In an interview with NewscastStudio, Farrell discusses Dalet’s own transition to becoming a fully cloud-native SaaS provider after three decades in on-prem software.

Farrell says the pandemic accelerated Dalet’s customers’ embrace of cloud technology as it enabled remote collaboration and distributed workflows. He notes the company is focused on helping clients migrate with a product roadmap that spans legacy on-prem systems as well as new cloud-native offerings.

Looking ahead, Farrell expects acquisitions and consolidation to continue among media companies as they seek efficiencies, as well as among software vendors like Dalet looking to expand their platforms. 

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Walk me through where Dalet is today and what your vision is moving forward with the company.

Dalet is a 30-year-old company, but it’s going through a transition. So, the vision here is to get through the transition to be a fully cloud-native SaaS company as quickly as we can. We’ve executed fairly rapidly now. I’ve been with other organizations who’ve been through this technology transition before.

We’ve been very careful as we’ve gone through the transition to check in with customers on our plans and our roadmap. Does it resonate? Is it the thing that they’re looking for? Checking with people like yourself and analysts. Is the market driving the needs we’re trying to solve?

Part of this is looking at the technology. The foundation of this transition was moving to a single-stack cloud-native product. If you know anything about Dalet, we’ve been on-premise perpetual software. We acquired a cloud product, Flex, several years ago. We have other cloud products, but we weren’t bringing them together fast enough for the needs the market was driving.

It wasn’t until NAB this year that we actually said too much about what we were doing. We’ve released new software, cloud-native software, in 2022 and 2023 along with the vision.

We’ve been able then to provide value to our customers as we go through this transition as well as service our traditional markets and news market, our content owner markets. Now we’ve looked at other markets that we could service: sports leagues, teams and federations, plus government and those type of institutions. More recently, large brands and corporations are now looking at media as a key asset in their business operations. How do you take content and use that content to attract customers, sustain leadership and things like that?

We have to come at this at the other end as going, “Yeah, Dalet was a good company before, but they’re even better now.” I’ve been using the term that we’re a 30-year-old startup. I mean, we really went back to the principles of if we were writing this again, where would we start? But we have 30 years’ worth of experience in customer knowledge.

Being from the world outside broadcasting and then stepping into this role, what has been the biggest surprise or the biggest thing that you have noticed in your time as CEO?

I knew our clients had different views on technology, but one thing that I saw was the effect of COVID on that. So I mean, COVID really accelerated a reaction to, “How do I run something when my people are all over the place? How do I collaborate? How do I move assets around? And then what assets or technology do I do have now in front of me to support that?”

And as they came out of that, I think the education and nervousness and need in the senior management across the whole media space changed. I think they look at technology as not an inhibitor anymore but as a facilitator. There’s always a fear about the cloud. But there’s a better understanding, I think, of what we can do to get to certain end points.

So I think that acceleration was rapid. I was wondering how this industry was going to move, but I’ve seen the movement quite quickly from small customers to very large customers.

In terms of your main client base, where would you say they are in terms of their cloud transformation?

It’s mixed. I would suggest some of the smaller new entries are ahead because it’s a clean sheet of paper. Some of the very large entities have a lot of infrastructure, so you can’t change overnight, right? So they have a lot of investment in hardware, software, people and process.

But they realize that they have to deal with the cost of assets, the cost of workflow, the cost of people, cost of buildings. And they’re dealing with this in very different ways at different speeds. Some people are saying, “Okay, let’s put a brand new system in. Let’s look at a brand new approach and let’s go from A to Z in one big jump.” And other people are going, “Okay, I know where I want to be. What are the steps to get there over the next five, or seven years?” That’s more pragmatic.

I’m seeing a lot more understanding of what the technology can do for their business than before. The other thing I’ve learnt about the industry is the quality that we’re now producing creates so much of a data storage requirement. The cost and maintenance of that — they’ve got to look twice at, “Do I duplicate or can I serve many people with one asset?” So a lot of these things are beginning to resonate.

One thing we’ve noticed is a very heavy reliance on AWS. And all it takes is one AWS outage and suddenly we have a problem. And also — what you were just alluding to, accounting for storing and processing all this data in the cloud — ultimately at some point this will catch up and suddenly they’re going to have a large yearly recurring cloud build for that maybe they’re not accounting for today.

I’ve seen that happen before. That’s exactly what happens. I hate to use analogy; I’m certainly not picking on AWS, but it grows like a weed, right? It just grows, and it’s a silent growth. And as you said, unless you have the infrastructure and the awareness of how to deal with this.

And the other thing I found is that organizations tend to have multiple accounts. So you have to put structure and governance around technology in this new world. And a lot of people forget to do that as well.

It surprises me that there’s not someone spinning up their own broadcast-centric cloud service that is literally from the ground up built for a broadcast. AWS has some pieces inside of Elemental that are for that, but — like how Azure has just gotten rid of their media services unit — all it takes is AWS pivoting and suddenly a lot of that specialization disappears.

We’re still in early days. Everybody’s using it, but not to the scale they will be using it. So whether it’s AWS or someone else, we’re going to see some changes I think, or some consolidation or something, because this is a big industry.

When you consider what the cloud unlocks for Dalet’s roadmap, what are you most excited about or what are you wanting to leverage as you look ahead?

When I entered the company, we had three main products. Galaxy is our on-premise flagship product, leading its marketplace, many generations old. We bought Flex, which brought us into the cloud as a MAM, a native cloud product, and we bought and developed some other cloud-native products.

Our ability now to bring these onto a single technology stack is exciting to me because that brings so many benefits to our customers. It gives them a cost advantage, the ability to put things in one place. It also gives them the ability to disperse workflows, workforce, and centrally manage if they want or manage it around hubs. It’s flexibility.

Galaxy is our big customer base. We’re building a cloud product that sits on top of Galaxy and sits on top of Flex, Pyramid. Pyramid interacts with both 100% cloud and on-prem.

There are not many software companies our size who will go to a fully cloud-native product and be able to take customers with them. It’s normally a reimplementation. So we focus very much on that customer’s journey over a period of years.

We’ll have a 100% cloud-native situation fairly soon, but we’ll still be able to help our Galaxy customers until they’re ready. A lot of times they’re forced off their technology and made to go somewhere. We took a deliberate approach to help them through that evolution. I’m seeing that resonate very strongly with our large customers. And our smaller customers will just go straight to the cloud as they come join. So I’m quite excited about that.

