- May 8, 2020
Nahuel Villegas, VP of Grass Valley, Caribbean and Latin America highlighted the company’s efforts in IP workflows and remote production, and analyzed the current state of the industry, glimpsing a future outlook.
Consumer habits are changing the world of video, with high-quality images and a captivating, immersive display that is now expected as standard. “To meet the demand of content-hungry consumers, broadcasters and content producers must simultaneously produce and offer live coverage across linear, online and social media platforms for multiple regions. As we look to technology trends in 2020, providing the public with the best possible experience will certainly continue to be a key factor, ”said Nahuel Villegas , VP of Grass Valley, Caribbean and Latin America.
Regarding the Transition to IP, the Grass Valley executive maintains that it is still in process. “In today’s changing media landscape, operators, broadcasters, and content owners must implement teams and workflows that are flexible, scalable, reconfigurable, and future-proof. The IP meets all these requirements. Infrastructures and IP workflows offer the scalability and agility required for higher resolutions (UHD or UHD HDR), are more responsive than SDI environments, and can also handle cross-platform concurrent delivery and social media integration. This, in turn, opens new and innovative ways of working that are essential for successful and future-ready media companies, ”he explained.
2019 meant a year of changes in the operations of the main broadcasters in the Latin American region. Villegas commented that many of them implemented IP infrastructures based on open standards and native IP workflows in new and optimized facilities. “ Globo TV , the leader in television in Brazil, deployed a wide series of Grass Valley IP solutions for its new Exhibition Center in São Paulo, Brazil. The station adopted a “Spine and leaf” topology , relying on Orbit Monitoring and ControlGrass Valley for orchestration of the complete solution. The new complex currently broadcasts two main Globo TV channels and will help meet the demand for more content on an increasingly diverse range of platforms, “he said first.
In addition, Globo TV chose Grass Valley’s open standards-based IP infrastructure solutions for the three (3) studios of its new MG4 complex in Rio de Janeiro and the renovation of two (2) studios of the MG1 complex, benefiting from a faster configuration, greater operational efficiencies, centralized network management and a greater capacity to produce more dramatic and entertainment content, ”he added.
The Mexican network Televisa also relied on Grass Valley solutions to support its migration from SDI to a fully IP infrastructure, increasing its ability to offer the best live sports content to more viewers. “ Televisa’s new IP infrastructure allows the station to receive and distribute signals in any format and resolution in all its facilities and easily extend the migration to IP in any of them. The system provides not only flexibility and efficiency but also a unified control system that allows granular network management to efficiently manage capacity and maximize content delivery to more viewers, “explained Villegas.
“Televisa leaned towards Grass Valley solutions for being based on open standards, comprising a wide range of products including GV Convergent, GV Node & iQUCP, Sirius 800 IP router, MasterPiece IP for master control and also Orbit for network monitoring and signals, Kaleido IP Multiviewers, IPVU gateways, reference modules and various control panels, “he added.
Record TV was another of the Brazilian channels that chose Grass Valley’s IP solutions to upgrade its broadcast production capacity. “As a result, the Brazilian broadcaster takes advantage of the benefits of greater scalability, flexibility and the transition to an OPEX-based operating model,” explained Villegas.
Regarding the development of the industry landscape, the executive stated: “As the accelerated momentum behind IP continues to grow, the industry is also looking beyond a simple IP I / O approach, and we are beginning to move towards internal IP processing, or what is known as a “full raster”. For Grass Valley , as a pioneer in driving the industry transition to IP, this is a very high priority for the company. In 2020, the workflow will become even more IP-centric, reducing the number of times a signal must be converted to optimize workflow efficiency. ”
The industry transition to open standards-based IP is moving toward remote / home workflows, bringing most of the infrastructure for live event production to a centralized or home studio. “Remote or home production workflows enable production teams to work smarter, with greater agility and flexibility, while reducing costs by up to 30%. Additionally, remote production models allow the same team to cover more live events in one day. The centralization of production also enables broadcasters and production companies to have the best operators and publishers to keep production values consistently high, “explained Villegas.
“During 2020, remote production will continue to evolve as solutions are developed that allow for a greater distribution of resources. Today, it is not unusual to have a small production team on-site at an event, while an additional team remains at a fixed location receiving signals and producing the live program. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic we are going through at this very moment forces us to think and work in this way. And all those who have already migrated to IP today are taking a wide advantage of it, “added the executive.
Regarding the future of the industry, Villegas commented that the next logical step is what Grass ValleyIt will be distributed remote production, where more locations and more flexible workflows can be used thanks to high-bandwidth connectivity. “A technical director will be able to work in multiple live events, occurring in different countries, in a single day, and in addition, the team of live professionals will be able to cover multiple games without having to travel. This is the evolution that we expect and it is not a very distant future. Distributed production will also take sustainable workflows to a new level, and provide greater well-being to production personnel by reducing travel, long periods on the road and time away from home, in addition to taking advantage of the consistency of the flow of work that offers better productions. An average game of soccer or rugby,
Lastly, he concluded: “Certainly and beyond the pandemic we are going through, we look forward to many more initiatives and movement over the next 12 months as we continue to demonstrate our leadership in IP workflows through continued collaboration with our Large very loyal Grass Valley customer base . In 2020, we will continue to provide the highest quality production solutions on the market and add efficiency to your workflows. As a company, we have also committed to collaboration as a strategic priority. This approach offers unique benefits for us and our partners, but most importantly: for our customers. By partnering with other providers through the Grass Valley Technology Alliance (GVTA) To create certified interoperable solutions that complement our already broad offering of solutions, we make it easy for customers. ”
Original article credit – Newsline Report
