InReview 2019 - 24

24

www.inbroadcast.com | InReview 2019

Nevion - 'Architects of
Virtualised Media Production'
Nevion Marketing VP, Olivier Suard, discusses how the current technology
shift in media production networks is transforming the broadcaster-supplier
relationship...
InBroadcast: How is your
company adapting to meet
customer demands?
Olivier Suard: Nevion is
a very nimble company and
constantly adapting to not only meet,
but also anticipate customer demand.
The biggest adaption we have made
is now largely behind us. At the start
of the 2010s, Nevion anticipated that
the business area in which we operate,
real-time media transport, would
undergo profound technical changes
that would have a major impact on our
customers' businesses, but also on our
own.
Nevion made an early bet on IP
technology becoming ubiquitous in
media networks. We also realised that
there was going to be a shift from
hardware equipment to softwarebased products. We believed that the
move to IP and to software would
allow broadcasters to transform
their production workflows, enabling
remote and distributed production
across locations and an unprecedented
level of resource-sharing through
virtualisation.
Our
customers,
therefore, would need transformative
solutions rather than just products.
All this meant that we had to change
the products we developed; the core
competencies of our engineers had
to evolve from hardware to software;
our product pricing strategy needed
to move to a license model with
maintenance to cover software
updates.
We needed to build up our service
offerings to deliver solutions; and

Riot Games used Virtuoso with
JPEG XS in its remote production
(Picture: Michal Konkol)

Virtuoso - Nevion's flagship
software-defined media node

our sales-channels had to move from
product- and features-based selling to
value-based, project selling.
This is a major shift for any company
to undertake. However, because we
were early in identifying the need to
adapt, the transformation has been
relatively smooth and painless. In
contrast, those suppliers that have left
it late have had a much tougher time.
InB:
What
criteria
are
broadcasters using to select
products?
OS: As mentioned, our customers
now typically need transformative
solutions more than just products.
Solutions mean advice, help, support,
and even a partnership with suppliers.
Of course, solutions also include
products, but these are changing too.
They are no longer just hardware with
pre-defined and perpetually fixed
functionality - they are software-based
and will evolve. The broadcasters and
service providers we sell to want to be
sure the products they pick will deliver
not just their "now", but also their
future, i.e. grow with their needs.
So, whereas in the past, the main
criteria for broadcasters selecting
products were almost exclusively
features and price, that is no longer
the case. Customers are having

to consider very carefully with
whom they want to undertake their
transformation journey, so the biggest
criteria now is trust - trust in the
supplier and trust in the people in that
company.
That is, in fact, why Nevion has
been putting people centre-stage
in its branding and messaging. We
are the 'Architects of Virtualised
Media Production' - pioneers, guides,
creators and experts whom our
customers can trust to deliver on the
promise of IP and virtualisation.
InB: In your opinion, what is the
biggest issue in IP media network
deployments, and how can this be
addressed?
OS: One of the biggest issues with
IP media networks for live production
is the management of bandwidth.
Broadcasting involves a very large
number of flows and a huge volume of
data, that needs to be transported and
processed with ultra-low latency.
Obviously, the volume of data can be
addressed through video compression,
but until recently, encoding did not
really lend itself well to a facilities
environment, as repeated encoding/
decoding cycles would be needed,
adding latency and potentially leading
to a deterioration of the picture
quality.
At IBC 2019, Nevion announced the
support for a new type of encoding
technology on its flagship softwaredefined media node, Virtuoso.
Developed by IntoPix, JPEG XS
achieves high-quality compression
with ratios up to 10:1 at submillisecond latency, i.e. a fraction of
a video frame. This is revolutionary,
as it is effectively the first encoding
technology that can be used both
in WAN (contribution or remote
production) and LAN (facilities)
environments.

The other aspect of bandwidth
management is the orchestration of
flows. Nevion believes that this cannot
be left to chance, or rather left to the
network itself. While there are plenty
of successful projects that have been
built on automatic routing like IGMP,
these have been relatively small scale.
There is plenty of evidence from larger
projects that this approach struggles
to scale. Nevion believes that the
best solution for real-time IP media
networks is to use software defined
networking (SDN). That is why Nevion's
own orchestration and SDN control
software, VideoIPath has been key to
delivering our transformative projects.
InB: Can you describe some of
your recent deployments?
OS: The past year has seen a rapid
increase in the number of IP projects.
Nevion believes that the industry
has now crossed the infamous
"chasm", and IP is moving from the
early-adopter phase towards the
mainstream.
Nevion has delivered many exciting
IP projects in the last few months, both
for remote production and facilities.
One of the most thrilling recent
events for us was the use of our
Virtuoso with JPEG XS in the
production of the League of Legends
final in Paris in November 2019.
The final, which was watched by
around 100 million of esports fans
across the world, was produced
remotely from Berlin and Los Angeles 1,000km and 9,000km away from the
event respectively.
It was probably the first use of JPEG
XS in production, and certainly the
very first use in a transcontinental
setting.
InB: Thank you for taking the time
to answer our questions.
www.nevion.com
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.nevion.com
InReview 2019

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