TV Tech - November 2021 - "Virtualized Playout"

SPECIAL GUIDE: Virtualized Playout November 2021 ebook

www.tvtech.com

TV'S VIRTUAL FUTURE Using the cloud to stream anywhere, anytime

Sponsored by

editor's note

November 2021 FOLLOW US

www.tvtech.com twitter.com/tvtechnology

metamorworks/Getty Images

CONTENT VP/Global Editor-In-Chief Bill Gannon, william.gannon@futurenet.com Content Director Tom Butts, tom.butts@futurenet.com Content Manager Terry Scutt, terry.scutt@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer George Winslow, george.winslow@futurenet.com Contributors Gary Arlen, Susan Ashworth, James Careless, Gary Eskow, Steve Harvey, Craig Johnston, Bob Kovacs and Mark R. Smith Production Manager Heather Tatrow Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban Senior Design Directors Lisa McIntosh and Will Shum

Going Virtual

ADVERTISING SALES Vice President, Sales, B2B Tech Group Adam Goldstein adam.goldstein@futurenet.com MANAGEMENT Senior Vice President, B2B Rick Stamberger Head of Production US & UK Mark Constance Head of Design Rodney Dive

In early 2020, as the world went into lockdown over COVID-19, the media industry didn’t have the luxury of following suit. More than ever, TV stations and other media enterprises had to adjust to the “new normals” imposed by social distancing and disrupted (and cancelled) events.

It’s often been said since then that the industry’s transition to the cloud was what enabled television to quickly adapt to a scenario that was nearly invisible to viewers.

Despite how the shutdown affected live production, most viewers were unaware of the hurdles stations faced in providing continuous news coverage as well as continuing to produce scripted programming.

The pandemic has demonstrated to us the advantages the cloud and IP bring to increasing the flexibility and reliability of providing linear and on-demand programming anywhere, anytime, on any device. And the advances made over the past two years as vendors have responded to the challenges and changing environment have brought more confidence to enterprises that are seeking to phase out their SDI-based facilities.

In this month’s ebook, we explore how the concept of virtualized playout has changed over the past two years and take a look at the evolution and future of cloud for TV.

FUTURE US, INC. 130 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10036

All contents © 2021 Future US, Inc. or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication.

Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.

If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents,subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage.

We assume all unsolicited material is for publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.

Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com

contents 4

Making the Cloud Work for Broadcast

9

Basics: End-to-End Cloud Media Production

12 14

Cloud vs. Virtualization for Playout: Does It Matter?

The Evolution of Multimedia Cloud

COMMENTS? Have a comment or suggestion about this ebook or other ebooks from TV Tech? Drop us a line at tvtech@futurenet.com.

ON THE COVER: Photo credit: metamorworks/Getty Images

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | November 2021

3

virtualized playout

Making the Cloud Work for Broadcast ‘The meaning of virtualized playout has changed significantly in the last 12 months’

By Bob Kovacs

Y

ears ago, science fiction author Isaac Asimov said that although forward thinkers in the 19th century could imagine the automobile, they completely missed the necessity of parking lots. It wasn’t until we had experience with an increasing number of automobiles that the need to park them close to where you had business was obvious.

Deep thinkers in the mid-20th century could envision computer-to-computer communications, and by the 1970s the rudiments of what became known as “the internet” started to fall into place. By 2000 or so, use of the internet had become so common that files were described as being uploaded to the “internet cloud” in one location and downloaded in another.

However, this cloud was only for transport—it wasn’t until some forward thinker combined storage with the cloud that the power of the internet began to increase exponentially.

tent to their audiences with pop-up channels or feeds to social media outlets at any time,” said Karl Mehring, senior commercial director for playout at Grass Valley.

“The speed and responsiveness of the cloud means that a team can engage with a major event or secure rights, or just have a brainstorm, then launch a TV channel in next to no time.”

SPEED & FLEXIBILITY If you can think it, it can become an actual channel… perhaps by the end of the week.

Besides the speed and flexibility of set up (which are no small benefits, of course), what else makes virtual playout a better mousetrap for broadcasters?

“Cloud playout can turn what has been a largely one-way street into an opportunity for conversation with the audience,” Mehring said. “Advertising and relevant information can be directed with great precision to relevant viewers and, with greater

SPINNING UP This brings us to the topic of virtual playout, a function that could not have existed 20 or possibly even 10 years ago.

