Streaming Forum Preview: Broadcaster Streaming Strategies
At Streaming Forum in London next month, I’ll be moderating a session that will take a broad look at how broadcasters are engaging (and in some cases converging) with telecom operators to create the best possible viewing experiences for end users. We will discuss scaling issues and strategies, and how these players are working together to ensure that IP-delivered video is an equal—and on occasion better—partner to the traditional technologies that have historically been the bedrock of the broadcasters’ market proposition.
We’ve got a great lineup of panelists: Rory McVicar, Global Product Lead, CDN & Vyvx - CenturyLink; Ian Parr, Director, TV & Broadband Infrastructure - BT; and Jeff Webb, Principal Streaming Architect - Sky.
It is always an honour to moderate Streaming Media panels, and this one will be NO exception. Taking a broad topic with our key thought leaders in the sector, we can expect to dig into the strategic thinking of these significant and heavyweight actors in the industry.
It is interesting that all three organisations blur the lines between broadcaster and telecoms operator and it is on this very topic we will start the discussion. We will look at how they are themselves adopting IP-based/streaming technologies across the spectrum, and dig into some of their use cases.
Jeff will have warmed us up with the immediately-preceding keynote, “Streaming in the Land of Containers” (see this series of articles for a preview of some of what he’ll discuss) I am sure that will provide some framework for discussion throughout the day, and he will be able to give us some insight from Sky as it has expanded from satellite broadcaster into something that resembles a telecoms operator.
Ian will be able to contribute a counterpoint as he explains how BT has changed its business over the years and expanded from telecoms to broadcaster, and I am sure BT's success with BT Vision will form a key part of the discussion.
Rory looks after Vyvx and the CenturyLink (formerly Level 3) CDN services in EMEA, and so he will be able to provide the perspective of a Tier 1 global network operator who ensures that broadcasts from around the world can be delivered to audiences in extremely distributed areas.
We will investigate the cultural, commercial and technical challenges that they have seen over the past years and look into the crystal ball to explore what is around the corner.
As always, I will take a few moments to focus on virtualisation and orchestration and explore how traditionally slow-moving, appliance-based broadcasters are now keeping up with some of the profound changes that modern telecoms and IT infrastructure are offering up to the ever-changing audience demands.
We will be touching on what the panel sees as next-generation video encoding and the ranges of target devices and methods of reaching their audiences that they are preparing for.
And of course we will ensure there is some space for some question and answers from the floor. I'm really excited about the whole event, and for me this panel is going to be a great springboard for a variety of conversations and topics throughout the day.
Join us!