Some of the trends established at NAB 2024 will be reinforced at IBC, notably around provision of functions such as live capture and transcoding as services in the cloud and increasing personalization of dynamically served ads. Inevitably there is increasing use of machine learning techniques in these areas, especially transcoding, as well as MAM (Media Asset Management) in playout.

As usual Telestream is in the thick of it, straddling different areas as it continues to harvest its AI R&D program unveiled at NAB 2024, with tools encompassing the video streaming pipeline from capture and ingest to delivery and playout. Like others, Telestream has packaged at least some of these tools into “as a service offerings”, rather than just discrete products, and the company will continue this process of cloudification. Cloud nativeness is really just the culmination of computing trends that have been in progress for decades, starting with virtualization, then containers and microservices comprising packaged reusable and portable software components, then onto serverless computing where hardware resources are allocated on demand without any direct association with any given underlying machines. It also embodies declarative programming, where applications are specified in high level structures rather than being spelt in detailed control flow logic, which again is an evolution from earlier abstraction of coding from lower-level manipulation of processing elements.

Increasingly cloud nativeness is assumed and as a result the concept may not be trumpeted around IBC 2024 as it was last year when still fresher as a concept, but it will be very much in evidence beneath the hoods of product in the playout and channel creation realms.

That is the case for Tecla System, an exhibitor at IBC 2024, whose Solution Architect Marco Taddei, suggested that native integration between its ingest and MAM systems meant that custom workflows could be triggered to make contributions available to any destination, including third-party playout systems, and OTT/VOD platforms.

Amagi is another exhibitor aiming to demonstrate how cloud nativeness has enhanced its capabilities. It enables cloud infrastructure to be deployed on the spin at short notice just for the duration of temporary events lasting just days or weeks. Linear channels including live segments can be created over such infrastructure for OTA, cable, satellite, or OTT delivery, the company said.

While not touting cloud nativeness so much, LTN is another exhibitor exploring advances in live linear channel creation and real time content management for both full-time and temporary channels. “Our strategy for this show is centered on our ability to help content creators spin up rich live content experiences — especially sports — to compete in an ultra-competitive media landscape along with the accelerated adoption of intelligent IP-based distribution solutions and how they are opening up more opportunities than outdated satellite and fiber methodologies,” said Rick Young, LTN’s Head of Global Products. “LTN will be running hands-on demos to showcase how our IP-based technologies power new content versioning and multi-platform distribution capabilities.”

Indeed, the strong movement towards IP seems to underpin all LTN’s activities around IBC 2024. “Media companies have been looking to us to help them adopt an IP-first strategy to power more creativity and unlock more intelligent media distribution capabilities,” said Young. “In many ways, the transition to IP is impacting the other themes, and as we look to provide multiple versions of content across digital linear channels, media companies will need IP-based technology that can encompass automation and cloud capabilities to make this possible.”

Vendor Focus

Amagi (Stand 5.B87) will showcase its latest innovations in live remote production, ground-to-cloud migration, and streaming. Following its successful cloud solutions deployment for live broadcasts of recent global premier sports events, Amagi will give attendees a front-row seat to a live operations center at its stand, capturing the entire glass-to-glass workflow. From setting up on-demand live broadcast infrastructure, orchestrating live events from any remote location, and managing dynamic graphics and ad breaks to clipping and social media publishing, Amagi will demonstrate the power of its cloud-native solutions Amagi CLOUDPORT, Tellyo STUDIO, and Tellyo PRO will be in focus.

Amagi will also use IBC to launch a new on-prem playout server ‘Disaster Recovery DR Box’ for Amagi CLOUDPORT. The server aims to ensure zero disruption in broadcasting owing to failure anywhere in the cloud or connectivity to the cloud. It will provide a third layer of redundancy, an essential backup level against multi-AZ, and multi region cloud options.

As content owners and platforms look for ways to maximize content monetization opportunities, Amagi will showcase its latest innovation in STV advertising powered by its SSAI solution, Amagi THUNDERSTORM. Taking center stage will be ad-pod optimization, in-content advertising, and Amagi’s patent-pending technology to dynamically adjust the length of ad breaks per viewer, eliminating the need for slates or fillers to round out linear ad breaks.

