The cloud allows for revolutionary gains in speed, flexibility, and collaboration, with the industry on a fast track to deploying workflows with Google, Microsoft and Amazon. So it’s little wonder that NAB has been awash with new launches based on cloud technology.
Video workflows for sports, news, film and entertainment are moving rapidly to the cloud and NAB was awash with ways to achieve it.
There are many benefits for doing so but Intel’s Lynn Comp summed it up best in a keynote delivered at NAB.
In future, she said, media will become a building block for a set of “intelligent visual experiences” that go way beyond content streaming to the TV. “We move from a world of passive consumption to something that is much more interactive and immersive. In addition to traditional media processing and delivery, the agile, flexible visual cloud encompasses workloads such as analytics, immersive media, cloud gaming and graphics.”
It’s no coincidence that Intel has termed its cloud service ‘visual cloud’ of which Comp is the general manager but her point is salient.
The intense competition for new SVOD services from AT&T, Disney and Apple versus incumbents Amazon and Netflix will shift from conventional high-end unscripted and drama shows into new immersive storytelling formats such as 360-degree and augmented reality. These will be produced in ever-more visually stunning cinematic ways with higher resolution, HDR and high frame rates.
Netflix’s burgeoning slate of nonlinear programming is a prime example. Bandersnatchshould no longer be considered an experiment, more like a future of entertainment in which programming will be made and delivered in increasingly personalised, contextual and just-in-time ways.
And Cloud? It’s the only way to handle the massive increase in data.
The hostsGoogle, Microsoft and Amazon were everywhere at NAB. You’d be hard pressed to find a vendor in storage, asset management, video acquisition, playout and more which does not have its kit plugged into one or more of them.
Google fielded John Honeycutt, formerly CTO of Discovery and now heading up Google Cloud as vice president of telecommunications, media and entertainment.
Honeycutt has been tasked with getting film studios, distributors, and telcos to shift their workflow to Google Cloud. MediaKind is one customer which has launched Cygnus 360º-as-a-Service for anyone wanting to process live 360º video at up to 8K resolution. “By integrating our products with Google Cloud, we are opening up production in the cloud to new global markets where cost and ease of integration are big factors in deciding which solution or product to choose,” said CEO Angel Ruiz.
Amazon is the biggest media player in this area with more than 60 companies on the NAB show floor demonstrating what they are doing with AWS. It offers facilities the ability to deploy a creative studio in the cloud for VFX, animation, and editing workloads. Machine Learning (Amazon ML) and AWS Elemental Media Services process sports content to extract metadata with activity and object detection for enhanced live sports coverage. Demonstrations at NAB incorporated automated highlight clipping and on-screen graphics creation.
Unlike Amazon and Google, Microsoft wants to be seen as a little more independent. “We’re not in the business of content creation or content ownership,” said Sudheer Sirivara, General Manager, Azure Media. “We want to provide platforms to help content creators and owners achieve more.”
Enhancements to Azure include a new cloud rendering service, content delivery network (CDN) optimisation and more AI capability umbrellaed under its Video Indexer.
Intel is the new kid on the block, using NAB to announce the Open Visual Cloud. Intel described this as an open source project with reference pipelines for CDN transcoding and video ad-insertion on launch with VR, interactive raytracing, and cloud gaming to come.
