Broadcast Lite?..or is it?

Tier 2 and tertiary Sports/ live events have, over the years, developed huge expertise in developing a digital window with which to engage their audiences

..because they had to.

Without shiny broadcast TV deals and the allure of top tier sporting prowess to attract the masses (in other words revenue), the less glitzy Sports protagonists or secondary age / sex components of the top tier have made the best out of attracting their audience through a mixture of dedicated OTT and Social engagement, but with production and playout standards often well below their richer brethren. 'Good enough is Good Enough' the mantra of choice.

Like all iceberg shaped conundrums, Sport media is no different - with the lower tiers offering a much larger and more diverse content pool that the pinnacle at the top - but with far lower budget constraints to work around; Live events: up to the secondary leagues or lower age profiles of major tier 1 sports have not warranted the full OB-Gallery-Broadcast playout of their more elevated kin. The audience size collectively though .. is simply VAST..and poorly monetised!

The reasoning is simple and in reality fiscally astute. The creation of premium content for large audiences can cost more simply because it creates more revenue.

So thats that then.

But.. does that have to be the case?

Production houses globally vie for contracts for all manner of Sports and events. The global and highly technical capacity required naturally begets multinational operators - IMG Studios, Gravity EMG (a non de plume for now) , Sunset+Vine, Whisper, - all first class protagonists providing the very best in class technology and expertise and thus a very premium production offering.

These companies, and others like them, are the gears that drive the international broadcast engine of every game, match, competition, round, race and tournament we devour on TV. The model - and sheer expense of the Broadcast tech & services they deploy has naturally made the Sporting top table the fundamental market in which they operate - the very top tier Sports and large events the requirement to monetise these fundamentally huge investments into profits.

So whats the point?

Cloud technology has opened up a new opportunity for the larger part of the iceberg. a Cloud native operation can, with unmatched agility and a much reduced cost, now provide an end to end contribution, production and playout solution that looks much more akin to a Top tier production - but at a vastly reduced financial and workflow impact.

Where's the catch? There isn't one! - but it remains a 'horses for courses' world.

For the tier 1 operator; Cloud solutions, heavily reliant on software based technology; are still relatively nascent in comparison to OBs and Galleries; and to be fair, do not necessarily have all the bells and whistles of the hardware they seek to replace....yet. Its getting closer all the time - with each iteration of a Cloud product in fact. AI and automation filling in some of the holes and then some.

The opined knowledge of 'old' Broadcast tech being a refined solution and trusted resource wont disappear overnight under pressure from the new Cloud based upstarts. And thats understandable! -The heavy investment needs to pay back before transitioning to any new world order. For some in Broadcast - its more than just a transition to a new tech -As they have an entire business philosophy based on a process to develop a resource and sweat it until it needs a refresh. These strategies are so well versed and entrenched that time is the sole arbiter of when they will be literally 'forced' to embrace the new.

But, and as we are seeing now, little by little, the tide is on the turn.

The classification of content being entrusted to the new Cloud paradigm is increasing in its complexity and importance to the rights owner. Amagi ran a parallel playout for last years Superbowl for a large US Broadcast group - The HDR feed - treated that time out as a failover redundancy - was seamlessly deployed: suggesting a step up in seniority next time around perhaps?

Most modern Broadcast set ups now are already a Hybrid hardware and Cloud software solution. The world had to go remote for COVID 19- and that residual has grown into normalcy for the industry. The cost savings in shipping staff and kit around the globe make it a no brainer alone, but also a hugely positive tick in that environmental box.

So whats the win for the Production professionals?

What will be a key driver in the transition from the physical to the virtual - is that the cost savings in an end to end Cloud solution opens up a whole new lump of the client iceberg to Production companies- the cost savings mean don't just mean cheaper content - but the ability to get paid for creating far far more of it. The clients may be worth less, but the margins remain the same or improved.

The production company sales teams now enabled to sell in solutions to smaller events, more fiscally challenged clients. As with all icebergs - there are a LOT more of them to sell to.

As for the Sports / clients themselves; they now get access to far greater quality content - and can with agility, and with a top production partner, answer the audience brief across every TV platform - from phone screen to big screen.

The new Cloud Production tech offers a step up into the OB world of professionally vision mixed programming, advanced graphics, slomo and replay, DSK branding and multiple language commentary outputs - a far greater production value than before.

To summarise

Cloud tech in Broadcast is a Win : Win : Win.

The Production houses can widen the book of clients exponentially by embracing a tier 2 solution and have a foot in both camps whilst the transition to Cloud evolves

The tier 2 Sports clients can step up into the world of premium Broadcast grade output - across every channel

The viewers/ fans get to see more, better quality and more engaging content -created in an agile fashion

The continual fragmentation of audience and changing viewing habits suggest Broadcasters and rights owners needs to cover a lot of bases these days. Its a well known fact that 'platform' specific content is optimal

Each viewing channel / device has its own audience grouping - each with predominant age and gender profiles

Variation on a theme is no longer a musical reference - and the capacity to create the optimal viewer experience across all devices is key- as much as the capability to create content shaped by the viewer themselves. Companies like Dizplai are rocking some very interesting graphical conduits between audience and show. Stickier. More interesting- and as easy as 123 in the cloud.

With the technology and third party relationships Amagi have in play, we can now manage feed contribution, create the live production, integrate audience participation, define a highly automated global playout and deliver a Broadcast Grade product to anyone, anywhere.

No OB - No hardware gallery.