In Broadcast - January 2021 - 20

20

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 11 - Issue 1 | January 2021

InForm

2021 Vision:
Upcoming Trends in
Broadcast Media Playout
By Pavlin Rahnev, CEO and Stanislav Petkov, CTO...

2

020 was meant to be the year
8K became a potential successor
to 4K as the preferred format for
high-end broadcast and digital film
production. All the elements were in
place: affordable cameras, switchers,
archives, editors, analysers, monitors
and the necessary glue. 8K consumer
TVs we becoming available at mass
production prices and the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics were perfectly timed to
galvanise public attention via NHK's 8K
satellite TV channel.
The key challenge of 2020 proved
biological rather than technical,
mitigated to some extent by
decades of investment in global
telecommunication. Broadcast media

played an increasingly useful role
during the year in the fight against the
coronavirus pandemic by providing
information
and
diversionary
entertainment. Internet and phone
connectivity throughout much of the
developed world allowed many people
to work from home.
In a playout context, PlayBox Neo
system operators were able to make
full use of secure IP remote control to
control their production, scheduling
and transmission from whatever
location they chose. This feature was
not originally created with home
working in mind but allowed both that
and the much wider application of
secure remote-site system operation.

In many cases, the operator to
server link is via local intranet from a
presentation suite or master control
room to the actual equipment in
the facility's apparatus room. In
others, the server may be located
on the premises of a playout service
provider in a separate town, country or
continent. Programmes are delivered
to the server as a video data files,
each packaged with audio channels in
one or more languages plus relevant
metadata such as open or closed
subtitles.
Remote working
2021 looks set to be the year in which
remote working becomes an integral

part of many broadcasters' lifestyle,
even if only as a standby option. This
in turn is likely to accelerate demand
for purely IP-based systems such as
our Cloud2TV which was designed with
remote operation as a central feature.
Many broadcasters appreciate the
operational independence inherent
in buying, hosting and maintaining
their own playout facilities under the
watchful eye of an on-site technical
supervisor. But they too are subject to
sudden demands to accommodate one
or more extra channels at short notice.
Cloud2TV offers the ability to scale up
for any number of additional channels,
whether permanent additions to a
network's output or temporary 'redbutton' channels related to a specific
event such as the planned 2021 Tokyo
Summer Olympics. The crucial element
is flexibility.
Many broadcasters
operate from city-centre premises
where space tends to be at a premium.
Third-party playout service providers,
on the other hand, tend to locate
themselves in rural areas to maximise
their cost-efficiency; more often than
not adjacent to a satellite teleport.
Software integration
The transition from dedicated
hardware to software running on
technically proven IT servers dates
back to the very start of our company
21 years ago. What was then the
exception is now standard practice,
allowing systems to be integrated
more closely than ever under unified
software control. 2021 looks set to
see greater than ever use of the MOS
(Media Object Server) protocol which
reduces the need for device-specific
drivers and so gives broadcasters
the freedom to select hardware and
software from multiple vendors.
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://playboxneo.com/playout-ip-streaming https://playboxneo.com/playout-ip-streaming
In Broadcast - January 2021

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