“The meaning of virtualized playout has changed significantly in the last 12 months,” said Ewan Johnston, strategic partner and channel director for news at Dalet. “It is now considered synonymous with ‘cloud playout,’ with the benefits of rapid set-up, management from anywhere and an OpExmodel, enabling content creators to rapidly spin up new channels.”

How quickly can you “spin up” a new channel? “Broadcasters and rights holders now have the opportunity to play out con-

4

"The meaning of virtualized playout has changed significantly in the past 12 months.

It is now considered synonymous with 'cloud playout.'"

EWAN JOHNSON, DALET

November 2021 | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | www.tvtech.com |

twitter.com/tvtechnology

Grass Valley’s Agile Media Processing Platform is a scalable cloud-first playout solution.

knowledge of the audience, new kinds of programming can be developed that would have been impractical with a wide broadcast approach.”

In addition to changing the interaction paradigm with viewers, virtual playout eliminates the capital expense, physical space and operating costs associated with master control facilities.

“It brings operational flexibility and ready scalability,” said Ignacio Revuelto Rosello, product marketing manager for Imagine Communications. “And it attempts to get rid of hardware dependencies. Given today’s hardware capabilities, it is best suited to handling transport streams rather than uncompressed, high-resolution video over IP.” One of the most amazing points about virtual playout is that there can be (and almost certainly is) a channel that uses only compressed signals and never deals with the storage and bandwidth needed for uncompressed HD and UHD content.

virtualized playout DECISIONS, DECISIONS If you have an existing broadcast distribution system, what questions should you ask if you’re thinking of replacing it (or adding to it) with a cloud-based system?

Start with defining the features and functions that drive your core business.

How can you best monetize your content without ruining the user experience?

“Most broadcasters want to deliver the highest possible video quality,” said Rob Gambino, director of solutions at Harmonic.

“They want richly branded channels with custom graphics, and many of them are now investigating personalization and regional variants to increase viewer engagement.”

Then look at complexity and price.

“Although traditional broadcast architectures are well understood, to move to a virtualized solution means adding an extra layer of computing overhead and intricacy

Rick Young, senior vice president and head of global products for LTN Global

for orchestrating hypervisors, VMs and virtual resources,” Rosello said. “Similarly, the cost of licenses for [the necessary software] plays a part in total cost of ownership.”

Finally, do you have a need for temporary channels?

“Broadcasters will often gain the right to broadcast major events where the ability to bring temporary channels to air is a must,” said Rob Gambino, Miroslav Jeras, chief technology director of officer at Pebble. “The Olympics are solutions at Harmonic a great example of this where multiple sports are required to be broadcast concurrently, or elections where the results in each area of a country are being revealed at any one time.”

There are several companies with experience and products to address setup and operation of virtual playout systems.

LTN has a range of products, including web-based resource monitor connected via a LTN Transport, which provides predictable secure link. low-latency streams anywhere in the world, Also new is an enhanced version of with dedicated support infrastructures Cloud2TV. Available on a SaaS subscription, that are often preferred by linear channel it is fully compatible with existing AirBox providers. LTN Schedule is a hosted playNeo-20 playout infrastructure and can be out platform that allows live and non-live used to extend both scale and functionality. elements to be managed across the same Specific Cloud2TV applications are assigned timeline with the flexibility to support a to content ingest, graphic editing, media wide genre of channels, including entertainbrowsing with metadata handling and clip ment, sports, esports, wagering, and news trimming, quality control and verification, and information. transcoding, playlist management and audit “For channels that include lots of live logging. programming like sports and news, we’ve GV AMPP Playout is part of Grass Valley’s extended our centralized production service Agile Media Processing Platform application [LTN Flex] to help companies ramp up suite It’s a scalable cloud-first playout solucontent production for full-time or pop-up tion that lets users deploy any number of channels,” said Rick Young, senior vice channels, where and when they need them, president and head of global products without requiring any additional infrastrucfor LTN Global. ture.

