No one goes to an event like the annual NAB Show without doing their homework first. As the show expands its umbrella to cover more advanced media technologies, the need to prepare becomes ever more crucial. Whatever your taste, TV Tech’s experts are here to help; here’s their advice for 2018:

KARL PAULSENStorage Technology

Standout trends will likely center on evolving workflows in cloud-based solutions and emerging applications for IP infrastructures. This is the first NAB since the adoption of new SMPTE ST 2110 standards for Professional Media Networks so don’t miss the IP Showcase (in the rear of Central Hall) where working examples of the new standards plus integration of the NMOS interface specifications will be shown in an educational showcase environment. Potential IP adopters will be looking at how manufacturers address software defined networking and new tools aimed at diagnostics and operational management for IP implementations.

The enormous prominence of virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence and machine learning at the Consumer Electronics Show will be evident at NAB. Expect to see evolving products necessary to support the industry’s mandate to create, manage and deliver content to these emerging platforms. eSports is now attracting inventive players and changing production techniques that may show promise for aspiring venues.

The continual industry churn of what is now Belden’s growing empire should attract users to see what new products they collectively offer. Everyone is curious how the combined companies of Grass Valley and Snell Advance Media will address the changes in infrastructures that appear to be moving away from pure hardware and into virtualized, software-based environments. We’ll see what comes out of these mergers and acquisitions—and who will be next in line.

JULIA SWAINLighting Technology

The 2018 NAB Show promises to be a big one! Excited to see more lighting units capable of RGB and DMX, which so many of us have been utilizing more and more on set. Being able to move so quickly between colors and qualities of light has opened up a lot of possibilities. I’m very much hoping for LEDs with great outputs as well. The climb toward stronger, more versatile LED units has been an exciting and consistent one, so I’m looking forward to seeing what this year brings in the world of lighting.

On the camera side, I anticipate some new monitor options with a gamut of exposure tools. Lots of apps to control and learn camera settings are also on the horizon.

AL KOVALICKCloudspotters Journal

Look for all things cloud including SaaS apps for your daily operations. Don’t settle for installed apps unless there is a performance need. Ask vendors what their cloud strategy is, including what clouds they support for media services, apps and processing. Go to NAB with a list of “cloud questions” for your preferred vendors specifically around hybrid cloud local operations integrated with cloud services. Understand there is a place for local services but these are being eclipsed by cloud operations. Understand what mix will work best for your facility. Expect to use one or more clouds to meet your business needs. This multicloud approach will give you more flexibility for business operations. Look for 24x7 cloud support and operational services possibly from specialty companies.

JAY YEARYFocus On Audio

This is the year where we really start to grasp the full scope of the changes that IP-enabled technologies are bringing to television, from ingest all the way to delivery. HD-SDI video and discrete audio chains will see fewer implementations as they are passed over for IP-based alternatives, even though the road to an all-IP facility remains a bumpy one. With ATSC 3.0 now rolling out in the U.S., IP is now a reality for new and remodeled television facilities.

In audio, we’ll certainly see an increasing number of personalization options for consumers, along with products for immersive audio that are designed to be shoehorned into residential environments. At least for now however, it looks like personalization, whether mono, stereo, or emulated surround, has piqued the interest of the end user more than additional surround channels in the living room. This could change if the costs of immersive audio products for the consumer become a little more accessible. The preference for personalization is partly VR-driven but is really a continued outgrowth of the de-cades-old personal device boom—which is likely to continue with or without a VR element.

User interfaces for Next Gen technologies are particularly worthy of scrutiny this year, since presenting complicated options in an easy-to-understand package is an art form that will make the difference between success and failure for some products. Finally, anyone hoping to stretch out their use of 600 MHz wireless devices appears to be out of luck now that T-Mobile has accelerated their rollout.

CRAIG JOHNSTONCorrespondent

We’ll see the rollout of ready to use 4K and some 8K camera systems. These new cameras have spawned attendant equipment such as enhanced lenses and high bit rate signal transmission equipment.

A whole host of 360 degree virtual reality camera systems and stitching software will be presented. An Immersive Storytelling Pavilion will help newcomers to 360 degree technology figure out how it will fit into their business.

Look for cellular liveshot gear that is futureproofed by including 5G capabilities, even though 5G at present is a small blip on the cellular radar.

And speaking of futureproofing, a lot of black boxes being bought at the show will have IP connectors on them, even though they will initially be connected via coaxial and fiber optic cable.

A few years ago, the thought of running a TV channel’s infrastructure on a public cloud was considered abhorrent to many broadcasters. The cry was, “not reliable, not secure, no direct control.”

Brinton Miller

In 2017, things have changed with the likes of Discovery, Disney, Fox, Hearst Television, PBS and others making big cloud moves. Discovery has recently announced they are moving their worldwide channel signal chains to the public cloud. This is big news for our industry and is a proof point of cloud acceptance.

