The Media and Broadcast Sectors Intersect with the Mobile Industry

I had the opportunity to spend a few days last week at the media and broadcast sector event IBC to check out the latest developments in the these sectors. Video dominates Internet traffic, so this was a good platform to check out what the ecosystem players from “lens to screen” are working on. Of interest to me is the processing, storage, and distribution of media which will benefit from edge computing and evolution of mobile technology. Here, I wanted to share a few observations.

Digitization Ramp

IBC reminded me of MWC about 10 years ago when wireless networks began transforming into full IP-based data networks. Virtualization in mobile networks was set to come onto the scene. The broadcast sector is at a similar point in evolution where analog technologies have large presence. Consider two examples related to satellites:

• Antennas are a major factor in determining the success of commercial services because of their impact on the business case. This fact is not widely discussed and there is little awareness about it.
• There are attempts to digitize the transmission between modems and antennas in satellite earth stations. This already happened in the mobile industry for the analogous fronthaul link. Packet-based technologies reduces the constrains on the location of earth stations.

The broadcast sector is ripe for disruption from higher penetration of digital technologies. This includes SaaS services and applications, and virtualization technologies. The presence of the large OTTs and hyperscalars driving new technologies (AI included) and business models is pressuring the incumbents (considering the impact of YouTube, Netflix and other on the broadcast industry).

Marketing 5G

5G was present as a marketing theme with little substance on how 5G will integrate and impact the ecosystem players. Everyone recognizes that 5G provides high throughput and low latency. Many have over-inflated expectations of 5G performance. But more importantly, the business impact and consequences on the different ecosystem players is missing.

The satellite sector is noted for increasing its engagement in the development of 5G standards. Satellite companies are becoming active participants in 3GPP activities, hiring staff to take stock of developments in 5G networks. The mobile and satellite industries have largely progressed along parallel paths, rarely intersecting unless spectrum rights were at stake.

Driving Towards the Edge

Content Delivery Network vendors (CDNs) were active in promoting solutions that address the distribution of CDNs to smaller locations. This is part of the drive towards the edge that different players are chasing: hyperscalars, IaaS/PaaS providers and service providers among many others.

For the CDN vendors, understanding the evolution of their customers’ networks – wireless, fixed or satellite – is critical. The challenges are economic: how to enable cost-efficient CDNs in distributed environments where subscriber base is relatively small and demand is variable? The answer will depend on the connectivity network that distributes the content: the business case in satellite applications, including the emerging LEO constellations, is very different from that of 5G.

Evolution of Video

8K and 360-degree video, in addition to virtual and augmented reality, had a prominent place. While the mobile form-factor limits the benefits of emerging video technologies, many are counting on corner cases to drive adoption.

From a connectivity and storage perspective, video encoding is important to save bandwidth. The H.265 format is slow to gain adoption due to high power consumption and mediocre benefits over the current H.264 standard.

Self-Centrism of Mobile Industry

Every event showcases a number of innovators who go beyond the common norms. I happen to come upon such an innovator – Saankhya Labs – with a unique solution to video traffic over mobile networks. The solution offloads cellular video traffic to TV broadcast spectrum. This requires a TV broadcast receiver in the cell phone. This solution liberates operators and vendors from implementing Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS) which didn’t work well in LTE.

I mention this example as I find the wireless industry self-centric by considering its technologies as the solution to every problem. However, there are many solutions from outside the industry that could substitute mobile technologies!