Producing with a software-based platform: the future of broadcast with AMPP (Grass Valley)

Software-based workflows, enabled by platforms such as Agile Media Production Platform (AMPP) of Grass Valley, come to offer greater agility, flexibility and efficiency in the most demanding audiovisual and entertainment productions.

Media and entertainment productions have long depended on dedicated hardware solutions. Although dedicated hardware, especially cameras and to some extent video switchers, continues to prevail, many aspects of production are increasingly shifting towards solutions based on software, these are executed in COTS servers, use servicios en la nube pública o empleen un hybrid approach que combine ambos.

Es cierto que las cameras siempre requerirán hardware conectado, pero la evolución de la nueva generación de sistemas de producción arroja eficiencias operativas hasta ahora inimaginables. Con respecto a la catchment, estas soluciones pueden integrarse perfectamente con flujos de trabajo basados en software, mientras que si ampliamos la mirada al resto de production processes podemos descubrir que todos ellos pueden gestionarse mediante servicios de software.

De hecho, algunas aplicaciones, como la gestión de contenidos y la emisión, ya se han convertido en prácticas estándar que se ofrecen a través del software como servicio (SaaS). As an example, the broadcast world's growing commitment to remote productions, processes facilitated by the approximation software-based. These approaches allow production teams to manage events from rooms control located in production centers, which reduces the need for transport personnel and equipment to different places.

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Flexibility, adaptation and versatility: pillars of AMPP

When you begin planning any production project, it is time to take decisions. The choice and definition of the workflow will depend on factors such as the infrastructure, budget, quality requirements and specific features of the event. Software-based productions allow adapting each production to its own characteristics in an entire exercise of elasticity, but these services must be connected or function in a unified platform with a consistent user interface.

In this regard, the Platform AMPP of Grass Valley is widely considered one of the software-based production solutions further advanced and complete. Able to meet the demands of the most demanding media and entertainment productions, in recent years it has become a fundamental technology for all types of productions, both in facilities fixed premises as in remote production applications.

AMPP offers a Exceptional flexibility and scalability, allowing production teams adapt quickly to changing conditions, scale up or down as necessary and integrate seamlessly with existing systems. This adaptability makes it suitable for both large-scale events and smaller productions.

Its versatility is demonstrated in numerous case studies that show the success of its deployment in a wide range of scenarios, including remote productions with low bandwidth. These examples provide valuable information to discover how to optimize the workflows in various environments, ensuring high quality emissions despite the infrastructure limitations.

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LegaPro: cloud-based remote production with AMPP

Las cloud-based production solutions, combined with production tools based on software, offer significant improvements in flexibility and efficiency. A good example is the production of LegaPro, the third Italian football league, by the production company NVP. In just a few weeks, NVP established a production cloud-based that enabled the production of more than 1,100 matches in a period of 10 months.

This great success illustrates how cloud technology can overcome the limitations of IP connections traditional high-performance technologies, providing scalable and cost-effective remote production solutions. In fact, LegaPro only requires a few sources It's SRT para transmitir a la nube, lo que ayuda a mantener manejable el ancho de banda IP necesario en cada estadio de fútbol.

A medida que aumente el número de fuentes de señal, el requisito de ancho de banda crecerá proporcionalmente, lo que puede limitar la utilidad en algunas ubicaciones; no obstante, el uso de una plataforma basada en software como AMPP permitirá adaptar y escalar cada producción de forma sencilla. Y, entre tanto, la productora se beneficiará de los costes operativos que brinda el poder adaptar tus sistemas de producción a los requisitos del siempre impredecible día a día.

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RallyX: producción remota con procesamiento in situ

Traditionally, limiting IP bandwidth required a large scale deployment that required significant production and distribution costs of the signals. Platforms like AMPP offer a new alternative, as the Scandinavian company saw first-hand DMC with the production of races RallyX.

In previous editions, this racing series was produced with mobile units and large production equipment, who moved to different locations throughout northern and central Europe. Starting this year, and thanks to Grass Valley's AMPP software-based platform, the DMC team has been able to deploy a software-based production solution using COTS servers for signal processing at the filming location.

This approach allows only high-quality monitoring signal and control data to be transferred to the production centers in Stockholm and Oslo, where all users except camera operators are located. In general, Multiscreen construction can be customized according to needs and for each operating position. To the centralize signal processing in the origin, the number of signs input does not affect the necessary IP bandwidth for connection with production centers. In this way, DMC can perform remote production from a location with limited IP bandwidth while allowing the use of multiple signal sources; in particular, uncompressed, low latency camera sources.

This innovative workflow minimizes production costs and significantly reduces the environmental footprint. However, there is a slight disadvantage compared to cloud-based processing or on-site processing at the production center, as it requires more processing equipment at the event site and offers slightly reduced scalability. The advantages of some lower bandwidth requirements y un menor impacto ambiental hacen de este enfoque una opción convincente para las producciones remotas modernas.

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Procesamiento in situ, procesamiento en la nube o un enfoque híbrido: ventajas e inconvenientes

A la hora de abordar una production, un primer enfoque, derivado de los modelos más tradicionales del broadcast, sería gestionar toda la producción y emisión de múltiples programas utilizando exclusivamente aplicaciones de software in hardware local. En comparación con las soluciones tradicionales de hardware propietario, este enfoque ofrece a los propietarios unos costes de inversión significativamente más bajos and one flexibilidad muy mejorada.

Aprovechando las ventajas de este enfoque basado en software, y sumándole la versatilidad y capacidades de plataformas como AMPP, aquellos flujos de trabajo que utilizan aplicaciones de software procesadas in situ con servidores COTS pueden activar aplicaciones adicionales según sea necesario sin incurrir en costes adicionales. Basta con que el hardware existente tenga la capacidad suficiente.

However, si se superan los límites de procesamiento del hardware, puede ser necesario instalar hardware adicional o externalizar funciones específicas a la nube. Este enfoque permite un equilibrio personalizable between the procesamiento en las instalaciones y en la nube. Maximizing in-house processing can provide cost advantages for constant production requirements, while cloud resources can be used to manage demand peaks.

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AMPP: reimagining production with the versatility of software

Solutions based on software y microservices that they use AMPP have been used since many years and offer important advantages as to cost savings, flexibility and reduced environmental footprint, offering a wide variety of options adapted to all types of specific needs.

In the field of remote productions, solutions based on software are opening new possibilities to achieve optimal results según las necesidades específicas de cada producción. En particular, para los flujos de trabajo que implican el procesamiento de señales en COTS servers ubicados en el lugar de celebración, pueden resultar una solución eficaz.

La existencia de plataformas como AMPP allow replantear el enfoque de la producción. Ya no son necesarios flujos de trabajo completamente diferentes basados en hardware dedicado. Ahora (y en el futuro) el software pasará a tener un rol protagónico, otorgando una gran variedad de opciones fácilmente adaptadas a las necesidades específicas, aportando flexibility y ahorrando tiempo, costes y quebraderos de cabeza.

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