And then our ability to expand what we already have. We have ingest capabilities in our Brio product. We’re releasing at IBC a cloud version of Ingest, which gives us multi-channel elastic cloud ingest alongside what we already have.

Thinking about the non-traditional broadcasters you mentioned, the sports leagues, the corporate entities, for example, what part of Dalet are they most interested in optimizing in their workflows? Is it through Flex? Where is that entry point and where are they seeing advantages?

Flex is the main one. Content management, content distribution. I’ll give an example. Peloton is a customer who I visited in London several months ago.

For me living in Canada, my kids use Peloton, they’ve got Peloton bikes, so I look at them as a hardware gym supplier. They don’t look at themselves at all like that. They’re a media company. I toured their studios. It’s the best set of studios I’d seen outside of North America. They have totally automated spectacular studios, and they’re creating content all the time.

Their business model has shifted now that the add-on is the hardware and the subscription is the content and the music. So the media and the content they’re managing, moving at a fast pace for a subscription base is how we’re helping these kinds of organizations.

The same with the different football leagues. How do you attract and retain supporters? You give them content, you give them stats, you give them figures, you tell about upcoming games. It’s all media. It’s all related content to attract season ticket holders or whatever to a league or to a team. Whether it’s cricket, football, we’re in all of those particular areas.

But I think the big brands are really pushing onto this now. They’re looking at how they’re marketing their brand and the amount of content they need now to market, and they need a solution to manage that content. And we’re an ideal solution with Flex, which installs quickly and scales from two users to thousands of users in the cloud. So it’s opened up a very different world for us.

In terms of that world, are they looking for similar workflows as broadcast, are they needing more custom workflows, or are they bringing in ad hoc workflows? Where are they in kind of that picture?

I’m not an expert here, but I see a lot of overlap with traditional workflows and content management. If you look at Netflix and Disney, somebody like that, it’s a similar kind of workflow inside of a MAM product.

They are looking for flexibility. They’re looking for intuitive, agile, fast. The ability to customize workflows but not customize software. Nobody wants to touch software anymore, right? So you have to provide agile software that’s good enough for traditional workflows, and that’s what we’re very much focused on.

And we have amended our approach so that we have different flavors of different workflows for different industries. We’ve recognized there are some subtle differences, and we’ve tried to take a step towards how we can kickstart a company in non-traditional areas with the workflow. But it’s all the same software.

So shifting topics, this year has been fairly quiet on M&A. It’s something that people expect there’d be a little bit more, but obviously with rising interest rates it hasn’t happened. What is your view, especially as someone with more of a finance background? What is next in this industry? Is next year going to be a choppy time where we’re going to see companies moving around and changing hands or are we pretty set because everyone is on some form of a cloud journey?

I think the opportunity presents itself for more consolidation, especially in North America which I’m more familiar with, where larger organizations can acquire smaller organizations.

What the newer cloud technologies like ours provide is a more rapid integration approach. You’re not acquiring an island of technology and people and content anymore. You can bring them into the fold; you can bring their assets in and you can centrally manage on one system. As you evolve people into a more broader set of workflows and rules, then the change management becomes more standardized around that.

I see an opportunity with more of that in late this year, early next year. I think we’ll see some more transitions. And similarly in the software world. I think in our own world we have some larger organizations, some smaller, and it’s an opportunity. Some people didn’t ride the COVID situation and then an up and down situation with interest rates very well into 2022 and 2023.

I think those with more capital around them, the larger companies — or there’s a lot of money outside of the industry that wants in the industry — I think we’ll see more acquisitions and more consolidations in our world as well.

So I don’t think we’re going to be a quiet space on both ends. Things are settling down. There are some new norms. The interest rates will get back to a point, but people carry on now. There’s a lot of investment going into media from larger organizations, which will open up the ability for them to acquire.

On the software and delivery side, people like ourselves, there’s an opportunity there for those who have the wherewithal to acquire the right things at the right time. So I think it’s going to be an interesting couple of years.

What is the state of play as we enter the final quarter of this year and next year?

The key thing for us is to continue to execute on time. We’re releasing some significant product at IBC. NAB is coming up next year. There’s a lot of things that we will bring to marketing 2024. So the key thing for us is to stay focused, stay calm on the path.

Customers continue. We’re checking back with customers all the time. We have customer advisory boards and things like that that we’re doing regular check-ins. So we will make some slight adjustments as our customers tell us we need to as we go forward.

Our sales teams have been very busy with existing customers and new customers. We have some exciting sales cycles that we’re trying to finalize. It’s this time of the year that you tend to finalize a lot more sales activity than the first half of the year.

And I think the other thing we’ve put a little bit more focus on is partnering in 2023. I mentioned change management. As we grow, we need to bring to the table more expertise than just ourselves. So our ability to partner with key organizations and also to integrate more seamlessly to key technologies is what the market’s looking for.

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Cloud archiving is a tool which offers a wider range of business benefits than many people realize — there is, in fact, far more to be leveraged through cloud archiving than gains to storage capacity. Broadcasters are beginning to recognize the potential of cloud archiving as an engine for driving business operation efficiencies and unlocking new avenues for revenue growth.

Building adaptive business models

M&E companies face the daunting prospect of a highly competitive market that demands uninterrupted delivery of quality content. This is a tall order, and tools that can be leveraged to meet these demands are being sought with growing urgency as the global appetite for content increases. Operational efficiencies must be continually refined and improved in order to keep pace in today’s crowded market. To plan forward and build long-term business agility, the choice of tools must be highly flexible. The adaptable nature of cloud technology enables practically unlimited scalability — and this is an essential precondition for broadcasters to thrive in today’s rapidly expanding market.

Finding gold in the archives

One of the cloud’s most powerful tools for driving revenue lies in its archiving capabilities, which can be used to turn archive material into newly profitable content that’s ready for broadcasting. For companies with extensive archives, the cloud offers a way to realize the full value of what they’ve been sitting on; it’s a recipe for turning lead into gold.

Conversely, building and maintaining physical facilities for local archiving is an ongoing cost that only the largest industry players can afford — let alone justify — as smaller competitors can make better use of their existing content without the burden of manually storing and managing their archives on site.

One of the essential ways that the cloud makes archive content usable is through metadata enhancement. Metadata enhancement is an automated process that applies metadata to archive content — tagging and categorizing the archive material by set criteria (which can be adapted to suit the individual use cases for each business). This means that any content can be sorted and retrieved instantaneously to suit the business needs of operators at any given time — a great asset to keep viewers watching after the expensively produced show they tuned in to see has finished. With metadata keeping archive material accessible by an automated process, the gains to business agility and the benefits for the production workforce make metadata one of the most powerful tools that the cloud has to offer.

