Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Investing in Technology at IBC 2010

By IBC 2010
posted Jun 24, 2010, 11:19

Today�s broadcaster or large production house relies as much, if not more, on technology from the IT world as from conventional broadcasters.

This is simply a result of the increased processing power now available from standard computers, networks and disks. Where once we needed specialist broadcast equipment just to be able to deliver video and audio smoothly and seamlessly, now much of it can be handled by commodity IT products, albeit running application-specific software and hardware modifications.

That has meant a changed role for the broadcast engineering team. Every broadcaster had to have an in-house technical team because it was the only way to keep the equipment going. Now the requirement is for IT and networking skills as much as it is for replacing and aligning video heads.

Designing new systems is more challenging, too. Where once you only had to know if it was analogue video or SDI on the co-ax cable, now you have to consider video codecs and bitrates, wrappers and metadata, format flipping and proxies.

Making an investment in new technology means considering all these options and more. It also means considering the lifetime costs of the system: how will you manage upgrades and new software releases? How will you specify system availability, how will you measure against that specification, and what management and support will be needed to achieve it?

For many organisations, the logical step is to set out the requirements for the new system not as a set of technical items but as a set of outcomes. You could say, in effect, that this is what you want to do � which might be creating a multi-platform playout infrastructure or running an eight camera studio � and you really do not much care how the supplier achieves it, provided they hit the availability targets.

And given that big step change in the industry, it may be time to consider another. Traditionally the chief engineer decided what equipment was required, drew up a capital expenditure justification, and was awarded the budget to go out and buy the kit.

Today, to outright purchase we need to add two more options: lease hire, and outsourcing and managed services. There are technical, operational and commercial benefits in each route, and there is probably no one perfect solution for any business.

To help you through this maze, IBC has set up a special conference session. Three specialists will be on hand, each giving their arguments in favour of one of the acquisition options. Then the audience will get a chance to challenge the panellists, to vote on specific questions, and to draw their own conclusions on which investment route is right for them.

Arrid Hellgren, director of resources at NRK in Norway, joins well-known consultants Neil Dormand and Chris Daubney to fire the debate. The session starts at 14.00 on Sunday 12 September.

Visit IBC 2010 website at www.ibc.org