Industry Insights: Operating live production in a distributed, cloud-connected world

As live production becomes more distributed, the focus shifts from simply connecting remote workflows to operating them reliably at scale.

In the second part of this Industry Insights roundtable, broadcast vendors examine how cloud production, centralized resources and software-driven systems are changing the way teams collaborate across venues, cities and countries.

The discussion explores which production functions are moving successfully to the cloud, where hybrid approaches remain necessary and how broadcasters are building redundancy, monitoring and business continuity into increasingly complex environments. It also looks at the changing role of production teams as automation expands, along with the technologies helping organizations coordinate people and resources across locations. Together, the responses point toward live production operations built around flexibility, resilience and the ability to adapt quickly as production demands continue to evolve.

Key takeaways from this Industry Insights roundtable

• Cloud collaboration expands: Shared media, production tools and control systems allow teams to work across locations and organize resources around expertise rather than geography.
• Hybrid workflows endure: Graphics, distribution and other elastic functions are well suited to cloud deployment, while acquisition, intercom, real-time audio and other latency-sensitive tasks often remain closer to the venue.
• Resilience becomes layered: Distributed production requires redundancy across networks, compute and infrastructure, supported by centralized monitoring, observability and clearly defined recovery paths.
• Resources become centralized: Broadcasters can coordinate switching, graphics, replay, monitoring and other production functions from shared hubs while local teams concentrate on event acquisition.
• Roles continue evolving: Automation and software-driven workflows are shifting production jobs toward higher-value creative and technical decisions while increasing the need for IP and software expertise.

How are cloud-based production environments changing the way teams collaborate during live events?

Ivy Li, marketing director, Telycam: Cloud production enables teams to collaborate without being physically co-located, significantly increasing flexibility. Resources such as graphics and control systems can be shared across multiple productions in different regions, allowing the same team to support a higher volume of events without duplicating staff or equipment. A single graphics team, for instance, can support a live broadcast in New York one day and Tokyo the next without relocating.

Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations, Americas, Blackmagic Design: Editors, producers, tech teams and other contributors can increasingly access the same media and workflows across locations, allowing organizations to assemble teams based on expertise rather than geography. This creates opportunities to distribute workloads more efficiently and keep content moving when the core production team is dispersed. The most successful implementations are those that make remote collaboration feel like a natural extension of the workflow rather than a separate process.

Which live production functions are most commonly moving to the cloud, and which remain difficult to virtualize?

Ivy Li, marketing director, Telycam: Graphics and overlays have been the fastest production functions to move to the cloud because they are inherently software-driven and scale easily. Video switching and PTZ camera control are also becoming practical in IP-based workflows, particularly for distributed and remote productions. Audio mixing and live camera shading remain the biggest challenges, as they demand ultra-low latency and frame-accurate control that is still difficult to achieve consistently in cloud environments.

Ulrich Voigt, director, live production solutions, Riedel Communications: The biggest challenges are at both ends: at the edge, where cameras, microphones, IFB, intercom and other talent-facing devices still require physical connections; and at the core, where the high-performance compute and GPU resources needed for virtualized production can be difficult to secure predictably in public clouds. Remote operation of local devices can help bridge that gap, but the physical connection to talent remains essential. A hybrid approach, with predictable core resources in a private or specialized cloud and more elastic resources in the public cloud, is likely to remain practical for many live productions.

Sarah Hackforth, international sales director, Big Blue Marble: Elastic functions such as transcoding, packaging, recording, distribution and monitoring are natural candidates for the cloud, particularly when demand is intermittent or geographically dispersed. For the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, ORF’s live signal was contributed via SRT and distributed through a redundant, dual-region cloud workflow to around 80 recipients, including more than 50 public-viewing locations across Austria. Camera acquisition, intercom, complex real-time audio, high-frame-rate replay and latency-critical switching remain harder to virtualize completely, so hybrid workflows continue to be the practical choice.

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How are organizations approaching redundancy, disaster recovery and business continuity for live productions?