Maximizing the potential for creative collaboration

To meet the round-the-clock requirements of video consumption in the digital age, the tools used by video production teams must be optimized for flexibility. For creative collaboration, cloud storage is the closest thing to a frictionless solution. It’s the tool that provides a basis for creative teams to thrive equally — whether they are distributed or working in a single studio. Allowing creative teams to have a clear run at producing their best work in a way that’s independent of their location or time zone, is to enable production teams to give the best they have to offer as a distributed workforce. Through ubiquitous access, the cloud offers a wide-reaching tool to streamline the entire process of content storage, production, and distribution by empowering production teams to deliver content from anywhere.

Disaster recovery to prepare for anything

Another unique advantage of cloud storage is its capacity for nearly seamless disaster recovery (DR). The results of outages and hardware or system failure can be extremely costly, both in the short term and long term. In an outage, there is an immediate financial cost to be reckoned with, but there is also reputational harm that can be even more damaging in the long run. Audience loyalty can be considered a long-term investment for media companies — one that can disappear in a matter of minutes if something time-sensitive, such as a live sports event or a severe weather warning, fails to reach its intended audience. Extreme weather events, power outages, and ransomware attacks are all looming possibilities for broadcasters — and since they aren’t going away, the only pragmatic approach for media companies who wish to keep and grow their audiences is to treat these eventualities as certain outcomes to prepare for.

Seamless and efficient distribution

With the increased prevalence of multi-distribution endpoints in today’s media landscape, seamless delivery of assets to the required endpoints has become a daunting task. The cloud’s flexibility and scalability make it an ideal solution to accommodate the demands of multi-distribution endpoints. Cloud-based distribution provides a flexible framework that accommodates the complexity of content delivery in today’s media landscape — allowing M&E companies to adapt to changing demands and technical challenges with a minimum of friction.

The true value of cloud archiving

The full extent of the cloud’s archiving capabilities may not be obvious. Still, an overview of its varied use cases, with everything from disaster recovery to creative collaboration, suggests that the cloud can be usefully thought of as a toolset as opposed to a single tool for one purpose. On the other hand, the cloud comes as a single all-in-one solution — making it one of the most versatile and budget-friendly investments for broadcasters looking to drive their business operations to the next level.

The post More than meets the eye: The full value of cloud archiving appeared first on NewscastStudio.

Keighley outlines Telestream’s customer-focused approach, opportunities in cloud adoption and IP transition, and a positive long-term view amid current headwinds. As a 25-year industry veteran, Keighley brings deep experience across the media supply chain to his leadership role overseeing Telestream’s global human resources.

What are your main objectives and priorities for the broadcast market? What about the wider M&E market?

Telestream has been known as the “broadcast workflow” leader for more than 25 years because our mission-critical solutions are superior, trusted and reliable. And, as we have acquired other companies and developed additional solutions, we have also been careful to maintain and grow that trust. So, my main priority for the broadcast market is to lead the way as a dependable partner for our customers as they navigate unprecedented challenges to their business models and evolve their content production and distribution, whether in their home market or globally.

What is your overall strategy for scaling?

One of the reasons I believe we are well-positioned for the future is our flexibility in delivering media supply chain solutions.

For example, we can deploy on-prem, in the cloud, or in hybrid ecosystems; we’re also expanding our test and measurement solutions to UHD HDR workflows whether they are SDI or 2110. On scalability, when it comes to cloud in particular, our media (including cloud native QC) and monitoring solutions are effectively infinitely scalable.

We process tens of thousands of hours of media in the cloud for customers of all sizes. We’ve also started to deploy generative AI across our solutions to make them more end-user friendly; this includes answering usability questions in-app or helping users write API requests to Vantage Gateway (formally Encoding.com).

Can you give us an idea of what your short-term and long-term priorities look like? Any priority sectors or regions?

We help media companies across the globe and will target growth in specific geos. In addition to verticals like sports venues and trucks, I see opportunity across the houses of worship market, local and regional government and the wider corporate market as video production becomes ubiquitous. In fact, some of our largest customers are non-traditional media companies. Longer term, our goal is to grow the company as quickly as we have over the last four or five years.

How are you improving experiences for customers in the broadcast space today? What is your customer-first approach?

I have spent my entire career working either for media owners, content creators or for technology vendors in that market. I have spent countless hours in newsrooms and visited hundreds of broadcasters. The team knows how important our mission-critical solutions are too. If your ingest server goes down five minutes before air, you need to be back up in minutes.

So as part of our customer-first approach, we’ve introduced “always on” Slack or Teams channels and have dedicated technical account managers looking out for our broadcast customers. Rich Andes, Telestream Director of Customer Success, knows our US broadcast customers’ workflows as well as they do, so we’re excited that he’s leading these customer experience efforts for us.

In the face of an ever-evolving global media landscape, what is your five-year outlook for the market? Are you seeing more cloud adoption?

Yes, now that more than half of media companies are utilizing the cloud, it is becoming as mainstream as on prem deployment for our solutions and that will grow. If organizations were jogging before, more of them are sprinting now.

Despite some current headwinds, I am extremely optimistic for the longer-term future for the media industry.

The biggest challenge facing media companies today stems from the stress on traditional business models. We’re seeing traditional distribution channels, such as cable or satellite, continue to shrink. Once-successful sports or entertainment channels are losing viewers that historically paid them $5 or $6 per month per household. Income streams need to be replaced. But let’s look at the emerging opportunities: we have new business models allowing anyone to start their own linear (FAST) or AVOD channels. The opportunity is huge, and the future is exciting…and Telestream is in great shape to help our customers take advantage of it.

What are the top trends that you believe folks should be paying attention to?

The continued move from SDI to 2110 and other IP protocols will continue to be important, and AI and cloud have already started producing new opportunities industry-wide and will continue to do so at an even greater pace. It’s a brave new world.

The post Q&A: Telestream CRO on what drives his business, from customer service to exploring new markets appeared first on NewscastStudio.

We’re seeing more diverse requirements from broadcasters as they develop more channels, platforms, and outlets for their content. As always, budget and audience are prime considerations, but now more than ever it comes down to the right tool for the right job.

It’s also the right time to have this conversation.

