Is Covid-19 forcing broadcasters to embrace IP and cloud?

Why are more and more broadcasters embracing IP and cloud and what is the most important codec for the future of broadcast video? The answers can be found in Haivision’s second annual Broadcast IP Transformation Report.

Key highlights from the survey include:

• COVID-19 has accelerated IP adoption: The pandemic has significantly impacted how broadcasters are operating. While the transition towards IP was already in progress, 71% of those polled stated that COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption process within their organisations. 

• Remote production is on the rise: When covering live events, broadcasters are increasingly turning to remote production. Nearly four in 10 of those surveyed (39%) are employing remote production or remote integration model (REMI) workflows.

Almost half of those surveyed (46%) also indicated that REMI/at-home technology is one of the most important trends for their organisation in the future. 

• Enabling remote collaboration is a key challenge: When asked about their biggest challenges, 42% of broadcast professionals cited transitioning to IP, closely followed by enabling remote collaboration at 41%. 

• SRT, the Secure Reliable Transport open source protocol originally designed by Haivision to optimise streaming performance across unpredictable networks like the internet, is now being employed by 53% of broadcasters. 

• HEVC adoption is fuelled by 4K over IP and cloud. With over 50% of respondents already using the HEVC video compression standard and more broadcasters are planning to do so this year, HEVC is clearly becoming the most important codec for the future of broadcast video, said Haivision. This is largely due to the growing importance of 4K UHD video contribution over IP and the cloud.

“2020 brought about considerable changes to the broadcast landscape, forcing broadcasters to be more creative and innovative than ever,” said Peter Maag, Chief Commercial Officer & EVP Strategic Partnerships, Haivision.

“These survey results have provided us with interesting datapoints into how broadcasters are migrating their workflows to incorporate modern technologies including 4K and HEVC, IP networking, and cloud services.”

Haivision, a global provider of mission-critical, real-time video streaming and networking solutions, surveyed its broadcast customers and prospects to gain clearer insights into what challenges they face, the technologies they are currently using, and their thoughts on the next technologies that will impact the industry.

More than 500 broadcast and video streaming professionals worldwide participated in the survey, representing organisations from national television networks to OTT and broadcast services as well as production studios.  The full report can be found online at: https://www.haivision.com/resources/white-paper/broadcast-ip-transformation-report/