In our latest Guide to Virtualized Playout, TV Tech takes a look at the evolution of playout technology, where it’s going, what broadcasters are looking for and how the cloud and IP have revolutionized the way TV is created, managed and distributed.

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LONDON—Playout has always been a crucial element in the broadcast distribution chain but it is becoming even more so due to changing requirements and technological capabilities.

Broadcast technology developers like to talk in terms of evolution when it comes to advances in equipment and operational practices. The area of broadcasting that has perhaps evolved in the true sense of the word is playout. Over the years it has moved from being based on videotape—initially played out from banks of individual machines and then later automated carousels—within a broadcaster’s headquarters to third party facilities, with the further shift to file and server-based distribution.

That evolution has continued with the advent of the cloud, where files may be located outside the control center, with the most recent advancement being the further shift to remote or from-home working. 

While the adoption of virtual techniques were largely foisted on the TV sector due to the Covid outbreak, they were already being used in some circumstances and were only going to become more widespread in the future. The coronavirus, as with so many things, compelled broadcasters to bring their plans for this kind of implementation forward.

Comfort Level
“Generally speaking, media companies are more comfortable following pandemic-forced virtualized workforces with virtualized workflows,” said Rick Young, senior vice president and head of global products at LTN Global. “It feels like the industry jumped three-to-five years ahead in terms of location-agnostic production, playout and media management.” 

Pre-pandemic, virtual playout was dominated by channels containing only pre-recorded, non-live programming, according to Young. “That is not the case today, as channel creators are beginning to understand what is possible when mixing live and non-live programs.”

Young adds that audience tastes have also driven a change in how services are organized and presented, with a growing demand for live and more targeted broadcasts. “This evolution is crucial as consumer expectations for FAST [free ad-supported streaming TV] and OTT platforms are trending towards live, regionalized and fresh content, not just a string of re-runs delivered in a linear fashion.”

Mat Shell, head of sales at Pebble, acknowledges that the various lockdowns and resulting shift to working from home increased the need for “secure remote access” to playout systems. 

“System implementations obviously had to change,” he says. “The majority of broadcasters are still commissioning bare-metal systems as they contemplate their transitions to more flexible IP-based technologies,” he said. “But, regardless of whether it’s a playout solution deployed on premises or is virtualized or a mixture of both, what has driven the most change is the need to control those systems remotely in a secure way.”

Web-based monitoring and control systems enable broadcasters to run channels either within a traditional transmission control area or from an outside location, which includes other premises or an operator’s home. As for other requirements, Shell says broadcasters are “likely to want their linear channels or playout facility” to feed any OTT platforms they operate. 

“They may also wish for linear channels to feature on YouTube, complete with unique branding,” he says. “Broadcasters additionally want the ability for playout systems—both on the ground and virtualized—to cater for pop-up or event channels, specifically for OTT streaming.”

Linear, OTT Commonalities
Streaming services, notably for video-on-demand, were included under the general heading of “broadcast” but there was the impression that more conventional TV organizations with roots in the linear world still viewed their OTT rivals as being in a different category, both in terms of audiences and technology. 

These two areas are now much closer together, particularly, observes Martin Whittaker, technical product director for MAM and automation at Evertz, on the technical side. 

“Both groups—broadcast and OTT, DTC [Direct to Consumer] and digital applications—want to create playout channels quickly and easily for the lowest cost possible and control/monitor these systems from anywhere,” he said. “This in turn generates the largest possible return on investment. Overall, customers are looking for systems that give them extreme flexibility, agility and adaptability to optimize content monetization for the lowest possible cost.”

While the market is still polarized, Sanjay Duda, chief operating officer at Planetcast Media Services, views the divide as being between big broadcasters with a large number of channels that feel responsible for delivering content and information to their viewers or subscribers; and “decentralized content generators” that distribute minority interest programming for a set period of time. 

“As a playout operator, you need to be able to cater to both sides,” he said. “You have the long-term solutions on one side but you also need to have pop-up or niche channels.”