Chris Scheck, head of marketing content, Lawo: For high-stakes productions, IP hitless merge redundancy (ST2022-7) across two or even three physically separate network paths is a must to ensure uninterrupted broadcasting. Something similar is possible with processing apps, albeit with fewer spare servers than there are main units, because the likelihood of all apps or servers failing simultaneously is negligible. Another way of ensuring business continuity is to add an on-site OB truck to a remote production workflow whose sole purpose is to prepare a production that can be streamed to the MCR or transmitted via satellite in the event the entire IP network goes down, which is highly unlikely.

What monitoring and observability tools have become essential in modern live production environments?

Chris Scheck, head of marketing content, Lawo: The first important step for observability is to equip the management platform and all connected devices with the possibility to track as much status information as possible in order to log, compile and query it. Lawo recommends using software such as Prometheus, Grafana, etc., to issue and display warnings, inspect suspicious events, and take informed action, which can be anything from fixing or replacing a PTP generator to exchanging a fan. To avoid overwhelming operators with information that may not be mission-critical for them, users can build custom dashboards, relevant information can be displayed on a HOME Multiviewer, and so on.

Colin Moran, VP, production products, LTN: Every additional version creates another output that must be protected and monitored. Operators need visibility across acquisition, production, customization and delivery so they can see what each audience is receiving throughout the event. That includes more than checking whether a signal is present as teams must confirm that the correct commentary, graphics, advertising and platform format are attached to each version, while keeping timing aligned with the pictures. Any fault affecting one output should be isolated before it reaches the main programme or another destination. Alerts also need to show which services are affected and where the issue began. This allows operators to focus on the relevant part of the workflow and activate recovery quickly, which is essential when even a short interruption can affect live coverage.

How are production teams maintaining reliability when workflows span multiple locations, vendors and cloud environments?

Ian Wagdin, VP, technology and innovation, Appear: Reliability depends on designing resilience across the complete workflow through redundant paths, hitless protection, secure transport, continuous monitoring and clearly rehearsed failover procedures. Security must also be built into the architecture through media-aware trust boundaries and enterprise controls that protect workflows across facilities, vendors and clouds. End-to-end observability enables operators to identify and resolve problems before they affect the viewer.

Gary Litwin, national sales director, monitors, Boland Communications: Boland sees reliability increasingly coming down to consistency and confidence at every point in the workflow. When production spans multiple locations, vendors, and cloud environments, color-accurate, dependable monitoring gives teams a trusted visual reference, helping ensure that everyone is making decisions based on the same picture regardless of where they are working.

Martin Lindsay, head of networked solutions, Sony Electronics: As workflows become more distributed, broadcasters are building reliability through redundancy across critical layers, including network paths, compute resources and production infrastructure. Centralized monitoring and orchestration tools provide real-time visibility across on-premises, remote and cloud environments, allowing teams to quickly identify and resolve issues before they impact a live broadcast. Standardized IP-based workflows, resilient connectivity and automated failover mechanisms are essential for maintaining consistent performance across multiple locations, vendors and platforms.

Colin Moran, VP, production products, LTN: Production teams are connecting venue acquisition, production, customization and distribution within a common IP environment. Managed low latency transport can move live video between distributed teams and destinations without requiring a new signal path for every event. Resilient routing and effective error recovery must be designed across the full network. Formats such as JPEG XS can preserve quality while keeping delay low, although the wider workflow still needs to maintain synchronization and performance from source to destination. Repeatable configurations reduce the risks that come with expansion. Once a setup has been proven, it can be reused for another event or rights partner rather than rebuilt each time. This helps teams support different venues, production models and delivery environments while keeping the operation familiar enough for people to manage reliably.

What lessons have been learned from large-scale cloud production deployments over the past year?

Ulrich Voigt, director, live production solutions, Riedel Communications: Large-scale cloud productions have proven that even high-end live production can be produced entirely in the cloud without compromising quality. The bigger challenge is the connection to the ground: talent, cameras, microphones, tally, monitors, IFB, intercom, panels and buttons all need to reach the talent on site. Building this connection efficiently and economically for a cloud-based production backend remains difficult enough to undermine either the cloud business case or the production experience.

