In Broadcast - August 2017 - 66

66

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 8 | August 2017

InMedia

Migrating Broadcast
Management Systems
Contributing Editor Adrian Pennington looks at
the tectonic shift taking place in the provision
of systems to manage broadcast operations...

T

he industry is in the grip of a major
migration of core operations for
traditional live and non-live linear
workflows into the private or public
Cloud or a hybrid solution. Vendors of
scheduling, traffic and other essential
Broadcast Management Systems (BMS)
must evolve product accordingly.
Virtualised Implementation
Pebble Beach Systems is active in
this space. Its Orca, software-defined
virtualised IP channel solution is
already deployed in the private Cloud
at customer sites, notably at DMC in
the Netherlands. It has also provided
several pilot systems delivering
virtualised playout from the public
Cloud, as broadcasters seek to qualify
their playout using AWS and IBM
Bluemix Cloud services.
"Running under a virtualised
implementation of its flagship Marina
automation product, Orca's softwaredefined channels can be configured to
meet the requirements of each service
regardless of where it is hosted, with
the ability to deploy new channels
almost instantly," explains Pebble
Beach Systems CTO Ian Cockett.
"What we're seeing is that some
broadcasters are embracing the public
Cloud, whilst others are experimenting
with the technology and want to learn
more about it, but may ultimately

"Moving to the Cloud
just for the sake
of it can be a
false economy"
Lewis Kirkaldie, Cinegy

be convinced that they are better off
running as they are," he continues. "It
seems that the gulf between the two
camps is going to get bigger, and it's
absolutely the case that the technology
and business model for virtualised
playout needs to be rigorously
examined before making the leap.
Broadcasters need to be clear what
the motivation for such a move is. If
it's cost reduction, they are unlikely to
meet those objectives, but the speed
and ease of deploying new channels
is a clear benefit to those looking for a
more agile business model."
Its Lighthouse suite of management
tools offers "user-friendly" design and
launch functionality for virtualised
Orca channels, along with playlist
control and multi-channel exception
monitoring via web-based dashboards.
IBC will see the launch of a lowlatency monitoring preview for Orca
which will increase its suitability for
applications such as the playout of
live, reactive channels. Operators will
be able to view a 'confidence preview'
in advance of, for example, rolling a
commercial break into a live event,
without the delays incurred by having
to manage uncompressed video. This
is set to extend Orca's application
for high value channels and latencysensitive applications, says Cockett.
"Moving to the Cloud just for the sake
of it can be a false economy," agrees
Lewis Kirkaldie, Head of Product
Management, Cinegy. "You have to
know precisely what you want to do in
there first. Moving processes, services
and operations into the Cloud requires
very careful consideration and
evaluation to avoid disillusionment (or

Pebble Beach System's
Orca Channel Launcher tool

disaster) and get to the real benefits.
However, get those decisions right and
the benefits can be enormous."
For example, with Air PRO Version
12, debuting at IBC, Cinegy has taken
a relatively limited amount of its API
footprint and amped it up 10-fold to
ease the transition to external data
centres.
The product is said by Kirkaldie to be
quite some distance beyond its already
powerful public Cloud capabilities.
"For example, rather than traditional
file sharing, you can use object
storage natively and have Cloud-native
playout. You can pop something in
object storage in the Cloud, then view
it on your desktop or play it out from
the Cloud if you have the right tools.
"We've included native playback
from S3 object storage because it
offers internet scale. Until Version 12,
everyone had to transform content
from object storage to local file copy.
Now, if you upload to the Cloud, it
stays there and you do whatever you
want to do with it."
SLA Resolution
When Provys started to develop its
broadcast management solution, a few
years back it based development on
an operating system with independent
database. "This is automatically
expected by most broadcasters, similar
to virtualisation, which is an extremely
helpful tool in the whole IT world,"
says Michal Stehlik, Director of Product
Development, Provys. "When it comes
to the Cloud operated by third parties,
the situation becomes very complex.
For broadcasters, the Cloud means not
only outsourcing all the hardware but

Provys scheduling dozens of TV channels
at Arqiva playout centre

also the knowhow, which is critical at
the beginning to define the right SLA
(Service Level Agreement). There is
some scalability in the Cloud but only
to a certain level. Our system has
already been running in the Cloud for
many months and we are continually
collecting experience."
As traditional broadcasters have
expanded into non-linear services,
running alongside their standard
linear channels, Provys says it's
working to improve the integration
between these two operations. The
latest developments will be on show
at IBC. Another Provys innovation is its
solution to "perfectly automate" selfpromotion planning and scheduling
"based squarely on a deep experience
of viewing habits resulting in optimum
promotion as to what, where and when
to promote," explains Stehlik.
Replacement Cycle
Broadcast Management Systems
tend to have a much longer
replacement cycle than other parts of
the media enterprise (such as MAM
or production infrastructure) and
therefore adoption of Cloud in core
BMS technologies is proving to be
very gradual, reckons Ben Davenport,
Strategic Product Manager, Arvato
Systems.

"...we see interaction
with AI tools at several
points in the content
chain"
Ben Davenport, Arvato Systems
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.provys.com/ http://www.pebble.tv/products/orca/
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - August 2017
