As the pro-AV and broadcast technology markets increasingly overlap, TVBEurope asked key industry experts to share their thoughts on the points of crossover between the two sectors and how far can convergence between the two go.
Why do you think we’re seeing a convergence between AV and broadcast technology?
Ciaran Doran, ISE 2024 Content Production and Distribution Summit chair: For many years executives in all parts of the traditional ‘Television broadcast’ industry have wondered what to call the new world of broadcasting – is it anycast, every-cast, multi-cast etc? But this was primarily to address the changing way in which consumers receive and watch content. The days of linear television broadcasting are numbered but still a long way off. More recently the shift is not limited to the way content is delivered but how it is created, who creates it, where it is created and who delivers it.
Brands and corporates are becoming broadcasters in their own right and they’re doing it for two reasons in my view,
- technologies that create exciting content in a less costly way are more accessible. Cloud platforms, remote operations, virtual production and the democratisation of talent all play a part in enabling content creation and delivery to be more reachable for corporations.
- Consumer behaviour is shifting. People are looking for companies that have ‘something to say’ rather than just ‘something to sell’. Over the years the best companies have always told a story through their advertising channels but now they’re telling the story of their values, their purpose.
Chris Evans, head of pro video and broadcast /senior market analyst, Futuresource Consulting: There’s always been the opportunity for the AV world to lean on innovations and technology designed for broadcast, however, there’s no denying that the pandemic has been an enormous catalyst for a cultural shift in how we use video in our daily lives. Not just for entertainment but also for communication. As a result, AV users in the corporate, government and education verticals have moved to deploy more video technology at scale across their organisations.
Now a few years down the road, end-users have got to grips with what constitutes good and bad video, and finding the limitations of what they deployed during the pandemic era. As a result, they are equipped with a greater level of knowledge and expertise to think with greater ambition about how they want to improve the way that they use video in the years to come. This is creating opportunities for more advanced broadcast technologies to penetrate the world of AV as production quality becomes a focus.
On the flip side broadcasters and traditional studios are still under pressure to do more with less, so for technology vendors, an expanding addressable market in AV is an attractive opportunity to pursue, whilst maintaining their existing customer base.
Ryan Hansberger, head of product development, Vizrt: I see it as the natural progression of most tech sectors. As time goes on, the price to compete at the highest level decreases, with new technologies becoming more accessible; both in terms of cost and quality. When it comes to product development, to sit on the bleeding edge means a consistent and quick refining of features and processes, and these refinements influence ideas in other related sectors.
If you look at technology in a general sense, a middle-of-the-road GPU from what is built today can achieve and exceed the best version of the same product from three years ago. Because there is more that can be achieved – quicker, better, and easier to access – technology becomes more useful in other settings, and this is especially true in media.
Jessica Lange, marketing director, Guntermann & Drunck: The integration of IP as a transmission standard in AV and broadcasting systems facilitates convergence in addition to ongoing technological developments and changes in user behaviour. This is because IP-based solutions allow for a more flexible and scalable integration of different technologies, enabling efficient production, management, and distribution of content. These aspects play a key role in the increasing convergence of AV and broadcasting technology. In our role as IT infrastructure specialists, we’re witnessing a significant shift towards IP-based systems across industries. Historically, this technology has been the backbone of pro-AV. However, its evolution has brought it to a pivotal point – it’s now swift and reliable enough to fulfil the demands of broadcasters as well. This convergence marks a decisive moment in the technology’s adoption, bridging two previously distinct worlds.
Which areas, in particular, do you see it having the biggest impact?
CD: Virtual production and access to streaming platforms are the two biggest areas of change. While the adoption of NDI plays a real part in facilitating easy integration and distribution it is after all just a facilitator (a good one nevertheless). Camera technology is constantly evolving and the growth of remote operations and drone cameras is enabling more exciting content to be created using different skills from adjacent markets. But virtual production is no longer a buzz, it’s here, ready, operating right now and some of Europe’s biggest players are investing heavily in virtual production studios that open up new business opportunities for them.
