Ones to watch: Virtualisation, hybrid cloud and simplified SaaS models lead the way, says Telos

Team Netherlands’ Marlou Van Rhijn finishes first in the Women’s 100m T44 Final during the Rio 2016 Paralympic Athletics competition

By Martin Dyster, VP business development at Telos Alliance.

A year ago, when I wrote a similar article looking ahead to 2024, I confidently predicted a move by manufacturers in the audio and communications markets towards virtualisation. And, like the year before, I confess that I misjudged, to some extent, the pace of change – and in some cases missed the signs completely. (For example, at IBC2024 Riedel made a bold move into new areas of audio technology that very few of us saw coming.) In this year’s article, we’ll look at the market from a greater height, and at the causes and effects of the trends we are seeing.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen a continuation towards product virtualisation, workflow efficiency, and more budget-conscious broadcast solutions. This year’s predictions look at three aspects of these trends and highlights how our market is changing as a result.

Ahead of the curve

First prediction: more and more product virtualisation. At Telos Alliance, we feel that we’ve been ahead of the curve for some time now when it comes to virtualisation of our more traditional solutions. The shift away from proprietary hardware and physical interfaces is a key driver towards the adoption of live cloud production (however you define ‘cloud’).

For instance, replacing the monolithic intercom matrix with a processing engine, server, or as software running on a customer’s own BareMetal which is licensed to deliver a communications system that is scaled to meet your production needs is becoming the norm rather than the exception. Several key manufacturers in the intercom space have made their panels available as software applications for a fraction of the cost of their hardware equivalents. Using consumer devices like the seemingly ubiquitous Elgato Stream Deck is a highly cost-efficient alternative to a several-thousand-dollar physical panel. Coupling this with the ability to replace proprietary beltpacks with widely available consumer devices is defining a new base cost for agile and feature-rich broadcast communications solutions.

In the realm of real-time audio processing, the continued adoption of AoIP standards like SMPTE ST 2110 is fueling the emergence of virtualised processing engines. Moving from the need to install proprietary boxes to support expensive baseband infrastructure simplifies the system architecture and makes it possible to run processing as software on a customer’s own IT hardware.

Staying on track

This year’s second prediction centres around the increasing adoption of SaaS subscriptions and pay-per-use models, and how this can complicate life for customers rather than simplify it, as you might think. The problem lies around the fact that end users looking to integrate cloud solutions from different vendors are now faced with a confusing mix of payment token schemes, credits, monthly subscriptions, annual subscriptions, etc. It has become very difficult for them to rationalise a multi-vendor solution based on multiple pricing models, and to keep track of the costs and licenses.

My belief is that there will be a push to standardise on one or two consumption models across vendors, or on third parties bearing all the different cost models and simplifying the billing aspects. Companies like US-based systems integrator Diversified are looking into models to consolidate best-of-breed manufactured systems and to create unified pricing models. Grass Valley, within its AMPP platform, also supports partners who provide solutions that are not native to GV but are encompassed within the AMPP SaaS cost scheme. The hope is that there will be others acting like a next-generation systems integrator who can give their customers a wide range of virtualised equipment choices while offering a single point of sale and a simplified billing model.

My last prediction concerns the use of ‘pure’ cloud-based platforms. While these often excel at providing operational flexibility, transitioning to the public cloud for 24/7 operations generally results in higher expenses. When analysing the costs associated with ‘on-demand’ and ‘reserved’ hosting, along with ingress and egress fees, it becomes clear that controlling expenses in the public cloud can be quite challenging.

To combat this, we’ve seen a rising popularity of hybrid approaches that combine internal, private computing for everyday operations with public cloud resources to handle peak demand, offering a more balanced and cost-effective strategy. This may be particularly popular with some broadcasters, depending on their consumption pricing model with their cloud service providers. Cost always being a factor, I believe that hybrid solutions will continue to gain popularity as we forge forward in the new year.

 

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