Below is an interview with Brinton Miller, senior vice president of technology strategy and architecture for Discovery Communications. I have known Brinton for many years and have followed Discovery’s move to the cloud.

Al Kovalick:Please tell us about Discovery’s channel empire.
Brinton Miller: Discovery Communications offers a portfolio of premium nonfiction, sports and kids programming brands, reaching 3 billion viewers across pay-TV and free-to-air platforms in more than 220 countries and territories. Our programming [like “Deadliest Catch”] is supplied across hundreds of linear channels worldwide.

Kovalick:What are some of your motivations for moving Discovery’s broadcast workflow chains, including playout, to the cloud?
Miller: Eighteen months ago, we started looking at our global media infrastructure and started thinking about what’s next. We had multiple facilities around the world all running aging playout infrastructures. So, planning for a refresh we needed to ask: “Where do we want to be in a few years? Will any infrastructure we build today meet our future business needs, some of which are unknown? With the speed of technology change, does it make sense to spend the next three years building data centers around the world?”

It quickly became clear that we needed to move to a software-based environment and we wanted to build it in a public cloud. We needed to normalize our technology stack so the tools and systems we use to launch linear products were the same as for our nonlinear products.

“Deadliest Catch” crew members of the Cape Caution emptying a crab pot.

Kovalick:How do you put a price on cloud agility when you do an ROI analysis for new infrastructure?
Miller: Agility is a bonus and not a cornerstone of our financial analysis. That said, a cloud-based channel can be built from scratch and be on air in 20 minutes. Sure, content needs to be prepared, but building the on-air chain is fast.

This compares to about four months using current on-premise methods. Agility allows Discovery to quickly deploy pop-up or digital channels to meet new business needs.

Kovalick:What is your legacy equipment utilization across ingest processing, asset management, file delivery, QA, playout and other workflow components?
Miller: Let’s just say that it is nowhere near 100-percent utilization as measured across a 24-hour/day week. Cloud provides the ability to pay for what we use versus building to a ceiling that will ultimately be a bottle neck for the business.

Kovalick:Did you encounter an internal army of naysayers when your technical staff made the cloud transition proposal?
Miller: Not at the management layer. If a cloud-native competitor is doing this, why can’t Discovery? We have a great culture at Discovery that embraces change. There will always be people that take a bit longer than others. However, for the most part the team embraced the idea.

Most of the negative comments came from incumbent equipment providers. They want to sell us boxes and we were not interested in that discussion. I do think that the vendor space is a bit more open to discussing now 18 months later.

Kovalick:What are some of the challenges to the cloud move?
Miller: Licensing of software can be problematic. Most vendors are in the perpetual license business and this model is aging fast. We wanted “per-widget” consumption models whenever possible.

That said, we needed to accept it for some cases. It was also a challenge to duplicate the real-time signal flow portions of video workflows on a cloud platform not specifically designed for video, but we did it and with the same reliability our business requires.

Kovalick:Did you consider starting with only a few cloud-based channels then migrating others later?
Miller: If you are considering migrating to the cloud, don’t dabble in it. Go all in.

Kovalick:Where did you find savings?
Miller: Oh, many places. Equipment maintenance, support, real estate costs, power, cooling, building services, the list goes on. Our legacy air chain had about 130 racks of on-premise equipment just for our 32 domestic feeds. The cloud-based system has five racks on premise and all the remaining in the cloud. All this amounts to tangible savings for the long-term. Of course, we do channel stat-muxing and satellite up-linking outside of the cloud.

To check out our recent webinar, “Project On-Ramp: Migrating Discovery’s Media Supply Chain to the Cloud,” visit www.tvtechnology.com, click on Webinars under “Resources.”

Kovalick:Let’s talk channel reliability, a huge concern for broadcasters. Can you share some of the architectural principles you followed?
Miller: Our initial rollout is based on Amazon Web Services (AWS). We use S3 for object storage and hundreds of EC2 compute instances for media processing and other functions.

The end-to-end workflow is a mix of file-based processing and real-time streams. We worked with selected vendors to implement a world-class broadcast software architecture.

For reliability, each channel’s signal chain is duplicated in two different Regions (AWS U.S. East Region and Dublin, Ireland Region, for example) and each Region’s signal output is fed to our Sterling, Virginia Broadcast Center where they connect to a simple 2x1 switch. It is there we decide which Region’s feed goes to air. If one faults, we switch to the other. We have created a very reliable system that can withstand both geographical disruptions and multiple equipment failures.

Kovalick:Why did you choose AWS?
Miller: Amazon did a good job reaching out to our industry and this built our confidence and trust in their ability to support our workflows and business needs. We built our foundational flows on Linux and virtualization so that we can migrate to other cloud providers if and when it makes business sense. We deliberately applied design principles to not impede any future migrations.

Kovalick:What new vistas has the cloud opened to you?
Miller: There are many, but I like programmatic workflows and supply chain efficiencies. Quickly setting up signal chains and apps as required by a business and rapidly changing these to meet our needs is very cool.

