The Roadmap of Movistar Plus+: Critical Vision and an IP future

José Luis García Cabrera, technical director of Movistar Plus+, anticipates the next roadmap of the Telefónica company, highlighting its position in relation to concepts such as IP, Edge, cloud, remote production or augmented reality.

García Cabrera, known for its position as COO of TSA (telephone audiovisual services), began at the beginning of the year a New challenge in which to deposit your knowledge and experience in the Broadcast industry: the Technical Directorate of Movistar Plus+. Without neglecting his work in the Integrative Company, he assumed additional responsibilities With an ambitious opportunity on the horizon: Design the sheet of TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION ROUTE of television.

The Great technological modernization Of its sets in three songs, with its corresponding migration to high definition, it began in 2016. Since then, regardless of Telefónica's strategy with respect to its platform as a global service, Movistar Plus+ has undertaken different renovations aimed at modernizing the execution of their formats, consolidating their remote production flows for ACB and embrace all the possibilities of the Augmented and extended reality.

The closest future is presented full of unknown. Is it time to bet on an IP infrastructure, as agents such as RTVE, Telemadrid or RTPA have addressed? Should this evolution be developed in the current facilities of three songs, whose contract ends in 2030, or should they be centralized in the telephone district? Will the UHD become a standard or efforts should be noticed to consolidate HD HDR? Should you return to the scenery with physical supports or continue creating virtual universes to bring imaginative worlds to television?

García Cabrera shares in this conversation many of his approaches to these and other themes. On many occasions, you will not have an answer completely defined, given the global uncertainty of a market that continues to seek answers incessably. In others, it offers interesting Reflections that allow to glimpse the future of Movistar Plus+, in which the original production of CONTENTS, the commitment to the deport and the entertainment formats They will continue to exercise dynamic pillars his Linear emission and supply on demand.

Is Movistar Plus+ a television at the forefront?

Movistar Plus+, either by the avant -garde value of productions that since their beginnings looked at European and American referents, the good work of the team of professionals that compose it, or for the benefit of having the support of TSA, has undertaken all kinds of types of Technological improvements To give a first level offer to their subscribers and, more recently, subscribers: “Movistar Plus+ is still a Content platform with an important part of own production and content aggregation ”, Translate García Cabrera.

“For Five years we count with Seven fixed pavilions linked and we produce the meetings from two controls located in our facilities of Three songs jumping from one location to another, which gives a Very important efficiency And it positions us as early adopters of that technology ”.

This leads to the technical director of Movistar Plus+ to carefully value the status of the service when questioned about whether it is at the “avant -garde” in regards to the Panorama Broadcast state: "The media It goes through different stages, and the state of art in each area is different. ”For García Cabrera, sets or announcers would be in the“ average ”line of production compared to other“ televisions ”. Remote production is a completely different matter:“ For Five years we count with Seven fixed pavilions linked and we produce the meetings from two controls located in our facilities of Three songs jumping from one location to another, which gives a Very important efficiency And it positions us as early adopters of that technology ”.

In the general review of the areas of Movistar Plus+, García Cabrera also stops in everything related to the Content management flows, addressing the INGEST, VERIFICATION, QUALITY CONTROL OR METADATA: "In this area we support ourselves with their own solutions that have a level of integration with the incredibly high operations. Today, this area includes the entire part of Mam, Archive and CMS, useful for our multiplatform distribution." All these solutions have been developed for more than twenty years and have had a “continuous evolutionary” to adapt to the unique needs of the platform, such as agility in the time to market.

And roadmap five years based on three songs ... or not

At the beginning of the year, several digital questions the continuity of the Movistar Plus+ facilities in their facilities in Three songs. The term of the rental period in 2030, together with Telefónica's strategy to unify many of its companies in Telephone District, could rethink the management strategy of the chain technique for the future of television: it is not the same to integrate a IP infrastructure From scratch, that evolve a Modelo sdi. In addition, it would not make sense to invest large quantities in infrastructure that could be transferred in the near future.

Being questioned by this possibility, García Cabrera reflects on his position in Movistar Plus+ and the one that truly is his short -term goal: “One of our main objectives is to be able to generate a roadmap of technological evolution at 5 years of 5 years.per se", This can help" make more efficient processes "and help generate a" greater amount "of" better quality. " arrival of the IP To the technological road map has all the meaning of the world: "Today, when you distribute contained on the platform, we no longer only receive the video and audio, but many other things that accompany the audiovisual material. Technology has to help it," moves, without hesitation in affirming that its evolution "will incorporate that transition to the IP world" due to its relevant advantages in terms of "flexibility of the use of infrastructure."

“One of our main objectives is to be able to generate a roadmap of Technological evolution a level platforma that 5 years seen ”.

