TV TECHNOLOGY: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2017 NAB Show?

Tom Burns: The continued movement to all-IP media operations and the increasing virtualization of applications and solutions will continue to be the main topic of many conversations at the show. As many have previously noted, it won’t be an overnight transition to an all-IP-based infrastructure, but leading vendors are developing incredible software-defined solutions for media and entertainment that can easily take advantage of on-premise, high-performance infrastructure and cloud ubiquity. Virtualization of broadcast applications on enterprise IT infrastructure will also enable broadcast ISVs to avoid siloed hardware upgrade and downtime issues, and let them concentrate on developing application functionality.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

Burns: We’re excited to present the Isilon All-Flash array, our brand-new flash storage product, to the NAB Show audience. With pressure from increasing media volume, the move to IP-based workflows and multiplatform content delivery, Isilon All-Flash provides the performance and efficiency to address those issues. The newest addition to the Dell EMC Isilon product family, now orderable, will enable media organizations to pursue new business opportunities, tackle new projects and expand their opportunities for media monetization.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

Burns: Many vendors have introduced all-flash storage arrays, but Dell EMC Isilon All-Flash has a unique design that completely differentiates it from the rest of the market. Dell EMC has combined the extreme performance of flash technology with the proven scalability, true multiprotocol access and security of Isilon OneFS operating system. The Isilon OneFS operating system utilizes a native tiering capability that enables media companies to store and access content according to its business value, providing optimal storage, performance and protection—a critical capability for media and entertainment data. This benefit extends across the entire Isilon product family.

TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?

Burns: Each year, the NAB Show allows us to engage with the majority of our customers and our fellow solution providers all in one central location.It’s the one show where attendees are guaranteed to leave with an up-to-date snapshot of the vibrant and progressive media industry. We look forward to networking with our partner ISVs and end-to-end solution providers and discussing the future of the marketplace with our peers.

This article is the third in a series written by Tom (T.V.) Burns dedicated to examining the intersection of technology, innovation and evolving protocols and formats within the media and entertainment industry.

If you thought the move from standard definition to high definition was fast, brace yourself for the transition to 4K, or Ultra High Definition. This fantastically quick shift to 4K marks the beginning of a new era of innovation in video production. Broadcast and post-production firms are exploring ways to bridge the gap between 4K and HD workflows and to handle the growing demand for storage space, connectivity and speed.

Many consider 4K to be the most significant change in the user experience since the arrival of color; however, I disagree. We all know more resolution is not enough to overcome a poorly written script. On its own, 4K is not a cure-all solution.

DEFINING 4K AND THE HURDLES TO ADOPTION
Discussing 4K or UHD can be confusing since the terms are often used interchangeably. Technically, the 3840x2160 resolution everyone refers to as 4K is actually UHD with true 4K resolution of 4096x2160 shown in movie theaters. To simplify things, I will use the term 4K to refer to the broadcasting resolution of 3840x2160.

So what do these numbers all mean? A full HD resolution is 1920x1080 and 4K essentially doubles those numbers, resulting in close to four times as many total pixels and much sharper images. At first glance, it’s hard to argue against improved image sharpness. However, in order to see the increase in resolution represented by 4K, you need to be standing approximately 5-feet away from an 80-inch display. The problem is not many people have the space to accommodate an 80-inch display or want to sit that closely to their television sets in order to have a native 4K experience.

Another obstacle to overcome is the lack of available content, although help may soon be on the way. While available broadcast content is still lagging behind due to the costs associated with the high bandwidth 4K requires, the home theater market is stepping up to offer more content and hardware. Samsung’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray is scheduled to arrive in early 2016 along with 4K Blu-ray discs.

The demand for 4K content is one of the factors accelerating IP networks and storage, file-based workflows’ move up the innovation stack, an issue I discussed in my last blog.As more content creation companies are looking to increase 4K production, IP transport significantly reduces the load of the higher resolution format.

HDR: THE REAL BENEFIT OF 4K
Outside of viewing sports content—when you truly need the resolution because people are watching matches and games on the largest screen possible—I question 4K’s value beyond a marketing tool for consumer electronics manufacturers to convince you to purchase another TV.

The real value in 4K is the technology that comes along with it. It’s like the Trojan horse that slips into our living room and completely changes the nature of television as we know it. While most people expected 4K’s higher resolution to have the biggest impact, it’s the high dynamic range (HDR), higher frame rate and wide color gamut (WCG) that come along with 4K that are the technological and creative differences that the consumer can immediately see and gives consumers the visual proof they need to rush out and buy a new TV.

In particular, HDR, which significantly expands the contrast and color range, is beginning to emerge as the next buzzword of 2016 as it continues to earn high praise from industry experts. A recent article in Variety includes quotes from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn, Geoffrey A. Fowler of the Wall Street Journal and others remarking on the “more realistic look of HDR.”

The bottom line is although 4K is making a variety of changes possible, 4K by itself is not a game changer. However, I believe as 4K with HDR, WCG and higher frame rate move up the innovation stack, they will transform OTT, broadcast, packaged and streaming media as we know it.

