Industry Insights: Why hybrid production is becoming the default operating model

As cloud and hybrid production models mature, broadcasters are rethinking what defines a control room and how production infrastructure is deployed, managed and scaled.

In this first installment of our three-part Industry Insights series on cloud production, vendors and technology leaders examine how production environments are shifting from fixed hardware and dedicated facilities toward distributed, software-defined workflows that span on-premises systems, cloud platforms and remote teams.

The discussion explores where cloud workflows are delivering measurable operational value today, why hybrid architectures are emerging as the long-term reality for many organizations and how broadcasters are balancing flexibility with the performance demands of live production. Participants also examine how remote production, orchestration and scalable infrastructure are reshaping both live events and day-to-day operations across the media industry.

Key takeaways from this Industry Insights roundtable

• Hybrid dominates: Broadcasters increasingly view hybrid infrastructure as the long-term operating model rather than a temporary transition phase between on-premises and cloud environments.
• Control rooms evolve: Production control is becoming less tied to physical facilities and more dependent on orchestration, workflow management, and distributed infrastructure.
• Cloud adds flexibility: Organizations are finding the greatest practical benefits in scalable live event production, remote collaboration and temporary capacity expansion.
• Performance still matters: Ultra-low latency, deterministic workflows and operational predictability continue to keep some production functions anchored on-premises or at the edge.
• Remote production expands: Distributed workflows are making remote production operationally viable across a wider range of events while reducing staffing and travel demands.

How have cloud and hybrid production models changed the way organizations think about control rooms and production infrastructure?

Chris Pulis, CTO, Globecast: Control rooms are no longer defined by a physical space but by the orchestration of resources across cloud and edge environments. Organizations are shifting from fixed, hardware-based facilities to flexible, software-defined workflows that can be deployed where and when they are needed. This is enabling more dynamic production models that scale with demand rather than being constrained by infrastructure.

Ian Wagdin, VP, technology and innovation, Appear: Broadcasters are no longer asking how to replicate a traditional control room in the cloud. They are asking how to give production teams more flexibility, more control and better use of resources without compromising the quality and reliability of live output. That is an important shift as control is no longer defined simply by where equipment sits. It is increasingly defined by how well operators can manage workflows across sites, infrastructure types and production teams.

Nina Walsh, global leader, business development, GTM & solutions, media & entertainment, games and sports, AWS: Using the cloud in production introduces flexibility and choice, whether used in a fully cloud-based scenario or hybrid setup. Every organization has different priorities and needs, and those needs are constantly evolving based on specific productions and their schedules. The cloud enables teams to consider the best possible solution for each situation, instead of being limited to what they can procure physically or run with existing on-premises hardware.

Chris Scheck, head of marketing content, Lawo: Content producers are currently the ones getting squeezed, which forces them to look for ways to do more with less. One of the most promising antidotes is the Dynamic Media Facility principle where (virtual) processing stacks can be spun up and torn down in seconds to match each production workflow. A hardware-centric approach used to require dozens of dedicated devices and wasn’t nearly as fast and flexible, while the user experience for operators working with apps has barely changed.

Ryan Durland, cloud engineering, Diversified: Rather than designing around physical rooms and bespoke hardware stacks, organizations are now building distributed production ecosystems where control surfaces, processing, and workflows operate seamlessly across on-premises infrastructure and hyper scalar platforms. This approach enables dynamic resource allocation, supports remote and decentralized operations, and allows production environments to be provisioned in alignment with specific events, audiences, and business priorities, all in a repeatable model. In this model, the control room becomes a logical layer of orchestration centered on reliability, latency, security, and operator experience, rather than a physical destination, ultimately driving greater efficiency, resilience, and global scalability across enterprise media operations.

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Where are cloud-based production workflows delivering the most practical benefits today?