Broadcasting is no longer just about meeting the demand for content. Viewers have heightened expectations for personalized and customized “experiences.” The traditional TV audience is now a mix of aging demographics and younger viewers accustomed to watching content on a mobile device or laptop as well as a TV set, creating a surge in multi-platform content consumption. Coupled with the continued rise in “cord-cutting,” a new TV content landscape is continually emerging.

At the same time, remote production, online content creation and virtual collaboration are also maturing. All these emerging market dynamics have led to broadcasters and content producers searching for new options for producing, delivering, and distributing worldwide to new markets and audiences, including underserved areas. Having a diverse complement of delivery options — fiber, satellite, internet, or a hybrid combination of each — enables this wider reach as well as the flexibility needed for a tailored approach that can be adjusted based on national or regional broadcaster requirements.

Determining the right solution for the delivery and distribution of content can depend on geographical requirements, where the event is and how easy it is to get fiber to a location, or access to a stable and reliable internet connection. Questions to ask include, what’s the budget, who’s the audience, and where are they located — in rural or urban areas?

A perfect example of a proven technology meeting an emerging market need is the public internet. Driven by the potential for significantly reduced costs and the rise in cloud-based production workflow platforms, the internet has emerged as a reliable and cost-effective option — either for last-mile delivery to remote areas or as an end-to-end method for broadcast events that don’t always justify the logistics and costs of traditional on-site production with an OB van and dedicated connectivity.  

The cloud has evolved and matured, with its increasing acceptance overcoming long-held concerns about data security. Cloud infrastructure costs have also lowered dramatically, making cloud-based business models more practical and attractive.

The cloud can offer a centralized platform for the end-to-end content lifecycle, addressing everything from capture and access to file storage to asset management.

But it’s about more than moving files around to different places faster and in high quality. It’s also about the incremental ability of content owners to give new life to their libraries and also generate additional revenue streams by monetizing their content. And, of course, it’s ultimately about engaging audiences on a deeper level, and possibly retaining their loyalty for the long term through immersive viewing experiences.

When the capabilities of a cloud-based platform combine with the practical benefits of IP transport and streaming for broadcast-quality video production and delivery, the opportunities multiply.

Both for large high-profile events, and for smaller events and niche sports, using the internet to deliver content is an easy, reliable and cost-effective method to gain wider brand visibility and reach a larger audience at a lower cost.

The internet will become more commonly used for purely economic reasons. Ultimately this ubiquitous and unmanaged network is now wedged deeply in most broadcasters, service providers and is regularly used. Typically, with a traditional fiber-based media circuit, the first and last mile can be as high as 40% of total transmission costs. That’s where the benefits of using the internet really come into play. The internet circuits can be used for multiple applications and power multiple production and creative workflows.

By using an internet protocol and a product that works over the internet, broadcasters have the flexibility to use that connectivity for other purposes throughout the day, week, or year.

To meet the emerging needs of broadcasters and their audiences, Telstra has developed two cloud-based solutions: the Telstra Internet Delivery Network (IDN) and the Telstra Media Production Platform (MPP). Both solutions work seamlessly together and are designed to function as perfect complements to today’s changing broadcast landscape.

Telstra MPP is a cloud-based platform designed to bring all the functionality and quality of on-premise broadcast workflows into a fully virtual environment. This gives users complete remote control through any web browser and the public internet. The platform supports live production, playout automation, asset management, signal processing and master switching, and allows technical teams to select — and pay for — these capabilities on an as-needed basis.

The Telstra IDN is a software-defined, cloud-based, platform enabling the transport of high-quality video content and live broadcast streams to any registered endpoint across shared networks like the public internet, avoiding the expense of delivering content using dedicated connectivity between event sites and traditional broadcast facilities.

These platforms have been extensively used across major global live events, most recently the IDN handling contribution, distribution, remote production, and multiple international feed delivery for FIFA EuroBasket 2022 and FIBA Women’s World Cup Basketball championships, and the MPP enabling cloud-based production and playout capability for an Australian streaming service’s premium, live and on-demand add-on sports package.

The Telstra solutions will continually be updated and expanded, adding new capabilities to meet the industry’s constantly changing production requirements.

Again, the right tools for the right jobs.

The post State of broadcast content delivery: Finding the right tool for the right job appeared first on NewscastStudio.

And then things can get even more complicated. Factor in distance, multiple roving cameras, quick turnaround times for content, uneven terrain and hundreds or thousands of spectators, and the challenges ramp up fast.

Hole-in-one scalability

So, how do broadcasters overcome these well-documented issues, and how can scalable private 5G networks provide a robust wireless backbone at a fraction of the cost?

Recently broadcast facilities supplier Prolink TV partnered with critical-connectivity company Dejero in a project that saw the development of an alternative to traditional event rigging. Rather than laying a physical infrastructure, they blended private 5G networks with a range of network paths for ultra-dependable low-latency connectivity.

A golf tournament: The geography can cover up to 200 acres of land, with substantial cabling and rigging costs. Utilizing up to 30 km of cabling, typical setup time is seven days and four days to de-rig. Long cable runs not only pose health and safety risks but attract a series of natural hazards; electrical cables are irresistible to squirrels and other rodents, which means that each cable must be manually checked every day. Coupled with the transportation of cabling, generators, hoists, and buggies, wired connectivity across open spaces is hugely labor and cost intensive. It’s no surprise that only the biggest events can justify this level of resources.

Reliable wireless connectivity for live productions can be difficult to secure in outdoor spaces. Location is paramount, and large events like presidential inaugurations, music festivals or state occasions can be some distance from cellular towers. Meanwhile, thousands of visitors competing for the same bandwidth can put any of the available cellular networks under significant pressure, and wireless bandwidth which looked sufficient during setup can quickly be oversubscribed.

This makes trying to wirelessly move HD video signals tricky.

No event size limits

Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology not only provides reliable wireless connectivity. It also opens the door to cover more niche events, such as second tier sports or specialist festivals, flower shows, community events or small music concerts. It also enables broadcasters to maintain the same professional levels of coverage at a much lower cost. Dejero Smart Blending Technology guarantees dependable onsite backhaul by aggregating multiple IP networks across cellular, satellite and fiber connections, and dynamically managing bandwidth, packet loss, and latency differences in real-time. It creates a “network of networks” to enable content producers a more robust bandwidth than a single provider can deliver.

Blending private 5G mesh networks with public 5G networks provides an additional guaranteed layer of connectivity. Dejero has been working with private data networks for multi-camera streaming for many years.