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems consulting in Silicon Valley. He is the author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visitwww.theAVITbook.com.

Not too long ago, the words “public cloud” and “media enterprise” had almost nothing in common. Well, at the 2017 NAB Show the public cloud was being praised at nearly every turn by big and small equipment, services and software vendors. The public cloud is only about 11 years old, starting when Amazon first offered IT infrastructure services in 2006. It’s amazing to see the progress this once controversial service has made.

According to International Data Corp., worldwide spending on public cloud resources is expected to increase from $67 billion in 2015 to $162 billion in 2020, attaining a 19-percent CAGR. This is amazing growth and the media enterprise is not immune to this trend.

PUBLIC IS HOT, PRIVATE IS COOLING
Where do we stand today in terms of IT adoption? Let’s turn to a recent survey report from cloud management vendor RightScale, the “2017 State of the Cloud Report.” The report summarizes the results from a survey of 1,002 IT technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of the cloud. The report has been compiled annually since 2012, so RightScale has a good memory for how trends have changed since their first report. Here are some of the salient points that are relevant to building media infrastructure and related applications.

Fig. 1: Ninety-five percent of respondents are using the cloud in one form or another.

The survey shows (Fig. 1) that the hybrid cloud is the preferred enterprise strategy with 67-percent adoption while private-only is at 5 percent. Importantly, 95 percent of respondents are using the cloud in one form or another. The percentage of respondents adopting private cloud is 72 percent, down from 77 percent in 2016. This is an important trend and means more companies are trusting the public cloud.

Hybrid cloud is perfect for the media facility. Not all workflows are ready for public-only, whereas some intelligent sharing of local/private and public is practical and leads to more confidence in public-only. All media services organizations (production, post, broadcast, corporate, theatrical, etc.) use apps spanning from editing to media asset management to scheduling to project management and beyond. There are major benefits to the public cloud-based apps model and according to Gartner this segment had a growth rate of 20 percent in 2016 and a value of $38 billion (http://tinyurl.com/Gartner-saas-2015). Many vendors at the NAB Show offered either subscription apps or apps that you can own and run in a cloud of your choice.

One reason for the cooling of the private cloud is the trust in public has surged over recent years. Early on, private was the go-to choice because the public providers lacked trust and overall security was suspect. Well, the pendulum has changed sides and public (at least the major providers) has gained noteworthy respect. One reason for this is that the providers are showing substantial profits (sustainability metric) coupled with long-term growth prospects. It is accepted that private offers key advantages for massive data rate workflows (e.g. live, uncompressed HD/UHD).

Fig. 2: Usage patterns when running apps or experimenting with public and private clouds

USAGE PATTERNS
Cloud users are running apps in 1.8 different public clouds and 2.3 different private clouds, (the values in the table are averages across all responders). It’s true that fewer companies are using private clouds, but those that do are using them more often. The so-called multicloud strategy is prevailing across all responders. End users don’t want to be locked into one cloud vendor, so they spread the risk across about two, (Fig. 2.) Plus, each cloud provider offers a variety of services with differing performance levels. So, using the multicloud strategy allows end users to cherry pick what they need from the clouds they use.

For a real-world example, consider Walmart. Their strategy uses OpenStack for its private cloud and relies on Azure, Rackspace and possibly other public clouds.

Not too long ago, the main reason to use the public cloud was to leverage the pay-as-you-go (CapEx/OpEx) model to save money. In 2017 the priorities are completely different. According to the survey, the top four reasons for cloud use are:

• Faster access to infrastructure
• Greater scalability
• Higher availability
• Faster time to market

Interestingly, the ninth reason for the same question was “cost savings.” It’s amazing to see this has fallen near the bottom of the list. Why? Cloud users have learned that the other benefits outweigh cost savings. This explains why using a trusty spreadsheet to calculate cloud ROI is very difficult. How do you put a price on the ability to scale or faster time to market? Most savvy executives understand this, so don’t require a bulletproof ROI to sign off on cloud-based projects.

Another survey question asked, “What are your top cloud challenges?” For the cloud beginners the first choice was “security” and third was “managing costs.” This is not surprising since beginners are not confident in their cloud skills and don’t want to get slammed with a security breach. For the cloud-focused (mature) architect the first choice was “managing costs” and the fourth was “security.” The general trend is, more experienced users worry less about security.

This does not mean that security is not important. To the contrary, public cloud providers focus on this since it is a major differentiator to on-premise systems. Who has more security experts working for them, Amazon or your application development group? Security is a joint responsibility between you and the cloud provider.

KINGS OF THE HILL
Finally, respondents were asked what cloud providers they are using to run apps. The order was: Amazon AWS (57 percent); Microsoft Azure (34 percent) up from 20 percent in 2016; Google Cloud (15 percent) up from 10 percent in 2016 and IBM (8 percent). Oracle and Digital Ocean had a combined 5-percent usage. The multicloud approach is creating opportunity for Azure and Google. While it’s true that AWS has the market-leading position, there is potential for the others to continue gaining on AWS.

