In Broadcast - June 2021 - 42

42
www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 11 - Issue 6 | June 2021
InMedia
QoE the focus as playout
move to cloud
Multiplatform has moved from nice-to-have
to must-have. And if OTT isn't at least on
your radar, you're not in the game...
By Adrian Pennington
ffectively monitoring a steadily
increasing number of channels at a
centralised operations center is critical
to the success of OTT services. OTT
platforms must process and deliver
multiple video formats to different
display devices, different screen sizes
and resolutions, at different bit rates,
increasing the quantity and complexity
of monitoring.
E
As the number of channels for OTT
delivery continues to grow, monitoring
these channels in a highly automated
way has become paramount to
ensuring a good Quality of Experience
for the viewer. To deliver QoE that's
as good as linear TV broadcasts, the
entire system - from ingest to multibitrate
encoding to delivery to CDN -
must be monitored continuously.
" Until recently, the only option
to handle these performance
requirements was for the multiviewer
to be based on dedicated, broadcast
specific hardware, " says Peter
Wharton, TAG Video Systems' Director
of Corporate Strategy. " Now, software
based multi-viewing of compressed
and uncompressed signals is a reality. "
TAG's
platform
the
same
offers
both the
probing and multiviewing function
within
solution
which
provides simplified workflows for
operators. Wharton explains that
the software's " robust and open API
structure " allows deep integration
with third party network management
systems and broadcast control
systems. In turn, this offer easy
configured and provides operators
with the critical information needed to
operate and manage the facility.
The software-defined
solution
provides a complete probing and
monitoring application tool for all the
transmission layers starting from the
ST 2110/ST 2022-6 uncompressed;
MPEG-TS compressed; and OTT
streams
all
the way down to
the
encoded video content and its quality.
A recent enhancement is the ability
for users to manually set a recording
of an OTT channel, record all metadata
elements of additional OTT formats,
and set 32 channels to be recorded
simultaneously- a significant increase
in capacity.
" OTT monitoring and error event
recording
has
and
quickly
become
capacity
to
a
priority issue with our customers and
so we've enhanced the platform's
capabilities
help
provide information easily for an
effective post-mortem analysis, "
explains Pinky Maron, VP Professional
Services.
Some will argue that throwing
everything
into the cloud is the
solution. Undoubtedly, cloud-based
models are becoming a more common
feature of the production landscape.
However, this doesn't always
make sense - either financially or
operationally.
Few broadcasters
can make a
Peter Wharton, Director of Corporate
Strategy for TAG Video Systems'
global operation
complete jump to cloud in one hit.
According to Pebble most customers
still have functional and valuable
playout facilities. " We need to be there
for them to keep those systems up to
date and operating smoothly, " says
to Alison Pavitt, Director of Sales and
Marketing. " So much is changing for
our customers that Pebble's role of
being a trusted partner and solutions
expert is coming very much to the
fore. "
Recent introductions by the company
have allowed customers to not only
increase their channel counts, but also
to transition to newer technologies.
Pavitt explains, " In installations where
split sites are used, we deliver systems
that allow both cloud and on-premises
channels to be controlled from one
interface via our Remote Control and
Monitoring application.
" Pebble Integrated Channel devices
and Pebble Automation Solutions
are already available on-premises,
virtualized in private data centers, or
in the cloud. We find the big need is to
offer our customers solution flexibility
so they can move forward at their own
rate
without
worsening an already
stressful change process. "
Grass Valley has perhaps the biggest
install base of playout automation in
the world and has taken that deep
understanding to introduce a 'true
cloud' architecture supporting playout.
" Public cloud is great at being
elastic and offering services on a payas-you-go
basis, but cloud is hardly
what broadcasters think of first when
planning how to do playout, " says Neil
Maycock, General Manager - Playout.
" Playout is a part of the workflow that
always needs to be on tap. "
GV AMPP Playout, the latest
application suite for the Agile Media
Processing Platform, is GV's solution. It
delivers an elastic playout solution that
increases business agility by enabling
users to deploy channels, where
and when they need them without
requiring any additional infrastructure.
Built on a microservices architecture,
it gives customers " infinite scalability
with the ability to provision any
number of channels quickly and easily
with very low latency. "
Eurosport is among the first to
deploy it. The SaaS platform allows
Eurosport to efficiently deliver every
minute of its event coverage across
all platforms: linear television, online,
streaming, and social media. Many of
these were previously disparate legacy
systems, but now the broadcaster
can leverage content much more
effectively
and
across
the
entire
organization, from whichever location
its teams operate.
" Using cloud playout, Eurosport
Alison Pavitt, Director of Sales
and Marketing, Pebble
" We often find that our customers are
looking for help as they move forward. "
can deliver audio, graphics, scoring
and every other variable in localised
versions for the duration of a specific
event - a strategy that would be absurd
in the linear world, " Maycock says.
Most broadcasters are launching
OTT channels on Free Ad Supported
TV (FAST) platforms or on their
direct-to-consumer apps. There is
some form of OTT offering in every
broadcaster's channel bouquet today.
As a result, one of the challenges that
broadcasters are facing, while
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