VSN- The ultimate guide to bring your media management to the cloud

WHITE PAPER

The ultimate guide to bring your Media Management to the Cloud

During the last decade, the concept of what Cloud is has gone from being a mere technical fantasy to become one of the most mentioned buzzwords in any industry, many times in the same phrase with the word “revolution�.

During the last decade we have seen a true and unstoppable technological change that has moved great quantities of information, services and workflows from traditional network and local computers, used at

home or at work, to servers only accessible through the Internet.

This huge change has altered our daily life, together with the irruption of smartphones and second screens. In the industry, new forms of work organization and internal structuration have been born along with more resource optimization and productivity.

The Broadcast and Media & Entertainment has not been immune to this changes, and its workflows have suffered a true revolution

that has taken media management to a level of efficiency never seen before, opening new interesting options, such as collaborative work among users in different locations in real time.

With this White Paper we are trying to put light on the concept of Cloud, of what it means for citizens and companies of the XXI Century and on how it is changing the way we work in the Broadcast and Media & Entertainment sectors.

INTRODUCTION

CONTENT 0.

Introducción

1.

What is Cloud?

2. Top 5 advantages of Cloud 3.

How has the Cloud changed the M&E industry?

4. New collaborative workflows on Cloud 5. One final thought 6.

The expert’s opinion: SaaS and different types of Cloud

1

What is Cloud?

Let’s start with a first and basic definition of what Cloud is: software

of business organization and collaborative workflows in which costs are

and services operating on and through the Internet. This means that

reduced and productivity skyrockets.

its basic infrastructure doesn’t run on the user’s devices, but on servers that are accessible through the Web. For example, Gmail, Facebook or Instagram are popular services that run on Cloud. In a corporate level, a good example is Salesforce, a

Accessible from browser

Customer Relation Manager (CRM) platform.

To protect this servers, it is necessary to deploy a series of adequate

Cloud services

physical and atmospherical conditions, that are reproduced in the datacenters or data processing centers, which rooms are perfectly customized to protect them, access to data and to the whole infrastructure.

Hosted in Data Centers

Therefore, without big investments in hardware, complex structures or maintenance, cloud services offer the chance of running on flexible, modular and low-cost work structures.

This favourable circumstances have given birth to a new concept:

Low investment

Maintenance

Hardware

Advantages for the user

Software as a Service (SaaS). This service is offered in form of application on the Internet, generally under a monthly or annual fee, and it doesn’t require any kind of deployment from the client. That is

(Software as a Service)

why, with a simple browser, it is possible to enjoy the service from the very first moment it is paid for.

This allows the offered services to be accessible from any location in the world with an Internet connection, opening a world of new possibilities

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The revolution of Cloud technology benefits the user

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Types of Cloud

PUBLIC CLOUD

PRIVATE CLOUD

HYBRID CLOUD

Cloud structures managed by third party

The cloud structure is installed and managed

Its structure mixes elements from Private

companies that are destined to a multiplicity

by a single company for its exclusive

and Public to adapt to the requirement of

of uses and users, depending on their needs.

use, including the whole investment in

every case.

Some of the most well-known are Microsoft

Azure or Amazon Web Services that, for a certain fee, allow to deploy services on their infrastructure.

the hardware and software equipments necessary for its daily work. In exchange, the company obtains more control and security over its data and internal workflows, including the benefits of a public cloud but

Therefore, a local storage for deep archive can be synchronized with a public cloud where data that needs to be consulted frequently can be stored.

with an increased cost, since it normally requires of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to enable access.

THE CASE OF ADOBE SYSTEMS Adobe is a global American company, known for its revolutionary programs for editing images and video, such as Photoshop速 or Premiere速, among others that today are widely used in the industry. In June 2013, Adobe announced the sales of its program through the Cloud with

Adobe Creative Cloud, an application that includes its main products that users can download after subscribing to a monthly or yearly fee and that is hosted in Amazon Web Services. This step ahead from traditional software distribution to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model is one of the most famous in the industry, for its huge size and the success it achieved.

VSN White Paper | The ultimate guide to bring your Media Management to the Cloud

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2

Top five advantages of Cloud

Infrastructures based on Cloud present, therefore, a series of very important advantages regarding traditional systems that can be summarized as follows:

1

Flexibility Cloud architectures are lighter than traditional ones, running on third-party servers and avoiding costly deployment processes. This allows for great flexibility when starting to use the system or to expand it in case it is necessary if the company grows or new needs arise.

With a simple browser it is possible to access the service, something that allows to work at all times with just an Internet connection.

2

Low maintenance costs Not needing heavy hardware structures in the client’s office, maintenance costs are dramatically reduced, avoiding electricity bills, technical reparations and climatization expenses to keep the equipment in good shape. Also, the company’s IT team will need much less time for maintaining the structure, while this liberated time can be used to work on the organization’s strategy, in innovation policies or in helping other departments, increasing productivity of the company as a whole.

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3

Security Data stored in the Cloud is safe from the dangers associated to physical formats, such as overuse, accidents, robberies, fire, accidental deletions, natural disasters, losses, etc.

In the Cloud, it is possible to access data from any place, no matter what happens to your machines or physical equipment, giving much more security to data.

4

Work from any place Thanks to the Cloud, working from anywhere, at any time and under any circumstance is a reality.

Only with a browser and an Internet connection, users can take part in the company’s internal workflows no matter where they are.

This helps implementing telework and offers more flexibility to employees, but overall allows for collaborative workflows from different offices, cities or countries in the same project and in real time.

5

Environmentally friendly The Cloud works totally separated from complex, traditional and physical installations, that require great supplies of electricity and the use of disposable components and related activities that generate great uses of energy (for example, preparation of rooms for its use, temperaturecontrol equipment, etc.). This, apart from the huge monetary saving that companies enjoy, makes also the workplace to be friendly with the environment and to contribute to a sustainable development and use of resources.

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3

How has the Cloud changed the M&E industry?

The last decade has brought together several technological changes

part is in close contact with the rest, and in which the same worker can

around the world, that have totally revolutionised the way we relate,

carry out several jobs that before were out of its reach. For example,

work and organize our free time. And this changes have also arrived to

now the same journalist can write the news texts, edit parts of the

the Broadcast and Media & Entertainment industries.

video, suggest audio adjustments and prepare the graphics.

The main transformation that this sectors have faced can be summarized

This, however, has produced a new environment in which competitiveness

in two trends:

has tighten and production and delivery times are shorter. The industry

The development of the concept of “TV Everywhere�, that has led to many broadcasters letting their audiences access their content through the Internet, both live and on demand, as part of their offered services. This model was launched for the first time in 2009

by Time Warner Cable and soon expanded to the rest of the industry thanks to the popularization of second screens and smart devices with Internet access.

has to face increasing immediateness when publishing content, in a hyper-connected society in which social media, Internet, Video on Demand (VoD) platforms and second screens make the public’s attention volatile.

Companies cannot lose even one second when distributing their content and maneuverability is a luxury.

The migration to IP networks for broadcasting: Traditional analog broadcasting channels are getting obsolete and, after entering the digital world, broadcast through data transmitted on the Internet is slowly becoming the new standard.

On the industry side, these two changes have brought together a profound transformation of the work structures, the processes and the tasks that were traditionally developed by different teams and technics in charge of each part of any given company procedures.

From a workflow divided in departments with very specific and segmented tasks, where communication was not always fluid, we have passed to, as we will see in the next section, to a model in which every

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On the side of the consumer/audience, the arrival of Cloud and the

However, this has been accompanied by a positive effect on the industry:

Internet has changed many things. Behavioural and consumption

audiences are ready to pay for digital content, as long as they can

patterns have dramatically been altered due to the emergence of a

choose how to access it. New monetization forms opened to meet

multitude of new screens and devices. Audience is connected all the

the demand of digital content, and this is a chance that audiovisual

time, and demands to access content from any place and at any time,

companies cannot let go.

something that has forced Broadcast and M&E companies to face shorter production and distribution times. This tendency will grow during the next years, as new generations of digital natives that have barely known the traditional model will enter the market with a new

This huge changes in the way that the industry works and in how audiences behave have created a totally new world for the Broadcast and Media & Entertainment companies.

approach.

CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY

CHANGES IN CONSUMER

New opportunities of monetization

Always connected to the Internet with more control over its decisions

End of the linear, traditional workflow

Multiplicity of screens to consume content

The same user can carry out multiple tasks

Demands immediate access

Delivery times are shortened

Interactivity with social media

Competitiveness rises

Willing to pay for its favourite content

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New collaborative workflows on Cloud with VSNEXPLORER

As we have mentioned before, one of the great advantages of applying

And finally, there is an External Marketing team, that also manages

Cloud to Broadcast and M&E workflows is the chance to develop

social media and the company’s WebTV, that needs to access that

collaborative workflows from any place and at all times. This opens

content from Dubai to share it instantly to Facebook and YouTube.

infinite chances regarding work organization, time and costs reduction and productivity improvements.

PLAYOUT CENTER: BROADCAST

VSNEXPLORER, VSN’s media management solution, is the perfect tool to take advantage of the features that Cloud offers. With Media Asset Management (MAM), Production Asset Management (PAM), Business

CONTENT PUBLISHING

Process Management (BPM) and Business Intelligence (BI) modules, it is capable of managing content, production environments, business processes and the daily data to improve decision making. And, best of all, with all its features on Cloud.

We live in a global world, and many companies now have different offices around the planet. So, let’s imagine an event (for example, sports or the production of a new film) that is taking place in Chile, where content is

CONTENT CREATIONS AND EDITION

CONTENT VALIDATION

starting to be edited.

From that moment, the Editor-in-Chief, from the Production and Validating Center, needs to access that material from Johannesburg in South Africa, since he is in charge of validating it for being broadcasted.

This validated material is then automatically sent to the Playout Center in Barcelona, from where it must be broadcasted as soon as possible, after sending back some extra archive content to Chile in case it is needed.

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Thanks to the Cloud and VSNEXPLORER, these four offices are capable of collaborating at the same time on the same project, with simultaneous access to the content to edit and manage, adding each one its workload to the overall effort and with a real conversation between the members of the teams. This way, a recording made in the other part of the world can reach audiences in record time and without complicated sending and transferring processes that put the project at risk.

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To summarise, Cloud applied to workflows in the Broadcast and Media & Entertainment offer:

Maximise the value of media assets Each member of the team or department can add its contribution in real time and in direct contact with the rest of the departments, improving the quality of content in real time.

An optimal management of the media exchange Being all the content on Cloud, different departments do not need to transfer the material back and forth. Changes are consolidated in real time and it is possible to keep track of each modification at all times.

Decentralized workflows It is not necessary anymore to have all the team concentrated in the same office. Thanks to the Cloud, users in Chile, South Africa, Spain and Dubai can collaborate from their computers in the same project, saving time and increasing efficiency.

Customizable workflows And integration with third-parties: this new type of workflows offer full customization by the end-user, time and load flexibility, opening a wide range optimization chances. Also, being based on Cloud and not in costly hardware installations, its integration with any system is easy and fast, no matter the manufacturer or provider.

Costs reduction and monetization Being accessible only with a web-browser, Cloud-based services offer dramatic savings in the investment, deployment and maintenance. Also, it opens new business opportunities for digital distribution, such as Video on Demand (VoD) or Web TV platforms for smart devices.

VSN White Paper | The ultimate guide to bring your Media Management to the Cloud

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4

New collaborative workflows on Cloud with VSNEXPLORER

NEW BUSINESS MODELS Cloud technology opens the door to new ways of organizing business and work for different sectors, that can now efficiently develop and optimise their business processes for their media needs.

M&E COMPANIES

BROADCAST NETWORKS

CORPORATIONS

Project-related

News Contribution and Distribution

Marketing content repositories

Traceability of the user Monetisation of the content

Video portfolio

Advertising campaigns

Press relations

Shared MAM and Disaster Recovery

CONTENT DISTRIBUTORS

VOD & IPTV PLATFORMS

Marketplace (buyers/subscribers)

Automated content reception, transcoding, QC and publication.

