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Damien Montessuit, Senior Vice President, Global Sales at MediaKind, shares his insights into the future of media and entertainment. ediaKind has continually delivered the technology and expertise that has shaped and led the future of global media and entertainment. Its story is rich with innovation – and one of trust. MediaKind is owned 49 per cent by the 2
global telecommunications firm, Ericsson, and 51 per cent by One Equity Partners. Many of the world’s leading service providers, operators, content owners and broadcasters use its platforms and solutions to respond to the demanding expectations of their viewers.
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But whether it’s a major sporting moment or a breaking world news story, MediaKind has always been a catalyst for live television. And although the industry landscape has evolved considerably over the past three decades, MediaKind’s focus remains to deliver highquality live experiences. Only today, it has a remit to inspire and push the boundaries of the streaming era. This future will see live content delivered without any limitations, at the same level as traditional broadcast quality, at scale, to any screen or device, across linear, ondemand and OTT services. That’s no mean feat. The hallmarks of live streaming: high quality, reliability, and scalability Damien Montessuit leads MediaKind’s global sales and business development efforts and is at the forefront of driving his company’s vision for the future of high-quality live experiences. He explains, “Think of any live event you like, anywhere worldwide. All high-value live content bears the same hallmarks; it must adhere to the same standards of high quality, reliability, and scale. Creating content is relatively straightforward, but the challenge is manifestly different when you need to distribute it across different countries, continents, and 5
“We helped deliver stable, high-quality live OTT coverage of the final stages of the UEFA Champions League competition in August 2020. Over one million concurrent streamers watched the final of the competition on SFR’s service – its largest ever OTT audience at that time” networks. The streaming world is another beast altogether. “Ensuring reliable, low latency streaming to large volumes of concurrent traffic is a significant undertaking, even for the most robust networks – every second counts, as audience expectations are resolute. They expect everything to work seamlessly. This was a major consideration when we worked alongside Altice Portugal’s MEO last summer to enable its live OTT coverage of UEFA Euro 2020. One of MEO’s key remits was to significantly reduce end-to-end video latency and ensure a broadcast-quality stream to its viewers across Portugal on Android TV devices. The project was a great success. It followed a similar collaboration with Altice France’s SFR, where we helped deliver stable, high-quality live OTT coverage of the 6
final stages of the UEFA Champions League competition in August 2020. Over one million concurrent streamers watched the final of the competition on SFR’s service – its largest ever OTT audience at that time.” Damien cites how MediaKind’s efforts also extend beyond the world of live sports and into other areas, such as virtual festivals and conference shows. He first refers to a direct-to-consumer (D2C) project between MediaKind and
Microsoft. The two companies initially combined to develop a dynamic video streaming blueprint to deliver the 2020 Chattanooga Film Festival to an audience of 30,000 independent movie lovers. Attendees enjoyed a series of short and fulllength feature films, presentations, and panel discussions, both live and on-demand. Damien adds, “And that became the benchmark for us to develop a unique solution with Microsoft, which saw us enable the first all-
digital CES (Consumer Electronic Show) trade show in January 2021. In just 60 days, we built the entire D2C platform and delivered the live stream to international audiences. This comprised a mixture of exciting live and on-demand media, spanning exhibitor video content, interactive showcases, media events, conference programming and keynote speeches. The live streams were delivered to tens of thousands of concurrent attendees, while more than 100,000 people accessed the CES content on7
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demand for a month following the event.” Stepping into the metaverse Over the last decade, the world has undergone a first wave involving the creative crossing of technologies. Cloud, IP transformation, digital supply chain, new consumer viewing behaviours, social media expansions, mobile, and the proliferation of devices brought multiple concurrent disruptions
providers’ thinking at Mobile World Congress 2022. In past years, the deployment of 4G has contributed to the rise of universal streaming to fuel the pipes. As 5G is deployed, we will see the rise of VR, AR and XR content and experiences built for and in the metaverse. NFTs could have a strong influence on the future of media and entertainment. For example, we could see increased content converted to NFTs on the fly to allow fans to monetise their work on their own terms.
“As technology continues to improve, new technologies emerge, such as hyperscale computing in the cloud, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR), not to mention everything related to blockchain and NFTs” into the market. Damien says this first wave led to a very competitive market in which operators, broadcasters, content owners and sports federations had to react. He explains, “As technology continues to improve, new technologies emerge, such as hyperscale computing in the cloud, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR), not to mention everything related to blockchain and NFTs. It was fascinating to see how AR, VR, XR, digital identities and the metaverse were at the forefront of all the 10
“Cryptocurrency is the foundation that will help fuel trade and digital ownership in the future. And this will help to spark the second wave of this journey to the metaverse. It will blur the lines between the online and offline worlds. To realise this future, all the players in the media and entertainment space must recognise the opportunity to build cloudmaturing technology and deliver a new type of immersive experience that will engage virtual audiences. “The challenge of distributing live events at scale will become even greater when live events are
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generated in the metaverse. We will need to transition from a set of physical cameras in the physical world by embracing the possibility of unlimited sets of virtual cameras in the virtual world. We could see innovations from esports emerge – perhaps the opportunity to blend in commentary or replays ondemand. Video game engines are now powerful enough to generate any player’s perspective from any angle anywhere in a game. This is the direction that MediaKind is now exploring, as we believe this could be the way we experience live events in about 10 years from now.” Damien believes the metaverse has undergone a significant transformation over the past 12 months. He says, “If you think about it, the metaverse is simply an 12
extension and the next evolution of how we already live our lives today through the internet. The streaming era could one day provide the building blocks for what could become a ‘meta-first’ environment, incorporating the power of streaming, cloud technology, mobile connectivity, and the user's needs. When organisations have the talent and resources to establish and develop a streaming world without boundaries, their imaginations can run wild as pioneers.” Although there is no one concept or agreement on what the metaverse will look like in the future, it’s generally considered to take the form of an immersive, digital alternative to the physical world experienced through virtual reality (VR). Here, virtual avatars will come
together to work, pursue hobbies, shop, play games, or simply gather to engage in online communities within a digital space. Damien suggests the primary element that will fuel the immediate future of entertainment will be gaming; “Over the last two decades, we have seen IT merging with telecoms, and telecoms merging with media. Gaming is now the last pillar, and it is well-positioned to build the user experience of tomorrow. The gaming industry knows how to create a virtual world and develop truly interactive immersive experiences.”