Following its acquisition by Amagi last year, also on show will be Tellyo STUDIO, a cloud-based live video production platform with a live production switcher, and deeper integration between CLOUDPORT and Tellyo PRO, a cloud-based platform for video clipping, editing, publishing, and restreaming, tailored for digital and social media teams.

Also on show will be Tellyo STUDIO, a cloud-based live video production platform with a live production switcher, and Tellyo PRO, a cloud-based platform for video clipping, editing, publishing, and restreaming, tailored for digital and social media teams.

Frequency Networks (Stand 4.B11) based in Los Angeles, is one of over 150 companies exhibiting at IBC for the first time this year. The company is also targeting FAST platforms, which are more prevalent in the USA than in most if not all other countries. It will also be demonstrating its Studio 5 scheduling platform, one of the new breed of cloud-based SaaS OTT/streaming channel systems offering software tools for ingest, asset management, scheduling, graphics insertion, and analysis.

Studio 5 was built within the AWS platform, combining its tools and automation functions with the latter’s scalable cloud infrastructure. The company claims this has evolved into a more complete platform adding content management, motion graphics, ad insertion, and stream health monitoring to the original scheduling capabilities.

Frequency will use IBC to introduce its new ‘Fusion’ service which introduces support of external scheduling integrations such as the Broadcast Exchange Format (BXF), making it simpler for traditional broadcasters to use Studio for cloud playout and to distribute their channels to a streaming television audience.

LTN (Stand 5.A76) will prioritize its automated channel creation and playout system LTN Lift, highlighting its ability to handle live events, flexibility, scalability and integration with existing workflows. “We will spotlight how LTN Lift empowers new revenue opportunities and tailored multi-platform experiences for targeted audience groups,” said Young. “The solution is leveraged by major media companies and sports streaming services. We are excited to share how media companies across EMEA can also leverage LTN Lift to create new digital linear channels across FAST and other digital platforms like never before.”

A particular objective will be to show how LTN is helping media companies navigate complex content distribution challenges, according to Young, all built on its global multicast IP network.

Telestream (Stand 7.B11) will major on its migration of various services to the cloud and As-A-Service applications. In addition to the flexibility and scalability benefits moving to software defined infrastructure brings, Telestream have also been investing significant amounts of R&D into AI powered applications. “While the promise of AI and Machine Learning are riding high on a wave of hype, we at Telestream see these innovations as powerful enablers for solving real-world problems that our customers face,” said Simon Clarke, Chief Technology Officer, Telestream. The focus initially has been on three areas; Captioning with their Stanza system, QC with Telestream Qualify which automates the process of ensuring consistent content quality across large volumes of media, and automated workflow creation with Vantage Workflow Designer which automates the configuration of media processing workflows within their Vantage MAM. Vantage Workflow Designer was on demo at NAB and is an excellent example of where AI can be used to great effect.

Telestream will also use IBC to announce VLS-300. As the first model of the next-gen Lightspeed server family, the VLS-300 delivers a 30% performance boost over its predecessor. It has two NVIDIA A4000 GPUs at its core, robust cooling systems, dual power supplies, and all solid-state storage with NVMe 800GB OS drives and dual 1.92TB media storage RAID drive bays. The VLS-300 offers versatile Ethernet options, including 2-Port 1G/10G RJ45, and is ready for additional 25G and 100G network configurations.

Tecla System (Stand 1.F14) will be showing its InGrid Unified Ingest system for the first time at IBC 2024 and unveiling an important customer. It will also show InGrid, its web-based unified capture solution from any source such as file, live, studio, and post-pro-cloud, with single jobs scheduling and long-term schedule recording planning.

“InGrid allows video preview-metadata insertion-segmentation while recording is still in progress, and the export of video segments and/or XML projects to NLEs during recording,” said Taddei. “It's natively integrated with MediaHive MAM therefore custom workflows can be triggered to make contributions available to any destination to archive the files, and for integrating third-party systems.”

Other articles in this IBC 2024 'Show Focus' series:

The Broadcast Bridge will be at the IBC Show – on stand 8.A52. Please come and see us and share your thoughts on what we do and what you would like to see from us in the coming year.