Press coverage of the broadcast-AV convergence trend has tended, even within these pages, to major on one side of the consolidation – the diversification of AV companies into broadcast. But this is to do a disservice to broadcast-centric vendors and system integrators venturing into pro AV, because there is plenty of activity taking place there, too.
In both cases, the movement away from sector-specific connectivity towards universal IP technologies has been a huge driver of convergence. But in the case of broadcast companies exploring pro AV, the desire to create and distribute more compelling video content – especially in corporate, education and worship – is making this a sizable potential market. The fact that some areas of media – especially public sector broadcasting, which is being assailed by cutbacks in many territories – currently look more uncertain may also be encouraging diversification into AV.
“It’s almost like a new vertical is being created – ‘broadcast-AV’,” says Todd Riggs, director product management, Hyperconverged Solutions at Ross Video. “I think from the pro AV side you are seeing a desire for simplified workflows, which makes things easier to manage, maintain and use. While from the broadcast side you get people with extensive experience maintaining complex systems, which helps create these very large-scale distributed environments.”
Diversification of some venues into other areas, which may well include an enhanced broadcast element, is also increasing the opportunities for vendors coming from outside pro AV. “The most important factor is the expectation of customers that wish to address both AV-related and broadcast-centric requirements via a unified platform,” says Christian Scheck, head of marketing content at Lawo. “Sports and entertainment venues need to host as many events as possible to remain commercially viable. These can be soccer matches and athletics events, but also live concerts, general meetings of large corporations, and so on.”
CORPORATE REPORT
Riggs is not alone in indicating that the corporate space is one where the transfer from broadcast to AV is particularly apparent. And it’s not hard to explain why: “Companies are realising the power of internal and external communications through media” – meaning they need both the tech and technical skills to achieve broadcast-quality results.”
John Mailhot, systems architect for IP convergence at Imagine Communications, agrees: “There has been a real convergence of requirements. The pro AV market in many areas has upscaled and upscaled to the point where they’re really producing first-quality television.”
Simon Watson is global head of innovation at AV and UCC integrator Kinly. “We’re all now used to consuming very good content, whether it’s for your mobile phone, or you’re watching YouTube or TV – so to then flip back into the working world and see a CEO going through a [PowerPoint-type] presentation is not great,” he says. “So we think employee engagement is a big factor here, and so to fix that problem by bringing some broadcast practices into the corporate world is really key.”
Meanwhile, several significant technological developments have emerged to make this much more feasible. The advent of more universally applicable networking infrastructure, based on IP and now supported by accessible and well-defined standards, is generally agreed to be the biggest factor here.
“The move to IP-based workflows is changing the game and enabling more efficient, scalable and flexible production and distribution processes,” says David Isola, director of global product marketing at Black Box. “The capabilities when moving to IP include support of various audio and video formats, compression standards such as JPEG XS and HEVC, and other protocols such as SMPTE ST 2110.”
The positive consequences of this change are manifold. Whole tranches of commonly-deployed workflows, including encoding and decoding, can increasingly be served with the same technologies. Meanwhile, the kind of broadcast switchers, vision mixers and all-in-one production systems to be found, for example, in lower and middle tier sports production as well as regional TV stations are now readily applicable to corporate studios and conference centres.
Looking ahead, there is also an expectation that some of the more cutting-edge developments that first rose to prominence in broadcast and film – virtual production and extended reality (XR) being particular examples – will increasingly cross over to AV spaces including corporate. Once again, creating captivating content will be a primary driver, although there is a recognition that customisations to reflect different skill-sets and resources will be required.
For instance, Kinly partnered with SmartStage last year to develop new XR products, Surface XR Studio and Hybrid XR Studio, with the corporate world in mind – the aim being to enable the creation of “more dynamic and inclusive experiences”. The starting point, says Watson, was “to make XR easier to use and able to be operated by one individual so you don’t have to have a whole broadcast team to sit in. It had to be cheaper and simplified”.
Now, with the corporate versions, he continues “if you want to have the CEO sit or stand on an XR stage, then no problem. They can be imported into any environment you want”. It is then also possible to have AR graphics of the kind you would see in TV weather reports – “so it brings more opportunities to engage people with the content”.
Whilst it’s certainly a more sizeable market in the US than in the UK and Europe, worship seems to be the other key pro AV area where broadcast vendors are now extremely prevalent. This should come as no surprise given that ‘mega-churches’, in particular, have long straddled the demands of in-house and remote worship – the latter requirement, delivered over streaming, even more vital during Covid.
These days, notes Imagine Communications’ Mailhot, the difference in production quality between a large house of worship and a mid-market television station is “kind of neutral”. The company undertook a project at Lakepointe, a large church in Texas, last year, which resembled a large market television studio – except for the projector. “What you see in the large houses of worship is really about the message, and what helps deliver the message is having first-rate experiences.”
Hence a “proper 1080p production, maybe with HDR” is increasing commonplace in this space, he adds. With both ST 2110 and the IPMX standards – which add to 2110 with extensions dedicated to AV use cases – seeing growing adoption, solutions supportive of scalable IP installations are also in huge demand. For instance, the aforementioned Lakepointe project is billed as hosting one of the largest ST 2110 systems in a house of worship to date, built on Imagine Communications’ Selenio Network Processor (SNP) and Magellan Control System. Designed by Oklahoma City-based Skylark, the new infrastructure provides both day-to-today reliability and flexibility for the multi-campus church – as well as the opportunity to scale up as new ministry opportunities arise.
SIMILAR LEVEL
It’s not such a stretch from the large churches to live venues, where a similar level of multi-purpose infrastructure is complementary to many vendors from broadcast. Scheck points to the delivery of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid – best-known as the home venue of Real Madrid. He says that it allows broadcasters to connect to its in-house control rooms for live sports, doing away with the need for OB trucks.
“It enables remote production scenarios involving external locations owned by Real Madrid, and, crucially, the in-house operations centre also controls what appears on the huge video walls, delivers live and pre-produced footage to VIP areas, handles the venue’s audio, and so on. IP technology makes such ‘hybrid’ setups pretty straightforward and offers the benefit that both sides of the (imaginary) fence can leverage content and tools originally prepared for a different purpose.”
Meanwhile, Scheck indicates that the Lawo product range has long been ready for the convergence: “Our mc²-series mixing systems as well as the diamond and crystal consoles, the .edge gateway, HOME Apps, and many other Lawo solutions feel right at home in a converged broadcast/proAV environment.”
Several likely developments are highlighted when talk turns to the future of how broadcast-oriented technologies might impact upon pro AV. Isola is not alone in identifying the use of 5G connectivity as “an interesting area of investigation”. Having already made its mark on live broadcasting, including for some significant news and sports events, it’s not hard to see how it might bring further flexibility to corporate applications like conferencing.
Meanwhile, there is also an expectation that the live performance arena will bear an increased footprint from companies with a broadcast background and deep IP expertise. “In line with skyrocketing admission prices, any big live event must wow its audience from start to finish,” notes Scheck. “The ball-shaped venue in Las Vegas [The Sphere] is the perfect example of how solutions designed for broadcast enable operators to drive AV-centric devices. And that is just one example of how an immersive experience can be achieved. A rapidly growing number of theatre and opera houses use their immersive sound system for almost every performance.”
He adds: “Broadcast vendors that specialise in IP already have the technology to make this work, and the software-based architecture of their solutions means that missing features, mostly related to the user interface, are easy to add if a vendor doesn’t offer them already.”
So it seems clear that all the right elements are now in place for a truly bi-directional exchange of technologies and talents between broadcast and pro AV.
