCR functionality for X86 architecture which allows the flexibility to process signal flows in all of the realms above.
Cloud is really something that has been coined to mean x86 based in public cloud.
From an audio perspective, what are the challenges of large scale mixing in the cloud?
The challenges are clear; syncing large quantities of feeds accurately and processing delay.
A lot of this is very manual at the moment. We are yet to see tech solutions working on every element of the chain, from commentator's vison monitors to program TX feeds, and obviously in vision lip sync. There's a huge dearth here to be figured out.
The issue is also that we are currently implementing multiple workarounds to accommodate broadcast specific requirements in typical DAW's.
There are also constraints on bandwidth and audio compression at play in certain parts of the chain. That means that you have to be careful in the planning of the audio chain; using multiple compression codecs managed by different manufacturers, or different settings, may result in chunks of lossy compression at work on your audio.
How much of an issue is latency for cloud, and why?
Latency is a concern for any cloud-based virtualised developer as there are multiple places where it can go wrong.
Let's look at a relatively simple example. Say we take two commentators voicing a feed in separate locations; first, you have the latency of the cloud images from the venue to get to the director who is cutting the images. Then you have the latency of the two commentators talking to one another. The images they are watching also need to be in time with one another so the commentators don't trip over each other. On top of this, they also need to be able to communicate in real time, and we also have the latency of the camera return and communications back the venue crew which need to be factored in so as not to impact on whip pans.
This can all be worked around. But as you scale up, so do the workarounds, and that can make it tough.
Are operators comfortable with mixing on a screen UI or will there always be a need for physical hardware?
It's really down to the individual operators. Currently, we've found touchscreens impossible for mixing. It's very difficult to use them in the same way as a tactile surface such as a fader bank.
I think when you're mixing and you start to do the hundreds of micro adjustments you need to do when mixing, currently a physical fader is just better. Where I see potential for innovation is for the individual screens on a console not being needed as they are virtualised; that could work with a touchscreen.
As the tech improves, I stand to be wowed and corrected, although I'm still waiting for my hoverboard like they had in Back To The Future. Let's see!
Broadcast manufacturers are already going down this path, with audio mixers available in the cloud. How practical is this for live broadcast use?
It really depends on the scale of production you are trying to do. A simple balancing of international sound and announcers could be fine. In some instances, we're actually producing a full Remi via public cloud. This requires additional features you would expect of a more traditional broadcast style console.
Where do you see the adoption of cloud going in the next five years for live broadcast mixing?
I see it only growing and creating additional value services and content for an ever-growing marketplace.
We want to produce and consume in a much faster way than we have previously. Virtualisation in conjunction with cloud allows companies to realise their creative idea
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
29/07/2026
In this series, Grass Valley explores the seven paradoxes shaping the next era o...
29/07/2026
Thats a wrap on Season 1 of SVG Students to Watch! Across the country, these stu...
29/07/2026
The agreement will move Gotham Sports App subscribers to DAZN during the 2026-27...
29/07/2026
Longtime digital-media leader expands role overseeing conference branding, video...
29/07/2026
By Bailey Pennick
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. ...
29/07/2026
Organisation team up with TI:ME USA
Founded in 2019 with the aim of helping educators to embrace new music technology, Technology in Music Education (TiME U...
29/07/2026
Doubling & chorus processor gets an overhaul
Acon Digital have just launched the latest version of their free voice-doubling and chorus plug-in. Multiply 2 ...
29/07/2026
New Pultec-inspired pedal revealed
The latest addition to the Origin Effects line-up brings the legendary Pultec EQ into pedal format. Based on the EQP-1A, ...
29/07/2026
SBS Appoints Chief Commercial Officer and Director of Marketing and Audiences
29 July, 2026
Media releases
SBS is pleased to announce the appointment of Ni...
29/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz showcases unified next-generation broadcasting ecosystem at SET ...
