Dave Van Hoy Advanced Systems Group President
How have you seen the cloud develop since your time working in this area? We began working in cloud workflows approximately ten years ago, focused on shared storage, MAM workflows and media transformation. This was mostly to enable media distribution and post-production multisite sharing. At that time, there was no ability to do editing or any other real-time work in cloud. Over the last five years, we have seen PCoIP (PC over IP) enable the ability to shift desktop applications to run in cloud. This has become a game changer for post-production applications. With shared storage and MAM in cloud, this has thus enabled end-to-end workflows to run entirely remotely. In the autumn of 2019, we began early work centred around the feasibility of running real-time production tools in public cloud with a three-year timeline to real marketplace deployments. Early tools included alpha, beta and pre-release applications. Virtually none of them were ready for normal production. Then, in 2020, the world changed. To get productions moving, normal risk factors were pushed aside, and we began assembling systems and going into rapid testing with creative solutions. A big one: How do you personally define the cloud? I define cloud as applications running in a hypervisor-based virtualised environment. Public cloud then adds shared tenancy to that definition. What are the most exciting trends we are seeing emerge within cloud offerings? I think the most exciting trend is the idea of running live multicamera production in public cloud. This enables hiring the best production talent regardless of their location as well as contribution from almost any possible method or location.
I also think the challenge of running one of the most deterministic applications possible on one of the least deterministic infrastructures is an interesting challenge. Although cloud workflows help to better some sustainable practices, there are still problems like the carbon-emitting data centres at the other end. How can cloud service providers work to better the sustainable side? It is important to look at ways to optimise for both climate and economic efficiency, which are one and the same over the longer term. In terms of choices, the reality is that most customers are going to be working with one of the big three hyperscalers: AWS, Google or Microsoft. Within that you can assume that in a compute per emitted BTU, they are all better than anything most media companies can achieve on-premises because of their scale. In the battle between the big three, you need to look at how much you can customise your virtual machines to use the least resources. How has the cloud helped to define the M&E trades as we see them today? We are seeing the beginning of an entirely new class of technical talent that has to understand very sophisticated IT in cloud and the niche understanding of audio and video. Not all current engineering talent will be able to make that transition, so it is incumbent on the industry to grow the talent pool. For creatives and operators, it is redefining physical location vs what work you can perform in a transformative way. What does the future hold for the cloud (especially for broadcasters and media organisations)? Over the next decade we are going to see a shift in the optimisation of where applications run and work is performed. It is clear that nearly all media distribution will involve cloud within five years.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT WAYS TO OPTIMISE FOR BOTH CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY
@feedzinesocial
Powered by FlippingBook