Few technologies have been as disruptive to the broadcast industry over recent years as the cloud. Its implementation brings multiple benefits at all points of the production chain, with its ability to reduce costs, scale, and adapt to the changing demands of a marketplace in flux particularly important to the continued evolution of the industry.
In an influential document, accenture listed four factors that are driving broadcasters towards the scale and flexibility of cloud-based offerings:
- Consumers are demanding more choice, which in turn requires more computing power and resources than traditional broadcasting has ever had to manage.
- An accelerating proliferation of devices and channels necessitates more flexible business models to serve a changing media landscape
- There are more Time to Market pressures as consumers demand rapid evolution of services and expansion of choice
- There are greater cost pressures on technology sourcing and operations
The cloud can answer all these concerns. It provides a faster Time to Market, can scale to handle workload spikes, can leverage the power of data analytics, and can drive innovation through “agile development and constant iterative experimentation.”
The problem is that moving the complex chain of video delivery from established infrastructure to a cloud implementation is a proposition freighted with concern, and, despite the benefits, it is fair to say that broadcast on the whole has so far lagged behind other industries in making the transition.
There are signs that this is changing, however. The recent Global Market Valuation and Strategy Report, suggests that revenue from services increased by 2.9% between 2012 and 2014 and now accounts for 54% — $26bn annually worldwide — of total spending by broadcast and media technology end-users.
This is as good an indication that you can get that the cloud is coming of age in the industry and you can hear more about it at one of the two panel sessions that took place at this year's IBC.
The panel: Reaching for the Cloud moderated by nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon with Rod Fairweather, Senior Director Media & Technology Infrastructure at Viacom, David Leporini, EVP Marketing Products & Security at Viaccess-Orca, Kiran Patel, Executive Product Manager Media Services at BBC and Glyn Smith, Business Development Manager at Amazon Web Services discussed many of the challenges and opportunities surrounding cloud implementation when it comes to broadcast.
The panel was lived streamed courtesy of our friends at LiveU
Photo credit: Pablo.Fonseca / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA
