Taking Advantage Of A Force Multiplier

Everywhere you look there are articles and testimonials discussing the benefits of cloud-enhancement to Media & Entertainment workflows. Most of this information, however, is from vendors to the industry rather than consumers of the technology. It’s therefore fair to ask why we aren’t hearing more from technology consumers.

At  Grass Valley, our experience is that adopters do see great benefit from using our AMPP platform. In fact, they see their use of the technology as a competitive advantage and therefore aren’t eager to share what they are learning with other media organizations. Consequently, they are quiet in the public press.

A recent survey by Deloitte of 500 senior decision-makers in the United States found that 90% of respondents agree, or completely agree, that cloud combined with other technologies such as AI, IoT, and analytics serves as a “force multiplier” for their digital strategy (Deloitte, US Future of Cloud, June 2022). Overall, respondents think that incorporating cloud technology drives positive outcomes for businesses across a range of key measures including:

• Mitigating business and regulatory risk
• Building net new product/service revenue
• Expanding into new markets
• Providing better sustainability in support of environmental issues

Our own AMPP usage data validates this survey. Media & Entertainment companies are enjoying the value of cloud-enhanced technology. As a whole, the industry has moved past the Covid-19 induced panic, but the POCs and trials were valuable experiences. Many have retained what they learned as a result. The use of cloud-enhanced workflows is not a flash-in-the-pan experiment.

Over the past 12 months, AMPP adopters are consistently expanding their use both in terms of time and functionality. The average usage of AMPP has tripled to multiple millions of workload hours per month, creating a massive force multiplier across the industry.

Overcoming Status Quo Bias

It’s natural to approach any change with caution. Studies on business decision making show that the most common response when faced with a choice to implement a new option is to stick with the status quo. In physics we learn that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an external force. It’s a similar tendency in the psychology of decisions making except this status quo bias is based on emotion rather than data. Change involves risk and humans tend to avoid risk whenever possible. The downside of that bias is that it can create a state of no change until an even greater risk becomes so compelling that it forces us from our previous position.

The time to reconsider the market risk of not adopting cloud-enhanced technology is now. The pace of technology adoption is speeding up ^{. 1} What used to take many decades to become widely adopted is now happening in a few years. The COVID Pandemic further accelerated that rate with 75% of all firms adopting digital productivity-enhancing technologies^{. 2} By waiting to see how cloud-enhanced technologies help others increase their revenue per piece of content, Media & Entertainment companies run the significant risk of losing their own competitive advantage.

Incremental Adoption

The good news about deploying the AMPP platform is that it isn’t an all or nothing proposition. Most new entrants to the platform start small. For example, start with remote monitoring, or signal conversion and routing.

The platform can easily be integrated into any existing SDI or IP infrastructure. Rather than completely renovating an existing plant, expand an existing workflow to add new capability. Because the barriers to entry are low and the user interfaces are familiar, adoption can occur gradually.

They key to getting the most out of this gradual adoption is a willingness to experiment. If AMPP is used like other technologies which are wired in the rack and never touched again, then you are missing one of the greatest advantages. AMPP is a platform with many possible applications. It doesn’t have to always be the same. Functions from as simple as router control panel to as complex as a production switcher can be quickly spun up or down as required.

The trend we see is that as AMPP adopters become familiar with the ecosystem, they begin to expand its usage at their own pace moving, for example, from monitoring to local versioning to full live production.

Recommendations

Regardless of the cloud-enhancements you actually select, we recommend the following;

First, look for extensible cloud platforms rather than single-purpose apps. Trying to string together multiple apps from different vendors is not as simple task. Nor is it ideal to have to work with multiple, dissimilar user interfaces and tool sets.

The lack of common standards and interfaces is the prime driver behind the GV Alliance. Solutions selected from GV Alliance members, regardless of who originally developed them, have been tested by the vendors and are guaranteed to work together.

Second, look for solutions that will work with your existing hardware and software. The transition is much simpler if the system users don’t have to change the way they are accustomed to operating.

Finally, wherever possible talk to actual users of cloud technology. You’ll discover that its use is more widespread and easier to adopt than you might anticipate.

¹ https://hbr.org/2013/11/the-pace-of-technology-adoption-is-speeding-up

² https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2021/11/22/covid-19-spurred-a-wave-of-new-technology-adoption-by-uk-businesses/