As streaming services proliferate and viewer demands increase, broadcasters face pressure to produce more content cost-effectively. Many are turning to cloud-based solutions, but the transition isn't straightforward.
Linear television is no longer the sole focus. Broadcasters manage content across multiple platforms, necessitating cloud-based production workflows for enhanced flexibility and efficiency.
“Broadly, we are seeing a collapsing of media technology product market segments,” said Rick Young, senior vice president and head of global products at LTN. “We are seeing a transformation where segments like live content acquisition, playout, graphics, switching, publishing and delivery are all being combined under one product or solution. This is a new scenario and media companies able to leverage these technology enhancements are best positioned to compete.”
“Technology is the main driver of efficiency and cost savings today with scalability and elasticity, but it’s not just the technology itself, it’s also the new workflows it enables. With today’s connectivity and collaboration enabled by new tech we are seeing massive efficiencies with mutualized resources across teams, locations and organizations avoiding duplicate efforts while delivering better results,” said Aaron Kroger, product marketing lead, Dalet.
The shift from traditional broadcast infrastructure to cloud systems presents challenges, including legacy integrations, infrastructure costs, and training.
The broadcast industry's cloud transition faces integration hurdles while maintaining security. “My approach would be by islands. That would offer the broadcaster to climb on the learning curve distributing the risks and costs over a longer time span,” said Sergio Brighel, executive vice president of robotics and prompting technology at Videndum Production Solutions. “Hard transitions like ST2110, remote production and cloud based assets cannot be executed without a phased approach.”
Successful cloud migration necessitates careful planning. “Moving to cloud is often a trigger to simplify workflows more generally, reducing unnecessary complexity built up over time,” said Tony Jones, principal technologist at MediaKind. “However, a move to cloud is disruptive and requires those workflows to be reconsidered, meaning it can often spur an efficiency-focused reset.”
Security in hybrid environments adds complexity. “Broadcasters are trying to identify single points of failure in either their own or their service providers’ workflows,” said Chris Clarke, chief revenue officer and co-founder of Cerberus. “Recent security events and DNS issues have highlighted the fact that reliance on particular vendors, networks and cloud providers doesn’t fit into best practices.”
“To manage this transition successfully, broadcasters should partner with trusted cloud service providers, implement strong security measures, and focus on gradual migration of operations,” said Jay Ganesan, senior vice president of APAC at Amagi. “We recommend starting with specific functions like playout or disaster recovery, then expanding to full cloud-based operations as teams become more comfortable with the new technologies.”
Remote production's rise emphasizes reliable connections. “Remote production is fast becoming the norm, even for complex live events. That is calling for very sophisticated network connectivity, demanding the highest standards in quality, reliability, latency and security,” said Sergio Ammirata, founder and chief scientist at SipRadius.
Robert Szabo-Rowe, head of engineering and product management at Tata Communications, noted the shift from satellite to IP-based distribution. “Broadcasters find satellite distribution increasingly costly and less accessible as mobile operators use more spectrum for 5G. We can expect broadcasters to accelerate their shift toward IP-based distribution,” Szabo-Row said.
“The ability to send signals anywhere, to be viewed on any device with ultra-low latency, is transformational,” said Ammirata. “Using techniques like rist2rist means distribution networks — to remote editors, to supervising producers, to final delivery — can be spun up via the cloud when needed; dropped the moment the production ends.”
The transition demands new IT skills. “You can’t just mirror the fault finding and integration approaches of SDI when moving to IP,” said Paul Turner, director of product management at AJA Video Systems. “Your video engineers must understand the basics of how network switches work, traffic shaping rules, NMOS, etc. It requires a lot of training of the technical staff.”
“Moving from traditional production techniques to remote and collaborative live events with people and hardware in multiple locations demands completely fresh thinking,” said Ammirata. “No longer are workflows constrained by the technology: We can put creation, control and processing anywhere, meaning you have the freedom to create the workflows you really need to deliver the program.”
Smaller broadcasters face unique challenges in attracting and retaining skilled personnel.
While cloud solutions offer long-term cost advantages, careful financial planning is crucial. “By transitioning to the cloud, media companies replace large CapEx investments with flexible, on-demand services that can easily provision more resources at a moment’s notice,” said Young.
“When considering costs, a holistic view is merited, considering all the costs involved for both the on-premises and cloud options (such as maintenance, server upgrades, cooling, building rent, IT staff),” said Jones, emphasizing the importance of total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis when considering the cloud.
“Cloud and remote productions enable broadcasters to produce most live content at a lower cost. By utilizing centralized remote production, organizations can operate with smaller teams and transport less equipment, which minimizes travel, transport, and accommodation costs,” said Szabo-Rowe.
Cloud technology enhances resource management. “Cloud technology brings on-demand flexibility… meaning better utilization of resources as well as the ability to scale up as needed. This avoids the high costs and inefficiencies of maintaining idle resources when they are not being used,” said Jones.
“With the unpredictable nature of breaking news, sporting events and elections, the cloud allows for resources such as storage and media processing to instantly scale up and down to meet these demands all while doing it sustainably. No longer do you need large systems sitting mostly idle to manage those peaks, instead the cloud scales up just for those moments which can greatly reduce your carbon footprint,” said Kroger.
“The most palpable benefit of moving workflows to a cloud, whether private and controlled, or public, is that investing in hardware that sits idle most of the time is no longer required,” said Chris Scheck, head of marketing content at Lawo. “Also, less gear needs to be transported to venues and arenas for live coverage, while collaboration and distributed production scenarios may be faster to implement.”
Despite challenges, cloud adoption is inevitable. The flexibility and scalability align with the industry's evolving needs. “The big shift that I am feeling is an increased sense of pragmatism in the industry. Specifically, a broader acceptance that the broadcast platforms and workflows that we deploy increasingly need to align, from a cost and complexity perspective, with the value of the content being created,” said Andy Hooper, senior vice president of live products at Ateliere Creative Technologies.
“Cloud services significantly enhance the scalability of broadcast production by allowing broadcasters to rapidly adjust their operations in response to demand. This flexibility enables quick launch of new channels, seamless adaptation to market conditions, and the ability to scale resources up or down as needed, all without the limitations of physical infrastructure,” said Ganesan.
The shift to cloud-based workflows represents a fundamental change in broadcast content production and delivery. While challenges persist, the benefits drive adoption.