CE: Cloud-native products and software as a service will be particularly impactful in enabling end-users from the AV market to gain greater access to broadcast technologies. Not every small to medium enterprise, local government body, or education institution is going to have the budget to build on-premise media creation studios supported by hardware infrastructure due to the high level of capex investment and ongoing total cost of ownership that this would entail. However, dynamic usage-based pricing or subscription-based packages that grant them access to broadcast production tools without needing the technical expertise to configure and maintain the technology stack will allow more organisations to step into the world of creating and broadcasting video.
Not all technology vendors have figured out their product strategy for cloud and SaaS tools yet, and it’s fair to say that broadcast vendors can learn by looking to other industries such as the AV market landscape where opex and “as a service” models are more common and apply learnings made there to their strategy. Moving forward cloud and SaaS do represent an exciting opportunity for more organisations to experiment with broadcast technologies and ultimately punch above their weight in terms of production quality.
RH: The possibilities with remote productions, virtual and AR sets, and graphics will certainly expand. The evolution of graphics has been an amazing journey, and we see it being used in both AV and broadcast. What used to require a massive system with tons of hardware, just a handful of years ago, can be done in the cloud and piped down via HTML – in any kind of live production, for big or small screens.
JL: Virtual productions could have a significant impact, as innovative technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are positioned to create realistic environments and make film productions both more efficient and more creative. Another focus could be on the use of NDI (Network Device Interface). The increased use of digital signals and data transmission has the potential to transform the transmission of audio and video signals over IP networks. This development might optimise production processes in the media industry, especially for live broadcasts and collaboration across different locations.
Should traditional broadcast technology companies be looking at their technology and how it could be used in non-broadcast environments?
CD: I’ve always said that the money moves where the eyeballs move. AV-broadcast (as opposed to Television-broadcast) is growing and corporate CMOs are shifting marketing dollars in the direction of creating and delivering more content straight to the customers with whom they often already have a direct relationship. There may well be so-called “non-broadcast environments’ but I would rephrase this to ‘non-television-broadcast’ environments.
Brands and corporates are making great content to tell the story of their values and purpose – for example, WeTransfer through their digital arts platform “WePresent” was awarded a 2022 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. So to answer the question more directly, Yes!
CE: Absolutely. With the tools available to us now, anyone can be a content creator. Traditional broadcast companies should be open-minded to all vertical markets. Though corporate, government, education, retail, healthcare and medical may all be branded as “non-broadcast” industries, I prefer to think of them now as “non-traditional” broadcast customers. The are an increasing number of “content-rich” organisations that are building a library of video assets, whether those be lecture recordings, training material or product demonstrations. Effectively distributing and repurposing these assets as their libraries grow will increasingly force non-traditional customers to think like broadcasters. The important thing to remember here is that communications need to be tailored to each different vertical, there will not necessarily be one-size-fits-all marketing messages that resonate with both corporate customers and government customers so brands will need to pay close attention to what does and doesn’t resonate with each group.
RH: It would depend on the companies’ goals. Large broadcasters have a loyal audience and a significant reach globally, but on the other hand, there are multiple regional broadcasters that also focus on the benefits of video streaming.
People on social media and streaming platforms create content from a small studio in their garage, or a corner of their apartment, with a simple green screen and graphics to enhance their production. That technology started in broadcast, but is now obtainable (and more importantly, effectively usable) by smaller productions, with lower budgets and fewer producers.
JL: It is prudent for traditional broadcast technology companies to review their technologies and consider alternative applications outside traditional broadcasting. These considerations offer several benefits, including diversification of revenue streams, the opportunity to innovate in different industries such as education, healthcare and corporate communications, adaptation to changing markets, increased competitiveness through unique solutions and potential technology transfer for synergies between different sectors.
However, it is important that companies carefully analyse how their technologies can be integrated into other industries. This often requires customisation, training and possibly collaboration with industry experts to ensure success in new application areas.
You can read more about this in the January/February 2024 issue of TVBEurope.
