In modern consumer electronics history, every new year begins with an early January Consumer Electronics Show, followed by the April NAB Show, both in Las Vegas. Significant new home and broadcast video and audio technologies are often rolled out at both shows, targeted for near-opposite markets wanting to enjoy or produce lots of TV. With no physical exhibits since CES 2020, manufacturers are struggling to impress virtual visitors and reporters with better and larger images with what they can see on their local computer screens.
Timing accuracy has been a fundamental component of broadcast infrastructures for as long as we’ve transmitted television pictures and sound. The time invariant nature of frame sampling still requires us to provide timing references with sub microsecond accuracy.
For content providers (studios, content owners, content aggregators, or other content licensors) and their licensees (affiliates) operating in a multiplatform world - and pirates looking to obtain illegal access to the most popular content - it’s an unrelenting game of cat and mouse. While the internet has provided a cost-effective and easy way to deliver content to consumers, it also opens up new vulnerabilities that content pirates are eager to expose.
It’s interesting to compare the quality that can be obtained using digital audio with legacy media such as the vinyl disk and magnetic tape.
Having a collection of PCs and MACs stacked under a desk to facilitate the multitude of operational requirements not only proves difficult to operate but challenges our modern ideas around security and makes maintenance almost impossible.
The way consumers engage with content is constantly shifting and at a faster pace than ever before, leaving the television industry playing catch up. Broadcasters, production companies and content producers around the globe are seeing the complexities in production and distribution soaring, increasing costs with lower revenue per asset. At the same time, the TV production world has struggled to keep pace with the twin drivers of technological advancement and evolving consumer viewing behavior.
Barring the unexpected, the broad themes of 2021 in broadcasting and media entertainment have already been sculpted by the unprecedented events of 2020.
The industry experienced futureshock head-on in 2020. The impact will take a long time to unwind but it’s already clear that some changes will be profound and not all of them bad. In part 2 we look at what sports and sportscasters need to do to change the live experience to make money and AI’s growing role in the ecosystem.
