f there is one uplifting takeaway from Covid-19 for the media industry, it’s that decentralised resource distribution has come of age. Some broadcasters and broadcast service providers were aware of the benefits already and adopted remote workflows to spare travel expenses, make better use of their best players – operators could be home for supper after a good day’s work – and reduce the footprint of their infrastructure in the process. Without IP streams travelling on local- and wide- area networks, resource pooling and decentralised production set-ups would be unthinkable, especially in environments where speed, convenience, quality and reliable delivery are crucial. Watching an operator move a fader or joystick in one location, knowing its output is processed or applied somewhere else, and finally played out from yet another location, is certainly awe-inspiring. But with that wizardry quickly becoming commonplace, we can start asking new questions. Commercial
broadcasters are under increasing pressure to make ends meet, with budgets decreasing rather than increasing. Investing in one-trick pony equipment has ceased to make financial sense. Some players have even begun to question the value of long-term tech investments. Pay-as-you-go tends to put a smile on your
NOT OWNING THE TOOLS YOU NEED FOR YOUR BUSINESS ACTIVITY IS ABOUT TO BECOME THE NEWSEXY
CFO’s face, and not having to own the tools you need for your business activity is about to become the new sexy in the broadcast sector. For manufacturers of hardware, it means their products need to be as flexible as a laptop computer, able to perform any tasks thrown at them. The adopted term for this is ‘software-defined hardware.’ So, why not do away with the hardware altogether and put everything in the cloud? CUMULUS First of all, this begs the question of what we mean by ’cloud‘. Essentially, cloud is processing power waiting somewhere to be solicited by operators at a given point in time. Its magic is produced by software, but it still requires hardware to run. As such, there is no
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