This survey shows the pace of the public cloud and its acceptance by all corners of business. As a media professional, keep both eyes trained on it and always think “cloud first.” That is, ask, “Why won’t the cloud work for me?”

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems consulting in Silicon Valley. He is the author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed.).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visitwww.theAVITbook.com.

It’s starting to happen… media companies are beginning to move some or all of their high-valued content to the public cloud. One driving point is that major public cloud vendors are gaining the respect and trust of media and other companies big and small. Of course, there are reasons to keep some content local including uncompressed video editing, critical real-time operations and others. However, some media workflows can leverage the cloud including long-term archive, high-volume processing, media asset management and consumer streaming.

Let’s consider an example of leveraging the cloud for storage. Say a media enterprise has 100 TB of bulk data that it wants to transfer to a public cloud for archive, with occasional access. There are at least three ways to realize the transfer of data.

One method is to use the public internet; a second is to use a private network; and third, load the content into physical drives and “mail” these to the cloud vendor for import. Each method is in use today and has a time/cost tradeoff.

For the first method, using a 1 Gbps (used at 80 percent capacity) upload rate, it would take about 12 days to upload the 100 TB. This is optimistic and assumes an ideal continuous upload rate not throttled by inevitable network congestion. For the case of a private “internet bypass” network with a 10 Gbps link the upload time is reduced to about 1.2 days. Private networks have low latency and low packet loss.

Fig. 1: Amazon’s 100 Petabyte Snowmobile truck

However, private transports can be costly and usually require a two-stage link. The first stage link is from the customer datacenter to a “cloud access location” (e.g. 60 Hudson St. in New York City, One Wilshire in Los Angeles). This link is normally some form of private Ethernet from vendors such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon or Level 3 and may require a long-term contract. The second stage link is from the access location to the cloud. An example of this link type is Amazon’s Direct Connect, Microsoft Azure’s ExpressRoute and Google’s Direct Peering. Each has a different fee structure, but are mostly “pay as you go” at some level up to 10 Gbps.

Once private cloud connectivity is established it will be used for more than bulk data uploads. It is becoming the trusted method to link the datacenter with a cloud and avoid the performance and reliability issues of the internet.

A SNOWBALL’S CHANCE

The third method for bulk data transfer to a cloud is physical drive transport (flash and hard disk). The major cloud vendors all support sending actual drives with data to their cloud facility for import, however, this can be troublesome. There is a need to specify, purchase, maintain, format, package, ship and track the individual drives.

In October 2015 Amazon introduced “Snowball,” designed to simplify bulk transfer. Snowball is a portable purpose-built appliance owned by Amazon, has 80 TB of internal encrypted storage, is rugged enough to withstand a 6G jolt, tamper proof, includes a 10Gigabit Ethernet port and is weather resistant.

The Snowball model is faster, more secure and an efficient way to transport bulk data. Here are the steps to perform a transfer:

• Use the Amazon self-service page to order the appliance(s). These are shipped to the customer facility.
• Connect the Snowball to your network and log onto it with provided credentials.
• Copy your data into Snowball and ship the unit(s) back to Amazon. The unit is ready to ship without any packaging. A shipping label will automatically appear on the “E Ink” display.
• When Amazon receives the unit(s) they will load the data into your S3 storage account.

There is a usage charge of only $250 per job, plus any shipping charges (e.g. FedEx). Users have up to 10 days (starting the day after delivery) to copy data to the appliance and ship it out. There is no cost to load the data from a Snowball into S3 or Glacier storage. Of course, once the data is loaded into storage there are charges to keep it persistent.

Depending on your bulk data size, Snowball may be the right choice compared to using internet or private networks to upload. However, what if you have petabytes of data to move? In this case even using many Snowballs may not be practical. Enter the Amazon Snowmobile.

Snowmobile is a new way to move massive volumes of data to the cloud, including video libraries, image repositories or even complete data center migrations. Transferring data with Snowmobile is secure, fast and cost-effective. Users can transfer 100 PB in a few weeks compared to over 20 years using a 1 Gbps connection or using about 1,250 Snowballs. Fig. 1 shows a Snowmobile at its product release announcement in Las Vegas, November 2016. Internally it is stuffed with servers, storage drives, IP switching gear and power distribution.

This is major league data transfer. The 45-foot long Snowmobile truck is driven to your site and Amazon personnel assist in setting up the transfer. The Snowmobile website states: “A fully powered Snowmobile requires ~350 KW. Snowmobile can be connected to available utility power sources at your location if sufficient capacity is available. Otherwise, AWS can dispatch a separate generator set along with the Snowmobile if your site permits such generator use.”

So, there are many options for transferring bulk data to the cloud; from low data rate internet connections to the massive Snowmobile. If you face a data migration problem, factor these methods into your decision logic.

