Industry Insights: Navigating the future of broadcast workflows

Production workflows are at the heart of delivering high-quality content across diverse platforms. As broadcasters strive to increase efficiency and flexibility, new technologies, automation and hybrid cloud solutions are driving rapid shifts.

In this Industry Insights roundtable, key industry vendors share their perspectives on the latest trends reshaping workflows, from the growing adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 to the new realities of artificial intelligence-driven tools that streamline content production.

Industry Insights: Remote production, automation and efficiency in broadcast workflows

This discussion, the first in a three-part series, explores how these advancements enable broadcasters to adapt to changing demands and better manage resources in a highly competitive market.

Key takeaways from the Industry Insights roundtable

• The adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 IP video is advancing, enabling low-latency, uncompressed workflows that enhance broadcast quality and flexibility.
• Remote production is becoming more common, requiring advanced network connectivity for high-quality, low-latency, and secure broadcasts.
• Hybrid workflows combining cloud and on-premise solutions give broadcasters greater control, efficiency, and adaptability.
• AI-driven tools are automating repetitive tasks, allowing production teams to focus on more creative, value-added work.
• Advances in IP-based and cloud technology are streamlining broadcast production, allowing more distributed, scalable, and cost-effective setups.

What trends are you noticing in broadcast workflows?

Paul Turner, director of product management, AJA Video Systems: The most obvious trend we’re seeing is the rapid adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 IP video. For the longest time, it seemed SMPTE 2110 sat in the shadows, but this year, it came to the forefront as more broadcasters looked to take advantage of the uncompressed, low latency workflows it enables.

Sergio Ammirata, founder and chief scientist at SipRadius: Remote production is fast becoming the norm, even for complex live events. That is calling for very sophisticated network connectivity, demanding the highest standards in quality, reliability, latency and security. 

Andy Hooper, SVP of live products, Ateliere Creative Technologies: The big shift that I am feeling is an increased sense of pragmatism in the industry. Specifically, a broader acceptance that the broadcast platforms and workflows that we deploy increasingly need to align, from a cost and complexity perspective, with the value of the content being created. This is not so much the case for super premium sports and entertainment content (which, as ever, has to be “right first time” and will continue to be produced in a very recognizable way for some time yet).

Sam Peterson, COO, Bitcentral: Beyond the cloud, there’s a clear trend toward hybrid workflows that combine on-premise and cloud solutions to offer flexibility, efficiency, and control. Additionally, broadcasters are adopting automation and AI-powered tools to streamline repetitive tasks and optimize production workflows, enabling teams to focus on higher-value creative work.

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Rick Young, SVP and head of global products, LTN: Broadly, we are seeing a collapsing of media technology product market segments. We are seeing a transformation where segments like live content acquisition, playout, graphics, switching, publishing and delivery are all being combined under one product or solution. This is a new scenario and media companies able to leverage these technology enhancements are best positioned to compete.

Tony Jones, principal technologist, MediaKind: A strong drive towards efficiency, and automation in broadcast workflows. Broadcasters are simplifying processes by adopting AI and ML to streamline tasks like live content tagging and predictive analysis. This reduces time-to-air and improves decision making, enabling smoother content distribution across diverse platforms. All these come together under an umbrella trend for efficient, simplified broadcast production workflows. 

Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations, Blackmagic Design: Beyond the cloud, and back on the ground, advances in streaming and connectivity are dramatically reshaping traditional workflows, as well as the capabilities of and accessibility to OB vans. This trend capitalizes on developments in affordable, professional-grade equipment and software, such as our own URSA Broadcast G2 camera with a built-in hardware streaming engine that supports both RTMP and SRT streaming protocols and ATEM line of live production switchers, which also features a built-in hardware streaming engine, for a more streamlined portable setup, while still maintaining studio-quality broadcasts. By allowing broadcasters the flexibility to send video from remote locations and to convert any stream to high-quality video, these innovations enable broadcasters to access a diverse range of talent globally or interview experts worldwide.