Playbox NEO, another prominent Imagine’s Versio software-based playout developer of virtualized playout engine is designed to operate in a private systems recently updated its data center or in the cloud, providing video AirBox NEO automated streamprocessing capabilities with peripheral ing and broadcast playout functionality such as synchronizing video, system. Suitable for local or audio and metadata, and inserting complex IP-linked remote control, it graphics in real time. allows playlist scheduling to The Harmonic VOS360 cloud streaming be performed weeks ahead of platform is a managed solution that allows actual transmission. Media files creation of linear channels, live events and can be finessed, rescheduled or streams. Using the platform, operators have integrated with live production. control over content ingest, scheduling, playPlaylists can be configured for 24/7 out, encoding, monetization and the creation automated operation on any scale, of channel variants, with real-time agility. including support for multiple time Pebble’s Automation software platzones in multiple languages. Recent form provides centralized ingest, content refinements include GPU acceleration to management and multi-channel solutions, achieve fast file decoding. Input/output configuration can be performed using a Continued on 8 twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | November 2021

5

virtualized playout

Playbox NEO recently updated its AirBox NEO automated streaming and broadcast playout system.

Continued from 5

and can be scaled from one to hundreds of channels. The company’s Virtualized Playout solution is a software-only implementation of Pebble’s Integrated Channel device, and it is configurable for any channel whether it is IP or traditional SDI.

SECURITY IS PARAMOUNT With anything on the internet, security is a paramount concern.

“There are two major aspects to consider regarding playout security,” Dalet’s Johnston said. “One is the security of the platform to allow a highly available service for premium SLAs. Second, the security of the content that is played out to ensure it is not leaked and distributed before the required playout date.”

Interestingly, being in “the cloud” may make operations more secure, not less. For example, an agreement with a cloud operator could require that all content and operational modules be stored in multiple locations, accessible with different passwords. A ransomware attack could be fended off by moving to the unaffected system.

“Cloud service providers such as AWS or Google have a huge amount of money to spend in security that far outweighs that of an individual broadcaster,” said Grass Valley’s Mehring. “They are trusted by banks and the stock market to run their systems, so platform security should not be an issue. We

8

work closely with these companies to ensure that our products are architected from the ground-up with security in-mind.”

Mehring said that Grass Valley runs regular internal security checks within its CI/CD pipeline and employs data specialists to perform regular security penetration tests, all intended to provide better security than was possible in traditional on-premise systems.

said Pebble’s Jeras. “However, every broadcast playout workflow is unique, so properly supporting any broadcaster’s needs requires agile software development, a collaborative approach for the lifetime of the project and, crucially, an experienced engineering and deployment team.” l

WIDESPREAD INDUSTRY GROWTH The sudden availability and growth of virtual playout systems does not immediately render physical broadcaster-owned playout systems obsolete, but it does provide a new distribution method that the clever and fleet-footed can exploit. With the Great COVID Panic of 2020-2021 forcing the general population into swiftly accepting virtual workdays and meetings, Miroslav Jeras, chief technology viewers are more primed than officer at Pebble ever to accept new ways of enjoying their favorite content—and finding new favorite content.

“More and more media organizations are examining the merits and challenges of migrating their broadcast playout operations to IP and virtualized deployments,”

November 2021 | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | www.tvtech.com |

twitter.com/tvtechnology

cloud workflows

Basics: End-to-End Cloud Media Production

By Karl Paulsen

A

paradigm shift in media-production technologies is changing how the cloud is perceived, used, presented and applied to media production. The lines between ground-based and cloud-based media production are becoming blurred. One of the first steps in getting to a cloud-based production environment is understanding how the requirements and the components differ; and those physical hard interfaces are being replaced by topics like dashboards and virtualized desktops.

We start with cloud computing, an application-based solution known also as an “infrastructure in the cloud.” Cloud computing is divided into a front-end part and a back-end part. To the user, these details don’t need to be thoroughly understood—but it is helpful to know that the end-to-end ecosystem is changing so that acceptability of these differences can be evaluated and adopted.

Users needing access to the cloud will typically employ a browser and will utilize a (public) internet service provider (ISP) for that access. Sometimes, instead of an ISP, there may be a direct connection portal available by the cloud service provider as a

cost-added feature that provides for faster, more secure connectivity.

The primary component of a cloud computing solution is its back-end, which has at its core the responsibility for securing, storing and/or processing data on its often proprietary central servers, compute stacks, databases and storage sets. Cloud computing is multifaceted employing databases, servers, applications and other elements including orchestration, storage and monitoring.

For years this Cloudspotter’s Journal has identified the advantages of cloud capabilities including scalability, virtualization, availability and the like (Fig. 1). It goes

Fig. 1: Cloud service providers and overall benefits are described in this example of global connectivity. twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | November 2021

9

Background photo credit: EujarimPhotography/Getty Images

Analyzing the medium's path from tape to data

cloud workflows without saying that services available in the cloud continue to grow. Yesteryear had cloud focused on storage. Today, cloud providers offer hundreds of specific services ranging from compute and storage to cloud consulting (through partners) and management.

