The media industry is evolving faster than at any point in its history. Broadcasters and content producers are striving to meet consumers’ insatiable appetite for more content, rich viewing experiences, stunning images and access across all screens. As a result, in some cases, we have a situation where broadcasters’ revenues are growing more slowly than their costs. In fact, the big question facing all broadcasters today is how to create more first-class content more efficiently.
Following the myriad of transitions in media production and distribution, is a combination of new technologies that create media and ones that support the consumption of media. Since the creation of media is mostly intended for the audience, the technologies needed to create the media are pretty important even while the consumer has no idea what it takes.
So many buzzwords & acronyms and so little time! I thought this was a better title than Understanding the Differences Part 2.
While I am not one to wax nostalgic, the last decade was a pretty exciting one in media technology. HD-SDI came into its own in the early aught (00) years, mobile and wireless media, OTT and streaming all became mainstream. IP and file based media production was introduced and standardized (SMPTE ST2110) however, let’s not forget 3G, 12G, 4K, 8K, UHD and HDR. Whew! Plus VR & AR, eSports and 3D (oops) and the world got cloudy.
Open Source is one of the current buzz terms in technology. In the world of software applications and services offering to make the source code of a program freely available is certainly a noble gesture. Interoperable is more of a design specification and philosophy to make sure systems and devices can interact and communicate with each other, regardless of vendor enabling the entire media chain to function. What a concept!
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.