Robert Szabo-Rowe, head of engineering and product management, Tata Comms Media: IP-based video solutions that address broadcast-specific needs — such as video formats, codec standards, and streaming protocols — will be crucial for maintaining quality, optimizing operational performance, and enhancing economic efficiency. Broadcasters find satellite distribution increasingly costly and less accessible as mobile operators use more spectrum for 5G. We can expect broadcasters to accelerate their shift toward IP-based distribution, as the technology has now demonstrated its reliability and fault tolerance while offering greater flexibility.

Chris Clarke, chief revenue officer and co-founder, Cerberus: Broadcasters are trying to identify single points of failure in either their own or their service providers’ workflows. Recent security events and DNS issues have highlighted the fact that reliance on particular vendors, networks and cloud providers doesn’t fit into best practices.

Jay Ganesan, SVP, APAC, Amagi: Some of the significant trends we are seeing include the use of unified cloud workflows for live broadcasts and the integration of AI into cloud-based workflows. Live broadcast productions are adopting cloud workflows to enhance operational efficiency, enable global streaming with greater flexibility, and deliver content with low latency, multi-region redundancy, and high video quality. Meanwhile, AI is significantly transforming broadcast workflows by enhancing scheduling efficiency; enabling data-driven decisions, predictive analytics, and content personalization; and supporting dynamic ad break insertion — ultimately improving viewer engagement and maximizing revenue.

Costa Nikols, strategy advisor for M&E, Telos Alliance: From an audio perspective, we’re seeing a push for higher quality, driven by the simple truth that much of the live content delivered today via broadcast or streaming delivers the same level of audio quality as it has for years. Consumers want the best experience their modern devices can deliver — a richer, more immersive experience. Broadcasters are exploring the adoption of Next Generation Audio (NGA) technologies to enable enhanced, personalized audio that is better than just “good enough” — all while transitioning away from the legacy channel-based audio world toward future-ready, object-based audio workflows.

How are the latest tools and technologies impacting broadcast production workflows?

Paul Turner: With regard to SMPTE ST 2110, broadcast production teams can operate business as usual and make programs as they always have, with no impact on their workflow. The engineering and support staff, however, now have to learn and understand a whole new set of standards to ensure teams can work uninterrupted.

Andy Hooper: We are seeing increasingly large-scale productions use the latest flexible infrastructure techniques. Over time broadcast equipment will become less specialist and of equivalent cost in relation to standard IT equipment. That could drive localized shared services models — with specialist local IT companies providing short turnaround on-premise infrastructure on demand, similar to today’s rental model.

Will Waters, principal product manager, Audinate: Cloud technologies enable broadcasters to scale production systems better and include remote contributors efficiently, providing new options for localized content, talent flexibility, and production efficiencies. This includes allowing on-air talent to produce content from anywhere, integrating localization efforts in real-time from more contributors, and even enabling production galleries to support more events using the same teams and on-premise hardware.

Tony Jones: The big trends in broadcast production relate to remote and cloud production. Remote production helps achieve better utilization of centralized production facilities and reduces costs by requiring less equipment to be moved to venues. Cloud production is a further step that allows production capability to be instantiated as needed, to support more productions.

Bob Caniglia: Developments in modern tools and technologies, such as IP workflows and remote broadcasting, are significantly impacting broadcast production workflows by reducing the barrier to entry and introducing greater flexibility and efficiency both inside the studio and out in the field. Advances in IP workflows, such as integrating existing SDI equipment into low cost 2110 IP broadcast systems, mean broadcasters can benefit from more scalable and cost-effective infrastructures that simplify the transport and management of video signals over standard networks, as well as reduce the need for costly hardware. The rise of remote broadcasting, connected workflows, and the cloud are not only resulting in smaller teams and broadcasters being able to deliver a cinematic production with less resources and more efficiently, but it also means broadcasters can incorporate more talent globally, as well as make productions more dynamic.

David Isola, director of product marketing, Black Box: Like others in the industry, we’re seeing the ongoing shift to IP-based production workflows, i.e., the transition from SDI to IP. The key learnings here are that IP-based systems provide greater flexibility and scalability, they’re more dynamic, and they allow for more decentralized workflows. IP-based systems also allow broadcasters to move away from costly dedicated broadcast hardware into a more flexible, software-defined environment, resulting in reduced equipment and maintenance overhead costs.