Each provider aims to enable users to deploy their compute and storage requirements in the cloud offering various competitive platforms, all eager for users to experiment in any way conceivable.

MEDIA-SPECIFIC AND CLOUD FORWARD In more recent times the capabilities typically exposed in cloud services have started to reach deeper and farther into media-specific offerings. Global connectivity coupled with the rapid exchange of content throughout the world has strengthened those capabilities, with the provisioning of services increasing at an almost exponential rate.

Applications for media production in the cloud are no longer just a unique opportunity; they are becoming a way of operating.

Cloud-forward initiatives are definitely expanding beyond simple storage and compute functions or alternatives to back-office software consolidation. Once thought of

Major media organizations are steadlily adopting and combing technologies that take the hardware ouf of the shop and place it in an entirely software-centric environment. for storage as backup, cloud services now endeavor to provide full-time playout of programming on a channelized basis that includes sports, gaming, OTT services and delivery, and even into end-to-end production using core products from providers who had previously only utilized ground-based server architectures.

Major media organizations are steadily adopting and combining technologies that take the hardware out of the shop and place it in an entirely software-centric environ-

Fig. 2: Depiction of how cloud providers support virtual desktop infrastructures linked into corporate data centers servicing mobile, at home and intra-facility workflows.

10

November 2021 | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | www.tvtech.com |

twitter.com/tvtechnology

ment connected by on-ramps and off-ramps located almost anywhere. Dynamic scalability and high-performance storage/compute capabilities are enabling this fundamental change in how content is assimilated into the production ecosystem.

Today GPU-based virtual machines are now enabled using infrastructure-as-code into software applications that were formerly run on dedicated “pizza-box” servers. As a result, organizations are already shifting away from in-house central equipment rooms and past the outsourced data center directly into public cloud environments.

Media-workflows are now being developed as cloud native solution sets, ignoring how things “used to be done” and placing them into unconstrained, non-interdependent environments that are treated almost like the way a new-greenfield facility might have been engineered for single purpose occupation as recently as five years ago.

Automation is a key factor in the success of making cloud-native media production successful. Back-office-like servers are no longer mainstream. Individual sets of configurations coupling a single function device into the next single operation are evaporat-

cloud workflows

ing. Plug-in management that was custom tailored to the product and then tweaked to meet the operational needs are now orchestrated to rapidly adapt to multiple functional requirements without discrete, complex or time-consuming adaptations.

Once the automation process is confirmed and the capability requirements are established, the rest just happens. Through a dashboard abstraction of the functions, users are then ill concerned with all the nuances of manually moving files around various services that are typically steeped in numerous interfaces, which must be individually accessed and configured for each successive use or application. Flows are continuous, repeatable (if necessary) and able to be monitored.

Using configuration management tool sets, images of the application specific interfaces (APIs) are landed on a resource pool of compute servers that operationally never see the light of tech-administrators. Systems are booted up, configured for the applications per the dashboard and the artist/editor starts their creative tasks.

COLLAPSE AND REDEPLOY Once the production, show or activity is completed and confirmed, automation then collapses the environment, which stops the process and halts the billing charges.

Ground-based users don’t do anything other than confirm the “end” or “stop” command and walk away. If there is a requirement to change or adjust something, the exact configurations can be re-established and the

workflows can continue as before.

New capabilities were brought into accelerated use as a consequence of COVID-19 and are being applied to “next-gen-production” ecosystems. Content supply chains can now be adapted to cloud, assuming the feature sets are available. Previously groundbased features, such as analysis, transformation and quality control, now become exception-based background tasks in the new cloud model.

New capabilities were brought into accelerated use as a consequence of COVID-19 and are being applied to "next-genproduction ecosystems.

Virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) essentially takes all the previously required elements of media-production and wraps them into a solution that is secure, features high-quality and fast-reacting actions and can be accessible anywhere there is a stable internet connection with sufficient bandwidth (Fig. 2).

VDI technologies, which utilize functionality known as “zero-clients,” offer users a variety of advantages including mobility,

accessibility, flexibility and improved security.