A broader spectrum

4G LTE private networks are notoriously difficult to manage due to multiple international standards and non-standard technologies, but 5G has a broader common spectrum for international use as well as an agreed hardware infrastructure.

While access to private frequency bands must be applied for from the relevant communications regulator in advance, Dejero already has relationships with multiple international licensing partners, and a local 5G mast is quick and easy to set up.

A single portable mast operating at 12 feet can cover a wide range ─ in the tournament example it can easily cover an entire golf course ─ and Dejero can also create private point-to-point networks which are independent of regulatory approval using point-to-point access to create a secure LAN.

A single mast will support site-wide connectivity for twelve simultaneous 10Mbps cameras at as low as 500ms latency, and with no dropouts. With this in place, scalability is simply a mathematical exercise, and the same model can be applied to any broadcast model which operates over a wide area and features hostile geographical elements, such as motor cross, inaugurations and press scrums, and cultural festivals.

This system enables the 4×4 MIMO antenna architecture on connected Dejero EnGo video mobile transmitters to achieve guaranteed connectivity, independent of public networks. The added security of Smart Blending Technology to combine public and private connections guards against unexpected surges in traffic, delivering camera feeds in real time to an onsite Dejero GateWay network aggregation solution for backhaul.

Ultra low-latency with Starlink Satellite

Meanwhile, offsite delivery can utilize the same technologies, seamlessly blending networks across cellular, LEO, GEO and MEO satellite connections, and fiber lines, into one data pipe. Dejero’s partnership with Starlink helps deliver low latency streaming with a latency of around 25ms. Starlink operates the world’s largest low-orbit satellite constellation with over 1,000 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide low latency coverage from even the most remote venues.

The ace: private 5G networks

Blending public connectivity with private 5G networks can significantly lower production costs. It drives down installation, reduces setup and derig times, minimizes the number of staff onsite, cuts travel and accommodation, removes the need for tonnes of cabling, and speeds up the production process for the creation of onsite highlight packages.

Above all, it enables smaller, more niche events to provide the same professional coverage as top tier events.

This opens up new horizons for many – and horizons that can be monetized.

The post Raising your game with private 5G networks appeared first on NewscastStudio.

To meet viewers’ heightened expectations, the “Next Big Trend” in broadcasting is emerging as IP content delivery and AI-based subtitling come together to redefine the industry once again.

Industry reports project continued growth in this space. According to Valuates Reports, the global captioning and subtitling solution market will average an annual growth rate of 7.7%, reaching $476.9 Million (USD) by 2028.

Acknowledging this trend, XL8 has recently partnered with Zixi to integrate its LiveSubs AI-powered translation engine with Zixi’s IP streaming technologies, enabling real-time subtitles to be generated “on the fly” from source languages to more than 70 global language pairs, to support live events.

The changing face of broadcast

Broadcasts for major sports or entertainment events were, until very recently, exclusively the domain of fixed line connectivity and expensive and logistically challenging on-site production technology. Today, “broadcasting” has emerged into new territory.

It’s now common to see hybrid content delivery options –— mixing subsea fiber, satellite, over the Internet or a combination of each. The internet, for example, has emerged as a reliable and cost-effective option — especially for broadcast events that don’t always justify the costs of traditional production and dedicated connectivity.

The public internet offers an accessible and cost-effective platform for delivering popular programming and promoting less-known events of any size to a wider audience. The technology powering this process, particularly IP video streaming, has significantly improved in terms of reliability and security, matching the standards of traditional broadcast television.

This rise in technology development and quality of service coincides with heightened audience expectations, which have risen from accepting “good enough” quality to now demanding the highest quality. Video delivery solutions must be reliable enough to reach their intended destinations and meet the expectations of all parties. Low latency, reliability, and security will only help to legitimize online content delivery and provide the stable infrastructure and bandwidth required for broadcast-quality video feeds.

It’s no different with subtitling…

As online viewing continues to connect people across the globe, language barriers pose a significant challenge, as an increasing number of viewers worldwide demand content to be localized not just for their country, but also for their region.

The XL8 and Zixi integration has the potential to reimagine the worlds of live sports and news, enabling content owners to expand their reach to wider audiences and beyond their physical audience demographics. For example, football (not the American kind) is popular worldwide, except in North America. This integration could change that by bringing the sport to more viewers and giving them easy access to matches broadcast in their language of choice. The same holds true for other traditionally “lower-tier” sports that, while also popular, often don’t draw the type of crowds or sponsorships to warrant the expense of localizing the content.

The integration of XL8’s AI-powered machine translation and LiveSubs technology with Zixi means subtitles for broadcasts and live streams can be created and ingested in real-time with no additional conversion points required. That’s a critical factor for achieving the latency needed if online viewing ever hopes to rival broadcast as a mainstream platform for large global audiences. The integration also provides a low-cost method of exploring the viability of entering new content markets.

Keeping pace with the trend in IP-based video delivery is AI-powered machine translation for maintaining the highest level of subtitling accuracy possible. XL8’s LiveSubs engine will keep pace and draw in viewers for broadcasters from around the world.

The post AI-powered subtitling gives new meaning to “headline news” appeared first on NewscastStudio.

On prem versus cloud

Historically, the video industry hasn’t been very much concerned about sustainability. Traditional workflows with large on-premise hardware, poor scalability and huge demands on processing power are of course adding to that. Over recent months the video industry has begun to look more seriously at becoming more sustainable. While there could be some arguments that the transition to the cloud is having a positive impact, it is challenging to determine just how much that is helping.

There are various reports, though mainly from the main cloud providers, that would suggest the potential for significant energy savings by moving to the cloud. A report commissioned by Microsoft cites its cloud between 22 and 93 percent more energy-efficient than traditional enterprise data centers. Meanwhile AWS claims to be 3.6 times more energy-efficient than the median of the surveyed US enterprise data centers and have an 88% lower carbon footprint than enterprise data centers.

There does seem to be some evidence to back up this claim and it stands to reason. Broadcasting requires a huge amount of infrastructure and traditional on-premise setups involve large racks of equipment sitting on site, which is of course all consuming vast amounts of energy. There are two main arguments for why cloud is more sustainable than on-premise. Firstly, cloud is much more scalable. Cloud services have processes that will enhance server usage to the maximum by leveraging demand from their multiple customers. At the same time the cloud model of pay per use also encourages more sustainable consumption, as any unnecessary workflows would incur cost, and in turn energy consumption. The other major argument is that the biggest cloud providers in our industry are running on renewable energy, if not fully, then close to it, as we will discuss later.

