The interest in our recent webinar, ‘Boosting SNG via All-IP Networks’, brought home to the team at ST Engineering iDirect the fact that there is real interest from broadcasters in learning more about the evolution of IP for Outside Broadcasting (OB). The webinar was a great success and attracted a diverse and global audience to pose questions to our equally global panel of speakers. We’d like to thank Jonathan Higgins, Managing Director at Beaconseek (UK); Steve Bretherick, CEO at Telemedia (South Africa); Alex Pimentel, CEO of Casablanca Online (Brazil) and Chris Dredge, Managing Director at Pacific Live Media (Australia) for their insight and knowledge on this evolution in SNG capabilities.
During the webinar, the panel highlighted how the last few years have heralded a significant change in the media and broadcast sector. Applications and technology are evolving, on a variety of different levels. The digitization of the sector has meant that the use of IP is overtaking more traditional means of broadcasting. This is a market in transformation and it’s an exciting time as more and more becomes possible. In the broadcasting world of today, a simple contribution link alone is not sufficient. Operators require access to the Internet, to file transfers, email and newsdesk applications. They need to be flexible and to operate with the many applications they use no matter where they’re needed.
Each panelist took us through their own unique transformation in their region of the world.
Steve Bretherick explained how his company has built their own IP satellite network due to the difficulty of obtaining fiber in hard-to-reach locations. This was driven by the company’s need to cover South African horse racing events. He explained that the racetracks are located outside of metropolitan areas and getting a single part fiber to some of these is difficult, and dual path is almost impossible. Using Newtec Dialog, the team have managed to create their own solution that allows their customers to utilize multiple applications such as VoIP and social media whilst running a video contribution – something that Telemedia’s customers really appreciate.
Alex Pimentel talked about how, over the past five years his company has developed and now offers an IP service with partners such as Intelsat and SES. During last years’ Copa America, Casablanca Online transmitted the opening game from the Morumbi Stadium utilizing Newtec Dialog® and SES’s OU Flex product which combined to offer live video transmission and IP connectivity via satellite to enable both data and video applications.
Chris Dredge discussed how his company, Pacific Live Media, was at the forefront of cellular bonding and experienced the uptake of the technology firsthand. However, the company has now moved into a space where they need guaranteed bandwidth. The content transmitted via cellular bonding ranges from rapid acquisition news through to high value streaming and high value second tier sports but these networks can become contended. As a result, they have seen IP over satellite come back around into the news gathering environment as it brings that level of guarantee that cellular-only cannot provide. He talked about his experiences of covering the Darwin to Adelaide World Solar Challenge race that takes competitors through the most remote areas of Australia.
Do you think IP will replace “conventional” SNG, and if so, how quickly?
Would you like to know what the audience’s response to this poll question was? To find out how they voted and to hear the webinar in full, you can watch the playback here.
In the meantime, our panel of experts are busy looking over the questions they didn’t get time to go through during the webinar itself, and we’ll be following up with their responses next week on Satellite Connection.
To find out more about the evolution of SNG from traditional through to All-IP, read our Boosting SNG via All-IP Networks whitepaper by visiting: https://www.idirect.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/STE-iDirect-Media-Broadcast-Whitepaper-BoostingSNG.pdf