Catalogue of contents Storages management

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Permanent storage

and

temporary

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5

One final thought

The irruption of Cloud in the technological

programmes at any time and from any place.

panorama of the XXI Century has brought

Production and delivery times have been

together

reduced and the sector is becoming more

a

migration

of

services

and

workflows infrastructures from physical

and more competitive.

formats to servers located thousand of kilometres away and accessible only through

Collaborative workflows offered by the Cloud

the Internet. This has had a great impact on

are, however, the perfect answer to the

all industries, that are changing their internal

new challenges that Broadcast and M&E

processes, and that includes the Broadcast

industries are facing. Infinite possibilities

and Media & Entertainment too.

of organization are now offered and they open the door for huge improvements on

The advantages offered by the Cloud are key

productivity and efficiency, while reducing

when developing more efficient workflows:

production times.

low costs of deployment and maintenance, flexibility and modularity when expanding the

The Cloud has brought together new

system and organizing tasks, possibility of

challenges and new opportunities that have

developing internal collaborative workflows

changed the industry forever. Facing those

among users in different cities or countries,

challenges and taking advantage of its

increased file security, exhaustive control of

opportunities is more than ever mandatory

changes and a minor impact on the nature

to achieve success in a sector that never

and the environment.

stops innovating. Those companies that have adapted to the new times have now a crucial

The arrival of Cloud has brought together

competitive advantage and those which have

changes in the audience too, that now is

not are sentenced to be left behind.

always connected to its favourite content and demands to enjoy its series, movies and

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The expert’s opinion: SaaS and different types of Cloud for M&E

by Toni Vilalta, VSN’s Product Manager

Migrating infrastructures and workflows to the Cloud opens up a huge range of offerings and service possibilities, with important savings in resources and low cost deployments and maintenances.

The three models of deployment are widely used nowadays, from the Private mode, in which all the structure is generated by the user, to the Public one, in which third companies take care of the Cloud network (for example, Microsoft, Google or Amazon), not to forget the Hybrid mode, that offer more customised options for

SaaS (Software as a Service): This distribution model allows to offer software under licence with the payment of a fee. The software is stored in the cloud and users access it after paying with their browsers or through the Internet.

content. All of that, with the advantages offered by the cloud: easy distribution,

each concrete case.

For companies operating in the Broadcast

low deployment and maintenance costs,

In the same way, and independently of

and M&E the third option, SaaS, is the

monetization by access, light structure

most interesting to make their content

and direct connection with users.

the type of deployment, there are three services to develop on Cloud: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): A provider hosts all the hardware, software, servers, storage and other components of the infrastructure, and also takes care of the maintenance.

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PaaS (Platform as a Service): This category of cloud computing services allows for a platform that enables users to develop and launch Web Apps without the complexity of creating and keeping an owned infrastructure.

reach audiences. This way, using Cloud technology, an audiovisual company could offer through the Internet a platform to enable access on demand to its content.

However, the other models, Iaas and PaaS, also offer attractive opportunities to broadcasters used to have a great IT team taking care of each one of the complex

In this way, with a simple app or directly through a browser, audiences can connect to a Cloud platform to visualize its favourite

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The expert’s opinion: SaaS and different types of Cloud for M&E por Toni Vilalta, Product Manager de VSN

details that a technical installation poses. That way, being able to “rent” servers, virtualization, etc., allows broadcasters to focus on what they do best: create quality content.

TRADITIONAL IT

IaaS

PaaS

SaaS

Different types of Cloud Services

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VSN HEADQUARTERS EUROPE & AFRICA Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya Ctra. BV-1274 Km.1, 08225, Terrassa, Barcelona (Spain) Tel. (+34) 93 734 99 70 sales@vsn-tv.com

www.vsn-tv.com Copyright Š VSN Video Stream Networks S.L. 2015 All Rights Reserved.

The ultimate guide to bring your Media Management to the Cloud

All the registered and non-registered trademarks and company names contained in this manual are property of their respective owners. No part of this document can be reproduced or translated without previous consent from VSN Video Stream Networks S.L. The information contained in this document has been provided by VSN Video Stream Networks S.L. and has been examined before printing. All functionalities described might change without notice and due to third party systems.