InBroadcast - May 2023 - 48

48
www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 13 - Issue 5 | May 2023
InMedia
Application Development
for Public Cloud Networks
With Geeter Kyrazis,
Business Lead
at swXtch.io
L
ast
month's
to the concept
NAB
Show saw
considerable movement relative
of moving media
workflows to the cloud. swXtch.io was
actively involved in demonstrations
with leading brands (Microsoft, Evertz
and TAG Video Systems) that were
developed to enable five specific
ground-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud
use cases, all with a common theme
of efficiently managing large volumes
of media workflows in the cloud. The
response was highly encouraging,
with potential adopters recognizing
advancements
that make cloud
workflow migrations within reach.
Moving live and post-production
workflows to virtualized applications
offers
compelling and
tangible
business benefits for the adopter.
Chief among these is the migration of
capital expense (CapEx) investments
to operational
expense (OpEx)
models. The shift from CapEx to OpEx
reduces or eliminates on-premises
hardware (and
its
associated
maintenance) while connecting
geographically
dispersed
the
virtual
sites
platform at
the center of these three
NAB demonstrations,
to break
barriers
cloud
of
prevented
architectures
such
through the
conventional
that
shifts.
These barriers include the
absence of on-premises
workflow capabilities such
as multicast (a barrier to
network
synchronization of
and
the ability
reconfigurations),
video
audio sources, and
to connect an
abundance of interface
protocols.
cloudSwXtch is a virtual
overlay network that enables
the migration of high-volume
media workflows
cloud, and unifies
workflows
across
to the
these
many
swXtch.io and TAG Video Systems Integrated Dynamic Cloud-Based Media Monitoring Solution
to
create a unified media workflow.
swXtch.io developed cloudSwXtch,
locations. Its ability to unlock missing
cloud features such as multicast,
PTP synchronization, and protocol
conversion make the five use
cases highlighted at NAB possible
for media and
entertainment
companies. Specifically, observers
at NAB recognized how adding these
and other missing features made
Channel Assembly and Distribution,
Network
Path Redundancy, Live
Production with PTP, Remote
Production Collaboration, and CloudPath
Optimization with Multicast
applications a reality.
cloudSwXtch makes
these
applications possible because of
its ability to bring missing on-prem
features to public cloud networks,
including Amazon Web Services,
Google Cloud (GCP), and Microsoft
Azure. The platform also enables
users to work freely across two or
more of these public cloud networks
by allowing them to easily configure
and scale global mesh networks,
and provide monitoring access to
streams anywhere over single or
multi-cloud networks. To the latter
point, cloudSwXtch can provide
virtual probe points to gather instant
network telemetry data and access
points for in-network video and audio
quality metrics.
All
of the above capabilities
and benefits will help media and
entertainment businesses accelerate
their
shift
another intriguing opportunity
to OpEx models. But
lies
ahead for cloudSwXtch users and
adopters: an ability to use the core
cloudSwXtch platform as a long-term
development tool.
Open Development Platform
The cloudSwXtch architecture
invites open development
thanks
to several design attributes. That
includes an underlying architecture,
featuring a virtual switch and network
interface card (NIC), that users can
add new features and applications
to as their cloud media workflow
requirements evolve.
Furthermore, cloudSwXtch's
open API simplifies
how end
customers can connect to third-party
applications. On the Microsoft booth,
observers saw how manufacturers
enabled JPEG-XS compression (from
Drastic Technologies), live switching,
graphics and editing (from Evertz),
and motion-compensated frame rate
conversion (from Cinnafilm) within
the same live production workflow.
Cinnafilm has taken things a step
further by developing an application
of its Tachyon Live solution soon
to be available in cloudSwXtch. As
hosted on the cloudSwXtch platform,
the
Tachyon Live application will
bring standards conversion to live
event marketplace. We will return to
this example later in the article.
It's
first important
to note that
cloudSwXtch simplifies application
development in many ways, and its
design as a virtual machine is the
starting point. As a virtual machine,
cloudSwXtch is deployable within
the user's cloud tenant. This means
that the user now owns a virtual box
that resides on a network within their
tenant.
When cloudSwXtch is
deployed
within a tenant, it can be used to
scale and size media workflows
and networks based primarily on
egress bandwidth. The switch itself
is sized to support fanning out video
and data streams, with their sizes
and bandwidths considered, to the
desired number of end points. It
is here where cloudswXtch brings
exceptional value in comparison to
similar paths offered through public
cloud networks.
Core Configurations
Historically, clouds
provision
what they call VM Shapes. Their
configurations of virtual machines
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.swxtch.io https://www.swxtch.io http://www.swXtch.io https://www.swxtch.io http://www.swXtch.io http://www.swXtch.io https://www.swxtch.io http://www.swXtch.io
InBroadcast - May 2023

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