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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW AI AND HYBRID CLOUD IN FOCUS AT HARMONIC
Macher: ‘We shine where it’s Harmonic is showing demos built around AI-powered hybrid solutions in Hall 1 BY MICHAEL BURNS
According to Jean Macher, Senior Director Global SaaS Solutions at Harmonic, AI and hybrid cloud are a fi rm foundation of the video delivery solutions company’s IBC2025 presence. In an exclusive interview for IBC Daily as the IBC show opened, Macher discussed exciting applications in video compression, automated content generation and real-time monetisation for both established workfl ows and as innovative proof-of-concept solutions. Harmonic’s cloud adoption strategies and the benefi ts of hybrid cloud models for broadcasters were a key focus of the conversation. “If you look at the technology today, you can do pretty much everything in the cloud with the same performance as on premise. It was not necessarily the case before, but the cloud infrastructure has progressed a lot,” he says. “Now you have parity of features and capabilities between the two. You can build the reliability, the redundancy that you need in the cloud. It’s not really a technical decision; it’s more a business decision for our customers. So we offer both: we have server appliances, we have cloud-native applications, offering our technology as a service in the cloud, and they can pick.”
As well as observing the differences between the US market (heavily invested in cloud) and Europe (still retaining a desire for local hardware), Macher suggested that anything with fi xed-dimension workloads, like 24/7 channels, are best suited for on-prem. At the other end of the spectrum, user-connected workloads such
as ad insertion and live sport streaming benefi t from the cloud. “For anything that touches the users, public cloud is better suited; for anything that is fi xed, on premise works.” But there are also emerging trends, especially in live sport streaming. “Live sport used to be attached to a linear channel. Not anymore,” says Macher. “If you look at most streaming services now, live sport is offered as a single, occasional game. It makes sense to have the resources available just for the duration of the game and to do that in the cloud.”
NO MARGIN FOR ERROR
Live sports has become one of the biggest growth areas for Harmonic’s VOS360 SaaS end-to-end cloud media processing solution, according to Macher. “Everything is harder with live sports, there’s no margin for error, and the money involved is huge. But we shine where it’s big-scale event streaming with top video quality and redundancy.” The bigger challenge, he said, is monetisation. “The ad load today is not effi cient; nobody is going to watch 15 minutes non-stop of ads.” Harmonic’s answer is new server-side ad insertion (SSAI) formats, delivered in-stream, that merge content and advertising. “We shrink the screen a little and make room for an L-shape or double box at low-action moments, or even at a goal when people are glued to the screen, so the message gets out without interrupting the game.” Harmonic’s ‘single software’ foundation allows for seamless deployment, enhancing effi ciency and time to market. “It’s the same software that
big-scale event streaming with top video quality and redundancy’
runs on premise or in the cloud, with a single control plane to abstract the complexity for the customer,” says Macher.
One of the demos on the Hall 1 stand is showing playout in the cloud and playout on premise under a joint automation system. “That system provides a single control plane for the operators,” Macher explains. “They don’t need to know that some channels are in the cloud. It runs exactly the same way.” AI is huge at IBC this year, and with all of
Harmonic’s show demos built around AI- powered hybrid solutions, Macher described it as “core in what we do”. He pointed to three areas of focus. First is video quality, where Harmonic’s EyeQ content-aware encoding technology applies machine learning to optimise compression. The second is generative AI and the third is monetisation, with AI generating real-time metadata from live games. Macher sees the next year as a testing ground for which AI concepts will take hold. “Some AI applications are mature, some are at proof-of- concept, some are just getting started. In the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll see which ones really land,” he said. While broadcasters may be dazzled and intrigued by AI, he cautioned that “it’s not magic; there’s a cost, there’s latency and there’s accuracy to consider”. On the monetisation front, however, he was more defi nitive. “We will see tremendous progress, especially for sports. The innovative ad formats we’ve been showing are moving into production now, and I expect them to be adopted by many more customers.” 1.B20
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