Broadcast TECH


TECHNOLOGY SURVEY


Q SO FAR, WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR COMPANY’S APPROACH TO STEREOSCOPIC 3D CONTENT AND/ OR TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT?


Amount by which facilities’ spend has increased since last year


38%


Top Gear Live: worked on by Sequence


effi cient is the joint top reason for them buy- ing kit (25%), alongside return on investment (also 25%). Envy head of offl ine facilities services Jai


Cave says: “We’re looking at technologies that glue the whole thing together and at ways we can be more effi cient moving things across. Clients might need to see something in a grade suite minutes after it has been in the smoke suite, and there can’t be any delay.” Similarly at Sequence, Foakes says invest-


ment for 2012-13 will focus on “innovative new technology that simplifi es the process of craft editing and reduces costs for our clients”.


Cloud services Cloud applications also fi gure highly on facilities’ technology agendas, with 23% reporting it as a hot topic. Virtual online storage clouds will undoubtedly help facilities enable clients to remotely edit and view their material, while bigger, campus-based facili- ties such as The Studios view the cloud as a unifying technology with the potential to aid all its service lines, from its studios and post business to its role as a technology service provider. The MediaCityUK-based facility is gearing


up to launch an editing-in-the-cloud service for all its customers: “Not web-based proxy editing but live, high-end editing and con- forming across the network,” says The Studios commercial director Ian Munford.


www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils ‘We don’t want 3% 3% 24% 21% 6% 3% 41%


■ We are leading the way in 3D ■ We are providing associated services for 3D ■ We are investing in 3D infrastructure to support future services


■ We are planning to make a move into 3D shortly ■ We are waiting to see what happens with 3D ■ We are not going to get involved in 3D ■ Other


different broadcasters specifying different


delivery methods’ Jai Cave, Envy


The service – to be offered to clients on a


pay-as-you-go basis – will be rolled out in two phases. The fi rst will be an on-site only service, while phase two is set to interface with third parties around the UK, offering cloud-based services to organisations further afi eld. According to Munford, because The Studios offers the facilities and clients on its network “huge amounts of bandwidth and massive amounts of in-built redundancy”, he is confi dent that it will be possible to move some mission-critical services to the cloud. The main concern around the cloud is still


security, however. Munford reveals that The Studios has invested “hundreds of thou- sands” to this end, employing a third-party company to advise on best-of-breed applica- tions for security, software and technology.


Tapeless delivery While the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) unveiled its new common fi le format standard for digital delivery back in January,


there are still many questions the industry needs to thrash out. “We’re all looking at how we can deliver QC tapeless and we’re doing tests with broad- casters right now. But what we don’t know yet is how those fi les are going to get deliv- ered,” says Cave. “Will the broadcaster provide the tech- nology or service, or will it be down to the post house? We need fi rmer answers on delivery – everything’s still up in the air. What we don’t want is different broadcasters specifying different delivery methods.” Most of the facilities in the survey (particularly the bigger ones) appear keen to include tapeless delivery as part of their service provision. “It’s a great opportunity and someone has to pro- vide this,” says Sangan. “It makes sense for us as we have the technology and the knowl- edge. Post houses have been leading the way on this.” Foakes adds: “The DPP spec deliverables


1


gaining an edge is the chief reason for buying tech


Number for whom


are going to be a core focus for most in the coming months. File is the logical way for- ward and we welcome it with open arms. We are preparing to build a bespoke pipeline for fi le-based programme delivery and nearline data archiving of all client material.”


July/August 2012 | Broadcast TECH | 21


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