The adage “Compute where the data is” makes even more sense in a cloud environment. The more data stored in the cloud, the more related compute and distribution is likely to occur; it’s a beneficial synergy.

If you want to leverage the cloud for business operations, but your data is “stuck at home,” consider doing a bulk transfer. One added benefit of cloud storage is its long-term durability. The cloud vendor is responsible for managing the headache of replacing aging storage hardware. It’s not your worry.

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems consulting in Silicon Valley and author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visit www.theAVITbook.com.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

The days are dwindling when a media production/broadcast company can ignore the public cloud for apps, processing and storage. The Cisco Global Cloud Index 2014–2019 predicts that 48 percent of all enterprise workloads will execute in the public cloud in 2019. How can system designers take advantage of this unstoppable trend? This article outlines the basics of the hybrid cloud media system.

First, what is a hybrid cloud? The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the hybrid cloud as follows:

The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).

Hybrid clouds permit, say, a local media enterprise to divide up workloads with a public cloud. This way, existing, private, sunk cost, infrastructures can interface with public cloud services as needed. An example is use of the public cloud to archive video files while other media workflow aspects are done privately. Over time, more and more workloads (e.g. apps, transcoding, MAM, ingest, QC) may be moved to the cloud as desired until, in some cases, the local system is minimized. This way a holistic media infrastructure can be built with workloads divvied up across the system in a seamless manner that meets security and performance needs.

LOCAL AND SECURE

This is the beauty of the hybrid approach. Don’t want to store your crown jewels in the public cloud? No problem. Keep them safe and sound locally. Hybrid workflows can be designed to function with just about any local/cloud partitioning of media, processing, storage and control.

Here are some of the benefits of the hybrid cloud approach:

• Start small, scale to cloud according to workflow needs;

• Fewer desktop-installed apps; run Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps;

• Faster time to market for new products (business agility);

• Geo-diverse networked operations;

• Support for legacy product integration;

• Support for small, medium and large systems;

• Leverage virtualized cloud services; storage, processing, security, reliability, pay-as-you-go accounting (OpEx not CapEx accounting), and

• Rich APIs for customization as needed.

Even a few of these benefits can be sufficient reason to include the cloud in your workflow. However, for some, using any public cloud services is a “no go” because of security. Is this wise thinking?

There are many aspects to cloud security and multitenancy is near the top of the list. This is where a given user shares cloud resources (compute, storage, networking) with other mostly unknown users.

However, “There’s been no correlation between security failure and the degree of multitenancy,” said Jay Heiser, vice president of research for Gartner, at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit in June 2016. Gartner predicts that by 2018, increased security will displace cost savings and agility as the primary driver to move to public cloud. In the near future trusted public clouds will become the most secure place to store valuable digital assets. The tide is turning.

EXAMPLE HYBRID CLOUD MEDIA SYSTEM

Fig. 1: The diagram shows a generic hybrid cloud media system. The upper portion illustrates the local/private media center (PMC). The cloud portion (PCMS) contains services for storage, processing and app execution. (Figure concept: Prime Focus Technologies, CLEAR Software Suite. Download the white paper at tinyurl.com/PFT-CLEAR.)

Fig. 1 shows a generic hybrid cloud media system. The upper portion illustrates the local/private media center (PMC). The cloud portion (PCMS) contains services for storage, processing and app execution. There may be several PMCs that “share” the same cloud services and common cloud database for files and metadata. This encourages geo-diverse workflows. Also, the PCMS may, in fact, be a “multicloud” composed of several different public clouds, each offering a specific service that the others do not.

The PMC may be a broadcast operations center with apps, storage and workflow services/processes. Cloud-based software products are provided by traditional AV vendors and others with a cloud services product model (see for example aws.amazon.com/marketplace).

On the left of the figure are the providers of content, both live and file-based. On the right are a myriad of distributors and playout partners. Playout could be implemented at the PMC, of course.

Connectivity between the PMC and the cloud may be via the public internet or a private connection such as Metro Ethernet or a service such as Amazon Direct Connect (aws.amazon.com/directconnect).

Cloud connectivity choices and performance are only improving. Once connectivity is established, it is used to support three main types of communications between the PMC and the PCMS; one for apps, one for file/stream transport and one for services control. Of course there are other communication types such as monitoring, system configuration and provisioning, but these are outside of the scope of this article.

A summary of the three media-related types follows:

• SaaS apps executing in the cloud with a web browser user interface (e.g. aviary.com). The days of desktop-installed apps are fading. Sure there are good reasons for performance heavy apps such as real-time AV editing to be installed, but most media workflow apps can be SaaS-based.

• AV file/stream I/O: In the hybrid model, there will be file and stream transport between the PMC and the PCMS. Some sort of “edge appliance” may assist in security and data acceleration.

