22 TVBEurope Forum Systems Integration Felstead: ATG Broadcast has a
lot of experience in integrating ‘traditional’ broadcast technology, but almost every file-based system we work on now is designed in the knowledge that its output may/will be used for delivery of content to multiple platforms. Practically all content is now created at the highest resolution which necessitates transcoding for the large number of multi-resolution channels, such as streaming to the internet and/or mobile viewing platforms. Flay: We see the emergence of
OTT and other delivery methods such as IPTV as opportunities for new business within the industry as more content owners are becoming broadcasters in their own right. Moore: Well, we’ve been working with IPTV and file-based media for years, and I guess the biggest impact really is the mix of skills in
our engineering team has changed. Going back several years, we’d have had engineers with strong broadcast skills, but maybe not so much on networking and file-based media. Now, our engineering team is heavily network/software-oriented, although we do find that having broadcast expertise is still essential. It’s harder to find engineers with broadcast knowledge, so we have found that training our own has become the norm. Wainberg: A big impact. Our
traditional broadcast customers are looking for business models around those technologies and are facing competition with an entire new world of content suppliers who operate at a lower cost and quality level. Therefore, we are prepared for this kind of project and we are working more and more with IT partners.
“It’s harder to find engineers with broadcast knowledge, so we have found that training our own has become the norm”
Kevin Moore, Eurotek in association with
Are there any areas of equipment design that you feel need more development to meet current demands?
Baumanis: These areas would be software upgradable products, format-agnostic, IP-based infrastructure, easy to learn/use GUIs and surfaces instead of dedicated button loaded panels. Above all, there must be a seamlessly integrated solution, rather than piece-by-piece black boxes. Dusil:We believe that
broadcast as a whole is becoming less and less about big powerful hardware and more about software and services. On that front, we are seeing a market shake-out in the OVP and CDN fronts, which, in the near term will make things less confusing for evolving broadcasters, and in the long term will create new large scale players on the ‘broadcast’ market. Visual Unity anticipates that the online video market will consolidate as we reach the end of this decade.
Felstead: A key concern is to
ensure that the systems selected are up to the demands of 24/7 operation with all that it entails. Manufacturers must adhere to industry standards, but sometimes fall short when it comes to interoperability and integration in software. In particular, plug- in-software systems such as transcoders must be as easy to add or remove as their hardware equivalents. Greater software interoperability is therefore essential via techniques such as service- oriented architectures. Moore: Well, I think there is
Kevin Moore: “Many manufacturers are short on in-house technical capability — so the burden is placed on the SI to figure it all out”
less real design and engineering going into a lot of the hardware boxes these days, and a particular bugbear of mine is the trend towards ‘field R&D’ — particularly in software products. Getting accurate