29/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
29/07/2026
Streaming Hits 48.6% of Total TV Usage in May
YouTube Leads in Media Distributo...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Industry veteran joins Amagi to drive growth in Europe's leading broadcast market and advance cloud-native broadcast, FAST, and AI-driven operations.
LONDO...
29/07/2026
Work is ongoing to specify how to run RIST over WebTransport. This will deliver secure, stable, broadcast quality video playback and origination to any platform...
29/07/2026
Offline Files Makes the Drive Shelf Searchable on Mac
Brie Clayton July 29, 2026
0 Comments
A local Mac app for finding files, photos, and footage acr...
29/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces New UltraStudio Mini 12G
Brie Clayton July 29, 2026
0 Comments
New extremely portable Thunderbolt 4 capture and playback ...
29/07/2026
Brightline Lighting, a premier manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting systems for broadcast, videoconferencing, government, education and corporate applicati...
29/07/2026
Applications open for IFFI/WAVES Film Bazaar in Goa - Producer Delegation 28 July 2026
Image credit: Four Years Later
Screen Australia has opened applications...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Foundry today announced that Academy Award-winning creative studio DNEG has implemented Hiero to support its editorial workflows. Part of the Nuke product famil...
29/07/2026
The Latest Addition to the Brand's StudioPro Ecosystem Combines Simple Deployment, Cloud Control and Professional Grade Wireless Reliability
QuickLink, a l...
29/07/2026
The Secret Master Adjustment Layer Hack in After Effects
Graham Quince July 28, 2026
0 Comments
Trish Meyer (who literally beta-tested the original Af...
29/07/2026
Post Completed with Blackmagic Cloud for Shane Kosugi's Feature Film SEEK
Brie Clayton July 28, 2026
0 Comments
Cannes Indie International Film Fe...
29/07/2026
Isabeau Miller Named Chair of Berklee Songwriting Department The Berklee alumna, who previously served on the Songwriting faculty, will begin her new role on ...
29/07/2026
Wednesday 29 July 2026
Hayu is coming to Sky, bringing fan-favourite franchises...
29/07/2026
RT launches Unsolved, a true crime podcast, presented by crime journalist Barry Cummins and presenter Katja Mia.
Unsolved is a weekly podcast exploring unsol...
28/07/2026
LiveU, the pioneer in IP-video transmission and cloud-based remote production, today detailed its historic performance records set during the 2026 FIFA World Cu...
28/07/2026
The NFL franchise rebuilt their off-site content operation for an era when teams...
28/07/2026
Longtime partners expand viewer choice, data-driven analysis, access, immersive ...
28/07/2026
There is a unique moment before every major production. The audience never sees it.
The cameras are ready. The talent is preparing. Directors review the final...
28/07/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced their highly anticipated streaming agreement to bring CW Sports' live events to the ESPN App will officially launch o...
28/07/2026
As more than tens of thousands of spectators filled Paris' Champ de Mars and...
28/07/2026
Appear's X Platform played a central role in Chile's first large-scale c...
28/07/2026
Responding to the broadcast industry's shift to embrace more flexible production platforms, Solid State Logic (SSL) is evolving its comprehensive System T p...
28/07/2026
Production leverages innovative camera technologies, AI, and data to capture the action in four-week inaugural competition
The first-ever professional dunking ...
28/07/2026
Prime Video to exclusively broadcast Wednesday night national NHL regular-season games in Canada...
28/07/2026
Every match will stream live on Paramount+ beginning in February,...
28/07/2026
Baxandall-inspired hardware EQ overhauled
TK Audio's Baxandall-inspired hardware EQ unit has just made a return, bringing the popular unit back into the...
28/07/2026
D700 system gains new live-focused rackmount surface
Asparion have just announced an expansion of their D700 control surface range, introducing a new model ...
28/07/2026
27 July 2026, Johannesburg - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an a...
28/07/2026
Ad Intel AI is Nielsen's first in a new generation of AI products built to t...