However, despite that, it is not as simple as saying the cloud solves that as it of course still requires energy-hungry data centers. It may be less energy-consuming than most on-premise solutions but it is not, by itself, enough to make the video industry sustainable or carbon neutral. To achieve that, we need further commitment from the cloud providers to become much more sustainable.

Commitment to renewable energy

One thing is for certain, the cloud providers do at least seem to be taking sustainability seriously. As mentioned, most have at least begun the transition to renewable energy and have also set out commitments to increase that over the coming years.

In 2021, Google Cloud claims to have been the only major cloud provider to match 100% of the electricity consumption of its operations with renewable energy purchases. It aims to be operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. Microsoft Azure is also planning to shift 100% of its supply to renewable energy by 2025. Similarly, Amazon Web Services says it reached 85% renewable energy in 2021 and announced renewable energy projects across 18 countries.

They are not there yet but this is a really important step in the right direction. Indeed, if these giants all operate with 100% renewable energy, then suddenly the difference between on-prem and cloud becomes even more pronounced. That said, it is still not enough to claim we have a sustainable industry.

Renewable energy isn’t the holy grail

There is no doubt that switching to renewable energy is a huge leap forward. However, even these energy sources produce emissions (albeit much less than ozone depleting sources) that need to be reduced if the industry is to at least achieve Net Zero (reducing emissions as much as possible and offsetting the essential emissions that remain). There are already some initiatives in place aimed at helping in this area. One example is the move to push video content to a server that is closer to the user. This reduces both cost and emissions, as well as of course reducing latency. The fact that many things that will reduce emissions come with other benefits will make it much easier to get these implemented.

Ideally, as an industry, we should be aiming further still and working towards climate neutral (net zero but also making sure we are not contributing to any other negative impacts on the environment) or even carbon negative (where we are removing more carbon than we emit). All of that will of course take time and a lot of collaboration.

Tracking emissions

The biggest stumbling block by far is that it is very difficult to track emissions from cloud usage and the cloud providers are not making this easy. Our experience with Amazon Web Services sees data available with a three-month delay, which means that it takes three months to see the impact of any changes you make and that is just not quick enough. Not only that, but data is also extremely high-level, only focusing on a handful of services. Without a breakdown of data, it is also difficult to evaluate any areas for improving the carbon impact. I know that experiences with other cloud providers vary slightly but are broadly similar.

We are currently working with Humans Not Robots to plug the gap of this data so that we can get a timely and accurate view of our carbon impact for services in the cloud. That is really helping us, but it is something that the cloud providers should be providing themselves. While the figures might currently not be as favorable as perhaps they would like, having much more transparency will enable everyone throughout the chain, including the cloud providers, to improve for a more sustainable video environment.

The post Is the cloud always more sustainable? appeared first on NewscastStudio.

While this wave of change disrupts established patterns in the broadcast world, it presents a golden opportunity for those who are adaptable and forward-thinking.

Analysis: Unpacking the changing dynamics of television consumption

Enter free ad-supported streaming television, one of the hottest trends in broadcasting today.

For those questioning the potential of FAST, look no further than the deluge of recent market data and surveys showing the rapid rise of these services. Then consider the rapid rise in revenue, which is expected to reach $12 billion in 2027.

Similarly, services have also seen their valuation sore, with Fox turning down a $2 billion offer its FAST platform, Tubi. 

So why should local broadcast stations, such as NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, venture into the realm of FAST?

Follow the shifting viewership

Perhaps the most compelling reason to venture into FAST is the clear shift in audience behavior. As consumers experience subscription fatigue, many are shifting towards free platforms that offer a more “cable-like” experience with curated channels and live offerings instead of the vast, endless scroll of Netflix.

Nielsen’s June 2023 The Guage report noted nearly 40% of views now come from streaming, with traditional broadcast down to only 20%.

A report from Ampere Analysis supported The Gauge and found that nearly half of viewers watch little to no linear television on a typical day.

For local broadcasters, this is an invitation to adapt their traditional free, ad-supported television model to meet the audience in the new spaces they are flocking to.

The content is there already

As broadcasters continue to increase their minutes of news content, the task of filling a streaming schedule becomes significantly less daunting. However, this increase in news output does not merely serve to populate the content schedule. It also represents a fundamental shift in local broadcasting, broadening its scope and opening new doors for growth. This is especially pertinent in the FAST world, which is currently underserved by local offerings.

Local stations currently constitute a relatively small portion of the total number of FAST channels. But, within this reality lies a unique opportunity. The scarcity of local content on these platforms translates into an untapped market, a growth prospect that extends far beyond merely broadcasting newscasts.

In addition to newscasts, stations have at their disposal an extensive archive of content ready for repurposing. This trove of ‘idle’ content can be transformed into evergreen offerings, breathing new life into the material and providing variety to the viewers.

Moreover, operating within the FAST environment offers an additional advantage: the freedom to break away from the conventional constraints of the broadcast day. There is more room for creative experimentation, for testing new formats and offerings. This flexibility empowers journalists to tell deeper, more complex stories – stories that may not fit into the mold of a traditional evening newscast.

And of course, there’s the inherent nature of news itself – it’s always breaking.

This continual cycle of evolving stories and developments presents a natural content generator, offering a steady stream of material to populate a FAST channel’s programming. As demonstrated by platforms like LiveNOW from Fox, breaking news can become a compelling and consistent feature, keeping viewers engaged and updated while filling significant airtime on FAST platforms.

A revenue catalyst

As we enter another election cycle, local stations must not overlook the vast opportunities for revenue growth that a FAST channel can provide. As competitors establish their brands and secure their market positions, the risk of falling behind by resisting change looms larger than ever. 

Media agency Magna anticipates a significant shift in ad spending, with a 21.2% rise in spending on FAST and AVOD platforms in 2023, even as the overall ad market is forecasted to potentially decline. These figures underscore the increasing relevance of these platforms in the broader advertising ecosystem.

Some attributes make FAST platforms attractive to advertisers and potentially easier for a local station sales team to monetize. For one, the nature of the platform guarantees a larger viewing format. As the apps are usually downloaded onto connected televisions, advertisers can rest assured that their ads will appear on larger screens, potentially offering a more immersive viewer experience than on smaller screens.

Moreover, advertisers can place their messages in thematic environments that align with their brands. 