For García Cabrera, there is no doubt that the jump is going to occur, but the Fixed space in which this happens is not among its main concerns: "I have also heard rumors. In the end, obviously this is a building that is not owned by Telefónica, which is always subject to contracts," he acknowledges, although he states that, if twenty years later there is a transfer of the current headquarters of three songs, "technology must facilitate that transition process."

The jump to the IP that will undertake later or earlier Movistar Plus+ will be through a model "gradual and hybrid"García Cabrera points out how complex it would be to transform an infrastructure of the size of Movistar Plus+" at the budget level ", in addition to the complexity of internalizing the“ IP learning curve ”in the operation, engineering and maintenance equipment. In short, the jump will be with a“ multi -year and gradual model ”, as other televisions such as Telemadrid, RTVE or Antena 3 have followed.

Renewed prominence for LED screens

The three songs production center has various infrastructure that support much of Movistar Plus +'s own production. Small size sets, destined to the production of content "more aimed at social networks" with a high degree of automatism, alternate with other large sets.

In recent years, Movistar Plus+ has redoubled its efforts to introduce in its spaces monitoring systems To squeeze the possibilities of Augmented and extended reality. Formats like The third time They take advantage of this technology to create immersive spaces of great dimensions, while others use the resources of the augmented reality for the exposure of advanced graphics that interacts with the narrative capabilities of the formats. "From the Technical Directorate, we meet the needs of what you want to produce and the type of content to find the most efficient way to carry it out. Our way of working at the budget level is always the same: we speak with content to understand the programming of the season and analyze what are the technical means necessary to adapt to it."

Regardless of exploring the possibilities of augmented and extended reality, García Cabrera recognizes that the possibility of betting on extended models on other televisions in which “the“ LED takes much more prominence”The Movistar Plus+ technical team considers the union of a large LED screen with a Multicamara production With extended or augmented reality capabilities, it can contribute “value to a differential content”, as they have been able to conclude after attending demonstrations and visits to many of their classmates.

"I think they will be a natural evolution of some of our studies. Sure. I would not know if it will be immediately for 2025, but, at least, the approach will be on the table," he acknowledges García Cabrera, reflecting on some of the challenges that imply these types of supports: “The biggest challenge It is not the technological one, but that of the operation: to continuously feed these large screens and generate content for them, which creates stress in very relevant environments creation equipment. You have to prepare, train the equipment and, before introducing the equipment, be very clear about what you have to put on the other side of the balance. ”

Spending with the UHD?

The UHD chimera on the most traditional Broadcasers, given the limitation of retransmission via DTT due to the capacity of the network and the current state of coding solutions, could have a greater sense on a platform as Movistar Plus+, which largely reaches subscribers via IP. However, and despite production efforts in great events, the consolidation of this format is far from becoming. For sample, decisions such as producing great sporting events such as the Champions League final in HD HDR formed as standard. Where does the industry go? Is it possible that the consolidation of the UHD in all its splendor, with acronyms such as HDR, 4K or WCG, later than expected to occur?

"Does the cost that a production and one Management chain of one media in UHD? In the end, the conclusion comes to Be that yes, but not for all contents. ”

García Cabrera still does not have a "clear vision" of where Movistar Plus+ will go in in this regard, although Trees numerous experiences having implemented UHD projects on many broadcasters. Your balance is more content; Recognize the approach value, but also the complexity of these types of developments and how they affect the entire production chain: "It tends to think that the greater the quality of the original content will be better, because all the processes will subsequently leave for a greater quality for their digitalization and compression (...), but it is possible that the cost of what entails that production, postproduction or archive of that gross does not compensate for the final product that we reach the spectator."

“Does the cost that a production and a chain of management of a media In UHD for the product we generate? multidisciption consumption which accompanies the main broadcasts of our country. "In the end, the conclusion is that yes, but not all the contents. However, when in a premium content such as football is decided to take it to an HD HDR model, this tells you where the market is going," he says.

Cloud and Edge: Infinite possibilities

The possible deployment of the cloud has been analyzed in depth for years by the Broadcast industry. The conclusions of a five years ago were shared by the industry within the scope of storage: The potential was latent, but the files of archiving and especially recovery restricted their use to a few agents. At present, the photograph It has changed slightly. The variety of competitors in the market has made slightly more Accessible this type of operations, but where there has really been an important change has been in the Offer of traditionally local processes taken to the cloud: “Cloud models frequently trigger operation costs, especially for Players that already have a constituted platform and start from a legacy. The situation could be different for a new agent who somehow does not have assets and wants to mount everything, starting from scratch and abstracting from technology. ”

“We will start having one cloud production in parallel to the Traditional production And, as we see that quality Obtained and the signal reliability that we obtain in the cloud is comparable to what we obtain traditionally, We will make the change.

