[opendtv] We're More Than Just 'Content Carriers'
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:53:41 -0500
Bill Hayes, Iowa Public TV (which they call, confusingly, IPTV), makes a case
for localism.
Perhaps things are different for PBS, where a few stations nationwide do create
most of the content. But even there, I would expect to have whatever good
content other PBS stations create to be available in my market too. No? At
which point, it's not local anymore. Aside from local news and weather, or
coverage of occasional community fairs or what have you, what is all of this
local content broadcasters expect to create?
Here's a quote that I also wonder about:
"I would not consider 19.4 Mbps designed primarily to reach fixed receivers
with antennas mounted 30 feet above the ground a high volume carrier."
Hmmm. I would certainly consider the aggregate of TV broadcaster channels in a
given market to be "high volume." And never mind the 30' canard.
Bert
------------------------------
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/121514
We're More Than Just 'Content Carriers'
by Bill Hayes, 06.08.2011
JOHNSTON, IOWA-Among the tasks on my to-do list at NAB this year was to take a
look at production automation technology. I have to admit that I am pretty old
school when it comes to thinking about production automation versus say, master
control automation. Master control has long been about running a predefined
sequence of events. Traffic and programming create the event list and master
runs the list in order. If it is done right, it is a simple task to automate.
Now I admit that that is a big "if," but my experience has been that it ends up
being relatively simple. Production, on the other hand, has always had a more
creative and therefore unpredictable side that I think would be much more
challenging to do right. However, I have an open mind so I wanted to see what
was possible in the IPTV operating environment.
CONTENT CREATION
Grass Valley's MediaFUSE automation product suite was among the concepts
showcased at NAB that help broadcasters move beyond being just 'content
carriers.'
The production switcher is the heart of our production system and since we have
a Grass Valley Kalypso, I figured GVG was the best place to start. As luck
would have it, they had a press conference at the beginning of the show and
since the company has just changed hands (again) and is restructuring (again),
I figured I would sit in and hear the corporate strategy before I listened to
the sales pitch on their version of production automation.
So I hid in the back of the room and listened to what they had to say. I have
to admit I am very glad I did because in addition to all of the usual talk
about how they would be overhauling their organization to deal with the rapidly
changing industry, their CEO talked about how they see their customers' needs
and changing attitudes.
I was especially interested when it was noted that a growing segment of their
customers believe that their core business is content creation. I have been
troubled that the vast majority of local stations have become merely "carriers
of content" created by others. I know that my colleagues working at commercial
stations will point to their newscasts as local and they are right, but as a
percentage of the time they are radiating a unique RF signal to their markets,
it is a very small percentage of the total and a considerable portion of the
newscast is content that is being replayed or repurposed.
Think about it! Local television broadcasting started out as the only game in
town and our chief competitors were newspapers and radio. Then came cable,
initially building its infrastructure by taking the local station signals and
delivering them to places where the signals were either terrain shielded or
beyond the reliable coverage of the stations' transmitters. Then cable added
additional services and market fragmentation started. Satellite came in and did
the same thing and now broadband services and wireless carriers are following
suit.
So now in addition to the fragmentation and niche programming channels, these
services and others are available from numerous sources. A carrier of someone
else's content is in a highly commoditized business and unless they are dealing
in volume, the long range business outlook would appear to me to be pretty
bleak. I would not consider 19.4 Mbps designed primarily to reach fixed
receivers with antennas mounted 30 feet above the ground a high volume carrier.
The big national content creators already offer alternate distribution services
via broadband. They are separating their core business-content creation-from
the distribution mechanism. Their struggle right now is in maintaining control
of their content so that it can be properly monetized, but ultimately it will
all be available as a stream or on-demand directly to the consumer's home,
whether via cable, satellite or broadband. If the only difference between the
local station and the network or service it is affiliated with is a few local
newscasts and some local commercials, then the future for many of those local
stations is at best uncertain.
THINK STRATEGICALLY
So what has all of this to do with production automation? For me it means think
about the process strategically, not as a cost savings or efficiency effort. A
long time ago I learned that a business cannot save its way to success. Cost
cutting and increased efficiency can slow and even stop, albeit temporarily,
the fall, but growth requires new products and services.
So as I looked at the GVG Ignite and MediaFUSE automation product suite, I saw
concepts with some potential. I visited a number of other manufacturers with
similar products and capabilities. But as I evaluate production automation for
IPTV, it will be with an eye on how we can create more local content that is
unique to our audience, not just reducing the cost of creating our existing
content. And that will require a more strategic and station-wide analysis, not
just adding some software to our production control room.
Bill Hayes is the director of engineering at Iowa Public Television. He can be
reached via TV Technology.
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