Preparing for the next wave of innovation in media and entertainment The entrance of social media, streaming, ecommerce players and mobile manufacturers into the media and entertainment space has generated more stress and pressure on traditional players to adapt. Damien continues, “MediaKind plays a role in helping more traditional players prepare for the next wave of innovation in media and entertainment services. Operators are evolving from aggregator of channels to aggregator of services. They started this transformation
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to the cloud years ago and are more mature than broadcasters or content owners. “I term it ‘Platformisation’. These efforts are well-known by the operators, but very new for broadcasters and content owners. Platformisation is happening at every level in all three of these market segments, but each segment has reached a different level of maturity on their transformation journey to the cloud and digital platforms.”
“When it comes to delivering services to hundreds of millions of devices and generating hundreds of millions of streams per day, MediaKind relies on its strong network of trusted partners” The common denominator for broadcasters and content owners is that they need to familiarise themselves with subscriber management, billing system, commerce engine, digital advertising, user experience, and the additional services on top of these platforms. Damien says that when it comes to delivering services to hundreds of millions of devices and generating 14
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hundreds of millions of streams per day, MediaKind relies on its strong network of trusted partners. He elaborates, “In terms of smart devices, SDMC Technology and iWedia are key partners in enabling Android-based smart devices to consume content and provide the user experience that subscribers expect.” In terms of innovative and advanced technology platforms, Hewlett
Bridge enables us to identify new revenue sources and build impactful monetisation solutions for operators, broadcasters and advertisers within their specific markets. Other partners such as Encore Interactive help us provide operational efficiencies for our largest operators in North America, while system integrators like Lutech assist our customers in deploying our end-to-end solutions offering.”
“When customers evolve to the cloud, their main concern is not to lose control and insights into their services. Through a set of components and technologies, MediaKind addresses this need and proposes Managed Cloud Applications (MCA)” Packard Enterprise (HPE) is vital for MediaKind, as most of the video catchup, start over services and recording services delivered by most of the operators in the world are enabled through HPE technology. Damien adds, “On top of that, we need to have the right ecosystem of partners to address our customers’ needs in terms of system capabilities. Global technology partners like HPE also provide the expertise and resources to deliver complex, high-performing platforms for our projects. Our partnership with Video
MediaKind’s customers are increasingly asking for greater control over their operations as they begin their transformation into the cloud. Damien says, “When customers evolve to the cloud, their main concern is not to lose control and insights into their services. Through a set of components and technologies, MediaKind addresses this need and proposes Managed Cloud Applications (MCA). This approach enables MediaKind to provide the right set of tools and engagement models for operators, broadcasters, content owners 19
and sports federations, so they are comfortable with their operations and can improve their operational efficiency.” The future of entertainment: personalised and interactive
were all managed through our internet connection. It was the first time everyone realised how important internet connections are because they were often our only link to the physical world outside our four walls.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the humankind revolution towards the digital world. Damien explains, “During this tough time when we were all confined in our homes, we needed just two things – a fridge and an internet connection. Work, education, collaboration, entertainment and social interactions
“The pandemic played a huge role in accelerating the transformation to the cloud on both the business and the consumer side, laying the foundations for the mass adoption of technologies that are the first step towards the metaverse. We can see how large corporations like Meta, Microsoft, Epic Games,
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Roblox and Disney heavily invest in the metaverse. All of those names understand the need to prepare for the new meta-first paradigm.” So, how would Damien describe the future of entertainment? He answers, “The future is all about delivering a higher level of interactivity and personalisation into the consumer experience. If you think about any type of industry, it will be about customer engagement and the platformisation of every service in every sector. Companies will have to provide different entry points to their service. Take the sports industry, for example. They need to find new ways to engage
with fans, whether through merchandising initiatives, ticketing, gaming, or social network engagement with the players. And it’s currently a very underutilised area within the sports industry. One of the most interesting findings from MediaKind’s 2021 Sports D2C Forecast, which analysed 40 sports’ rights-holders worldwide, was that just eight per cent reported engaging with some form of advertising on their OTT service. None of the 40 rights holders had an integrated betting service either. These are very big monetisation opportunities.
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“I’m excited to continue working with some of the world’s leading operators, content owners, broadcasters and sports federations alongside our technology partners to help our customers realise the future of media” “Increasingly, I think traditional sports will replicate many elements from esports, particularly in how they blend interactivity, bringing virtual effects into the viewing experience. D2C propositions enable all sports service providers and operators to become orchestrators of their services and open the possibility of new two-way transparent dialogues between brands and consumers. “The aggregation of services is extremely important. Every business is increasingly focused
on aggregating services and providing a single-entry point for customers or fans. The media and entertainment world is at a pivotal juncture in this regard. I’m excited to continue working with some of the world’s leading operators, content owners, broadcasters and sports federations alongside our technology partners to help our customers realise the future of media.” For further information, visit www.mediakind.com 23
www.mediakind.com
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