Subscribe to NewscastStudio for the latest news, project case studies and product announcements in broadcast technology, creative design and engineering delivered to your inbox.
The broadcast industry is shifting its tech stack, driven by the adoption of IP and remote production technologies. These advancements reshape how facilities approach content creation, from workflows to infrastructure design.
This installment of our Industry Insights roundtable focuses on the evolution of remote production and its role in creating scalable, flexible, and cost-effective broadcast workflows. Topics include latency management, cloud integration, and strategies for future-proofing facilities. Participants also explore how IP-based systems enhance collaboration, improve scalability, and address evolving technical support needs.
As IP technology continues to influence the industry, broadcasters face both opportunities and challenges. This discussion offers valuable insights for navigating the shift and optimizing facility operations in a rapidly changing landscape.
Adam Salkin, senior solutions architect, Diversified: There is now much less distinction between studio and remote content creation. From a systems perspective, there are only small differences between an IP camera in a studio 100 feet away from the control room and one that is 100 miles away.
David Edwards, product manager, Net Insight: Not only does remote production allow production teams to be more efficient in how they use and deploy skilled staff, but it also enables the production of richer and more immersive content. With so many live camera feeds available, it become possible to create multiple workflows targeting multiple platforms. For example, additional content produced for OTT delivery can engage new viewers in new ways and create new revenue streams.
Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear: Remote production has transformed workflows by enabling collaboration across geographically distributed teams, significantly reducing operational costs and delivering event contribution efficiency & sustainability. Appear's X Platform ensures secure and reliable media transport for remote workflows, maintaining quality and enabling faster turnaround times.
Tawfiq Rahman, VP, system design and engineering, Broadcast Management Group: Remote production has fundamentally changed the way broadcast facilities approach content creation by shifting the physical and logistical aspects of production away from traditional in-studio environments and enabling more flexible, distributed workflows. This transformation has brought numerous benefits, but also presents new challenges that facilities must address.
Greg Macchia, VP, business development, live production, Riedel Communications: As the industry transitions through technological advancements, the emphasis on remote productions continues to grow and reshape the mindset of creatives. Traditional, hardware-heavy workflows with large on-site teams have moved towards scalable, flexible, software-based solutions that enable remote collaboration to complete the same tasks more efficiently. While this shift presents challenges such as reliable connectivity, bandwidth needs, and IT expertise, the growing knowledge in these areas is driving greater scalability and integration into cloud workflows.
Andy Rayner: Appear's solutions use advanced compression technologies like JPEG-XS and optimized network configurations to minimize latency. By implementing edge processing and end-to-end monitoring, we ensure real-time, high-quality delivery for live production scenarios.
David Edwards: Cloud technology allows broadcast operations to scale and flex on demand, which, if designed correctly, can deliver greater financial efficiencies by not locking cash up in equipment lying dormant for significant periods. Wise use of expenditure in core production workflows can unlock financial flexibility to experiment and be more creative. It is a classic example of doing more, for less.
Colin Moran, VP of production products, LTN: Producing mission-critical, live, content-rich programming requires more than simply deploying software in public clouds. By adopting hosted cloud environments, media organizations gain significant advantages beyond remote collaboration and reduced on-premises server management. This strategy enables experimentation with new content formats and programming ideas, providing news and sports content creators the flexibility to quickly launch and retire channels and experiences.
Andy Rayner: Cloud technology complements Appear's platforms by enabling scalable, on-demand access to tools and resources, facilitating remote collaboration. This integration reduces the need for on-premise infrastructure while maintaining secure, high-quality content delivery.
Andy Rayner: Future-proofing involves adopting open standards, scalable technologies, and robust security measures. Continuous innovation, software updates, and staff training ensure broadcasters remain agile in an ever-evolving digital ecosystem.
Tawfiq Rahman: This process involves adopting flexible, scalable, and adaptable infrastructure that can handle future demands, as well as integrating new technologies while maintaining the highest standards of broadcast quality. Future-proofing goes beyond just adopting the latest technology -- it's about ensuring the facility can evolve with industry trends, technological advancements, and changing workflows.
David Edwards: IP and remote production workflows are more adept at flexing to accommodate the time-boxed nature of many events. These IP workflows can easily incorporate cloud technology that can be spun-up on-demand for the duration of an event. Whether on-premise or via an off-premise, third-party provider, the utilization of OPEX-based services can, if designed correctly, deliver a more cost-effective production with less cash locked-up in frequently dormant infrastructure.