The latter, security, is accomplished because now the data lives only on the servers and does not need to be transported to the active users’ workspace. Cloud-enabled platforms can replicate data using other secure technologies only to specific locations, even employing transparent ledger technology known as blockchain.

Microservices and containerization are the keys to this future cloud infrastructure for production (Fig. 3). Calling up only what is needed, only when it is needed, is what production services in the cloud are moving to.

Entire catalogs of capabilities are growing out of these cloud-native services, which up until now, could not be established except through discrete sets of hardware and software that were purpose-built to do one and usually only one specific function or operation.

Reliable, secure, scalable, protected and cost-effective media production—without the annoyances of managing a complex local infrastructure—is changing the face of media from one end to the other. Whether the production services are hosted in a public cloud, in a regional co-lo site or even in your own private data center, the concepts developed (and being perfected all the time) are real, available and are here today.

If you’re not currently using these kinds of services, you probably will in short order.

Stay tuned. l Karl Paulsen is chief technology officer at Diversified and a frequent contributor to TV Tech in storage, IP and cloud technologies. Contact him at kpaulsen@ diversifiedus.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | November 2021

11

Background photo credit: EujarimPhotography/Getty Images

Fig. 3: Microservices are connected via API gateways to users who interface to the services via public internet or cloud service providers.

digital first

Cloud vs. Virtualization for Playout: Does It Matter?

The broadcast industry is adapting at a fast pace, forcing operators to rethink workflows

By Igor Krol

I

n recent years, broadcasters have been increasingly lured towards cloud playout solutions, giving them a simpler and more affordable way to manage live channels, while enabling scalability for being able to evolve fast. However, there are different iterations all claiming to be cloud playout, from virtualized solutions running in private cloud data centers to remote access to on-prem hardware. From a broadcaster’s point of view, does it matter?

Are all clouds made equal?

THE EVOLUTION OF PLAYOUT The broadcast industry is adapting at a fast pace, forcing operators to rethink workflows.

None more so than the linear TV models

12

from the last decade, which have had to compete with the rising popularity of streaming services. Although on-demand content continues to grow, opportunities exist for linear broadcast to hold its place in the competitive landscape. However, in order to do that, providers have had to adapt fast, finding more cost-efficient ways of delivering the same high value and high-quality content to viewers across the globe.

While other industries have been preoccupied with the use of more advanced technologies such as AI and blockchain and other cool new technologies, broadcast is still stuck in the past and preoccupied with getting old legacy devices (set top boxes, satellite transmission equipment, etc) and standards to work with new means of distribution. That fundamentally has been the ultimate drag

November 2021 | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | www.tvtech.com |

twitter.com/tvtechnology

on innovation in the space, and a digital first conundrum hangs over the industry.

DISRUPTING THE MARKET Cloud infrastructure has been a crucial part of market disruption in video distribution due to its unmatched scalability and reach. Whereas the giants of streaming/ VOD content distribution such as Netflix and YouTube have been born in the cloud, linear TV and broadcasters operating them have been probably the last bastion of on-prem solutions.

Virtualization has been part of the cloud technological stack—providing a way to run multiple software processes on the same hardware while ensuring that hardware is used to its full potential. But that may be just one component of the multifaceted side of the public cloud stack. These rapid changes

digital first long-term financial benefits.

Most importantly, achieving scale, quality and security of larger public cloud providers has been unattainable even for the largest media organizations.

4. ADAPTABILITY True cloud applications aren’t tied to proprietary hardware or hosting in a specific data center. This means that services can be deployed and accessed across different regions closer to the distribution and consumption of content, accessible usually through a web browser interface by channel operators.

With cloud playout coming to the fore, linear TV is no longer defined by 24/7 channels only, scheduled but short-term pop-up channels around live events are gaining traction as a use case. Cloud playout, run on systems offering a multitenanted and shared backend allows for fast scaling in response to viewer demand, enabling the immediate launch of new channels or closure of existing ones not getting sufficient audience share.

True cloud applications can evolve fast as market needs change, whereas alternative solutions require intervention to update hardware.

5. REDUNDANCY in the broadcast industry have meant that the adoption of cloud technologies for playout is inevitable.

CLOUD VS. VIRTUALIZATION One of the continuously perpetuated misconceptions in the broadcast industry has been in presenting cloud-native applications as nothing more than remotely accessed software run on a virtualized server in a data center.