In the case of Movistar Plus+, García Cabrera finds a clear utility in Cloud processes such as storage, or “everything related to a potential disaster recovery”:“ KAIDS economic models are already very competitive; The problem is when you try to recover. It also makes sense with pop up channels, where we sometimes raise and go down channels that are very seasonal; The possibility of creating new channels with a very specific temporal horizon and not having to invest in its own infrastructure makes a lot of sense. ”The platform has also had experiences in Remote Production With the "technical means resting in the cloud", which allows "minimally displacing" technical means to the place of production with all the "software or intakes" operating in instances of the cloud.

The use of Edge To continue strengthening even more productions from Cloud services it is also On the table of the Movistar Plus+team. García Cabrera believes that these workflows are "unstoppable", but for now it is wise to wait for a major Development and consolidation of the systems before use in large productions: “When asking the companies themselves if they would do with their production themes cloud the broadcast of a Champions League final, for example, they answer that they still do not. What we do see is that they can help sports a lot in which there is a lower requirement in terms of production capabilities. (…) We will begin having a production of the cloud in parallel to the tradition Obtained and the reliability of the signal that we obtain in the cloud is comparable to what we traditionally obtain, we will make the change.

The uncertainty in costs: cloud and saas

The technical direction of Movistar Plus+ considers that the Cloud technology It could be prepared to be part of a relevant part of its production. In fact, just two years ago, the platform led some satisfactory tests of a customization of a Champions match in the cloud, "in this case with AWS", which "surprised" the team for "level of robustness, signal quality and latency." In any case, to the degree of maturity of technology and to the adaptation of traditional teams to the IT universe, García Cabrera adds another variable of great importance: “The Cost of costs It is not absolute. ”

“When operating in cloud workflows, consumption is generated within the cloud. media It begins to move around the cloud from one place to another, there are counters who have given us certain surprises at the end of the month, ”transfers García Cabrera, who considers that the scalars must evolve to be able to be able to Provide tools that allow to manage that expense in real time: "I will not say in the style of a taximeter, but that allow us to have a very clear visibility of what is the cost related to each of the elements." At that time, it will be much easier to make "that definitive leap."

"Although there is talk of a Payment for use, later it is more diabolical. The cost of that payment for use depends on volume and number of years that one commits to Use of these licenses. In the end, they are taking me to a model almost like the one I had of perpetuity, but with some much higher costs, positions that become variables. ”

The uncertainty in turnover It also extends in the universe SaaS, an increasingly widespread bet by historical companies of the Broadcast ecosystem and that sometimes show a “small print” that It is not favorable for the Broadcaster: "If they ask me, I would say that they are models in which we are losing." García Cabrera provides more details: “The periods in which a BORADAST infrastructure is amortized are always greater than five years. Today, I do not know any manufacturer whose payment model for licenses is exceeding three years. That is, at three years, one has already paid the equivalent of what had been the cost of acquisition in traditional property of that infrastructure and licenses. General, customers think like that the whole rolled of support and evolutionary, the accounts are not equivalent to those of the cost in property ”.

Given this situation, the technical director of Movistar Plus+ would bet on a hybrid model in which the client acquired a base to use recurrently to be owned, varied with a “flexible and creative model” by the manufacturers. The current one is far from approaching García Cabrera's vision: "Although there is talk of a payment for use, it is subsequently more perverse. The cost of that payment per use depends on the volume and number of years that one is committed to the use of these licenses. In the end, they are taking me to a model almost like the one I had of perpetuality, but with much higher costs, positions that become variable." Can you reverse this situation?: "It is a model from which we will not be able to escape. Many manufacturers are ceasing to evolve the products that one had in perpetuity, and what they are promoting are models of transformation of perpetual licenses to use of use. Today we think that the business model is clearly negative confronting it with the current one."

The Movistar Plus+ of the future: ar, xr, cloud, edge, ia ...

Movistar Plus+ is Little by little drawing your future, pending the maturity of the Technologies, studying how the deployment of each solution can help your daily operation, and contributing a critical vision About the industry. In this way, trends are not inevitable transitions, but opportunities To be examined in detail.

Once this analysis is completed, or not, they will become part of the roadmap previously anticipated by García Cabrera. They remain unknown For clearing, although the Movistar Plus+ technology team identifies certainties that will form its short -term future: the company will deepen "in studies with everything that has to do with"extended and augmented reality”; Will undertake the transformation to IP, since the technology "is mature and very reliable"; will use the cloud For processes such as disaster recovery or pop-up channels "As hyperscalers are improving Your business models for the average ”, and will continue in his Concept tests with the Edge, since it can "help remote production and minimize latencies."

How could it be otherwise, the IA It will also be part of the future of Movistar Plus+. To the transcription, indexation or automatic summaries, processes already established in the house, new tools will be added as accessories to the “current processes”. “We will do it, with total security, in the next years”,, García Cabrera Judgment.

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez