The acceptance of cloud-based media operations in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry has reached a tipping point. This shift has been accelerated by advances in digital technology, changes in consumer preferences, and business necessities accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. Remote cloud-based broadcast production is now a game-changer, providing unprecedented flexibility and scalability to content producers.
The norms of social distancing introduced during the pandemic triggered the rise of remote and cloud-based broadcasting, which is steadily becoming standard practice. Technological advancements have led to significant cost savings by eliminating the need for extensive on-site infrastructure, including production trucks, large crew teams, and travel costs. With 90% of the world's largest businesses adopting multi-cloud infrastructure, it was inevitable for this trend to permeate the broadcasting world.
Previously, the transition to cloud-based operations was intimidating for many, mainly due to the enormity of moving workflows into a cloud-based environment. But this is changing. Remote and cloud production workflows are becoming the norm for all types of live programming.
The broadcast industry has also seen a shift towards smaller and more capable POV (Point of View) and PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras. These cameras are smaller, more versatile, and easier to use than traditional broadcast cameras. They are also (usually) more affordable, making them accessible to a wider range of producers and broadcasters. The combination of these features makes them ideal for use in remote and at-home broadcasting, where space and budget are often limited.
While traditional in-studio models remain relevant, remote broadcasting offers flexibility and scalability."
It is estimated that about 10% of the live production market currently relies on either remote production or client production. While traditional in-studio models remain relevant, remote broadcasting offers flexibility and scalability. Broadcasters can now prioritize efficiency and seamless content delivery, whether the content is produced remotely, on location, or in the studio.
This shift is allowing smaller sports, such as polo, to utilize remote production to reach global viewers. For events like the Tour de France, which are challenging to broadcast using traditional on-site infrastructure due to the length and complexity of the terrain, cloud-based remote broadcasting presents a huge advantage.
Over the past few years, the entire media processing chain has moved away from the traditional on-premises approach towards a more virtualized and cloud-based environment. This process involves various stages, with the private cloud being one aspect. Some production vendors have developed remote production capabilities that allow for remote utilization of a 24/7 production studio, increasing efficiency.
Recently, the European League of Football (ELF) transitioned to cloud live production for its 2023 season in just three weeks. The ELF viewership is expected to reach more than half a billion households worldwide. The organizers aimed to enhance advertising options for sponsors, reduce production costs, and lower carbon footprint, all of which were made possible by moving their live productions to the cloud.
Last year, BT Sport and UEFA used a new cloud-based approach to live broadcasting that could reduce the carbon footprint of sports broadcasts and enhance content innovation. The NBA has been using cloud-based remote production since 2021.
MediaKind, well-positioned to lead this transition, has added new technology advances to its edge product portfolio, offering greater technology integration options for content owners, broadcasters, and TV operators. The edge portfolio enables live events to be captured and transmitted to the cloud with high quality, low latency and bandwidth, and securely distributed from the cloud to regional networks for further video adaptation and processing.
MediaKind and Net Insight have partnered to develop a cloud-first IP video distribution system. The solution integrates MediaKind's RX1 professional receiver-decoder and CE1 cloud-ready contribution encoder with the Aquila Live cloud-based processing and delivery head-end.
The introduction of 5G services has played a major role in enabling remote cloud-based broadcasting to reach its current level of acceptance. Network slicing capabilities of 5G are a tremendous advantage for cloud broadcasting. For example, this technology is useful for broadcasting challenging events like the Tour de France, where a slice of the network can be dedicated to cloud broadcasting in a congested 5G network.
Finally, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the broadcast and media industry with a wide range of applications, from content management to virtual world creation. AI simplifies content management workflows, enables high-volume content analysis, and boosts discoverability of older archive content. It also enables powerful localization and has the potential to eliminate a significant portion of repetitive tasks.
Automation is one of the major advantages for broadcasters to adopt cloud-based media production solutions that automate parts of the production process, eliminating the need for time-consuming adaptation of programs and software for each project. This allows the creative team to start working immediately once the production team has uploaded their work into the cloud. Unlike traditional broadcast systems, a cloud-based system prepares content for digital distribution, saving time and money in the production process, established a clear business case for this remarkable technology shift.