Virtualization has the same goal as cloud—to provide a way to run multiple software processes on the same hardware while ensuring that hardware is used to its full potential. But that may be as far as the similarities go.

Additionally, some hardware manufacturers have been marketing remotely accessed, traditional playout hardware servers as “cloud playout solutions.” In reality, such an approach has little to do with the values of true cloud.

cloud can be remotely accessed through common operating systems and is much easier to maintain. Without the backend of cloud technology, virtualization demands substantial commitment of resources to manage applications.

2. COMPLEXITY Gone are the days of complex hardware.

True cloud optimizes resources to deliver efficiency, meaning broadcasters can operate large numbers of channels and feeds globally.

Operators can respond quickly to rapid and complex industry changes by self-managing their cloud system, without needing external input.

Virtualization and remote access need specialist equipment, bringing additional maintenance requirements and increases the investment cost and risk.

3. COST SAVINGS ARE ALL CLOUDS EQUAL? There are a few key ways that true cloud differs from the purely virtualized:

1. RESOURCES Cloud resources encompass storage as well as networks, servers, applications, and services. With no physical infrastructure, the

True cloud playout requires little or no upfront investment. With competition soaring between cloud resource providers, the overall cost to users is falling. Virtualized services and remote access both require additional hardware and/or specialist servers. When you factor in the costs saved on resources and maintenance over time, cloud solutions offer

Redundancy is a core advantage of cloudbased solutions. True cloud automatically backs up media and other assets without requiring additional investment, resources and manpower. Redundancy and resiliency are directly in-built in cloud-based solutions.

With remote access, redundancy isn’t automatic and requires investment in additional systems along with ongoing maintenance.

Beyond technological challenges, the broader industry continues to focus on external shifts in perceptions of security and feed quality. For linear TV to thrive, it must embrace the reliability of cloud technology.

By using IP to reduce the costs of operations, broadcasters can drive the adoption of cloud playout, ensuring their own future through major cost-savings and boosting efficiency.

Embracing the right technologies can be the difference between success and failure. Cloud playout can easily coexist with traditional broadcast technology, integrating itself with many aspects of existing hardware-based infrastructure. This allows a gradual replacement of legacy equipment and software which in turn enables new workflows to be implemented without major disruptions in operations. l Igor Krol is CEO of Veset.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | November 2021

13

cloud adoption

The Evolution of Multimedia Cloud Analyzing the medium’s path from tape to data

By Karl Paulsen

M

ultimedia creation and its content distribution are prime candidates for cloud. Already a rich source of information, creativity and complex media generation capabilities—leveraging the cloud for its production, assembly and migration to the user is helping the industry create things such as apps, messaging, advertising, blogs and most anything requiring multiple steps or iterative processes.

Cloud-based multimedia can be useful when addressing global challenges, telling stories, linking commercial content with programs or for any combination of those or similar elements. While in the almost-distant past now, videotape was a widely adopted and accepted methodology for packaging multimedia elements into a cohesive and linear format. That model has obviously changed.

Post-videotape, users transported content (as files) through a facility’s ecosystem and then on to the home via various continuity assembly and transmission mediums—including the internet and web. Today, even those processes are dimming because of cloud.

CONTENT CREATION Prior to the rapid evolutionary adoption of cloud services multimedia content was constructed in segments that consisted of a conglomeration of audio, video and other data. Each of those processes, prior to the exclusivity of desktop content creation, were essentially individual steps with conversions, handoffs and usually manual transfers and tweaking just to get from one stage to the next in the process.

Elements were usually created by selecting from myriad applications, video and audio slices, software-sequencing components, entire packages and extensions to suites of applications, and from hybrid sets of non-professional, consumer and professional computer-centric solutions. Assembled elements took many paths, which essentially

14

terminated at a storage solution (tape, disk or other) where the materials waited for a linear path to “on the air” or other transport.

PRE-ERA CLOUD None of that era’s activities needed “the cloud.” There was no cloud in those days, despite facility operators who tried to develop the concepts in their own central equipment rooms or in later cases, maybe a “CoLo-data center” that they owned or rented.

Even before that era the interchange of the content was fairly uniform across the entire industry. Sans a few pirate formats, linear videotape or file-based servers became the marketplace winner for the storage, playout and distribution of content. Gradually segments of those endpoints (storage, for example) moved to the cloud and the backup/ protection took up roost in an archive that no longer lived “on prem.”