Another element in the playout equation, Duda continues, is the commercial imperative, although this has to be considered in relation to technology.

“There’s a huge push towards how this is monetized, [which could be] by creating multiple feeds from the same playout for various platforms. Those are very important features as are being able to push in any last minute ads. In the U.S., FAST channels are taking the whole place by storm because it’s become a revenue-generating model where you create a stream and deliver it on to Smart TVs. 

“It’s ad-supported and the ads are delivered completely through technology,” he added. “Achieving high fill rates is critical to success, but for that, ad insertion technology is not enough. We also need to have good tools that decide which ad to insert for which customer or Smart TV to get the best value for the ads.”

Transparent to the User
At one time this kind of capability would have been delivered by highly sophisticated and complex equipment. Today, says Phillip Neighbour, chief operating officer at PlayBox Technology, broadcasters, content providers and facilities want simplicity, while also benefiting from the latest technologies. 

“They expect a high degree of automation, now supported by machine learning and artificial intelligence,” he said. “The whole system, from ingest to playout, has to be controlled from a single, intuitive user interface that tells the operator when an action is needed but which generally handles everything to the planned schedule.”

All playout functionality, Neighbour explains, can now be implemented in software, with modern design principles utilizing microservices that can be combined as necessary to provide the required functionality for a particular channel.

“Channel-in-a-box is not a new concept,” he says, “although with modern software techniques it is extremely efficient and function-rich. Because of virtualization, broadcasters and media companies are rapidly moving towards channels without a box, either in data hubs in the machine room, a corporate or shared data center or in the public cloud.”

After a relatively long and steady progression, playout as a technology area appears to be going through an accelerated evolutionary period right now. Whether that slows or increases in pace appears to depend not only on the ambitions of broadcasters and streaming services but also the viewing habits of their audiences. 

WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, U.K.—The automation, content management and integrated channel specialist Pebble has announced that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN) and completed the cloud provider’s Foundational Technical Review (FTR) program for its Virtualized Playout solution.

Pebble also announced that it will leverage its AWS Partner status and AWS FTR certification to work closely with the AWS community, identifying new customer-focused solutions that follow AWS best practices for scalable cloud workflows, security, performance, and operational efficiency.

“More and more broadcasters are navigating the best route to leveraging cloud solutions that are suited to their operations both practically and financially,” Peter Mayhead, CEO of Pebble said. “And to do this they need a technology partner they can trust. I’m incredibly proud of the efforts made by the teams at Pebble for having passed such a rigorous process to successfully complete the AWS Foundational Technical Review and achieve AWS Partner status. This success shows our growing customer base that we are certified experts in our field and committed to delivering cloud solutions that will work for them.” 

The Pebble Virtualized Playout Solution is a software-defined virtualized IP channel with a flexible channel pipeline design. The benefits of virtualized playout include the agility to launch and decommission channels for short-term requirements, and the ability to host an operational infrastructure within a standard data center environment, the company said. 

As a software-only implementation of Pebble’s Integrated Channel device, the Virtualized Playout solution is configurable to meet the exact requirements of each of the channels a customer needs to play out. It is designed to meet the needs of service providers, multi-channel operators, sports broadcasters, and corporate users looking to virtualize their operations.

“While the future of media playout and control is clearly headed toward the cloud, not all organizations are ready to fully move away from their on-premises, legacy-based infrastructures,” said Daniel Robinson, head of R&D at Pebble. “By working with the AWS community, we will greatly enhance our ability to develop and customize cloud solutions for broadcasters, and we can especially cater for those who are not ready to make the leap to full cloud playout, offering hybrid solutions that will allow them to migrate at a pace that makes the most sense for the long-term success of their operations.”

Pebble is also now an AWS Independent Software Vendor (ISV) joining that community to extend the reach of AWS and provide customers with expanded workflow options.

