HITS

New cloud-based technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructures are transforming operations, allowing stations, networks and streaming service providers to quickly capitalize on market trends and deliver more content to more platforms, according to executives from Sony, Fox Sports and other companies in the sector.

On Nov. 16, during the webinar “Using the Cloud, AI and IP to Streamline Operations in 2024,” the panel of experts paid particular attention to the impact these technologies have on video production, automation, infrastructures and distribution.

David Rosen, VP of cloud applications and solutions at Sony Electronics Professional Solutions Americas, provided examples of how cloud-based solutions are improving the efficiency and quality of broadcast production workflows.

“A number of customers have begun incorporating cloud directly into their production already,” he told attendees. “This isn’t like a in the future type of thing.”

Rosen explained: “One of the major ways that broadcasters and content producers can achieve efficiency is by having content in a central location as quickly as possible because then it doesn’t matter where either the talent is or where your other resources are, they can be easily interacted with.”

He pointed as an example to the National Hot Rod Association, who, he said “embarked upon a path to have almost all of their production happening in the cloud, obviously with the exception of contributions.”

He explained: “It stops in their truck [and is then] immediately being pushed up into the cloud where their editors have access to it and can begin actually cutting the show immediately. So they’re no longer waiting until the end of the day when content can be sent over. It’s immediately in their hands. By virtue of doing that, they’re also simultaneously building up an archive of content.”

That also touches on issues of quality because “now they’ve got access to not just what they can fit on a hard drive that they could fit in a truck, but they’ve got access to everything they’ve ever produced,” he pointed out. “Part of their path from the cloud was migrating their archive into the cloud. And so now they’ve got all new content flowing in, they’ve got all of their legacy [that includes] decades worth of content that they can pull from and that enables them to produce higher quality and more rich content.”

Later in the session, when asked to address some of the benefits that AI is bringing to production workflows in general, he said: “There’s a huge benefit in being able to leverage AI and [machine learning] (ML) to give us more understanding about the content in and of itself. So, qualitative information, being able to identify similar types of shots.”

He added: “Let’s take a step back. Everybody’s a little bit concerned about AI replacing jobs, etc. I don’t think it does in this area. We’ll keep gen AI out for now. But I think what it does is it makes humans more powerful. It enables them to find the things they’re looking for so they can make better content…. I don’t worry so much about it replacing people’s jobs in this space. Certainly in other areas it may. But I see it as a massive enabler. And marrying the ability to understand not just your own content but what people think about it is a fascinating idea. And I think one that can only help.”

Also speaking during the panel session were Peter Abecassis, director of product management – production workflow at Ross Video; Kevin Callahan, VP of field; operations and engineering at Fox Sports; Geeter Kyrazis, chief strategy officer at swXtch.io; and Anjali Midha, CEO and co-founder of Diesel Labs.