Golan Simani, director of cloud and technical operations, TAG Video Systems: The clearest wins are in scalability for monitoring and QC, particularly for organizations running multiple channels or pop-up events where spinning up additional capacity on demand is far more practical than provisioning hardware. Cloud also accelerates distributed production, allowing teams in different locations to share a common operational view without complex on-prem replication.

Chris Pulis, CTO, Globecast: The most immediate benefits are in scalability and operational flexibility, particularly for live events with variable production requirements. Cloud workflows allow broadcasters to spin up additional resources for peak periods without long-term infrastructure commitments. They are also improving collaboration by enabling distributed teams to access the same production environment in real time.

Nina Walsh, global leader, business development, GTM & solutions, media & entertainment, games and sports, AWS: In addition to the inherent flexibility of cloud-based production workflows, teams can easily scale up and down based on the needs of production with the cloud and experiment with new workflows. AI is quickly transforming the media landscape, and the cloud broadens access to these tools, accelerating innovation. The cloud also empowers teams to engage remotely and provides the freedom to collaborate with talent around the world.

Guillaume Aubuchon, VP of product management, Avid: Cloud workflows deliver the most value in remote editing, global access to shared media, rapid scale for peak production, and archive accessibility. Customers are adopting cloud selectively to solve specific problems, such as expanding capacity without new infrastructure or enabling distributed teams to work together efficiently. Hybrid workflows allow organizations to operate with the best of both worlds while getting the most from their existing investments.

John Mailhot, SVP, product management, Imagine Communications: Cloud is proving most valuable in areas where flexibility really matters: live events, pop-up channels, and temporary capacity. It allows broadcasters to bring services online quickly without committing to permanent infrastructure. In practical terms, this includes remote production and temporary/transient playout systems — letting teams scale resources up or down based on actual demand.

Ryan Durland, cloud engineering, Diversified: Cloud based production workflows are delivering the most practical benefits where flexibility, speed, and scale directly improve outcomes. Organizations are seeing immediate value in remote and distributed production, where teams can operate from anywhere without sacrificing quality, in media supply chain orchestration, where content is versioned and distributed across platforms with greater speed and efficiency, and in the ability to rapidly stand up and scale environments for events or new initiatives.

What types of productions are best suited to fully cloud-based workflows and which still benefit from on-premises infrastructure?

Golan Simani, director of cloud and technical operations, TAG Video Systems: Productions with variable or unpredictable capacity demands, such as event-driven streams or international distribution feeds, are natural fits for cloud-based workflows. On-prem still leads in environments where ultra-low latency, deterministic performance, or regulatory requirements make cloud infrastructure a harder sell. The more interesting question is how monitoring and quality assurance adapt to span both models reliably.

Chris Pulis, CTO, Globecast: Fully cloud-based workflows are well suited to events that require rapid scaling, multi-feed distribution or global collaboration. However, productions with extremely low latency requirements or highly deterministic workflows may still benefit from on-prem or edge-based infrastructure. In practice, most organizations are adopting hybrid models that combine the strengths of both approaches.

Chris Scheck, head of marketing content, Lawo: Most content producers are still wary of cloud-based production workflows, because the ingress and egress cost is perceived as prohibitive for streams that need to go into the cloud and perhaps come out again for further processing. The cloud does make sense, however, for content delivery in a variety of formats and for repackaging existing content for different audiences. The rule, for lack of a better word, still seems to be that once something is in the cloud, it should only leave it when demanded by interested viewers or required by remote stakeholders.

Ian McPherson, head of business development, TMT Insights: The cloud is ideal for bursty workloads, shorter duration projects, and distributed collaboration. The additional benefit here is the de-siloing of data that results from bespoke, closed, and proprietary architecture. Hybrid workflows are more effective at addressing steady-state, always-on requirements, where depreciable capital investment provides a predictable cost of ownership and generally lowering operating costs.

What role do hybrid architectures play in connecting on-premises equipment with cloud-based tools?