• Workflow services: This is key to the success of the hybrid model. Legacy PMC products may be controlled from a cloud controller. For example, PMC files can be checked locally for quality and standards compliance (QC), but control is from cloud orchestration. So legacy PMC systems can be integrated into a hybrid system without rip-and-replace tactic. As legacy is phased out, migrating to a cloud-based equivalent is an option.

Reduced hybrid versions are possible with, say, only some SaaS or only some cloud storage implemented. There are many variations of the hybrid model. This article just scratched the surface of this important area.

To learn more, visit:

• azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/media-services

• www.primefocustechnologies.comwww.deluxemediacloud.comwww.sonymcs.com

•www.ooyala.com/nativ

•www.aframe.com

• www.tedial.com, and others.

There are many broadcasters taking advantage of the hybrid model today, so become familiar with its benefits and tradeoffs.

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems consulting in Silicon Valley. He is the author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visitwww.theAVITbook.com.

There is little doubt that compute virtualization has changed the data center forever. It has led the way for software-defined resources: compute, storage and networking. The cloud is the biggest beneficiary of software-defined concepts and the trickle-down effect is influencing how media systems are designed and implemented.

This article will review three trends important to media system designers related to the “global data center.” This term describes private/local, hybrid and public clouds. The themes are: cloud progress, virtualization maturity and service workloads. This article highlights some conclusions from the “Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology 2914–2019” report and from other research sources.

CLOUD PROGRESS
The five basic value propositions of the public cloud (and private to an extent) are:

• On-demand services
• Network access
• Resource pooling
• Agility of usage
• Pay by use

Each provides a value not provided by the traditional data center. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is the king of cloud offerings. IaaS adoption has been slow in some quarters, especially for media operations. There are reasons for this, not the least is user “trust” in the cloud service provider (CSP). Will they lose my data? Will the data be secure? Will they be in business in 10 years? In 20?

One factor in CSP trust is the ability to achieve growth with continued profit. Profitable companies have “staying power” and this creates trust and confidence by end users. Consider, Amazon Web Services (AWS) the largest of the CSPs, generated $2.56 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2016 (~$10.24 billion/year run rate), up 64 percent compared to a year earlier with operating income of $604 million. Morgan Stanley predicts Microsoft cloud will be 30 percent of its revenue by 2018. In 2016, spending on public IaaS is forecast to reach $38 billion, growing to $173 billion in 2026 (Statista 2016). The cloud is here to stay and so are the most successful CSPs.

It is interesting that Netflix, Hertz, Intuit, Juniper and many other companies have their business operations “all in” the cloud. Much of General Electric does as well. This is a strong confirmation that these companies put long-term trust in their selected CSPs.

Media companies have announced projects, too, such as Disney’s announcement last year to move its ABC network control room and playout operations to the cloud. Bottom line, the cloud is ready for the media business even if only in portions. Filebased operations are more cloud-friendly than real-time studio operations in 2016. Proxy video resolutions, compared to uncompressed, are more aligned with cloud-based workflows. There are many factors, of course, but some designers are finding value in moving relevant media operations to the cloud.

Important, too, is vendor product support. If vendors don’t test and support their software in a cloud environment, end users will be reluctant to purchase. If you attend the NAB Show or IBC or whenever you speak to vendors, ask about their cloud support for products. Fortunately, more and more vendors appreciate the need. If not, demand it.

VIRTUALIZATION MATURITY
By 2019, more than 86 percent of all workloads will be processed in cloud data centers. A workload is a unit of measure describing applications that range from simple Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps to large compute-bound jobs to database applications. This means that only 14 percent of workloads will be running in traditional data centers. The old adage “A rising tide lifts all boats” applies to media system operations, too.

Compute virtualization allows dynamic deployment of workloads in a cloud environment. A related means to share compute resources by different workloads is called “containerization.” To get a handle on the differences and advantages see the Cloudspotters Journal article “Understanding Virtualization and Containers,” http://goo.gl/jrorHa.

Public cloud is growing faster than private cloud in terms of workload adoption. Many businesses want the resource agility that is offered by public clouds only. Plus, the pay-by-use model may not be available for private clouds. However, if uncompressed video data rates are used, then private has the edge for now. Security is always a concern, but in reality, security is a shared responsibility, part end user and part CSP. Mature developers know that cloud security can be excellent and the worry is often misplaced.

Fig. 1: Graphic shows a projection of the split between public and private cloud use. Fig. 1 shows a projection of the split between public and private cloud use. Note that public use is growing about three times faster than private, and in 2019, 155 million workloads will be executed in the public cloud.

Many media systems will use the hybrid cloud model where the most data intensive computing and storage will be done in-house likely using a private cloud and all other media processing executed in a public cloud setting. Very few systems will only be private-cloud only without a link to public SaaS, storage, API services or compute.

