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Hacking Hell

There was a really scary story in the news a week or two ago. In the words of Yves Bigot, director-general of TV5 Monde, "we were a couple of hours from having the whole station gone for good". What happened to this highly respected broadcaster was that malicious hackers set out to destroy the network\'s systems. That has to be an alarm call for al...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 07 December 2016

Reducing the costof live production

Prime time ratings are declining. Viewers can now watch their favourite shows plus new programming where and how they want and it customer loyalty is fast becoming a trait of the past. However, one area which is still continues to attract significant audience figures is live TV, particularly live sporting events. For example: it was estimated that...

Submitted by John Smith

Published 26 September 2016

The true benefits of the media factory ideal

As an industry we know that to be successful in the new multi-platform, multi-format environment there are hurdles that broadcasters and other content owners must overcome. These include: the introduction of non-linear offerings, which require different services to be managed in parallel; the reduction of revenues from conventional linear channels,...

Submitted by Julian Fernandez-Campon

Published 22 July 2016

OTT A Multiscreen Environment

Just when pay-TV operators and content providers seemed to be facing an insurmountable number of challenges related to OTT multiscreen delivery, the cloud has emerged as their saving grace. During this Q&A session, Sefy Ariely, EVP Americas at Viaccess-Orca, discusses the advantages of using a complete cloud-based TV Platform as a Service (PaaS) fo...

Submitted by Sefy Ariely

Published 14 June 2016

Meeting the Challenges of Media Assett Management

It's been 20 years since Microsoft founder Bill Gates uttered the words "content is king,\" and never has that statement been more true in media production environments. And yet, ask producers in any high-pressure broadcast operation to name their biggest challenges, and you can bet that managing video assets - finding them, accessing them, and usi...

Submitted by Dave Clack

Published 14 June 2016

Girl Power

This month I was going to write about something important about the future technological platforms of our industry. It would have been incisive, enlightening and enriching. It really would have been. But I have just got completely derailed by the discovery of what I hesitate to call a cultural phenomenon. And while it is almost certain that you all...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 14 June 2016

Leaving Las Vegas

by John Smith Issue 112 - April 2016 What is it about Leaving Las Vegas? I\'ve had the privilege of being a regular visitor and exhibitor at NAB since the early 1980\'s. One memorable occasion, our flight home had been overbooked and so an alternative arrangement was made. We wondered why it would take four hours to fly from Vegas to LA? As the pil...

Submitted by John Smith

Published 25 April 2016

The World Of Risk

by Leighton Chenery Issue 112 - April 2016 For those who follow the World Economic Forum in Davos, the forum provides a fascinating insight into the minds of our top business leaders\' and politicians. Risk was again the topic of the day. From Brexit to China\'s debt issues, from migration to food shortage, oil price to climate change, the discuss...

Submitted by Leighton Chenery

Published 25 April 2016

A virtual world but call it cloud if you must

I prefer not to use the word "cloud". It's useful for eight points in Scrabble, but in broadcasting, if we can still call it that, what you're really describing is storing data on someone else's computer or, on an industrial scale, a whole lot of someone else's computers (data centres). Cloud is just a convenient way of saying "shedload of capacity...

Submitted by Jan Weigner

Published 01 April 2016

The fushion of content and big data

Today's television viewers have a different set of expectations than they did even just a few years ago. The emergence of smartphones, tablets, and other Internet-connected devices and the subsequent improvements in user-experience has driven viewers to want a more engaging, rich, and interactive television experience, just like they get on their m...

Submitted by Yoav Gaziel

Published 01 April 2016

4k is a reality for live production

Some aspects of the broadcast industry move exceedingly quickly; new cameras are launched seemingly daily, shows are commissioned and shows are axed but the overall pace of the industry remains pretty steady. Would it shock you to hear that NHK in Japan first built its own 4K prototype camera in 2003? (At this point, it's worth clarifying that we'r...

Submitted by Liam Laminman

Published 01 April 2016

Gaining insight in a fragmented broadcast world

by Keith Bedford Issue 110 - February 2016 The proliferation of mobile devices, on-demand content and the fragmentation of viewing habits makes the task of measuring TV audiences and the level of audience participation a bigger challenge than ever before. While the ways that consumers' access content may have changed radically, broadcasters' need f...

Submitted by Keith Bedford

Published 16 March 2016

Media asset management: the key to business success

by Kevin Usher Issue 109 - January 2016 Media asset management: the key to business success By Kevin UsherIn todays media environment enterprises are under intense pressure to improve content monetization and maximize operational efficiency. Theyre expected to do moreto create more content for more platforms and deliver it to more peopleso they hav...

Submitted by Kevin Usher

Published 21 January 2016

The 4K Conundrum

by Eric Achtmann Issue 108 - December 2015 2015 has confirmed once more that 4K remains the TV industrys Holy Grail. While 4K TV screens are becoming more affordable and Netflix, Amazon Prime and even YouTube are beginning to offer some 4K content, mass adoption is still sluggish as the increases in bandwidth required for distribution make 4K busin...

Submitted by Eric Achtmann

Published 17 December 2015

The Evolution of Cloud

with Micky Edwards Issue 108 - Decmeber 2015 Television was originally created to be a mass communication platform. Yet, over the last few years, it is becoming increasingly hyperlocal. There are several reasons the television industry is transitioning from a broadcast to narrowcast schematic. One is monetization. According to Borrell Associates, l...

Submitted by Micky Edwards

Published 15 December 2015