Golan Simani, director of cloud and technical operations, TAG Video Systems: Hybrid isn’t a transitional state. For most broadcasters, it’s the end state. The economics and risk profile of a full cloud migration don’t work for everyone, and the reality is that organizations will run on-prem and cloud infrastructure in parallel for years. The value of hybrid architectures is that they let monitoring and control span both environments without requiring separate toolsets or operational silos.

Chris Pulis, CTO, Globecast: Hybrid architectures are critical when managing latency-critical workflows or bridging legacy infrastructure with the cloud. This approach also supports resilience by distributing workloads across environments and enabling continuity even if one component is disrupted. Hybrid architectures also allow organizations to extend existing investments while gradually introducing more flexible, software-driven capabilities or a phased deployment approach.

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Yaya Selva, CMO, Net Insight: Hybrid is no longer a transitional phase for most organizations; it is the operating reality. Broadcasters are connecting existing facilities, remote production, partner workflows and cloud resources in ways that let them evolve step by step instead of forcing a disruptive rebuild. The real value comes when those different environments can be run as one operational system rather than as a patchwork of exceptions.

Guillaume Aubuchon, VP of product management, Avid: Hybrid architectures are the reality for most professional media organizations today. They allow teams to modernize incrementally while leveraging existing investments while adopting cloud services where they make sense. The challenge is making hybrid feel cohesive. That requires consistent consistency and visibility across environments, so users don’t need to think about where something lives to use it.

John Mailhot, SVP, product management, Imagine Communications: Hybrid has really become the default model, because it balances the costs and strengths of both environments. Broadcasters keep core, high-utilization workflows on-prem for control and cost predictability, while using the cloud for overflow, resilience, and short-term needs. That combination gives them flexibility without forcing a full shift in either direction.

Ryan Durland, cloud engineering, Diversified: Hybrid architectures are the connective tissue that allow organizations to extend the value of their existing on-premises investments while unlocking the flexibility of cloud-based tools. In practice, they create a seamless bridge between physical infrastructure such as control rooms, routing, and acquisition systems and cloud environments used for processing, collaboration, and distribution. Rather than forcing a full migration, teams can keep performance critical functions local while offloading tasks like orchestration, editing, asset management, and multi-platform delivery to the cloud.

Where are organizations seeing the most innovation in remote or distributed production enabled by cloud infrastructure?

Ian Wagdin, VP, technology and innovation, Appear: The biggest shift is not that remote production is possible, but that it is becoming operationally viable across a much wider range of events. Broadcasters and rights holders are using distributed production models to cover more events, across more locations, with better control over cost and staffing. That is particularly important in sport, where the pressure is to increase output without increasing the production footprint.

Nina Walsh, global leader, business development, GTM & solutions, media & entertainment, games and sports, AWS: In the media and entertainment industry, being innovative is table stakes, and we love being able to help our customers elevate their experiences. Currently, we’re seeing a continued move toward personalization, and, more recently, vertical video as Gen-Z audiences consume 88% of streaming content on their phones. With this in mind, we recently launched AI-powered solution AWS Elemental Inference, which broadcasters including NBCUniversal and Fox Sports Digital are using to optimize live video feeds for 16:9 viewing.

Chris Scheck, head of marketing content, Lawo: Irrespective of whether the infrastructure is based on a private cloud, by which I mean a pool of generic servers in one or several locations, or a public one, the perhaps most important innovation is that operators can work from anywhere, which reduces travel cost and time. For sports events, broadcasters and service providers can send smaller teams to the event and still cater to the specific preferences of their home audience for sports that require more attention than they get from international feeds. Footage and audio ingested in one part of the world can be produced by operators at the production hub, regional offices or anywhere else, which is impossible with baseband hardware.

Ian McPherson, head of business development, TMT Insights: As AI moves from experimentation to production, companies are able to apply language models and agentic architectures to better handle unpredictable demand and disruptions, enabling greater virtualization of remote production, as well as improved customer engagement and content localization. 

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