2020 review and future trends

This year, broadcasters and content owners have had to adapt quickly to a new reality, and embracing rapidly evolving technologies has been key to keeping services running. Given the challenges this year, the need to stay in line with customers’ requirements has been more important than ever for vendors. Providing reliable solutions that minimize disruption with a cost-efficient price tag has been the demand of 2020. Facing significant challenges, including travel restrictions, on-site limitations, and cashflow reductions, has meant accelerating toward remote production models and cloud-based platforms, which were already on the horizon. But the reality is that this year has given providers a glimpse into the future of the content production landscape – by bringing software-centric approaches into focus – and that future is now.

Going remote. Shifting to at-home remote models has been fundamental to creating and distributing live video entertainment throughout the pandemic. Now more than ever, broadcasters and content producers need to ensure that they can keep viewers connected and informed, no matter where their teams are working. Leveraging cloud-based production platforms has helped navigate the challenges of operating under the new reality of social distancing and provided efficiencies in production and cost savings in times where broadcasters needed it most. The priority with remote production models is allowing operators to work in distributed locations while still creating first-class content. Grass Valley is committed to leading with innovation in IP and cloud to help our customers prepare for our industry’s long-term future as it migrates to a software-based operation.

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on Grass Valley’s strengths in remote production and the new norml of socially distanced working. We are helping our customers navigate through travel restrictions and reduced staffing numbers at live venues through innovations liake our cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) Agile Media Processing Platform (GV AMPP), which we launched earlier this year. This solution unlocks the power of elastic compute helping customers easily transition to public, data center or hybrid infrastructures that are future-ready and ultra-nimble. GV AMPP allows production teams to flexibly create customizable workflows, with a variety of apps such as multiviewers, router panels, test signal generators, switchers, graphics renderers, clip players, and recorders—all of which can quickly be deployed to support a wide range of workflows. Built on a unique microservices architecture based on five core technologies—fabric, timing, connectivity, identity, and streaming – GV AMPP enables elastic media services and directly addresses many of the issues that complicate common IP and cloud deployments, delivering seamless network connectivity, timing, and ultra-low latency.

This year, we also launched the all-IP LDX 100 camera platform which connects directly to a network without the need for a separate base station. As the market shifts more and more to remote workflows, we continue to lead the way in developing solutions that meet our customers’ needs, including fully-connected IP workflows.

Taking the next step. Broadcasters and content providers are beginning to see the positive impacts of software-centric approaches, and pay-as-you-go structures are providing vital flexibility and nimbleness. Take live sports, for example, the ability to spin up for live fixtures and back down post-event can be a game-changer, especially as CapEx becomes less sustainable. Cloud-based production platforms have become a hot commodity this year, be becoming a vital component in keeping global content on-air.

Looking into 2021, we will continue to innovate and provide our customers with the workflows and technology they need to keep content on-air and keep consumers entertained. This year, we have made significant strides highlighting our commitment to a virtualized, cloud-based future, and Grass Valley has been pioneering the transition to broadcast IP and remote production for years. In APAC, we will deliver on this commitment to a cloud-based future by growing our GV AMPP customer and managed service provider base, and increasing our market share around our 4K single stream IP solutions in live production.