During the past two years, the M&E industry’s transition to the cloud has enabled television to quickly adapt to a scenario that was nearly invisible to viewers. Despite how the shutdown affected live production, most viewers were unaware of the hurdles stations faced in providing continuous news coverage as well as continuing to produce scripted programming. 

The pandemic has demonstrated to us the advantages the cloud and IP bring to increasing the flexibility and reliability of providing linear and on-demand programming anywhere, anytime, on any device. And the advances made over the past two years as vendors have responded to the challenges and changing environment have brought more confidence to enterprises that are seeking to phase out their SDI-based facilities. 

In this month’s ebook, we explore how the concept of virtualized playout has changed over the past two years and take a look at the evolution and future of cloud for TV. The ebook is available here. 

WASHINGTON—Broadcasters’ transition to IP and the cloud is essential if the industry is to remain relevant in the decades ahead. Virtualized playout—a key part of this transition—provides far more flexibility and time savings, and—if done right—more security for stations deploying new channels. 

The events of 2020 have validated the importance of IP-based technologies to drive remote production. In our latest ebook, we provide a progress report on how the industry is moving to virtualized playout as well as provide insight on the challenges and opportunities our industry faces in moving to the cloud. 

Sign up for the latest TV Technology ebook now.

LONDON—The COVID-19 crisis forced broadcasters and facilities operators to take decisive action so they could carry on activities by having technical-creative personnel work on projects from home.

In addition to audio and video editing, visual effects and color grading, aspects of live production have also been carried out remotely during lockdown. Less obvious, however is the all-important but more background task of playout being controlled remotely off-premises.

The fact that channels have stayed on air would seem to validate the concept of virtualized playout but, as many of the leading manufacturers in this market observe, it was more a confirmation of what the broadcast market had been realizing already.

“You don’t need a disaster to prove a concept,” comments Adam Leah, creative director at nxtedition, a Swedish-based developer of broadcast operations software. “People hadn’t thought about VPN [virtual private network] infrastructures with fat enough pipes but once everyone got over that idea, sending everyone home was simple.”

Van Duke, U.S. director of operations for PlayBox Neo, sees the pandemic as a “side issue” to what had been happening already.

“Virtual control, network-attached storage and remote working have been part of the broadcast industry for years,” he says. “Many broadcasters delegate MCR [master control room] operations to third-party playout service providers, typically in another city, another state or even another time zone.”

As Steve Reynolds, president of Imagine Communications, observes, in responding to COVID-19, broadcasters reduced the number of people at broadcast centers, retaining only essential staff.

“Operational jobs were being done remotely using cloud and IP tools,” he said. “These were all things that were going to happen anyway over time but COVID-19 provided a business imperative that turned out to be a proving point. It’s shown how everything can work and there is no turning back because it’s changed the way the industry operates.”

LEGITIMIZED THE CLOUD

While agreeing that the move to virtualization and the cloud would have happened without the impact of the pandemic, James Gilbert, chief executive of Pixel Power, thinks other factors had to be considered as well.

“Remote working is not wholly dependent on virtualization,” he said. “It’s more about the capabilities of the playout system itself. Broadcasters with old automation systems that couldn’t be operated remotely had projects accelerated but probably people at the highest level had been thinking about working off-premises and the cloud from a business perspective already. The situation this year has legitimised the concept of the cloud but it won’t necessarily accelerate adoption.”

Regardless of the necessity brought about by COVID-19 to rethink broadcast distribution operations, Gilbert adds that replacing traditional playout installations is a big project. There are also different ways to approach the move away from the traditional model of a playout center, with several automation systems housed in physical equipment racks, to a decentralized operation based on software-defined systems.

While the cloud is now regarded as the obvious way to remove such overheads, it is not always a key component for a virtualized playout system, according to Jan Weigner, president and chief technology officer of Cinegy.

“There is a difference between the cloud and virtualization,” he said. “The front-end can run on a thin client or a PC using a web browser, with the playout engine in a data center. Of course it could also be in the cloud but where the playout element is makes no difference. It could be in the same building or 100 miles away or 1000 miles away and you wouldn’t know the difference.”