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Chris Scheck, head of marketing content, Lawo: IP has been an important enabler over the last few years: it helped broadcasters navigate the lockdown episodes during the Covid-19 pandemic and simultaneously encouraged remote and distributed production workflows, some of which are highly virtualized. The migration towards app-based processing, to replace a lot of hardware, has allowed operators to cut down on bespoke devices with a shrinking lifespan, using generic IT servers instead, the promise being that the processing apps have migration in their DNA as they seamlessly scale to new, more powerful platforms.

Costa Nikols: Recent advancements in Next-Generation Audio (NGA) technology — supported by over 1 billion consumer devices — are reshaping audio processing workflows. Serial ADM (S-ADM) metadata is crucial to NGA. This metadata identifies and separates individual object-based audio components, enabling producers and end users to customize the final audio mix to suit their preferences and device requirements, while supporting configuration at any point throughout the broadcast chain.

How can broadcasters integrate new technologies into existing workflows?

Paul Turner: Looking specifically at IP technologies, many broadcasters are taking a slow but steady adoption approach and integrating SMPTE ST 2110 or NDI technologies into their infrastructures where it makes sense. If your equipment is nearing end of life, it might be time to consider your IP options, or if you’re redesigning an entire studio, you should seriously think about IP. As broadcasters integrate IP technologies into their infrastructure, it’s important to think about scale, engineering resources (and whether or not those resources are skilled in IT best practices), and if gateway or conversion devices will be needed to move between SDI and SMPTE ST 2110 or NDI devices.

Will Waters: Optimally, new cloud-based technologies are designed to integrate seamlessly with on-premise hardware, making it easy to extend existing hardware into new cloud-based options. For example, a cloud-based audio mixer, coupled with the right software and high-speed internet connectivity, will connect with on-premise audio contribution, monitoring and output hardware.

James Fraser, VP of U.S. sales, Moments Lab: The most effective way to integrate new technologies into existing broadcast workflows is to conduct a proof of concept (POC) and set clear evaluation criteria to measure success. An effective trial of new workflow technology is one that demonstrates a reduced workload for teams, such as automating repetitive tasks like media logging and scheduling, enabling them to work on higher priority tasks.

Tony Jones: One key aspect of this is connectivity. Where existing workflows are in place, but new (cloud or maybe remote) functions are desired, connecting to/from those new functions becomes important. Fortunately, video connectivity protocols such as SRT make reliable connections across generic broadband connections very practical, including to/from public cloud. The remaining question is about managing those connections, and modern contribution technologies are increasingly driving this towards automation, with connections (including the encoding parameters) being configured dynamically and in some cases fully automated from a schedule.

Chris Clarke: If done correctly at the right point in the supply chain, integration of new technologies is possible. Often, new technologies are deployed by one of two groups: existing traditional broadcasters with new requirements, or newer and more agile broadcasters without the technical burden of legacy workflows. For traditional broadcasters, it should be easy to test and iterate new technologies on small deployments before doing the work to integrate them with existing workflows if desired.

Bob Caniglia: Embracing scalable, future-proof solutions is crucial for the successful evolution of broadcast content in line with industry technological developments. For example, tools like Blackmagic 2110 IP Converters offer an affordable way to integrate SDI equipment into 2110 IP broadcast systems, ensuring seamless integration with modern standards and providing broadcasters with the flexibility to adapt to new technologies and audience demands without an entire overhaul of existing tools and processes.

David Isola: Integrating IP-based technology into an existing workflow requires a strategic and phased approach — one that, ideally, minimizes disruption while taking full advantage of all benefits that IP can offer. As with any integration of new technology, planning, adoption of new standards, upgrades, and training are all key elements in the transition. In some cases, IP-based technology may require additional upgrades to networking infrastructure.

