Will non-broadcast production revolutionize broadcasting?

IP, Ultra High Definition, the impact of virtual reality or the rise of new businesses such as eSports are the focus of the fourteenth edition of the European Digital Forum in Lucca (Italy), with Panorama Audiovisual as a media partner.

The Tuscan town of Lucca (Italy) is once again the setting on June 15 and 16 for the European Digital Forum in which numerous professionals debate the future of the media. This fourteenth edition, organized by Comunicare Digitale and in which Panorama Audiovisual is a media partner, is focused on aspects such as new forms of production and their consequent infrastructures for IP-based environments, Ultra High Definition, the impact of virtual reality or the rise of new businesses such as eSports.

Mark Harrison, general director of the Digital Production Partnership (DPP), opened this edition of the Forum by reflecting on whether non-broadcast production will revolutionize broadcasting. Harrison has analyzed the growing relationship between video and the Internet and has highlighted that new challenges such as IP production or the distribution of over-the-top (OTT) content will involve changes in the operational infrastructure with the aim of bringing maximum quality to a greater number of users.

The primacy of video on the Internet has been made clear by stating that in 2019, 80-90% of Internet traffic will be video, which will mean one million minutes of video per second.

On the other hand, he highlighted that talking about media is much more than broadcast. “Today, more content is produced for non-broadcast distribution than for broadcast,” he commented. Harrison has been convinced that the distance between the idea and its execution will become increasingly shorter. “85% of producers today already feel pressured to produce content faster than in the past,” he added.

In his opinion, the relationship between process and creation will be more direct, production will be under a “service led” concept facilitated by new relationships of trust and speed will be essential with a more direct relationship with data. “Production and platform will be closer every day and that will mean new networks and studios,” he concluded.

The impact of video on the Internet

Ian Munford, director of Product Marketing, Media Solutions at Akamai, for his part, focused his intervention at this European Digital Forum on the revolution that the Internet represents for the distribution of content. Munford has analyzed the fragmentation of the market that is occurring, while pointing out that the audience is growing, stating that “more content is consumed every day and with better viewing quality.” He has also highlighted the enormous diversity of devices and platforms that provide access to content with relevant cases such as the Roku platform that already offers more than 3,300 channels.

It is in this last aspect where content discovery plays a crucial role. According to a study by DigitalSmiths, 53% of users acknowledge that they sometimes find something to watch, 22.8% never and 11.1% always (Source DigitalSmiths). “Artificial intelligence will play a crucial role in improving the user experience,” he noted. Munford concluded his speech by paraphrasing Albert Einstein when he stated that we cannot solve problems using the same tools with which we create those same problems.

The rise of eSports

In this edition of this professional meeting, a session dedicated to emerging eSports has been included for the first time. Francisco Asensi, an expert in innovation in content, digital business and new models of digital entertainment, OTT and video, began his presentation by assuring that "eSports cannot be considered niche entertainment. It is already massive in terms of audience and business as demonstrated by the 6 billion euros that were invested in 2016."

He also recalled that Lan Parties such as Campus Party or Euskal Encounter opened a gap with the participation of thousands of fans. Today, with the popularization of online games and the creation of leagues related to the main video games, professional teams are appearing that are making eSports a source of entertainment and attracting top-level audiences.

Asensi has given as an example of the impact on massive audiences the case of Twitch (acquired by Amazon for 970 million) in which more than one hundred million users a month follow in streaming how the best teams and users from around the world play. With a consumption of 35% in mobility, half of the users already watch more than twenty hours of eSports per week, which means 1.46 hours per day.

Asensi has also commented on the impact that the entry of social networks such as Facebook as well as telcos will have on this business. Movistar, Orange and Vodafone are already some of the operators that are taking the rise of eSports very seriously.

Drawing a roadmap

Hans Hoffman (UER and SMPPTE) has analyzed the network and data roadmap in broadcast installations in the face of the coming revolution. “Platforms and technologies are changing in terms of user experience, distribution, workflows, data, cloud, IP infrastructures and cybersecurity,” he commented. He has also stated that "IP provides a great advantage with respect to what has been seen so far and that is that it is agnostic regarding the content it carries. In addition, open systems reduce the risk of infrastructure becoming prematurely obsolete." “Scalability allows us to grow as necessary, with new workflows,” he stated.

Hoffman has highlighted standardization by highlighting the role played by the Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM), an initiative promoted by the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU/EBU), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF). The JT-NM has drawn up a roadmap between now and 2020 in which it establishes the changes that the transition from SDI to IP will entail, establishing the foundations to gain efficiency and flexibility in workflows and highlighting automated resource management for a more flexible and scalable infrastructure.

El director de Fundamentos de Media y Tecnología de producción de la UER ha abordado las ventajas que supondrá la especificación SMPTE ST 2100 (actualmente en desarrollo) para el desarrollo de media sobre redes IP gestionadas. También ha afirmado que “al migrar hacia entornos de Internet la seguridad se convertirá en un factor clave”. Sus consejos para este mundo cambiante son tres: adquirir conocimiento “in house”; experimentar con pilotos sobre IP, UHD, VR…; y crear equipos mixtos de profesionales especializados en broadcast e IT.

After concluding his presentation, Hoffman moderated a round table that debated all these issues and in which Massimo Bertolotti (Sky Italia), Andy Hickman (Eurofins), Patrick Palmer (Adobe), Chris Bobotis (Mettle) and Mark Harrison (DPP) participated.

The first day of the European Digital Forum concluded with a round table moderated by Benito Mantio, president of Ultra HD Forum Italia, in which representatives from manufacturers such as Dolby, Silvel, Samsung, LG and Sony, among others, participated.