WHAT ABOUT MICROSERVICES?

Harmonic emphasizes the concept of microservices over the blanket term of virtualization. These include ingest, search functions, branding, graphics, scheduling and live source capability based on SMPTE ST 2110 or TSoIP (Transport Stream over IP).

“Software-based playout can be built up using microservices and orchestration,” explains Eric Gallier, vice president of video solutions at Harmonic. “We are seeing a shift to cloud native working, either in the public or private cloud. But as well as the software running on Microsoft Azure or Amazon native cloud platforms, it can also run on Dell, Hewlett Packard or Intel servers.”

Orchestration, observes Bea Alonso, director of product marketing at Dalet, is important for supporting hybrid infrastructures.

“Many facilities need to continue paying off existing investments and so the ability to orchestrate on-premises hardware and software tools with cloud deployments is key, at least in the medium term,” she says. “Much of the current infrastructure is still hardware-based, so there will be a transition where hybrid approaches will drive the evolution to fully virtualized playout.”

Duke says demand for virtualization in playout is coming from all levels of the broadcast market, although many medium-sized operations are continuing to use traditional workflows with either SDI or IP outputs.

“At the larger end, many established broadcasters appreciate the ability to introduce additional channels without having to expand existing hardware overheads. In terms of system design, the key difference is the physical location of the primary server and any supporting servers.”

...AND MASTER CONTROL?

With more remote working and cloud storage, it is conceivable that the playout center of the future could be very different to what it is today. A big question though, is what does this mean for master control?

“MCRs are still necessary but the ratio of people to channels is different because there are new techniques such as monitoring by exception,” Pixel Power’s Gilbert said. “That means the system only alerts the technical operator when something is wrong, not just when it is working. There will still be a MCR in the future but where it will be physically located is immaterial. With remote systems it could be in an operator’s spare room.”

Imagine’s Reynolds believes the MCR will sustain for some time to come, partly due to technical practicalities and partly because of the human factor. “There will always be a need for teams to work together,” he concludes. “That includes the transmission team as much as those on the creative and production sides. Collaboration is necessary but if online, remote operations work better it will happen. At the moment not all the technology is there to enable that kind of workflow but if and when it does happen, it will be a business decision, not a technical one.”

Recognising that the transition to highly automated, software-defined broadcast and media solutions can be challenging, Pixel Power has added to its head office team two new staff with enormous practical experience to provide support and guidance to achieve the optimum result for customers. Malorie Delaporte joins as solution manager; Neil Wren joins as pre-sales product specialist.

Malorie Delaporte has more than 20 years’ experience in broadcast, having worked on the operational side of presentation and playout as well as in engineering. Her most recent role was as head of system engineering and head of contribution at global channel TV5 Monde, based in Paris.

Neil Wren joins from Screen Subtitling, where he was international sales manager. At Pixel Power he will engage with customers during the pre-sales period, ensuring their complex requirements are identified and satisfactorily met with Pixel Power’s virtualizable, modular systems.

“We have to acknowledge that the move from bespoke hardware to software-defined architectures, and from SDI connectivity to IP, can be challenging, and it is vital that key vendors are closely engaged with their customers, ensuring that the proposed solution does what they want, in a way which they can operate it,” said James Gilbert, CEO of Pixel Power.

“For the vendor, this means having the resources in place to provide the reassurance to our customers, from initial enquiry through the lifecycle of the system,” he added. “Malorie comes to us from the French-speaking global television network, TV5 Monde, where she implemented a sophisticated Pixel Power playout network. Neil brings a wealth of technical and commercial experience that puts customers at ease when discussing highly advanced projects.

“I am delighted to welcome Malorie and Neil to Pixel Power, and to the new levels of support and understanding they will provide our customers,” Gilbert said.

Pixel Power will be presenting its IP-connected, fully virtualized playout and automation systems at IBC2019 (Amsterdam RAI, 13 – 17 September) on stand 7.A05.

