In Broadcast - August 2016 - 22


22

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 6 - Issue 8 | August 2016

InReply

Data Centres In From The Edge
InBroadcast asks Darren Watkins, Managing Director for VIRTUS Data Centres,
why content developers should start considering data centres within their strategies?

I

n no other industry is the
relationship between providers and
consumers more directly and instantly
bound by technology than broadcast,
and with the evolution of the content
and digital media ecosystem, the
industry is rapidly changing. Today,
there is an increasingly complex set
of relationships between supporting
technologies - including cloud services,
workflow solutions, payment gateways,
advertising platforms, management
systems, Content Delivery Networks
(CDNs) and other service components.
But while complexity is bringing
challenges to the sector, there are
also opportunities - and it starts
with the data centre. By making
a careful choice of data centre
operator, broadcasters can build a
solid foundation for production and
service deployments. Indeed, choice
of location for core servers within data
centres may not seem the obvious
place to start, but through careful
selection of provider, improvements
in production efficiencies and service
performance as well as reductions in
costs can be achieved.
Fit For Purpose
Couriers biking film and disks
from locations to editing suits and
distributers are slowly becoming less
of the norm. Today, this content is
increasingly shared over the Internet
to allow more efficient workflow and
collaboration, but this way of working
brings new considerations. The files
are often huge making bandwidth
important, connectivity key, security
a top priority and service continuity
paramount.
Digital
content
is

important data that needs to be looked
after; stored securely in a physical
location, but readily available and
accessible by those that need it.
Once the digital content has been
developed, it needs to be clipped,
encoded and brought into server
farms to be manipulated by the editor
community. Massive amounts of
processing power are required for this
content to be manipulated, changed
and delivered and that requires high
performance computing. The benefit
of using a specialist data centre is
that broadcasters can implement
cloud-based solutions that can be
shared across a number of editors
in different locations. This enables
remote collaboration, but keeps the
central processing piece where the
power is, in the data centre, and helps
production companies to deal with the
challenges of creating rough cut edits
off-site.
Close To The Edge
Surprisingly, the choice of a
data centre is often an overlooked
component of broadcast systems. They
play an important role in the delivery
of content, which necessitates high
bandwidth. Those that have reliable,
fast, secure connectivity through their
carriers and are described as being
at "the edge" make them prime CDN
locations.
If broadcasters are looking to reach
multiple geographies, they need to
ensure that they have great access to
long haul networks through the data
centre. For example, the VIRTUS data
centre in Hayes enables broadcasters
to send their content straight to Paris,

New York, Chicago or other markets
without going through central London.
Some also have the ability to bring in
multiple Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) so when there is lots of content
to push out to the edge, membership
of DE-CIX in Germany, AM-CIX in the
Netherlands, and LINX in London
means traffic can be distributed more
effectively with the local in-country
providers sending the content to the
end customer.
Use Of Cloud
Although
a
current
industry
buzzword, the "cloud" is nonetheless
increasingly important as both a
component of consumer service
propositions, and from a business
support perspective.
The emergence of consumer "cloud",
giving customers the opportunity to
upload, store and then watch or listen
to purchased content across a range
of different media formats, are further
complicating the landscape.
With the increasing reliance on cloud
solutions, broadcasters are finding
that they are becoming part of a wider
ecosystem of technology providers and
other content companies. Websites
and systems will typically integrate
with multiple other partners.
This can be as simple as the
integration with a payment gateway,
or can encompass other parts of the
value chain such as online advertising
and CDNs beyond workflow solutions
and platform management to content
delivery.
At each stage, content companies
rely on partner services to support
their own systems.

Growing Ecosystem
Because we live in an increasingly
mobile and virtual world the location
of processing power may be perceived
of lesser importance, but the growth
in cloud and third-party managed
services is driving more use of data
centres.
As this usage continues to grow,
there will be ever increasing scope for
content developers and technology
solutions to take a measured approach
when it comes to choosing where to
place their servers.
Ensuring that they co-locate
alongside key partners, with the
associated benefits, is a clear
advantage.
Organisations
that
integrate closely with one another can
choose to co-locate within the same
data centre, where they can directly
connect to the systems belonging to
ecosystem partners sharing the same
facility.
This allows all partners to make
transit cost savings as well as reduce
latency issues. The choice of colocation solution will be increasingly
critical for services looking to optimise
the consumer experience, as well
as take advantage of the inherent
potential cost savings presented
by such a strategy. This will enable
broadcasters to access reliable and
high-performance
interconnection
solutions that provide a dense
population of networks, Internet
and
cloud
service
providers,
partners and customers. With it
comes improvements in production
efficiencies and service performance
as well as reductions in costs.
VIRTUS Data Centre
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://youtu.be/7oUBs8w1Buc
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - August 2016
