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It’s quite incredible to think that real time broadcast signal workflows are now actively encouraging software processing. It wasn’t so long ago that video images had to be processed in hardware to meet the tight timing constraints that live video processing demands.
Media streaming over the internet is unique. Packet switched networks were never designed to deliver continuous and long streams of media but instead were built to efficiently process transactional and short bursts of data. The long streams of video and audio data are relentless in their network demands and to distribute them effectively requires the adoption of specialist CDNs.
As users return to the studio and office the need to work remotely is more powerful now than ever. Hybrid is the new way of working and computing innovation is rising to the challenge to provide broadcast users with easy to use, and secure operations from their local PC/Workstation.
Having a collection of PCs and MACs stacked under a desk to facilitate the multitude of operational requirements not only proves difficult to operate but challenges our modern ideas around security and makes maintenance almost impossible.
IP and COTS infrastructure designs are giving us the opportunity to think about broadcast systems in an entirely different manner. Although broadcast engineers have been designing studio facilities to be flexible from the earliest days of television, the addition of IP and COTS takes this to a new level allowing us to continually reallocate infrastructure components to make the best use of expensive resource.
Monitoring has always been the engineers’ best friend as it turns apparent chaos into order and helps us understand what is going on deep inside a system to deliver high-quality pictures and sound. As OTT continues to play a more prominent role, the need to monitor internet distribution systems is becoming increasingly compelling.
Computer systems continue to dominate the landscape for broadcast innovation and the introduction of microservices is having a major impact on the way we think about software. This not only delivers improved productivity through more efficient workflow solutions for broadcasters, but also helps vendors to work more effectively to further improve the broadcaster experience.
Security is becoming increasingly important for broadcasters looking to transition to IP infrastructures. But creating improved software, firewalls and secure networks is only half the story as cybercriminals look to find new and imaginative methods of compromising data.