Networks are dramatically changing the Broadcast industry, but how does this technology apply to live production studios? What are the advantages and pitfalls, and how can network-enabled robotic studios integrate with wider corporate networks?
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE IN
THE DIGITAL STUDIO AGE
Networks are everywhere already, aren’t they?
Networks are not exactly new; they’ve been around in one way or another since the US-funded ARPANET in 1969. Ethernet was introduced commercially in 1980 and became a standard in 1983.
To say that networks have been transformative is a monumental understatement. But in broadcasting, and particularly in broadcast studios, they’ve played only a minor role until recently.
In broadcast and across the entire spectrum of content production, digital technology has dramatically changed how we create, process, store and distribute media. Both the consumer and professional worlds have embraced digital media; it’s familiar territory now, but despite these two revolutions (networks and digital media), studio equipment has been largely unaffected by networks.
Networks have played a small role in studios for over a decade, but it’s only now, with broader compatibility and compliance, that the benefits of network-based studio production are becoming widespread.
Merging networks and TV production
Until recently, a typical broadcast facility infrastructure didn’t include studio equipment, which had somehow evolved on its own “island” of technology. It’s not hard to see why: studios are seen primarily as creative places, not technical, despite having some of the most sophisticated technology in the entire facility. Another reason was that early robot networks used an industrial variant of Ethernet, which wasn’t compatible with corporate networks. Even when the robot networks became compliant, isolation from the corporate world was already established.
This is all changing…
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