IT: The Backbone Of Any Broadcast Facility (Pt. 1)

Customised software: George Jarrett sets out to identify the 'added value' that systems integrators offer to clients as SOA, virtualisation, cloud computing and UHD start to influence design submissions.

The wider systems integration market is dominated by the likes of IBM, Accenture, Fujitsu and Hitachi, and amongst the broadcast SI specialists the ambition is the same – to enable client companies to solve complex business problems through technical refurbishment and institute any requisite training.
There exists a clearly identifiable set of companies who offer a full SI service, and a whole host of vendors who offer to integrate their own systems, or support their dealers with integration back up. The first group exists on peak and trough turnovers, whilst the second tends to come from the wave of dynamic software companies that have emerged over the past decade, and from the 40 plus group of companies now offering channel-in-a-box (CIAB) systems.
To tell the typical tale of a modern SI specialist, it was best to turn to one that was around when SI was all about connecting best of breed hardware and laying enough copper cable to circumnavigate the moon. Thus it was that I started by talking to TSL, and then called on SIS, Playbox and Broadcast Networks.
"Certainly over the past five years or so there has been dramatic change, and it is now very much based on IT. The added value of a broadcast SI is very much in providing advice and expertise in the area of configuration and setting up systems," said TSL Systems managing director David Phillips.
"There is still an element of best of breed, but a lot of it now is more about the configuration of various manufactured equipment and how it works together. The key is getting the manufacturers to talk to each other so that the software can be customised as appropriate. We are still in the realm where the vast majority of broadcasters, particularly on major installations, do want some elements of customisation. There are always elements of software which require adjustment in order to get the system to work as a whole, and generate an installation that is full of electronic integrity."
Phillips believes this is the area where an SI can add value by helping to hone down those adaptations.
"There absolutely is a certain situation now where the design process is crucial to a project's success. There is more effort required now on the detail of the design than there used to be," he said. "In the old days it was a case of plugging boxes together, and there were only a limited number of ways you could do that. But now with the many and various software products there are different characteristics and there is a great deal of attention required for translating the broadcaster's general operating requirements into a system that delivers everything."

Tangible example – Sky news Arabia
So modern systems integration is about configuring the system and deciding what features are important. In any system you could ultimately have as many features and functions as you want, but are people prepared to pay for all they can have?
"No. An independent SI is well placed to decide on, or help the customer decide which operational characteristics and features are desirable, and which are not essential. That helps to manage the budget. Particularly for the past four years there has been a very strong emphasis on the overall cost of any system," said Phillips. "Writing software is something we are considering and as time progresses it could become a service we offer, but currently we corral suppliers, and we do influence them," he added. "There was a very tangible example in a project we did at Sky News Arabia where we had a number of suppliers including Miranda and ScheduALL. It was a news based project where there was likely to be a limited skill set among the operators – so what was desirable was to increase the level of automation in the tracking of the satellites and the news feeds, and making sure that the right signal from the satellites was routed to the right destination within the facility."
Historically that would have been done by a lot of manual intervention, where the booking system from ScheduALL would dictate that any news feed from say Cairo or Beirut was required at a certain time. The satellites would make sure that the signal was connected and routed correctly, but then once it entered the customer building, how did it get to the right place?
"Some patching, or some configuration of the router traditionally did that, but that was a complex operation because of the multitude of signals coming in," said Phillips. "TSL was the influencer and specifying influence behind a configuration that allowed Miranda to work with ScheduALL and produce an integrated system where the operator hits a single button.
"The system will pick up the signal, and the routing switcher and the control systems send signals to the right points in line with the booking sitting in the ScheduALL system," he added.
"We created this simpler system for Sky News Arabia, acting as the facilitator of the suppliers. With the expertise that TSL and other systems integrators would have, that is the added value that an SI can bring to that type of project."
The Channel-in-a-box suppliers must surely take a share of the SI market, particularly as they offer budget appeal when old channel facilities need replacing, or new channels need to be launched cheaply and tested.
"So far I have not seen the CIAB style of system take over all the SI opportunities out there. It has applications, but is not the be all and end all, and it depends very much on the complexity of the channel operation," said Phillips. "They certainly are easier to set up and do not require the same level of expertise from an SI. We do specify channel-in-a-box systems ourselves, and generally they are lower cost systems, but some times they are not, particularly when it involves a channel of a more reactive nature. This would be where there is a lot of voice overs, a lot of live material, and schedule changes all of the time."
In those situations CIAB isn't really the right solution, and the more traditional approach that has evolved through taming software gives the extra flexibility that channels need. What else is new?
"There is a large element of virtualisation in most playout and media asset systems. Here it is absolutely crucial, and we have responded to that requirement by making sure that we have our own in-house experts in that kind of system specification," said Phillips. "There is a skill set that is missing from many of the broadcasters, which is an IT personnel with an understanding of the large elements that comprise broadcasting.
"That broadcast type of IT is fundamentally different to the office/enterprise type of IT, where lots of small files move around and it doesn't really matter when they arrive at destinations. Broadcast does not involve so many files, but they are big and have to arrive in a deterministic manner," he added.
It is important that you have the right understanding, because IT design is fundamentally different for broadcasting systems. The backbone of any broadcast station is now IT, and usually the enterprise IT has to sit on the same backbone. This introduces different characteristics to the designs required. The same applies to cloud computing.
"Yes, we are starting to see cloud services make a significant impact into the broadcast environment. There is not a universal panacea in terms of a cloud solution at the moment, but we are starting to see the cloud in terms of editing, viewing and desktop access from anywhere in the world," said Phillips.

Read the article in the online edition of RFV here.