22 Monday 16.09.13 theibcdaily
Channel in a Box buyers seek playout automation
By Douglas I Sheer
In the year between our first global CIAB study, Channel in a Box World 2012 – which covered the nascent category of Channel-in-a-Box technology – and the new report published last month, many more competitors have launched systems and the market has surged as more and more broadcasters think outside the traditional ‘box’. In response to this demand
there are now over 50 different brands available. At its core, it appears that most buyers are likely to be seeking, in particular, a reliable yet compact and affordable playout automation solution. Previous playout infrastructures were not only cumbersome and quite expensive, but also often unintentionally overly redundant. That sometimes translated into less than ideal performance levels. The new combined function channel boxes generally deliver more robust performance, with multi-format I/O functionality and dual power supplies. Just the graphics processing and video compositing alone usually offer impressive savings and high- level functionality at very modest costs. The key attraction of the amalgamated systems is that they deliver in a single device a level of functionality beyond that of the disparate parts. System resilience is an important advantage of CIAB systems. Since they are essentially IT-oriented systems and they are almost always built utilising commodity hardware, board firmware and software,
the customer is the recipient of real savings and a more assured operation. In fact, some systems are highly software- centric which represents a sub-culture within the widening range of solution providers.
Seeking affordable playout automation In querying respondents, globally, on why they choose a specific channel in a box brand from the many available, most
video/audio capture board(s)’, and seventh that it offered the ‘best workflow connectivity. That traditional ‘box’ – which formerly comprised a range of many separate systems – is the old TV channel thinking and what adopters are abandoning. This is because the old way was very expensive and cumbersome too. It was predicated on purchasing and employing separate systems for graphics and branding, servers,
multiple vendors. Many of the newly converted were early adopters of ‘best of breed’ station playout automation systems, particularly in playout. Pricing for otherwise seemingly identical offerings can vary wildly from one to another, on a per-channel basis. So customers are finding that they have to read the fine print carefully. Especially as, at times, CIAB systems become the outflow port for Media Asset
Strongest reason you would have for specifying a Channel in a Box system brand
engineers (or other high engineering titles). That said, in some places the buyers may be news directors, operations executives and even station managers.
Growing market that builds more brands With so many broadcasters rallying to this concept it has attracted over 50 manufacturers to compete for purchases, of which, however, only about 10 really count in terms of market share. And, these offerings – in which typically more than one brand has actually supplied components of the systems – often represent a great deal of collaboration rising from a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ philosophy of the involved manufacturers. From the buyer’s standpoint
the reality that they can deploy and control new channels at far less than before has attracted both small operations and major international networks alike. Budgets are stretching further and a great deal of satisfaction being achieved by this approach. Today, it is mainly
stated that the brand they selected was because it offered the ‘best automation solution’, the second most selected reason was that it had the ‘best combination of features and functions’, the third that it offered the ‘best graphics or branding capabilities’, fourth, that it had the ‘best server and storage’, fifth that it was the ‘least expensive option, sixth that it offered the ‘best
video capture, playout functions, playout automation, signal mixing and media management.
So, why not blend these functions into a single ‘box’-like system? In so doing adopters are finding a plethora of manufacturers more than willing to reconfigure their separate components into a one-box- fits-all solution even if that means collaborating between
Management systems. Because integration of the new channel solving ‘box’ into the existing workflow is essential and there are so many related components upstream and downstream to contend with, the most frequent buyers, worldwide, appear to be chief
broadcasters and cable-casters who dominate the user market for the ‘box’ systems, but we fully expect to see greater use in non-broadcast settings too as the popularity of ‘box’ systems grows.
The major deliverable of CIAB systems that users seem to be seeking is to streamline and automate workflows on an end- to-end basis, while reining in costs.
Douglas I. Sheer is CEO & Chief Analyst of DIS Consulting Corporation in Woodstock, New York and can be reached at
dougsheer@gmail.com
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