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Broadcast’s shift towards IT: An inevitable evolution?

When Grass Valley CTO Ian Fletcher made the bold assertion that broadcast is now an IT industry, (even as it grows closer to AV, and AV itself grows closer to IT!), Installation's sister magazine TVBEurope canvassed opinion among key stakeholders

Ian Fletcher, chief technology officer, Grass Valley

Ian Fletcher

The shift from traditional broadcasting to an IT-driven operation hasn’t happened overnight, but it’s been in the making for years. The broadcasters who have successfully adapted to this shift are those who recognised early on that the worlds of broadcast engineering and IT were not separate entities but interdependent ones. Historically, these departments operated under very different rules and conditions, which sometimes led to conflicts – like the infamous Friday afternoon firewall changes by IT, leaving broadcasters scrambling over the weekend.

However, as we move towards software-based processing and cloud-based solutions, it’s become clear that these two fields need to work more closely together. Some broadcasters are essentially transforming their on-prem facilities into data centres, making them face a critical decision: should they continue owning these infrastructures or outsource them to the cloud? It’s a balancing act, with pros and cons to both.

But while the technological evolution towards Kubernetes and microservices is inevitable, it’s crucial to acknowledge that these systems require much more attention than the old hardware setups. 

I’ve seen broadcasters who haven’t touched their systems in a decade because they simply didn’t need to. With modern tech, though, it’s a different story – you need to “feed and water” your Kubernetes clusters, applying security patches and keeping everything up to date.

The reality is that not every broadcaster has the resources or technical expertise to manage these complex systems. That’s why it’s important to use the right technology at the right place in the chain. For enterprise broadcasters with in-house expertise, a deep dive into advanced IT systems makes sense. For others, a more simplified, broadcast-friendly solution is essential to ensure they’re not bogged down by complexity, allowing them to focus on what they do best: broadcasting.

Robert Ambrose, managing director and co-founder, Caretta Research

The broadcast and media industry has adopted software and IT solutions at scale for 20+ years, and the rise of public cloud providers means more and more workflows are running efficiently and reliably on standard IT infrastructure – from live production to linear playout and streaming. That’s helping to drive down costs, and increasing innovation and agility.

What makes us different as an industry is scale – or rather the lack of it. Some vendors are adopting a standardised SaaS model, especially where there’s scale across other industries. But for most products, a “one size fits all” approach is too much of a challenge.

What a major public broadcaster needs is different from the requirements of a telco pay-TV operator or a small content distributor. They can all use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to run their business, but they each have quite different needs and budgets when it comes to MAM, rights management or streaming platforms.

But, and it’s a big but, we need to get away from the “we’re different” mindset. There’s still far too much reinventing of the wheel by buyers when an off-the-shelf product will meet 80 percent of the requirements much faster. When it comes to return on investment, time-to-market wins every time.

At the same time, some technology vendors need to do much more to invest in keeping their products up to date. And the IT industry is capable of delivering multiple releases a day. Some broadcast products are lucky to see a few updates in a year, and frankly, too many vendors have underinvested in developing their products for too long, leaving them to wither on the vine and banking on a captive audience.

What’s still to play for is who, if anyone, will control the platforms on which our industry’s content supply chain runs – in the way that, say, Google has achieved in pay-TV with Android TV Operator Tier. 

Scale and economics suggest there’s value in a common industry operating system. But technology buyers consistently tell us that they don’t want their core operations in the hands of any one vendor.

Andy Bell, chief engineer, Channel 4

Andy Bell

There are many reasons why we could label the broadcast Industry, as another part of the IT industry. If you look at the last decade and our industry’s transition away from traditional bespoke broadcast infrastructure to everything having an IP address and deployed in the cloud, you can see why the argument is made.

Having experienced the transition from analogue technology to digital in the 1990s, where video and audio signals took a giant leap from a broad level of variation to ‘zeros and ones’, I accept that switching to a digital world was quite straightforward to understand. Of course, switching from broadcast to IP could also be argued in the same way, as that transition has been relatively fast. Only 10 years ago, nobody would have dreamed of trying to deliver broadcast signals via anything other than broadcast-grade kit from a specific manufacturer. Fast forward to 2024 and the first decision is how you architect your platform in the cloud, not whether you should try and use the cloud. 

With all of this said, and with nothing but respect for the IT industry, there remains quite a difference between running an IT operation and running a broadcast operation. In broadcasting you require specific craft skills to create, editorialise, prepare, convert, localise, add accessibility and market content. The differences between broadcast and IT are closing but are still vast.

Chris Bailey, head of innovation, Jigsaw24 Media

While the Sony hack in 2014 may have kickstarted the slow blending of IT and media engineering, it was probably during the pandemic that the dynamic changed most dramatically.  Before Covid, media teams would provide the IT department with a pre-requisite sheet of what we needed from them to enable our systems. Now IT is the first port of call, and they provide the specifications that solutions need to be designed around. Security is paramount, and if a media system doesn’t fit into IT’s network architecture and security policy then it’s a non-starter.

As a result, media and IT engineering roles have become more blended, especially in small to medium-sized organisations. But it’s not necessarily a case of meeting in the middle. In addition to specialist knowledge around media systems, the new breed of broadcast engineer has a much better understanding of how networks are put together, but IT engineers (particularly in enterprise organisations) don’t always have as much in the way of media chops. They may know what they need to achieve from a networking, security and architecture standpoint to integrate media technologies, but they generally would not need to understand the workflows or intricacies of the media systems.  

