In October’s issue of The SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, Paola Hobson, Managing Director of the UK’s InSync Technology Ltd., addresses the question, “Is Live Standards Conversion in the Cloud Ready to Be Used?” She notes that many parts of the broadcast workflow, like playout and transcoding, have successfully migrated to the cloud, and media asset management vendors now routinely deliver their products in a software-as-a-service model. However, migration of live production into the cloud is happening more slowly. While cloud service providers are tackling key issues such as bandwidth, security, and availability, broadcasters are addressing the challenge in reinventing standards conversion as a live cloud-based service.
Broadcasters and media companies engaged in live international content distribution are familiar with the need for standards conversion. Multiple broadcast frame rates and formats are in use throughout the world, with an ever-growing number of standards being developed to support mobile and streaming. The current hardware-based solution is well-refined, with easy connection and control of standards converters, but using an on-premises converter can be both daunting and expensive. Live standards conversion in the cloud is what’s needed for the workflow to be entirely cloud-based. With a software-based solution, not only can the converter become a shared global resource, available 24/7 from any location in the broadcaster’s network, but it allows the capital expenditure required for permanent physical hardware to be replaced by an operating expense -- which is charged only when conversion is needed.
Recent technology developments have brought the creation of cloud-based conversion services much nearer to reality by meeting four key challenges:
The paper concludes that these four challenges to migrating standards conversion into cloud workflows have been met. And in fact, a major sports network has already evaluated a cloud model for their international OTT workflow in order to take advantage of the huge efficiency savings. The practical and technical challenges of reinventing standards conversion as a live cloud-based service have been overcome. The technology is ready, and the services are also available. To take a deeper dive into Hobson’s analysis, read the complete technical paper in the 2021 October issue of The SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.