Imagine

Post-pandemic normalcy returned to Amsterdam as broadcasters and vendors convened, but a palpable sense of economy and efficiency blanketed the International Broadcasting Convention.

TV stations are still putting most of their dollars into on-prem hardware for master control functions, with their cloud investments aimed at OTT and disaster recovery. Pictured: Imagine recently partnered with Vizrt to integrate its cloud playout software with Vizrt’s live production tools.

Tech executives from Sinclair, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Fox Television Stations, Imagine and TAG Video Systems will offer predictions for the most important trends in the coming year including building IP networks, cloud production and playout, cybersecurity and streaming technology in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on Dec. 1. Register here.

In Amsterdam this week, there was plenty of talk about broadcasters’ ongoing transition to IP and the cloud, along with the supply chain issues and labor shortages hampering it, but most people were too grateful to see old friends, colleagues and clients to complain.

Whether offered as a standalone unit or combined with other components of the broadcast workflow, multiviewers are tackling a mix of formats and a higher volume of content to monitor. Above, Studio Berlin uses the Apantac KVM over IP solution for its multiviewers.

Attendance may have been almost halved by the pandemic, but tech vendors felt the more intimate environment allowed them to conduct business on a more productive level. On the show floor, the continued shift of broadcast workflows to the public cloud dominated many discussions, while others focused on NextGen TV’s pressing need to monetize.

A first look at Disney’s new Digital Center 3 (DC3) in The Woodlands, Texas, a massive, 187,000-square-foot plant consolidating playout, transmission and media operations. (Sam Exley photo)

Broadcasters such as Sinclair and Vice are increasingly shifting playout functions to cloud platforms, seeking more flexibility and agility there and testing the waters with disaster recovery strategies, OTT channels and diginets. “In the cloud, you can build up a whole separate system in parallel, test it, then cut over to it,” says one consultant.

Dalet, Imagine, Ross Video, Sony Professional Products, the IEEE and many other companies are hosting webinars this week, while Accedo, ChyronHego, Newtek, Vizrt and others continue to offer on-demand events and access to briefings and demos. For TVNewsCheck‘s full list of events for this week, future weeks and on-demand, check the Virtual Events Directory. 

Per-transaction fees and resistance by walled gardens are hampering the development of tools to streamline the complicated world of buying and selling spot TV advertising.

Audio over IP (AoIP) networking technology is experiencing higher adoption among TV broadcasters, prompted in part by a new transport standard ensuring more interoperability. Many of those embracing IP no longer think of audio production as an island, but as connected networks prompting interoperability to become an important factor. Above, SSL’s System T AoIP production system runs on COTS hardware like Cisco switches.

Discovery and ABC both rely on the cloud — one public, one private — to deliver their cable networks. Now broadcasters are looking at how the cloud can benefit not just distribution but also production, whether that means live news or sports coverage or post-production applications like editing.

The complications of dynamic ad insertion is one factor keeping local broadcasters from making a bigger run at OTT. But with the promise of higher CPMs from ad targeting as motivation, broadcasters and vendors say solutions are on the horizon.