On the private-cloud front, companies such as EMC/Dell, HP, IBM, Cisco, NetApp, Nutanix, SimpliVity and others offer converged systems. The converged infrastructure (CI) vendors offer integrated compute, storage and networking in a racked, pretested configuration managed with “one pane of glass.” At the leading edge of convergence is the hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). This paradigm relies on individual nodes with both storage and compute networked in a cluster (from a few to thousands of nodes) to create a “web-scale” architecture for executing workloads. CI and HCI are very friendly to on-premise media operations.

SERVICE WORKLOADS USING SAAS
SaaS apps are a huge disrupter to the current installed desktop (or workstation) model. Does any user really want to worry about updating applications and geo-distributed access to apps/data? SaaS provides automatic, invisible updates with universal access via a browser. It’s true that some high-end video editors, color correctors and related apps do need local processing due to elevated video data rates. But the majority of media apps can be SaaS-based and end users should be on the lookout for vendors that support this model.

The Cisco Global Cloud Index report predicts that public SaaS apps will grow at a 39-percent cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) until 2019. Desktop apps have advantages for sure, but the SaaS model is so very compelling as a replacement.

CATCH THE WAVE
Both the private and public cloud will be a major part of many new or remodeled media facilities. Create a “cloud first” strategy—consider the cloud first; if not a fit, then look to alternatives. Stay educated in this area else you risk missing the wave that is sure to be our future.

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems Consulting in Silicon Valley. He is the author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed.).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visitwww.theAVITbook.com.

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.—A loose definition of “gestalt” is “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” This is the promise of Internet Protocol in the media facility. IP, coupled with Ethernet, creates a gestalt that is hard to duplicate with any other network technology. Why? It can link every node across networks near or far. It is the lingua franca of IT networking today. IP can carry all facility “data types” on the same link at the same time including files, real-time A/V essence flows, storage I/O, control dialogs, management data, API dialogs, Web traffic, time/sync and more.

So, even though SDI is not “broken,” IP and Ethernet unify the facility and become the master transport for any data anywhere; after all, look at what IP did for the Internet. Of course, special-purpose short-hop links such as HDMI, MHL, USB and similar will coexist with Ethernet.

Media over IP includes files and streams. File-based workflows are mature while streaming AV over IP is a niche product in 2015; SDI is still king in the media facility, however, the signposts are everywhere for media streamed IP’s progress. Many NAB Show/IBC vendors offer a hybrid mix of IP and SDI products. Most systems use SDI-IP bridges today since native media-over-IP I/O is not common. Another indicator is the work by SMPTE, Video Services Forum (VSF), American Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadcast Union (EBU). All these bodies are developing standards, best practices and reports for streamed media-over-IP. Since this is a work in progress, the following sections outline the current directions for streaming media-over-IP for professional applications.

STREAMING MEDIA OVER IP
There is general industry consensus that real-time media-over-IP for the professional/studio facility will use a “network stack” composed of (media)/RTP/UDP/IP/Ethernet. Breaking this down, the media component data—audio, video, metadata—is carried by the Real Time Protocol (RTP) packaging as specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC 3550 spec.

RTP is a simple way to package media along with timestamps and identity markers. In real time a receiver can easily unwrap the RTP container and free the media to be used. The media can be uncompressed or compressed.

MEFs, SEFs and GEFs in an IP media network Next in the stack, the RTP data is carried by the UDP layer (RFC 768). There is no inherent error correction with UDP so the path needs to be provisioned with adequate bandwidth and no packet congestion. This is practical in a facility-controlled environment.

In turn, UDP (RFC 791) is carried by the IP layer. Multicast IP addressing will be common, too, since it permits point-to-multipoint connections as SDI does. The IP layer will most often be carried by Ethernet links, but other choices are possible. The Ethernet standard is administered by the IEEE, not the IETF.

Ethernet has won the physical connectivity wars and data rates of 1, 10 and 100 Gbps are commonplace. There is a standardization effort underway by the IEEE to additionally define 2.5, 5, 25, 50 and 400 Gbps links. This range of connectivity is beneficial for media systems designers since it enables choice of rate to match the media content and bridging to legacy SDI as needed.

Bottom line, using the RTP/IP layered stack, it is possible to achieve the same quality of delivery of a stream as SDI, but in the IP ecosystem. Standards are underway by SMPTE and others to spec these details. The Video Services Forum has recently published Technical Recommendation TR-03 that specs how to carry A+V+metadata in aligned streams using RTP/IP.

WAYS TO PACKAGE THE MEDIA IN THE STREAM
With the RTP/IP stack as described above, there are three different ways to “package” the media as a stream. Let’s call the three ways “MEF,” “SEF” and “GEF” for purposes of this discussion (see Fig. 1 for the definitions of these acronyms). Each method is a different technique to carry media. All three can coexist in a system and have a respective pro/con list.

The MEF is a composite flow with the multiple media types wrapped in one envelope (N in 1) carried by single RTP. For example, SDI is an MEF in this context, but without RTP. As is SMPTE ST 2022-6 (SDI payload over RTP/IP). The advantage of an MEF is all the contained media is automatically aligned (lip sync) and goes together across a network as one flow. The topmost envelope in the figure wraps A+V into a single MEF.