Cambridge, UK 28 May 2019 : Pixel Power, the global automation, branding and graphics innovator, is working with with Qvest Media, the leading global media systems architect, to bring its playout and automation systems to Qvest.Cloud, a multicloud management platform for media.

“Qvest.Cloud from Qvest Media is an ideal environment for our virtualized approach to automation”, said James Gilbert, CEO of Pixel Power. “For many reasons, broadcasters are keen to adopt hybrid workflows that blend cloud and on-premise hosting of fully integrated systems. That is precisely what Qvest.Cloud brings to the table: it means our clients can create their own bespoke workflows and use whichever cloud providers deliver the right service for them.”

Pixel Power, with its 30-year dedication to the media industry, has used its experience to develop a uniquely powerful and flexible approach to automation. It is built around two key elements: StreamMaster for video and graphics processing, and Gallium for workflow and playout automation. Their functional block architectures mean implementations can be fine-tuned to achieve optimal performance for each specific use case. StreamMaster and Gallium together build solutions which are inherently virtualizable and cloud-agnostic.

As well as fully-featured channel playout, the Pixel Power architecture also allows for powerful functionality such as the automated creation of VOD assets for catch-up channels, and the automated creation of trailers and promos. The company has long offered its automation technology on pay-as-you-go and pay-per-feature licensing models, which fit perfectly with Qvest.Cloud.

Qvest.Cloud radically simplifies the implementation and management of fully virtualized architectures using best-of-breed products. By networking third-party applications into a single, integrated workflow in a multicloud environment, it makes it simple to operate rich solutions from a single dashboard, breaking down the barriers between on-premise installation and private and public clouds.

“Pixel Power playout and automation solutions are designed to take full benefit of the cloud, and therefore fit perfectly in the Qvest.Cloud ecosystem”, said Thomas Müller, CTO at Qvest Media. “Our aim is to offer customers from the broadcast and media industry a platform that is scalable and cost-efficient, with proper ready-to-use packages and custom-tailored enterprise solutions.”

James Gilbert of Pixel Power concluded: “We have always believed that the transition to IP was simply an enabler on the road to tailored, operationally significant and extremely cost-effective solutions for our customers around the world. We are excited to be working with Qvest Media to offer broadcasters and media companies the chance to transition to modern, software-centric technology supporting their own requirements and their own pace of change.”

###

About Pixel Power, a Rohde & Schwarz Company

Pixel Power develops software-defined, virtualizable, solutions for broadcast playout, automation, master control, graphics & branding used in linear television channels, OTT and VOD. Our award-winning branding and promotions systems, graphics-enabled master control switchers and sophisticated switchable graphics production systems allow producers to deliver dynamic live and pre-recorded content for any SD, HD, 4k, mobile, online or interactive application.

Pixel Power has 30 years’ experience of engineering prowess and dedication to customer support that has made it the industry’s first choice in graphics, branding and playout. With more than 2500 installations worldwide, customers including market-leading broadcasters such as BBC, Ericsson, ITV, SWR, WDR, TV2 Norway, Danmarks Radio, TV5 Monde, CBC, Disney, Discovery, ESPN, ViaSat and Sky.

Recently acquired by Rohde & Schwarz GmbH, Pixel Power corporate headquarters are in Cambridge UK with regional offices in Grass Valley California and Dubai UAE.

Pixel Power can be contacted online at www.pixelpower.com.


Pixel Power contact:
Name: Ciaran Doran
Title: Exec VP
Email: cdoran@pixelpower.com
Tel: +44 7775 581301

PR Contact:
Name: Jennie Marwick-Evans
Company: Manor Marketing
Email: jennie@manormarketing.tv
Tel: +44 7748 636171

OTTAWA—In 2015, Discovery’s process of producing programming was overdue for a fundamental overhaul. The company was relying on a mix of tape-based workflows and physical media delivery that was anything but standardized across the enterprise–and it was causing problems.