Sarah Hackforth, international sales director, Big Blue Marble: A live workflow is no longer simply the signal path from camera to transmission; it now encompasses contribution, production, processing, distribution and the audience experience across linear and digital platforms. It must also support outputs such as instant VOD, live replay and content for different platforms without creating separate production chains. End-to-end quality-of-experience telemetry is increasingly closing the loop, allowing performance data from playback to inform processing and delivery decisions.

Colin Moran, VP, production products, LTN: The biggest lesson is that launching more feeds is only one part of scaling a live production. Cloud and IP based systems can make it technically possible to support dozens of outputs, but each language, graphics package or regional service still needs to be operated throughout the event. That has pushed teams to think about scale much earlier. It is now common for a production to support three to five versions, so shared resources and reusable configurations need to be planned from the start. There is also a clear difference between making a feed and operating it well. Effective scale comes from giving teams a simple way to control each output, understand what the audience is receiving and step in quickly when the event moves away from the plan.

How are broadcasters coordinating production resources across multiple venues, cities or countries during major events?

Martin Lindsay, head of networked solutions, Sony Electronics: Broadcasters are coordinating major events through centralized production hubs connected by IP networks, remote production (REMI) workflows and cloud-based infrastructure. Rather than duplicating crews and equipment at every venue, operators can manage switching, graphics, camera shading, replay and monitoring from shared facilities while local teams focus on capturing the events. Cloud collaboration and resource orchestration tools provide real-time visibility across venues, allowing organizations to dynamically allocate personnel and production resources, improve efficiency and maintain consistent quality across cities and countries.

Ian Wagdin, VP, technology and innovation, Appear: Broadcasters are connecting venues to centralized production hubs through low-latency IP contribution, allowing shared control rooms, processing capacity and specialist teams to support multiple locations. FOX Sports used a standards-based REMI architecture for 104 matches across multiple venues during the 2026 global soccer tournament, while NBC Sports made remote production central to its Winter Olympics coverage. A modular, reusable architecture allows resources to be reassigned quickly across future productions while preserving local acquisition, monitoring and operational control.

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What technologies have improved communication and collaboration between distributed production teams?

Ivy Li, marketing director, Telycam: IP-based remote camera control has become a mature and widely trusted application in distributed production workflows. Technologies such as NDI Bridge, VISCA over IP, SRT, and FreeD enable PTZ cameras to be remotely controlled, transported, and integrated into advanced production environments, while web-based control interfaces allow teams in different locations to collaborate seamlessly in real time. These technologies are helping production teams overcome geographic limitations and create more flexible and efficient remote workflows.

How are staffing requirements and production roles changing as workflows become more automated and software-driven?

Ivy Li, marketing director, Telycam: Automation is reshaping production roles rather than simply reducing them, with AI and software-based tools taking over repetitive tasks so teams can focus more on creative decisions and critical judgment. This shift is raising the skill requirements for production professionals, who now need to combine traditional broadcast expertise with knowledge of IP-based workflows and software-driven systems. While the industry may experience a transition period, the long-term result will be more agile, efficient production teams with greater creative capabilities.

Looking ahead, what will define a best-in-class live production operation by the end of this decade?

Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations, Americas, Blackmagic Design: A best-in-class operation will be one that can adapt quickly without requiring a complete redesign every time production requirements change. It will combine resilient infrastructure with flexible workflows, strong interoperability and intelligent automation while allowing teams to work across physical, remote and cloud environments. Efficiency will be measured by how effectively an organization can turn one production into multiple forms of content and deliver them to multiple audiences.

Ian Wagdin, VP, technology and innovation, Appear: A best-in-class operation will be hybrid by design, able to place and move workloads across dedicated hardware, private infrastructure and public cloud through one operating model without creating separate operational islands. It will be self-healing and combine open interoperability, end-to-end observability, automation, security and high-density, energy-efficient processing with skilled human oversight. Reusable architectures that outlive individual events will enable teams to produce more content and audience variants without compromising latency, quality or operational confidence.