The special IBC 2018 – Broadcast and Media Strategic Analysis Report presented by the IABM identifies key trends driving changes in the broadcast sector moving forward. Multi-platform content delivery and 4K/UHD production/delivery are identified as the two media technology strategic priorities for broadcasters.
According to the IABM, UHD adoption by broadcasters has been slower than expected. Despite the low adoption on the distribution side of the business, consumer adoption of the technology has significantly risen. In the production sector UHD has also become an established format as major OTT players such as Netflix and Amazon now demand content only in UHD. The report shows that 20 per cent of companies have adopted UHD and a further 59 per cent will adopt in one to three years’ time. In addition, it notes that 88 per cent of companies say that HDR is their preferred enhancement.
4K-8K/UHD formats pose extraordinary challenges to MAM technology. With medium / low compression levels, the size of the files grows extraordinarily (several terabytes). Managing files of several terabytes presents multiple disadvantages: it is difficult to maintain the integrity of the content due to data corruption, the movement of giant files is not very scalable.
On the other hand, the technology of 4K-8K/UHD cameras segment during recording in consecutive files of 2-4 GB and/or save each frame in a different file (DPX, RAW).
MAM technology needs to provide an efficient solution for the management, processing and delivery of materials in 4K-8K/UHD formats. MAM functionality should be extended to support video tracks that consist of multiple files. The partial restore of fragments from the timeline is essential to guarantee the scalability of the solution. To minimize the storage size it is necessary that the MAM intelligently manages localized versions, eliminating the duplication of materials.
Tedial has been working on many projects for leading broadcasters and production companies around the globe for several years, that include mostly 4K-8K/UHD content.
One project has enabled a broadcaster to automate the management of materials from fourteen formats/cameras, including RAW 6K. As part of the project, Tedial Evolution MAM (media asset management) has been extended with a new service of Automatic Camera Card Identification and processing/archiving/delivery of camera cards.
Another project has addressed the integral management of IMF materials, storing HDR and SDR masters and their localized versions without redundancy in storage, automatically resolving the problem of late binding during the delivery of the localized versions. For the generation of new localized versions, Evolution MAM has been endowed with a web IMF editor.
An additional project encompasses the management of HD, UHD and 360 contents in sports. The average size of the files is 500GB. This includes live production, post-production and content delivery to linear and non-linear platforms (more than 40 destinations). For 360 content management, the functionality of Evolution MAM has been extended for proxy generation and player 360.
Another project deals with the management of productions in HD and UHD formats. All the materials used in the production of each episode of a series are saved in the MAM, maintaining the hierarchical relationship with the episode. The diversity of video formats (including DPX), images and graphics is extraordinary. The storage system is hybrid with two levels: NAS on premise and second tier on Google cloud. Tedial’s Evolution aSTORM content management solution enables the broadcaster to efficiently automate storage in multisite environments, mixing on premise and cloud storage.
Tedial has been the recipient over three consecutive years of the IABM Game Changer Award (2015-2017) for its advanced solutions for multi-platform distribution (Version Factory), the organization of related content and the orchestration of processing (Evolution MAM), and efficient storage of multi-format and multi-site materials (aSTORM).
___
Tedial