One of the inherent advantages of FAST channels is their relatively uncluttered advertising environment, with only four to eight minutes of ads per hour compared to 12 to 17 minutes of advertising per hour on traditional TV.

This significant difference in ad load suggests a less cluttered and more viewer-friendly environment on these platforms. The reduced ad load can enhance viewer experience and potentially improve ad recall and engagement, thus presenting a win-win situation for both viewers and advertisers.

Broadcasting and media companies look for new ways to get the job done

How should you implement FAST?

Indeed, the exact approach to incorporating FAST into your broadcasting strategy will vary significantly from station to station. Every vendor in the market has a unique method for tackling this burgeoning sector. While a one-size-fits-all approach is unrealistic in this dynamic space, there are some broad strategies and considerations to keep in mind:

• Prioritize Content: A well-considered content mix can make or break a station’s FAST strategy. For some, live content will be the primary draw, particularly when it comes to broadcasting breaking news or other timely events. For others, recycled content, such as archived shows or previously aired specials, will form the bulk of their FAST programming.
• Consider Collaboration: Building partnerships can help fill out content gaps and ensure a product that’s more than just rolling news. Local sports? Foodie programming? There are endless options.
• Consider the Tech Stack: From robust platforms to advanced data analytics tools, the technology you choose will significantly impact the delivery, long term costs and overall success of your strategy. Do you have key vendors already involved with something like cloud playout that can easily be adapted for FAST or do you have to build from the ground up? 
• Experiment: Tweak the content mix, experiment with new advertising strategies or adopt new technologies. Remember, the successful implementation of a new platform for distribution is a marathon, not a sprint. It involves constant learning, adapting and improving to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Local broadcasters must look beyond traditional boundaries and think about how they wish to remain relevant as viewers continue to adopt new platforms and leave the cable box behind.

Streaming offers affiliates an opportunity to expand their audience reach, tap into new revenue streams and provide more comprehensive local coverage – while also looking future-focused. As technology continues to evolve and consumer behaviors shift, the local stations that adapt will be the ones that thrive in this rapidly changing landscape.

The post FAST Forward: Why local stations must embrace free ad-supported streaming appeared first on NewscastStudio.

However, according to recent market research and surveys of the media landscape, that golden age is nearing its twilight and a plateau in growth is seemingly upon us.

For example, Hub Entertainment Research’s “Monetization of Video” finds that consumers appear to have hit their limit for television sources.

The research suggests that most viewers are not seeking to expand their list of entertainment subscriptions. In fact, about half of the respondents revealed they had reached their saturation point. Yet, even as consumers are reluctant to add more services, the industry may find solace in another intriguing finding: television and streaming media spending continues to rise.

Consumers have reached ‘peak TV’ with focus shifting to value

Around 44% of surveyed consumers admitted they are spending more on television and streaming services than they did the previous year. This increase is notable, considering it’s also up from 34% in 2020. The rise is even more significant when one observes the discrepancy between what consumers consider a “reasonable” amount for video services and their actual expenditure. The average monthly spending of $85 exceeds what they deem “reasonable” by 25%.

Although a saturation point appears to be reached in the number of sources, there is clearly room for growth in spending. That brings us to the question of value and how consumers perceive it.

As the Hub Entertainment Research report suggests, this might be where bundling comes into play. The research highlights that for viewers without a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD) subscription, a combination of Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) services with traditional Pay TV services could provide a perceived increase in value.

66% of these consumers stated that such a bundle would make a Pay TV service more appealing to them, a jump from 59% the previous year. This consumer sentiment hints at a potential avenue for providers to mitigate the challenge of subscription churn and cancellations.

The fact that one in four adults recently canceled a streaming service is a stark reminder for streaming platforms about the transience of subscriber loyalty. The industry must work harder to justify its costs by delivering consistent, high-quality and diverse content. Sure, not every show can be a prestige drama – but not every show needs to be from the XYZ cinematic universe. 

Meanwhile, an alternate study conducted by Samba TV, focusing more on viewership intelligence, notes a different facet of this evolving landscape. According to their survey, most new subscribers to ad-supported streaming video plans are first-time customers.

The industry is experiencing a surge from a new breed of streamers, not just cord-cutters or downgraders.

This insight becomes even more intriguing when we consider the specific findings. For instance, of the Netflix subscribers surveyed, 11% chose the Netflix basic plan with ads. However, a significant 85% of these users joined Netflix only after the company introduced this ad-supported tier. The same pattern is seen with Disney+ subscribers, with 85% of those picking the basic plan with ads.

These statistics point towards an industry undergoing a fundamental shift in its customer base and its preferences but the changing landscape does not assure unwavering loyalty.

According to yet another recent survey, this time by DirecTV Advertising, a considerable chunk of U.S. adults (one in four) had canceled a streaming video service within the past three months. The most cited reason – mentioned by 35% of respondents – was inadequate usage of the service to justify its cost. 

We’re all more busy than ever and it does beg the question, where does content fit into our lives and how much do we need?

The study from DirecTV found that virtual MVPDs like DirecTV Stream were used more frequently than Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) platforms. In May, viewers aged 25-54 spent twice as much time with DirecTV’s streaming services each week compared to Netflix.

While we observe these changes and disruptions, Nielsen’s The Gauge report offers a bird’s-eye view of television consumption patterns.

According to their most recent data, streaming platforms bounced back in May 2023, capturing 36.4% of all television viewing, a 2.5% increase from April. Some of this growth is credited to a change in their methodology, which now more accurately attributes the viewing of streaming originals via cable set-top boxes to the streaming category.

Furthermore, The Gauge’s latest report also highlights the burgeoning prevalence of free ad-supported television (FAST) services.

Take, for instance, The Roku Channel, which secured 1.1% of total TV usage in May. It’s not just The Roku Channel, though; collectively the three FAST services covered in The Gauge – Pluto TV, Tubi TV, and the Roku Channel – command viewership equivalent to Peacock and Max. even surpassing Amazon Prime Video’s viewership.

This trend reinforces the idea that not all viewers are willing or able to pay for multiple streaming subscriptions and free or cheaper alternatives have a significant role in the evolving marketplace – especially with password sharing crackdowns and changing account dynamics. 

However, while the growth of FAST services is notable, it pales compared to the viewership of local broadcast news, which outpaces streaming platforms by a staggering 8-12 times. Despite advances in technology and changes in consumer habits, local news remains a cornerstone of our media consumption. As providers strategize to adapt and evolve, they would do well to take cues from the enduring appeal and resilience of local news.

