August 2013
www.tvbeurope.com
“Choose the right partners, your business depends on it” —Israel Esteban, beIN SPORT
TVBEurope 25
between the telecom people and the broadcast people. This is as complicated as the issue between IT and broadcast people! And it’s also difficult to make telecom people talk to other telecom people, for example BT and France Telecom; it’s difficult, I’ve experienced it several times…it doesn’t work well. “In terms of workflows,” he
said, “what’s interesting is how the type of production is changing; where the production is done and how it is transported. We’re seeing three different models. One is centralised production (which is done for example in Sweden and the Netherlands), where untouched content is sent to a central location and produced there. Then there’s on site production, when everything is produced in one OB van and the final signal is sent out from that one location.
Delegates enjoying a case study presentation in BAFTA’s Princess Anne Theatre
Jeremy Bancroft of Media Asset Capital chairs the ITBW event
“The time is coming for a la carte instead of fixed menu — and that’s really interesting. The viewers will have the choice to eat exactly what they want” Nicolas Deal, UEFA
And there’s a third hybrid model, which we’re seeing in big events like the Olympic Games or at the EBU, where the production is done partially on site and then partially at the final location. “Viewers have really changed
the way they consume content,” he said. “But the broadcasters are still working like 30 years ago — for example, content produced on site and sent by line or satellite feed to viewers. With the new networks it is possible to send raw rather than produced signals which means that more content can be available in distant locations. If content is produced elsewhere it means less people on site, which of course reduces costs for the broadcaster.
“Today, even though we are
transporting the signals uncompressed, the signals are SDI, then ingested into DNXHD, then SDI again and so on. I think we can improve things by using the end compression – ie, the archiving format or the storage format — from the beginning. “One of the solutions we’ve been thinking about is to basically create an HD IP stream and then keep it all the way from the back of the camera to the storage,” said Deal. “This can preserve quality through avoidance of multiple encoding and decoding cycles. And as we don’t process the signal it is not delayed – it stays relatively fast.
If these signals arrive at a central location as an IP stream they are very easy to access; they don’t need to be ingested and they’re usable right away. “And of course archives can be monetised; there are many possibilities through second screen and C-Cast and so on. A lot of things have been done, but the main thing is people have to accept that the live production world is changing. Broadcasters must understand and implement these changes. “The good news is that capacity
is increasing dramatically,” he said. “Today it is relatively simple and cheap to get 10Gbps capacity
from any telecom company. It’s not a dream any more; it’s really easy. And in terms of network backbone, telecom companies are increasing their capacity from 10Gbps to 100Gbps. If you think about it, with 10Gbps you can have five or six HD-SDI uncompressed; with 100Gbps it would be 60 signals. So it gives you a nice view of what will become possible. “Once you create an IP stream
of course you don’t need to have a specific router or anything like that; you can use IT equipment which is cheaper and can be shared with normal IT needs.
“For centralised production, it is possible to save quite a lot of money on staff and logistics. The more you use the network the better the revenue, the RoI. Several signals produced from one location infer greater revenues. “Viewers are watching the content in different ways and in the end, watching more content. Second screen is relatively new, but it works pretty well. More and more, people interact with friends and colleagues on second screen when they’re watching a game and they use social networks. “Their reaction is getting closer and closer to live, as people don’t want to wait any more,” said Deal. “They want to see all possible content, replays, angles and all these things. And if they have access to more content they are more likely to stick around, so you retain them. “With centralised production it becomes possible to design content for the end device. That’s something that’s really new. Thus far, everything was produced for the TV set. With centralised production, it becomes very easy to produce many different versions of the content. “All the second screen
applications are changing, mainly because it is easy and fast to see different content at home. And of course we must keep in mind that most of the time, everything that is produced in the stadium is not used. But that can change if more content is sent to the viewers — and we know the demand to see something else is there. It will make a big difference if we can make this unused content available somewhere. “The time is coming for a la carte instead of fixed menu — and that’s really interesting. The viewers will have the choice to eat exactly what they want,” said Deal.
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