So, media engineers may understand networking and IT infrastructure, but does that mean they’re the same as a corporate IT engineer? Absolutely not. That’s why we have two sides to this business – because while broadcasting and IT have become increasingly blended, they are still very different specialisms. And there’s probably not enough bandwidth in one person’s brain to do it all. 

Steve Reynolds, president, Imagine Communications

Steve Reynolds

The evolution of the broadcast industry is increasingly intertwined with IT – a shift that we anticipated following the successful transition of various applications to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. Over a decade ago, automation, media asset management, and video servers were among the first to move to software, paving the way for further innovations in virtualisation and cloud technologies.

At Imagine, we recognised that infrastructure would also inevitably migrate to standard IT topologies, which is why we invested early in SMPTE ST 2110, leading development of the standard and championing the adoption of open, multi-vendor solutions. This strategic move derived from our belief that embracing IT would transform the broadcast market – accelerating the adoption of next-gen innovation, reducing total cost of ownership, and delivering the R&D benefits of working with a broader base of suppliers, technologies, and development skillsets. 

Transitioning to IT infrastructure has also proven to be a necessary “on-ramp” to cloud integration. While not every aspect of broadcasting will migrate to the cloud, we are confident about the industry’s move toward IP-based systems. This shift is not just a trend; it’s an inevitable evolution that will affect every facet of media production and distribution. 

To navigate this transformational change, Imagine worked to expand our IT skillsets and knowledge base, and it’s essential for our broadcast customers to do the same. Organisations like SMPTE and AIMS have prioritised training and certification programmes to bridge IT best practices with the unique demands of broadcast workflows. 

This focus on education will equip our customers to adapt to new technologies and remain competitive in an increasingly digital world.

Opinions may vary, but Imagine’s take is that the convergence of broadcast and IT is inevitable, and we are ready for a future where IT expertise will be critical for success in the media landscape.

Paolo Pescatore, founder PP Foresight

Paolo Pescatore

I’ve been following this space for a few years now and have seen the growing dominance of big tech in telco. A few years on and the big tech takeover of media and broadcast is almost complete. The likes of AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft, as well as others, have been steadily increasing their presence and continue to evolve by adding more features/functions to their suite of capabilities. They have and continue to play a crucial role in the transforming of legacy platforms into this new software-driven cloud-based virtualised world.

All of this plays to the strength of big tech. It is surprising not to see more traditional media and broadcast players take the leap of faith into this brave, bold new world. Some are holding on to old SLA cash cow contracts but will soon follow others in facing revenue decline. The need to pivot is in the air due to numerous and critical factors, ageing systems, reducing physical footprint, more sustainable and remote operations and cost savings. 

New ways of content creation, production, distribution and consumption are changing very fast driven by next-generation connectivity such as fibre and 5G. Combined with AI (which some folks believe will be the saving grace of the industry), they are forcing a change in existing culture towards embracing new ways of working.

We are now seeing a different phase with big tech collaborating with small niche solution providers to further complement their existing offerings.

Therefore, as I predicted many years ago (at least six, maybe more), it is unsurprising to see these IT companies move and take over the media and broadcast industries. Arguably, it is somewhat surprising not to see more organisations like IBM and Oracle showcase at key events. Overall, all paths lead to big tech with connectivity powered by telcos!

Norbert Paquet, head of live production, Sony Europe

Norbert Paquet

The line between broadcast and IT infrastructure is becoming increasingly blurred, but to say broadcast is now entirely an IT industry would be an oversimplification. While the use of IP technology, cloud computing, and off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware in live broadcasting has accelerated in recent years, the transition is not complete.

Broadcasting has relied on IT for a long time, especially in file-based workflows. Live production however presents unique challenges that have been (and to some extent remain) difficult for IT to solve fully, most notably the need for ultra-low latency, very high reliability and the handling of massive data volumes. 

When it comes to media processing (including the video encoding used in media transport), software is making ever greater inroads into live production, providing much greater equipment flexibility and indeed sustainability through re-use. While COTS and cloud platforms can now provide acceptable performance for some productions, software running on optimised ASIC-based hardware platforms remain the only option to deliver the processing power needed for many high-quality productions. 

This shift to software is also changing the way broadcast functionality is being developed and delivered, with IT approaches now being adopted. 

The most notable difference with the traditional broadcast approach is that products can now be improved and extended continuously through software upgrades. There is no longer a need to create and deliver “the final product”. But instead the IT approach of continuous integration/continuous delivery can be used. At the same time, broadcast is beginning to adopt the IT industry’s open standards approach, further signalling the growing overlap between the two industries. 

Sony’s own offering reflects all these concepts, with an increasing use of IP and software in products, a commitment to standards, and the adoption of IT development methodologies.

That said, aside from the performance challenges, there is also a major issue holding back the full adoption of IT in live production: the scarcity of combined broadcast and IT knowledge in our industry. The good news here is that companies like Sony can help bridge that gap, with expertise developed over the course of many years.

In conclusion, one should not become fixated as to whether broadcasting is now an IT industry or not. There is plenty to be learned and embraced from the IT world, but ultimately the best tools are required for production, and that may mean sometimes taking a non-IT route.