Although, at that time, the primary release medium for such content was a television transmitter stick, other distributions still happened via microwave, satellite or groundbased transport on copper or fiber-optic mediums. Eventually cable/satellite took a foothold. Until video-on-demand became possible, live linear playout and home recording from OTA or cable was the foundation for the storage and replay of library and real-time content. Once mobile devices emerged, even VCRs, CDs and DVDs lost their popularity.

Web-services changed that model once again. Private services became repositories that stored and hosted similar activities, and—although not necessarily referred to as “cloud”—essentially this was the foundation for a multitude of cloud-like storage and/or playout services.

BROADCAST PLAYOUT Playing content, from a broadcaster’s perspective, has followed a constant evolution of applying elements on an end-to-end basis. Take for instance how the video server evolved not only in physicality but in the performance, acceptance and the many applica-

November 2021 | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | www.tvtech.com |

twitter.com/tvtechnology

tions possible because of the nonlinear basis of the video server.

Program content would leverage the sequential playout of files from a storage bin to the MCR or continuity playout platform.

It took one file, linked it to another smoothly and completely, and delivered it to an encoder which prepared the content for the end user.

Such workflows turned into a “channel,” which was consistent, repeatable and reliable. Yet this still didn’t “leverage” the cloud beyond a method for storing completed content or its elements as a protective backup medium.

LOCKED AND CONSTRAINED Much of these workflows were generated using a set of individual discrete components housed in a broadcast station’s central equipment room or network center. Hard, physical connections made this happen. Software elements were then tightly coupled to devices to achieve precise timing sequences according to a “log” generated by another entity.

The model was not unlike what occurs in a CDN (content delivery network), yet broadcast playout still had not made it to the cloud as a whole. Unshared, physical datacenters owned by content creation entities started to see an emerging web-based distribution ca-

9000

cloud adoption

Fig. 1: Workflows and associated multimedia services within a multimedia cloud ecosystem

pability—but not for long. Outsourced cloud services were not far behind.

MOVE TO INTERACTION A common thread in this model is linearity, but it lacked any other form of interaction. In the past (pre-home video VCR or DDRs) viewers enjoyed a program without distractions; without the ability to stop, rewind or replay; and without the ability to interact, comment, change or alter the conveyance. Cloud and web once again would change that model.

Legacy playout models have since “left the dock” and will likely never come back to port.

Enter the next generation of content playout.

Cloud playout services are now pretty well flushed out. Cloud now offers numerous options, is flexible, and is in use by many content providers besides just those local or network entities such as broadcast stations or networks.

Cable and satellite service providers saw new workflow support needs and seized the opportunity, but still didn’t address the next major transition—that of the cloud. After years of building gigantic equipment spaces to support playout/distribution, providers would eventually pare down the enormous capital

equipment costs and the physical space (and infrastructure) requirements to the point that, for some providers, there is little if any amount of “creative” production hardware left in their facilities other than for live-studio like productions—which are also now “moving to cloud” as well.

CLOUD EVOLUTION CONTINUANCE Individual entities that produce interstitial content (advertising) used by the multichannel video programming distributors have seen the cloud handwriting on the wall for a longer period than the MPVD itself, but that too is taking a serious directional change.

Like the multimedia workflow chain described earlier, the cloud has been enabling the harmonization of interstitials with program content at a steady pace. Like the move to remote capabilities brought on full-strength

by COVID-19, the ability to create and manage end-to-end requirements is now being molded into the cloud, and by a workforce that can in many cases “not be in the physical facility” to do so. Cloud is helping reach such capabilities at a rapid pace. Discrete steps in the workflow

now became “services,” which users and non-service users could access in a variety of ways (Fig. 1).

Putting all the content elements together is possible because of numerous paths, options, speeds in processing and the multitude of extended capabilities brought about by cloud.

Service providers can now manage the workflows, becoming automated and intelligent along the way.

Organizations now deal with both the workflow and workforce factors in real time.

Change is more than upon us and flexibility is now a daily reality.

As end users have found, legacy workflows that required the merging of applications to generate a single foundation discovered it could take longer to execute those combinations than it took for the entire creative process of developing the multimedia content message itself. Once users and owners became familiar with cloud workflows, capabilities and proficiencies there was no turning back. l Karl Paulsen is chief technology officer at Diversified and a frequent contributor to TV Tech in storage, IP and cloud technologies. Contact him at kpaulsen@diversifiedus.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Virtualized Playout | November 2021

15