For instance, although Discovery’s U.S. facility had standardized on receiving content using LFTS-formatted LTO data cartridges (Linear Tape File System/Linear Tape-Open), other Discovery regional facilities were using their own file delivery systems. Discovery’s various facilities even differed on whether content suppliers had to provide the network with broadcast-ready or master-quality video files; the latter being formatted in whatever frame rate the content producer had selected.

This lack of standardization was costing Discovery time and money. This is why the network selected software from SDVI, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of content management software to standardize its content acquisition and creation workflow over IP. The company’s Rally next-gen, cloud-based media supply chain platform gives Discovery’s many content providers a central point to submit their content, in line with the network’s file standards. Having made this happen, SDVI’s Rally now gives Discovery a fast, effective, end-to-end solution to serving out content to cable, satellite, and the web, as well as a way to spin new program streams and even channels.

[Read: ‘Deadliest Catch’ Lands In The Cloud]

Discovery is just one example of a traditional broadcaster/media company that has adopted what the industry refers to as a “next-gen media supply chain” to speed up and rationalize its content creation workflow. Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) is another: They are using Imagine Communications’ Versio platform, EPIC MV, SelenioFlex File, and Nexio Motion to provision SBG’s KidsClick children’s programming block to SBG TV stations. Meanwhile, Disney/ABC is using Verizon Digital Media Solutions’ evolved delivery platform and Broadcast/OTT Solution to prepare all of their content for online distribution; with sufficient flexibility to allow ABC affiliates to insert viewer-targeted local advertising quickly and easily.

THE NEXT-GEN ADVANTAGE

In a traditional media supply chain, content is either created or received—or both—at a broadcaster/media company, and then packaged using production hardware and software that is dedicated to the company’s existing playout channel(s) on their physical premises. If a new playout stream needs to be added or a new channel spun up, an entirely new physical production workflow needs to provisioned; machines, personnel and floor space are included.

In a next-gen media supply chain, all of this functionality is provisioned using software and commodity computer hardware; just add servers and stir. Move it into the cloud, and a third-party provider like Imagine, SDVI, or Verizon can handle all of the details. All the broadcaster/media company has to do is to interact with the software (which can be stored in the cloud or loaded onto their own on-premises servers) to format their content as they see fit, and then play it out to a linear delivery system (broadcast./cable/satellite), or serve it directly to the viewer via OTT online.

LAUNCHING NEW CHANNELS QUICKLY

With access to a next-gen media supply chain, broadcasters/media companies can spin new channels up and down as quickly as opportunities dictate.

In the case of SBG’s KidsClick and Imagine Communications, making this happen required some initial customization to serve the varying needs of SBG’s many local stations. But once this work was done, “it was really just an exercise of pointing at the cloud, requesting the required resources, and validating that they’re available and match your requirements,” said Brick Eksten, Imagine’s CTO of Playout & Networking. “We do this for this particular customer three times a day.”

Being able to spin up new channels virtually in the cloud is obviously far more economical than building an entirely new physical plant to produce and distribute them. But the savings can go even further. For instance, at Verizon Digital Media Services, “we only charge you based on the number of viewed content hours,” said Jason Friedlander, the company’s senior director of Product Marketing. “This approach enables our customers to experiment with new strategies and test what works in the market; if no one is watching, you don’t pay.”

SOLVING DISCOVERY’S PROBLEMS

At Discovery, SDVI’s Rally platform is a key part of the company’s global, scalable, and automated media supply chain. “Over the past three years we’ve worked to rebuild our supply chain, transitioning from physical media and fixed assets to a flexible, cloud-based model,” said Josh Derby, vice president, technology development & strategy at Discovery.

According to Derby, moving to a next-gen media supply chain has provided three key benefits to Discovery.

First, “the inherent scalability of Rally and of the public cloud has allowed us to improve the throughput of our supply chain,” he said. “This week we celebrated the upload of the 100,000th asset through our front-end supply chain, a milestone we hit within just two years of our launch. Earlier this year, that supply chain seamlessly absorbed over 20,000 additional assets in just four months as we quickly brought content from our new networks into the supply chain.”

