James Gilbert, director of product and solution management, Media, Rohde & Schwarz, believes the cloud is no longer the answer to everything, and has moved to the practical use case realisation stage.
What industry trends have particularly stood out for you in 2023, and why?
One of the standout trends for me was about the cloud – not the view from previous years that it should be the answer to everything, but that the industry is now starting to recognise that the cloud is just another way of deploying technology.
While it can benefit some applications and workflows it is not appropriate everywhere.
Customers recognise the value of software-defined solutions which can be deployed flexibly – either on premise, in a private data centre, or in the public cloud, but the choice of where and how to deploy is being considered more wisely than in the past.
Sometimes this wisdom comes from painful lessons – even if you have independent connections taking different routes to your chosen cloud provider, there is still the chance of a misdirected construction worker cutting you off as happened to a European broadcaster, or even a more sinister deliberate interruption from a foreign actor. Another recognised cloud dilemma is how cloudy do you want your solution to be – cloud-native solutions can bring cost benefits over a “lift and shift” approach, but may make it more difficult to move between cloud providers and provide the same user experience in a hybrid cloud and on-premise solution.
What impact are you seeing those trends having on the media and entertainment industry?
While cloud has moved from the hype phase to the practical use case realisation stage, the other 2023 trend that is currently more hype than reality is AI/ML.
AI offers immediate potential for making lower-value content available to a wider audience (through automated dubbing, subtitling and localisation) but uptake is patchy with many broadcasters and content owners still at the experimental stage and working out how to govern the use of AI responsibly.
Another use case for AI is generating consistent metadata; as content owners look to maximise value from their assets they are moving towards a “data first” approach rather than metadata being seen as an add-on to video and audio. Consistent metadata that can drive recommendation engines, targeted advertising and even linear channel scheduling enhances the value of the IP and using AI could prove to be a cost-effective approach.
Despite the writers’ strike and Elon Musk’s claims, AI will not put people out of jobs – it will ultimately make unaffordable things affordable, giving content owners access to bigger audiences, which is not a bad thing.
How do you see those trends developing further in 2024?
During 2024 I expect broadcasters and content owners to continue taking sensible and appropriate steps with cloud, with a hybrid approach offering a cost-effective solution for many media processing activities. Provision your on-premise infrastructure to handle the steady state 24/7 tasks, but take advantage of the flexibility of cloud for peak demand workloads.
Of course, the user should not be aware of where the software is running – it should be a seamless experience with a single user interface.
Another effective use case for cloud is pop-up channels covering special events, or for quickly testing out a new concept before making a bigger commitment.
In 2024 cloud hype will be gone, and we will be benefitting from the reality of what it can offer to broadcasters and content owners in reducing their operating costs, streamlining their processes and increasing flexibility and speed in testing concepts or meeting new consumer demands around content delivery.
For AI, I believe 2024 will be more a blend of hype and reality – less hype and more implementations, but the industrial revolution that AI represents for the media industry will continue for years, if not decades. National broadcasters will start to realise cost savings through deploying AI in existing workflows, mainly around localisation and access services, but more radical steps like automated promo creation and editing will still seem some way off.
Do you expect to see any new trends within the industry in 2024, and what will they be?
Whilst the crystal ball may be less cloudy, it is difficult to predict what the next hyped topic will be – every year the media industry seems to find something new to talk about. Often it is around technology, as improving the consumer experience historically has relied on improvements in technology, but now technology is not the limiting factor. The biggest challenge is the skills to evaluate, deploy and use it.
When you have no legacy you can build something disruptive, taking full advantage of the latest technology – Netflix is a classic example of this. Traditional broadcasters have multiple technology generations and layers of process and operational practice that are not easy to change, and it is hard to introduce new skills into that framework. How to effectively manoeuvre from legacy to the latest technology given the budget constraints faced by most public broadcasters is an enormous shift – I would love to see trends to drive and assist in that process, even though it doesn’t have the same appeal as a disruptive technology like AI.
