Media and entertainment organizations are among the world’s biggest consumers of data storage. Given the boom in content creation seen in recent years, this is hardly surprising, and according to industry estimates, it’s driving a storage technology and services market that will grow from more than $10 billion in value last year to $28.5 billion by 2032.

One of the big challenges facing M&E organizations is where to keep all of their data. There is a wide range of options out there, from legacy on-premises technologies to outsourced public cloud services—an approach that has built huge momentum. In the last 20 years, the likes of AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have become extraordinarily successful providers of cloud-based storage and today, the market is booming: Having reached over $108 billion last year, it is expected to grow to more than $660 billion by 2032.

The impact of this trend on M&E tech spend has been profound, underscoring the growing focus of the cloud. For many, this has resulted in the adoption of an “all-in” cloud strategy, where legacy on-premises systems have been removed in favor of a fully outsourced model.

Dark Clouds
While the benefits of the public cloud are well documented, some growing cost and performance concerns are causing many organizations to rethink their approach and pivot to a hybrid model where the cloud is used alongside on-premises infrastructure technologies.

More specifically, the fees charged by some major public cloud providers to access data assets, such as video files, are becoming prohibitively expensive. This problem can be exacerbated by usage-based cloud pricing models, which can fluctuate significantly and make it difficult for users to produce accurate forecasts.

For those organizations with a heavy commitment to cloud storage, paying someone to host the data is just part of the picture.

Then there are the problems associated with limited workflow integration. For instance, while advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools are often available in the cloud, it’s not always easy to integrate them within the cloud storage setup required for M&E-specific workflows. Some industry experts have also raised concerns about asset control and ownership, given the outsourced model shifts the emphasis away from M&E businesses and toward their cloud supplier.

The various areas of concern around the public cloud market haven’t gone unnoticed by industry regulators. This time last year, for example, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into the supply of public cloud infrastructure services. The issues of most concern included the egress fees charged to move data out of the cloud, discounts to incentivize customers to use only one cloud provider and technical barriers to switching, which may prevent customers from being able to switch between different clouds or use more than one provider. The CMA is expected to conclude its investigation next April, at which point it will become clear if further action is required.

It’s a Hybrid World
So, what’s the alternative? For many M&E IT leaders, the answer lies in the reintroduction of on-premises storage architecture as part of a hybrid strategy. Once considered the “poor relation” of cloud, on-premises technologies have advanced significantly in recent years to the point where the best solutions can match and even improve on the cost and performance levels offered by public cloud providers.

This approach gives M&E organizations a lot of scope for innovation. For example, the object storage technologies used by the likes of Amazon S3 are available via equivalent on-premise solutions. These are extremely well-suited for storing and managing vast amounts of unstructured data, making them ideal for scalable media files, backups and archives with easy retrieval and metadata tagging.

Organizations can also implement advanced AI tools on-premises to deliver storage management and end-user benefits. A hybrid approach also allows M&E companies to tailor storage solutions to high-performance workflows, such as rendering and post-production, without latency issues. Crucially, on-premises storage offers direct control over system specifications to support these demanding processes. Add the savings made from reduced or eliminated egress costs, and it adds up to a compelling argument where, for M&E business, cloud has a redefined role.

These are quickly becoming defining requirements. According to one recent study, 42% of companies in the U.S. “are considering or already have moved at least half of their cloud-based workloads back to on-premises infrastructures.” If this trend is replicated in the M&E industry, hybrid strategies will play an increasingly important role as organizations look to drive maximum value from their infrastructure spend.

DENVER—Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today unveiled its Cloud TV platform, a centralized ingest, transcoding and video-processing solution supporting live and on-demand video for broadcasters and video service providers worldwide.

The CTS Cloud TV platform offers broadcasters and OTT providers complete multiplatform support delivered from the cloud via a managed 24/7 service. It enables media companies to centralize live, linear TV, FAST channel, SVOD, AVOD and TVOD video management, playout, delivery and monetization into blended experiences for viewers, the company said.