Second, moving to a next-gen media supply chain has allowed Discovery to incorporate “a tremendous amount of automation into our workflows,” Derby said. “We are no longer reliant on having our logistics staff shepherd content through the supply chain. In our Rally supply chain, the assets find their own path through the workflow based on the system’s ability to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the asset metadata and the results of previous workflow steps.”

Thirdly, adopting a next-gen media supply chain has standardized content acquisition and handling across Discovery’s entire operation. “The new supply chain lets us have a truly global media factory,” said Derby. “Regardless of whether it’s an episode of ‘Deadliest Catch’ airing in the US or an episode of ‘House Hunters’ going to Poland, the content comes through the same supply chain. It’s checked against the correct standards, converted to the necessary file format, and delivered to its correct destination based on metadata from our business systems, allowing us to give each region the files it needs while maintaining a single global media pipeline.”

Next-gen media supply chains have the power to revolutionize content creation workflows, according to Lawrence Kaplan, president and CEO of SDVI. “The fact that they can speed up the rollout of new channels is just the beginning: Next-gen media supply chains can fundamentally improve the ways in which broadcasters and media companies prepare, playout, and distribute their content worldwide.”

NEW YORK—Virtualization first emerged in the 1960s and was based on the model of creating a computing environment where independent applications and/or services could appear to utilize the same server when in actuality it was more of a timeshare-based solution. Today the virtualization of servers and networks as cloud-based solutions allows broadcasters to take advantage of new automation systems, content channels and distribution.

More importantly this can all be done in a purely software environment as well, but there are still challenges that lay ahead.

Ian Fletcher, CTO, Grass Valley

“One of the first challenges is to simply determine what virtualization is, as it can mean different things to different people,” said Ian Fletcher, CTO for Grass Valley in Montreal. “One part of it is an IP-based solution running on a VMware system, which has been in place for more than 10 years.”

In the past decade it has become apparent that software-based applications have advantages over traditional hardware systems, but it is important for broadcasters to have the right architecture in place to support this shift to virtualization.

“Some are still learning this, and we are in an interesting time when economics are forcing broadcasters to think differently,” added Fletcher. “We are still in the transition of software-based playout, and as a result many users may skip a generation and go straight to the cloud.”

Then there are those who are taking a slower transition, and may not be ready to jump to a cloud-based solution. In the near term this could have advantages.

“It probably has not escaped anyone’s attention that the majority of hardware-based playout solutions are, in fact, software solutions running on vendor-provided hardware,” said Andrew Warman, director of production and playout strategy and market development at Harmonic in San Jose, Calif. “This works well because the vendor gains agility from developing features in software that can quickly be tested and rolled out, running on a predefined hardware platform that guarantees a fixed level of performance. The end user gets a known quality with quantifiable capabilities that can be deployed and will perform to a set level of performance for years to come.”

This move to virtualization, whether virtual machines, software running on bare metal and/or private or public cloud could also enable the use of software for a similar level of agility, decoupled from the hardware.

“This means that broadcasters and content creators can choose if they want control over the hardware or absolve themselves entirely of the management and maintenance of it,” Warman added.

ADDRESSING DEMAND AND RESOURCES
Virtualization could further create an elastic relationship between demand and resources by enabling media companies to instantly provision the resources to accommodate spikes in workload. Media companies could then re-provision those resources to meet a new demand, before de-provisioning to save on costs.

Brick Eksten, chief product officer for playout, networking and distribution, Imagine Communications

“Severing dependency of purpose-built hardware creates the opportunity for tremendous benefits in the areas of agility, flexibility and cost-efficiencies across the entire media creation and delivery chain,” explained Brick Eksten, chief product officer for playout, networking and distribution at Imagine Communications in Dallas. “A few of the obvious and immediate advantages of running software on commercial-off-the-shelf [COTS] equipment, in addition to tapping into the economies of scale and continuous improvements in processing power of the IT industry, are the ability to precisely match demand to available resources, portability and speed to market.”