Bill Robertson, VP of business development, Digital Alert Systems: Adopting IP interfaces throughout a facility allows task-specific equipment to be located in an area that may be optimized for that device. For example, IP cameras can be placed in remote locations to capture images that may be difficult or impossible for traditional camera operators to locate physically or continuously. The same with Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) decoding equipment, which can be placed at the best possible receive location.
Colin Moran: For media organizations, achieving scalability requires both a strategic business and technological transformation. Shifting to an IP distribution strategy enables rapid deployment of services, greater agility, and the ability to adapt to changing audience demands. Virtualization underpins this scalability, allowing workloads, workflows, and applications to be efficiently distributed across regions or globally as needed.
Tawfiq Rahman: IP and remote workflows significantly improve scalability in broadcasting by providing flexible, cost-efficient, and adaptive solutions that can expand and contract based on production needs. This scalability is critical in an era where broadcast content creation, distribution, and delivery are becoming more dynamic and diverse, especially as the industry transitions to higher resolutions, more channels, and on-demand content.
Greg Macchia: Many of the latest solutions offer software-based platforms that run on non-proprietary, COTS hardware and lend to more cost-effective investments as well as flexibility to offer collaborative, remote productions. These production tools offer high quality content with less people, that can operate remotely and fulfill the greater demand for diverse content to feed multiple delivery platforms.
Adam Salkin: Software defines the signal flow -- this is no longer locked down by wiring. This means, for example, that if a new show is graphics intensive, the graphics operators for this show can be anywhere in the building and are not tied down to a specific studio. Software can automate many tasks and monitor for potential faults.
Hartmut Opfermann, senior solutions architect, Qvest Media: Software solutions are essential to limit the flexibility that comes with IP to an amount that can be handled in the daily operation of the facility. They provide automation for tasks that are executed frequently so that they can be executed as efficiently as possible. They provide assistance for tasks that are executed less frequently, to decrease the chance of errors.
Francesco Scartozzi, VP, sales and business development, broadcast and media group, Matrox Video: Software solutions (more specifically, software-based production environments) are at the heart of the future of many broadcast facilities. Brought on by decreased budgets and a need to leverage non-traditional ways to produce and monetize more live content, broadcasters are turning to generic IT equipment to produce more content (including more versions of the same content which is common in live sports production). Matrox Video has proposed an asynchronous framework called Matrox Origin, creating the foundation for modern broadcast facilities that enables broadcasters to not only use their budgets more efficiently, but scale as small or as large as the given production requires -- all without compromising on the broadcast principles of quality, low latency, robustness, and redundancy.
Sam Craig, VP, consulting, Diversified: Staff must have strong blended skills in not only broadcast production, but also in networking, cybersecurity and cloud services to effectively manage the complexities of remote productions.
Sam Craig: Increased bandwidth, optimized compression techniques and enhanced cloud-based solutions are expected to improve the quality and efficiency of future broadcast facilities output, all while embracing flexible, collaborate workflows. The integration of AI, slick remote production setups and virtual/augmented reality based on an IP backbone will drive innovation and deliver enhanced viewer engagement moving forward.
Sam Craig: IP-based infrastructure enables real-time communication and operations through various tools and platforms, allowing for seamless interaction regardless of location. IP provides centralized access to shared resources and remote production capabilities, enabling simultaneous collaboration on productions and events.
Colin Moran: Media companies benefit from seamless sharing of video, audio, and data streams over a centralized, network-based infrastructure. Teams can access, edit, and manage content in real time from any location. IP also supports low-latency live production, remote workflows, and integration with cloud-based tools, ensuring efficient coordination and faster turnaround times for media projects.
Hartmut Opfermann: The main concern is manageability in conjunction with reliability. While IP systems offer more flexibility, they are also more complex. Software systems are used to manage this complexity, but they also introduce new challenges with regards to reliability. It is a challenge when designing a system to strike the right balance between the needed flexibility and the operational security that results in the desired reliability.
Francesco Scartozzi: What we are hearing from broadcasters worldwide is that their budgets are shrinking, and they are feeling increased pressure to produce and monetize more content than ever before. As broadcast environments make use of generic IT equipment and become more flexible -- enabling broadcasts to scale from a simple podcast type production to a full-scale Olympic-size production -- teams need to have IP and network knowledge. Therefore, there is a conscious shift in the type of talent being brought in to run the new broadcast facilities, and the skills that are being acquired are networking-level skills that can be married with broadcast-specific workflows.