The flexible and scalable platform also offers metadata management, content protection and rights enforcement, advanced VideoAI applications, content recommendations, server-side and contextual advertising, commerce and subscription management, content delivery and OTT distribution, advanced analytics and insights and managed user experience for playout across connected devices and apps, it said.

It provides Tier-1 broadcasters, content owners and distributors with a flexible framework supporting customizations and meets their uptime performance requirements, CTS said.

“It’s a dynamic and challenging time across the linear and OTT video landscape, and CTS’ Cloud TV was designed to help our customers meet this moment,” Bart Spriester, senior vice president and general manager of streaming, broadcast and advertising at Comcast Technology Solutions, said.

“With Cloud TV, our customers gain access to a next-gen premium platform that lets them manage and monetize their content seamlessly across global streaming, broadcast and advertising audiences—reliably, securely and at scale,” Spriester said. “We’ve also incorporated the best partner technologies and launched a new managed UX service so they can benefit from the latest cutting-edge innovations. Cloud TV unites the best of our SaaS services and cloud-based linear playout technology to deliver the kind of fully featured, modular and flexible TV solution that only CTS can offer.”

CTS Cloud TV offers:

• Modeling, enforcement and monetization of business policies and distribution rights.
• FAST channels, cloud distribution and playout.
• New content and subscription bundling enablement.
• Blended live linear and direct-to-consumer OTT experiences.
• Managing packages and bundles to mitigate churn with microtransactions.
• Personalization and VideoAI for discovery and contextual advertising.
• A new managed user experience (UX) with a range of development options, including custom mobile and web UIs; a self-build application platform; and templated set-top box and TV solutions.
• Alignment for carbon-neutral video delivery and sustainability objectives.
• Backed by CTS service level agreements (SLAs) and advanced technology roadmap.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Video software provider Synamedia has announced that it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services in an effort to accelerate the adoption of cloud TV service worldwide.

Already, Synamedia’s Infinite cloud TV platform is being used by AWS’ Astro in Malaysia and E-Vision, a subsidiary of Etisalat Group, which operates a multicountry, multitenant OTT service.

Infinite is designed to allow video service providers to process, secure, distribute and monetize premium video across all devices, Synamedia says. The platform uses machine learning and AI to deliver a personalized TV experience.

Astro is utilizing Infinite to enhance its service to deliver premium video experiences to its subscribers across all devices. Subscribers can upgrade to new hybrid DTH and IP-enabled 4K UHD set-top boxes with a new UX and Synamedia Cloud DVR.

With E-Vision, the AWS platform currently live in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Infinite provides operators with a state-of-the-art platform to launch and run multiscreen OTT services.

Synamedia and AWS have also announced that they will host a webinar on June 10 at 10 a.m. ET titled “How to Build the New Pay-TV Bundle.” Registration is available online.

For more information, visit www.synamedia.com.  

DENVER & NEW YORK—EAS alerts have been brought to the cloud by Digital Alert Systems, which has announced that it has integrated its EAS-NET communications protocol to the Kaltura TV Platform, a cloud TV service.

It is a requirement for North American operators and media companies to provide emergency alerts to viewers via their TV service. Through this integration, joint customers can comply with Emergency Alert System/Common Alerting Protocol regulations by providing critical emergency messages within their Cloud TV deployments.

Kaltura was able to support EAS-NET by boosting its push notification and in-app messaging capabilities. The Kaltura platform can now receive alert information over EAS-NET and dispatch the alert in real time to Cloud TV client applications, including mobile devices, managed STBs and unmanaged STBs. Viewers will be able to see the emergency messages as push notifications on connected screens when watching content or browsing on the app.

“We are in the business of helping our customers transform their legacy TV services into next-generation cloud and IP-based TV experiences,” said Gideon Gilboa, Kaltura senior vice president of product and marketing, Media and Telecom. “This includes all of the benefits of OTT—not only personalization, multiscreen apps and improved TCO and agility, but also the ‘nuts and bolts’ of traditional pay TV, such as EAS alerts.”