Going Remote: Remote Production, Playout and Broadcasting
It’s true – traditional broadcasting of live content, such as sports events, is getting more and more expensive. At least, it will be if you’re still utilising expensive outside broadcasting (OB) methods. Securing media rights is costly enough – the last thing you want is the expense of sending out a large portion of your broadcasting operation to a different country, with huge technical teams and transmission suites in tow. You need a solution that allows you to produce and playout content from a centralised broadcast location, with low latency and high reliability. With less expense, you’ll be able to focus on providing richer content to your audience. That’s where Remote Playout comes in.
Today, you’ll see more and more broadcasters adopting remote production and playout methods – lowering costs and their carbon footprint. Remote production and playout has been pioneered by large-scale broadcasters like the BBC for a good part of the last decade – but like many technological developments in our industry, it’s now an exceptionally viable option for smaller broadcasting operations. By choosing the right solution, issues such as high latency connections and poor security will have been corrected and minimised through years of advancement in the sector – meaning you can be sure of a robust and seamless production and playout experience, at a low entry cost. Whether you choose IP workflows or a cloud-based solution, you’ll benefit from years of technical progression and innovation.
Due to its cost-effective nature, remote production and playout makes it economically possible to cover a higher number of live events, increasing your long-term revenue potential. Alongside this, it’s more feasible to cover niche events (think up and coming Esports competitions and exhibitions like WePlay! and the LoL championship series) – opening up valuable supplementary avenues to enrich your content offering. When choosing a Remote Playout solution, make sure there is an emphasis on scalability – you’ll need it!
In times of hardship and global pandemics, it’s the broadcasters with remote broadcasting capabilities who will continue to produce and broadcast their content across the world with minimal disruption. More and more radio and television studios have had to close their doors due to the developing COVID-19 pandemic – but the show must go on. We’ve seen inspirational efforts to continue content production and playout from a number of our customers, and we’re proud to be providing them with the solutions and support mechanisms to ensure they will continue doing so.
One such solution is Multi Playout Manager (MPM) from PlayBox Technology. MPM allows multiple operators via a web-based interface with sufficient rights to remotely monitor and control one or multiple AirBox or Channel-in-a-Box (CIAB) channels, schedules, programmes, view media files, etc, and even make live changes to the output when needed. It can be used in a simple or complex network infrastructure complete with full redundant operation, if required by your operation. Your AirBox or CIAB solution can be linked to MPM via a web browser from one or more PCs locally, or from anywhere in the world. Get in touch for a free online demonstration, or to find out more.