Costa Nikols: It all starts with experimentation. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the shift to Next Generation Audio certainly won’t happen overnight. France TV and several European broadcasters actually deployed S-ADM in major sports broadcasts for the first time this summer, championing Dolby Atmos and brand new SMPTE 2110-41 standards through advanced audio processing tools to drive deeper accessibility and greater personalisation via multi-lingual audio and audio description features.

What role does artificial intelligence play in modern broadcast workflows?

Sam Peterson: Artificial intelligence is transforming workflows by enabling content indexing, enhancing searchability, and automating editing processes. Broadcasters can leverage AI-driven insights to improve content personalization and streamline production, ultimately enhancing audience engagement.

James Fraser: It’s no longer a question of if organizations should adopt AI, but how extensively and strategically AI should be integrated. Rather than replacing roles, Moments Lab clients use AI as an assistive tool that enables their teams to drastically slash media indexing and content discovery times. This means they can increase their output and open new revenue streams, such as content repurposing and archive monetization.

Tony Jones: AI today is mainly acting as an assistant, helping staff to focus on critical areas by handling repetitive tasks. For example, AI can help by automatically identifying potential areas for QC review (e.g. for compliance with local legislation), with the final decisions being made by human operations staff, who can then be more efficient. This is just one example, and there are many more (such as highlights creation during production).

Bob Caniglia: Assistive artificial intelligence is increasingly integral to modern broadcast workflows, offering a potentially transformative effect on the ways in which content is produced and managed. By leveraging AI-based tools to streamline labor-intensive manual tasks, broadcasters can benefit from accelerated workflows and deliver even more high-quality content. For example, DaVinci Resolve offers assistive AI features such as automatic transcription and audio classifying, which can reliably enhance efficiency in environments like newsrooms, where speed and accuracy are critical.

Robert Szabo-Rowe: AI will play an increasingly important role in optimizing workflows to drive production and delivery — and we anticipate that its impact will eventually extend to staffing decisions. Some companies are already experimenting with multi-camera systems that automate the show-cutting process, potentially reducing the need for technical directors for lower-tier live productions in future. The rationale is straightforward: personnel costs are typically the largest expense in most live productions.

Costa Nikols: From an audio standpoint, AI definitely has a role in helping automate and/or enhance specific processes. Aside from workflow automation, AI can improve processing, QC, and delivery functions. Some additional examples where AI can help include dialog intelligiblity, language detection, and cleaning up unintentional pops, clicks, hum and noise in the content — alongside identifying what audio is present, such as number of channels, metadata and beds (the foundation of an immersive mix).

What training is needed for staff to adapt to new workflows and technologies?

Paul Turner: You can’t just mirror the fault finding and integration approaches of SDI when moving to IP; it’s more complex and less plug-and-play than SDI. Your video engineers must understand the basics of how network switches work, traffic shaping rules, NMOS, etc. It requires a lot of training of the technical staff, but when done right, it shouldn’t affect the production crew.

Sergio Ammirata: Moving from traditional production techniques to remote and collaborative live events with people and hardware in multiple locations demands completely fresh thinking. No longer are workflows constrained by the technology: We can put creation, control and processing anywhere, meaning you have the freedom to create the workflows you really need to deliver the program, even if they are a complete transformation from legacy practices. 

Costa Nikols: Audio engineers and operators already possess a fundamental understanding of various audio essences, channels, and metadata. However, authoring in the realm of next-generation audio is crucial to creating immersive, dialogue-intelligible, and personalized experiences. This process parallels the era of authoring DVDs with customized menu options based on content. The metadata is then provided as part of the delivery of the audio essence and rendered by the end device.

Bob Caniglia: Adapting to new workflows and technologies is an ongoing challenge in such a fast-evolving industry, so it is crucial to have access to affordable and easy-to-use tools that facilitate smooth transitions. Training plays a key role in ensuring teams can adapt seamlessly to new solutions and workflows, but with intuitively designed, user-friendly products, teams can focus more on creativity and productivity rather than technical complexities. Investing in such technology means choosing tools that enhance efficiency and foster innovation.

Industry Insights: Remote production, automation and efficiency in broadcast workflows