Local television news audiences outpace subscription streaming, reports TVB

Many interconnected threads or trends between these various surveys point to an evolving media landscape that continues to be redefined.

First, it’s clear that consumer appetite for streaming content, while significant, is approaching saturation. Paradoxically, they are spending more on these services, often exceeding their own expectations of “reasonable” costs. This suggests that the perceived value delivered by these platforms remains high and viewers are willing to pay for a variety of content that suits their tastes (or maybe they just have not paid attention to their bill recently?).

The challenge for providers will be to sustain and enhance this value in a market where consumers are unwilling to expand their portfolio of sources, which likely leads us to some consolidation as growth continues to wane. 

Second, the rise of ad-supported plans indicates a new trend in consumer preferences. There’s an apparent appetite for more affordable, flexible viewing options, evidenced by the influx of first-time subscribers these ad-supported plans are attracting. With traditional TV broadcasters like Netflix and Disney+ adopting such strategies, we could expect other players to follow suit, creating a new norm in the industry and basically returning us to basic cable but via a new delivery method. 

Lastly, the enduring dominance of local broadcast TV news is an interesting contrast to the rapid rise of digital streaming. This disparity suggests that despite the allure of digital platforms, consumers still value timely, localized news content, presenting an untapped opportunity for digital platforms to localize their offerings. Yet every time we see a major broadcaster try and create a digital-focused news offering, it feels largely uninspired. 

As the industry continues to evolve, providers must remain nimble and responsive to these changing dynamics to thrive in the new era of television consumption.

While the “golden age” of peak TV may be sunsetting, these emerging trends, shifts and challenges open up new paths for the industry. The advent of a new breed of streamers, the rise of FAST services and the willingness of consumers to spend point to an industry that’s far from stagnation… but opportunities for growth and expansion abound only for those who can skillfully navigate this ever-changing terrain.

The post Analysis: Unpacking the changing dynamics of television consumption appeared first on NewscastStudio.

Enter the cloud-native media supply chain—a model that promises to revolutionize how we process and deliver media content.

What is the cloud-native media supply chain?

Unlike legacy systems, a cloud-native media supply chain aligns supply with demand as efficiently as possible, adapting to the needs of the moment.

It’s the difference between having a delivery show up at your door versus keeping a truck in a garage for your next delivery. This model offers unprecedented flexibility, allowing media operations to be processed into final products for consumption most efficiently.

Future-proofing your media supply chain: The cloud is key to success from now on

Power of Flexibility: Cloud-native vs. traditional systems

Flexibility is paramount in the ever-evolving world of media production. The ability to adapt to changing demands, new technologies, and evolving market trends can be the difference between success and stagnation. This is where the cloud-native media supply chain truly shines.

Traditional systems, while robust, often lack the flexibility needed in today’s fast-paced digital environment. They are typically built around fixed infrastructures, with costs tied to hardware, storage, networking, licensing, support, and upkeep of assets. These systems can be costly to maintain and difficult to adapt to changing needs, making them less than ideal for the rapidly evolving media landscape.

On the other hand, a cloud-native media supply chain offers unprecedented flexibility.

Built from within the cloud, these systems leverage the power of microservices—small, independent processes that can be scaled up or down based on demand. This allows for a level of adaptability that traditional systems can’t match.

Moreover, cloud-native systems provide full visibility into each step of the supply chain. This transparency allows for more accurate budgeting and resource allocation, as costs can be tracked on a process-specific basis rather than being tied to infrastructure. This shift in perspective can lead to significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency.

Additionally, the cloud-native approach enables seamless integration with other cloud-based tools and technologies. This interoperability allows media companies to easily adopt new technologies, experiment with innovative processes, and adapt to changing market trends.

In conclusion, the flexibility offered by cloud-native media supply chains represents a significant advantage over traditional systems. By embracing this approach, media companies can better adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape, driving innovation and ensuring their continued success in the industry.

Microservices: The building blocks of cloud-native workflows

At the heart of the cloud-native perspective are microservices—small, independent processes that work together to form a larger system. These microservices can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently, providing a level of flexibility and scalability that traditional monolithic architectures can’t match.

In a cloud-native media supply chain, each step in the workflow—from content ingestion to processing to distribution—can be handled by a separate microservice. This approach has several key benefits:

• Scalability: Microservices can be scaled up or down independently based on demand, allowing for efficient resource utilization.
• Flexibility: New features or processes can be added as separate microservices without disrupting the existing system.
• Resilience: If one microservice fails, it doesn’t affect the rest of the system, leading to higher overall system reliability.

Pricing based on usage

One of the most significant advantages of the cloud-native perspective is the ability to price services based on usage. In traditional systems, costs are often tied to infrastructure—hardware, storage, networking, licensing, support, and upkeep of assets.

In contrast, a cloud-native media supply chain allows for commoditized processing, where you only pay for a given process when it occurs. This usage-based pricing model can lead to significant cost savings, especially for operations with fluctuating demand.

Continuous innovation

The cloud-native perspective also enables continuous innovation. In traditional systems, updating software often involves bringing down the entire system, which can lead to disruptions and downtime.

However, microservices can be updated or replaced independently in a cloud-native environment, allowing for continuous improvement without disrupting the overall system. This approach also makes experimenting with new technologies or processes easier, fostering a culture of innovation.

The convergence of technology and the cloud in media production

Operating system agnostic

Cloud-native systems are independent of the operating system framework, eliminating many of the roadblocks and barriers associated with traditional systems. This OS-agnostic approach allows for greater flexibility and interoperability, making integrating with other systems and technologies easier.

In conclusion, the cloud-native perspective offers a new way of thinking about media supply chains. By building workflows from within the cloud, we can leverage the power of microservices, usage-based pricing, continuous innovation, and OS-agnostic design to create more efficient, flexible, and cost-effective media operations. As the media landscape continues to evolve, adopting a cloud-native perspective will be key to staying competitive and driving the industry forward.

Why now is the time for cloud-native

The migration case becomes stronger as the industry becomes more comfortable with the cloud’s reliability and security. The accessibility of cloud-centric tools is blossoming, and the cost of cloud storage is now cheaper than the total cost of owning a selection of on-premise storage tiers.

The only type of media supply chain infrastructure that can adapt to a perpetually unprecedented future is a cloud-native one. The future of media and entertainment is here, and it’s cloud-native. It’s time for us to embrace this change and harness the power of the cloud-native media supply chain to drive our industry forward.

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