Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Adobe strive to transport the best video over the internet that supports the most devices. 4K UHD content traffic further drives the goal of a single video format that can be displayed on any device. While many solutions have been proposed, MPEG-DASH is increasingly being viewed as the best.
In the fourth season of ‘Bruce’s Shorts’, Bruce Devlin takes a look at the Interoperable Master Format (IMF). Ever wondered why we don’t label the audio channels in files? This episode will help you find out.
Like many other industries, the broadcast space is affected by changes in the market, the business models and subsequent pressure on budgets, leading to the need to the search for efficiencies. Ultimately broadcasters are in a continuous battle to find better ways to monetize their content while keeping their audiences engaged and entertained for longer. One of the technology trends that is enabling the transformation of broadcast is the move to IP. Broadcasters are seeing the benefits in using a consistent, standardized infrastructure and connectivity to transport video everywhere, from locations to the central facilities and on to distribution. These benefits include cost savings, agility and the ability to scale. But, more importantly, IP is a critical building block that will drive other changes in the industry, including to infrastructure. Virtualization will play a key role here, particularly in live production and its impact on transforming workflows.
_460_289_70.jpg "The transition from SDI to IP infrastructures will be much like other technology advances; slow and steady.")
Broadcasters, and production facilities that have significant investments in large-scale SDI plants are going to face technical and budgetary challenges as they transition to newer IP-based topologies. The need to support current SDI workflows during the transition will be key to a successful conversion. One solution is to use an ‘island’ approach, which can lower the transition risk when moving to the world of uncompressed IP video, audio, data and timing.
In the previous Cloud Broadcasting article, we took a very brief look at cloud security and its advantages over traditional datacentre systems. In this article, we delve further into Cloud Born systems and investigate the new requirements for software development and upgrades in broadcast software services.
In the fourth season of ‘Bruce’s Shorts’, Bruce Devlin takes a look at the Interoperable Master Format (IMF). IMF needs a generic captioning and subtitling format for the planet. Episode 5 asks “Why choose IMSC1?”
It was exactly a year ago that the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA)’s long-time President Leon Silverman announced he was leaving the organization that he helped found to make room for the next generation of leadership and a newly expanded Board of Directors. The move surprised some, but was seen as a natural progression of an organization that since 1993 has supported individuals and businesses that provide creative and technical expertise, support, tools and infrastructure for professional content creation, distribution and archive.
This year’s NFL Super Bowl telecast, to be broadcast live on the Fox Sports Network, will once again provide a proving ground for the latest remote audio and video technology, with a few new twists thrown in for an added “wow” factor. Interestingly, much of the big game will be shot in 4K and HD simultaneously, although Fox Sports will be broadcasting the main action live in 1080i HD resolution.
