The bedrock of remote production is a solid technical partnership

The last year has been disruptive for many media organizations but has reshaped how broadcast and digital teams think about video production. The pandemic forced the industry to adopt workflows where people are sitting at home doing the productions. Luckily, the trend to remote and distributed workflows was already in play and the technology has been used in many large events for years. Now the industry is pivoting fast to use it at a large scale and over many platforms.

Definition of a Distributed workflow

Before moving on, what is a distributed workflow exactly?

A distributed workflow refers to a workflow whose schema is subdivided into several partitions, controlled by different workflow servers. The nature of a distributed workflow allows you to be far more flexible in how people collaborate on different projects. In comparison, in a centralized system, every person is a node working equally within a central hub. In a distributed system, however, every person is potentially both a node and a hub.  

Everyone can contribute to other production repositories, and maintain a public repository in which others can base their work and can contribute to themselves. This provides a vast range of workflow production possibilities and advantages for a company’s project and/or team.

The new landscape

Working remotely has enabled media production teams to leverage the full potential of IP technology, paving the way for innovation in content formats and business models. One of the essential and critical components of this process is to re-evaluate the media value chain from production to content management and distribution. Along the way, this will open up new monetization opportunities. It has allowed broadcasters, media rights holders, and content publishers to try new methods of production, workflows, and services that will bring benefits to the industry beyond the pandemic. 

Leaner at-home productions not only benefit companies financially but go a long way to reducing the environmental impact. The ability to assemble a team, situated anywhere, and collaborate on video production has been a key factor in keeping shows on-air. It has enabled publishers to recruit the right talent and deliver productions at scale without geographical restrictions. For production crews who have previously spent a long time on the road, it has also been positive to be able to spend more time at home and with their families.

Looking at this shift from a helicopter perspective, these phenomena are fluctuations in a broader trend of increasing adoption of cloud, as content producers pursue more flexible production models that allow them to better match revenue with overhead. There has been a huge transformation and acceleration in this space for Tier 2/Tier 3 content with automation and full integration of end-to-end workflows for OTT and social media distribution.

The challenge, and the solution

Transitioning to IP is still everyone’s number one concern. Major media production examples of challenges remain including content security, piracy, reducing broadcast latency, and the cost and complexity of doing the transition reliably and securely.

A solid cloud-based and IP media solution needs to have the ability to be open, interoperable, and secure so that media companies can be flexible, simplify operations and make effective decisions. The future of media and content distribution depends on agility, relevance, and speed. When all these elements are addressed, new opportunities for targeted content and personalized experience will open up.

Contact us for more information about what media production is, and how a technical partnership with Net Insight can help you transition to a cloud-based and IP media solution.