Also see...
February 3, 2016
“To IP or Not to IP: Should You Pull the Plug on Coax?”
Having just spent the last 15 years on “the other side” as a director at Technicolor, it’s easy for me to slip back into the role of the customer when I’m considering the potential impact of these new technologies on the industry.

January 14, 2016
“Why the M&E Technology Stack is Ripe for Disruption”
With every mouse click, news clip view, music download and movie stream, the demands on reliable data storage and bandwidth continue to increase exponentially.

This article is the second in a series written by Tom (T.V.) Burns dedicated to examining the intersection of technology, innovation and evolving protocols and formats within the media and entertainment industry.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, the media and entertainment industry is ripe for disruption thanks to the introduction of new platforms, business models and workflows. Having just spent the last 15 years on “the other side” as a director at Technicolor, it’s easy for me to slip back into the role of the customer when I’m considering the potential impact of these new technologies on the industry.

Lately, the most pressing concern among my colleagues and peers is how to cope with the looming migration away from HD-SDI infrastructure to IP networks and storage, file-based workflows. Most broadcast production and distribution chains are already performing most of their operations through IP, so why is everyone wary of this particular workflow shift? It all comes down to the fear of the unknown. Yes, HD-SDI may be costly and clunky, but broadcasters accept its flaws because they don’t have to worry about dropped packets. For many, the quality assurance of HD-SDI outweighs the advantages IP offers, including the ability to use off-the-shelf IP networking technology, which can dramatically reduce costs for a facility.

In this blog, I’ll detail how IP’s journey up the stack to reach innovation status has been met with some resistance and the pros and cons to IP adoption for broadcast.

The transition to file-based production can be traced back to the introduction of Non-Linear Editing (NLE) in 1971. Commercials and short-form programs were managed by an automation system and aired directly from a server. In the early 1990s, we moved to decoding those files in order for them to be played as analog. From there, we were able to expand those systems to support long-form programs, which resulted in an automated playout system integrated with file-based commercial insertion.

Up until recently, video has traditionally been a deterministic linear channel represented as a mass of coax, terminated in a BNC connector and transmitted as the signal format SDI and the high-def version, HD-SDI. Simply put, this is how most of us receive the programs we watch when we turn on our televisions to view a show that was recorded live and scheduled to air at a later time. While it won’t happen overnight, I think there are several factors that are contributing to the inevitable move away from this real-time dedicated infrastructure.

IT PAYS TO SCALE: THE RISE OF THE GENERIC IT INFRASTRUCTURE
The biggest change in broadcast, OTT and post production is we’re no longer bound to the custom infrastructure that evolved to suit the broadcast world.

Economies stand to gain significantly by scaling and moving to common off-the-shelf technologies, IP-based networks and IP-based storage because of the reduced costs, increased ROI and easier maintenance.

For instance, in the video world, a VTR is a fantastically efficient storage mechanism, but it’s formatted for only one file type and that’s a serial digital video stream that can play from zero to 60 minutes without any dropped packets and loss.

For the last 50-70 years, the broadcast industry has been forced to custom engineer around these unique formats.

We’re now finally concentrating on using generic computers and a generic IT type of infrastructure with Ethernet networks and virtualized servers, as opposed to a dedicated VTR and a bespoke network that is designed around a single file format for only one purpose. We’ve got the wild and wooly Internet specifically trying to carry video-based signals packetized into an IP format over long and short distances.

There are two forces behind this move to embrace a more generic hardware and infrastructure. It’s a push and pull at the same time.

For EMC, the pull is essentially our customers’ customers. For example, we provide storage solutions to MLBAM, who works with broadcast networks, who sell to subscribers. These subscribers want to be able to consume content and video on different platforms, such as mobile devices and tablets.

For many facilities, the push is purely cost at the infrastructure level. In custom video-oriented networks, routers can cost half a million dollars whereas VTRs are priced at a third of that. Also, broadcasters looking to implement more outputs at their facilities will find it’s much more expensive to install HD-SDI video routing technology versus Ethernet technologies.

THE FUTURE OF IP
As it stands today, IP is not a 100 percent slam dunk. Five years ago, it would have been all coax, and five years from now, I predict it will be all IP; but not just yet. In order for the transition from the current HD-SDI infrastructures to IP networks and storage flow, file-based workflows to be successful, there’s still some work to be done and different protocols and infrastructure deployments to be navigated. Although SMPTE is making great strides with its 2022 standard that proposes everyone have a standard format for doing video in a packetized medium such as Ethernet, it’s still a question mark as to who is going to win the protocol race.

Some brave souls, such as ESPN and ABC, have leapt in with both feet. However, both my customer and vendor sensibilities would caution against going all IP today. There are a couple of reasons that indicate there is no real rush to move over to IP. The first reason is that it is in broadcasters’ best interest to have both coax and IP. If the coax is already there, there’s no need to spend the resources to rip it out. It reminds me of the transition to HD. It was gradual, with HD islands in the middle of an SD plant and file-based islands in the middle of a HD-SDI plant.

While IP networks and storage flow, file-based workflows may have to wait a few more years to be considered a standard on the stack, their impact is already evident in the broadcast community. In fact, IP-based routing is playing a major role in the march towards 4K production, a topic I’ll explore in my next blog.