While there are cost savings that can come with the adoption of virtualization, these are not the primary reason why broadcasters are considering it, but it does provide an added benefit.

“In the past broadcasters were prepared to pay 100 percent of the price for a product where they used 60 percent of the features 40 percent of the time,” said Ciaran Doran, executive vice president at Pixel Power in the U.K. Instead, a virtualized platform can provide the broadcaster to specify, with deep granularity, the feature sets they use and only charge them when they use them, according to Doran.

“This is a massive change in concept from today,” he added. “The technical and operational side of broadcasters love the idea as it means they can get down deep on the exact feature sets they need and quickly turn on other feature sets for short bursts when they need.”

Karl Mehring, director of playout and delivery at Snell Advanced Media

MOVING AWAY FROM HARDWARE
This transition away from hardware systems could also allow customers to better and more efficiently utilize resources, deploying these where needed and avoiding the need to have systems sitting unused.

“The main advantage that software systems deliver is the ability to accommodate busy workflows, so you can scale up for peak demand and then once the demand subsides, that standard IT kit can be repurposed for other functions,” said Karl Mehring, director of playout and delivery at Snell Advanced Media in Newbury, U.K.

“When you have all your content on a single consolidated platform, and one storage location so you don’t have to keep moving it around, it makes it much easier to push material out to different platforms—whether that is OTT or mobile,” Mehring said. “A lot of the savings are operational rather than pure cost savings as a virtualized environment allows you to have better, more automated workflows in place. However, while it flattens the cost out over time, it shouldn’t be assumed that replacing an appliance with focused compute or FPGAs is cheaper than bespoke hardware in the short-term.”

Even with the move to virtualization, it won’t signal the complete end of hardware-based systems. At least not in the near term, and most vendors would agree that hardware and software will co-exist.

Ciaran Doran, executive vice president at Pixel Power

“Hardware will be with us for a long time to come,” said Warman. “There are other factors, such as the use of uncompressed IP, interconnection of best-of-breed solutions, control systems and other equipment that are currently better suited to hardware. That said, the use of virtualized playout systems is rising and continues to gain traction in scheduled playout environments.”

Location may also play a role as well, as in many parts of the world, SDI playout remains the norm, noted Doran. “As with anything, it’s not useful to move the technology base simply because the technology is new; it has to make sense either financially or creatively,” he said.

The end game for virtualization shouldn’t simply be seen as the elimination of hardware systems. “The goal is to find the most efficient solution for a given workload as defined by the customers’ requirements and that means that in some instances we will definitely need hardware for some time to come,” said Eksten. “One thing we can count on is that the broader enterprise community will continue to drive innovation in CPU capacity and network speed, which in turn will drive down costs and create more opportunity to scale services. Aligning the broadcast industry to those trends will drive undeniable benefits for all of those who would buy into that strategy.”

WEYBRIDGE, ENGLAND & BROOMFIELD, COLO.—The Digital Media Centre (DMC) in England has taken to the cloud, embracing virtualized playout from the cloud with the help of Pebble Beach System’s Orca virtualized IP system. DMC uses the system to playout 10 channels from Fox, Scripps, AMC, A+E and others.

In replacing its previous SDI infrastructure, DMC was looking for an IP-based system that could run on Commercial off-the-shelf IT hardware. DMC chose to go with Pebble Beach’s Orca integrated channel devices controlled by Marina automation. The Orca is a software-only, virtualized implementation of Pebble’s Dolphin channel-in-a-box integrated device that can run in private or public clouds, with IP inputs and outputs. Orca provides the same functionality in a pure software environment to hardware video servers, graphics, audio processing and subtitling systems.

DMC reports that using the Orca system and a virtualized playout system enables a channel to be launched in 10 minutes. DMC also plans to migrate an additional 24 channels to virtualized playout soon, with all remaining channels expected to migrate throughout the remainder of 2017.