An SEF is a single flow in one envelope (1 in 1) per media type—audio, video or metadata. SEFs may be time aligned or independent. Using this form, media streams can be routed, duplicated or dropped in the network as needed. With SDI (an MEF), if a user needs to access just the audio flow portion, a hardware “de-embedder” is needed to split out the flow. With an SEF, there is no need to embed or de-embed media. SEF flows are individual “free spirits.” A sender can transmit associated SEF_A plus SEF_V flows across the network knowing they can be consumed as a perfectly time-aligned pair. Both SEFs and MEFs may be duplicated as needed just as commonly done with an SDI router.

The third acronym, GEF, is a synthetic virtual combination of SEFs and/or MEFs inside the network. In the figure, the indicated GEF is the logical combination of SEF_A and SEF_V; it could be any combo of grouped flows. The idea is to logically combine flows in the network for routing and workflow purposes.

A controller would manage the virtual groups and present such to the user or connection management system. Using software-defined networking techniques enables the grouping and routing of GEFs as desired.

The concepts outlined in this article will become commonplace in the networked media facility. Other aspects of connection management, Quality of Service, service registration and discovery will be discussed in future articles.

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems consulting in Silicon Valley. He is the author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visitwww.theAVITbook.com.

Graphic courtesy of Elemental Technologies

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—Interest and activity in the cloud is exploding, especially in television. There’s still a lot of mystery and confusion about how the cloud works and what it means to video operations, so it was time to take a look at what the cloud can do for broadcasters.

To learn more about the cloud and how it impacts broadcasters, Broadcast Engineering Extra spoke to Al Kovalick. Al is the founder of Media Systems Consulting. Previously, he was a Corporate Fellow at Avid, CTO of Pinnacle Systems and Video Systems Architect at HP. He is an active speaker and educator, and has penned the book “Video Systems in an IT Environment—The Basics of Networked Media and File-Based Workflows (2009).”

Al has an MSEE degree from the University of California at Berkeley, holds 13 US patents and has authored more than 50 papers. He is a SMPTE Fellow and recipient of the David Sarnoff Gold Medal.

BE Extra: Why should a broadcaster consider integrating cloud video services? Is this something a local broadcaster can use, or is it more of a network concern?

Al Kovalick

Kovalick: The migration to the cloud will occur in layers. First will be the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud apps that support office operations such as HR, accounting, sales, payroll and other non-media (example, zenefits.com). Media, archive storage, file conversion/processing and MAM are migrating to the cloud. Real-time broadcast workflows will stay local for most stations. Pick the low hanging fruit first.

BE Extra: Migrating operations to the cloud often means spending less on capital equipment and more on operations. How has this worked out for broadcasters in actual experience? Are the savings in capital expense eaten up by operating costs, or are there savings involved?

Kovalick: SaaS apps are a definite money saver. Many companies use SaaS apps to run their business. A new breed of SaaS apps for media is available. For some media examples see tinyurl.com/TVT-SaaS. The cloud adores peaky, irregular workflows, and these often make economic sense.

BE Extra: Cloud operations opens up possibilities for over-the-top video services. What sort of latency can be expected from transcoding and distribution in the cloud? Will you hear your neighbors cheering the touchdown while you’re still watching a time out?

Kovalick: First, let’s look at cable and satellite TV channels; many seconds of delay compared to over-the-air. OTT has comparable delays, or even less, but this is of little concern in practice. The cloud does not inherently add seconds of delay, workflow processes do. Some cloud round-trip processes are in the order of 150 ms so this will not be an issue for many workflows.

BE Extra: What are some of the challenges to processing video in the cloud? Are there instances when you would NOT want to do this?

Kovalick: Non-real-time processes (files) are best since the end-to-end delay variation is acceptable. Real-time processes (streams), on the other hand, can be problematic. The cloud is not great for guaranteed, non-varying, performance. So, users need to pick workflows that can tolerate performance variation or design around it. Cloud performance is improving daily, so stay tuned.

BE Extra: How important are security and reliability still? Have vendors made significant strides in enough areas so this is not as much of a concern anymore?

Kovalick: Regarding reliability, users must design for failure. Don’t depend on SLAs or MTBFs, depend on “failure happens.” A workflow can be partitioned across multiple servers, cloud availability regions and even different cloud vendors. Smart implementations are based on managing failure intelligently.

Cloud security is “world class” today. Security is a shared responsibility; part cloud vendor, part end user.

BE Extra: What is the meaning of “virtualization” with respect to cloud video services? Is this something that broadcasters need to be aware of?

Kovalick: Cloud resources are normally virtualized; storage, compute and networking. For example, users see compute as a service and don’t care what physical systems it runs on. This is the basis of virtualization—separating the physical from the virtual. Many different users can share the same server because virtualization carves out isolated compute environments for each user. The same thinking applies to storage and networking.