Cloud Playout vs. Traditional Playout: Which is Right for Your Broadcasting Needs?
Launching a linear channel is no longer a challenging task now. Wondering how? Cloud playout is the answer. At a time when the broadcast and media industry is experiencing significant changes, broadcasters need to choose a reliable, scalable, and flexible technology to publish live videos. Cloud playout comes useful here to deliver content effortlessly at a much lower cost. While current content creators opt for cloud playout solutions to stream their content, existing Broadcasters are shuffling towards a much easier, quicker, and cost-effective cloud playout. This post will help us understand the importance of cloud playout and its advantages over traditional broadcast.
What is a cloud playout?
Cloud Playout refers to linear TV channel content management and its distribution from the cloud to the end user. It includes content ingestion, video transcoding, storing, monetization, and content distribution in various formats to elevate user experience. It checks content quality, playback issues and manages the entire video process to deliver content on multiple platforms and devices. Cloud Playout offers an end-to-end solution for linear TV channel creation and scheduling video-on-demand along with the live feed. It also increases audience engagement and provides multiple revenue opportunities.
Playout combines linear content and live clips, adds subtitles or graphics, and distributes it on the Internet. It also takes care of editing, post-production, live streaming, and distribution. The cloud offers more flexibility and scalability to content creators and reduces the workflow. They can access and work on content from anywhere and don’t need any hardware or software. Also, the cloud playout platform lets you make changes instantly to the program plan. A superior Cloud playout solution offers advanced video encoding features like video clipping, editing, publishing, distribution and monetization, content management, storage, scheduling, playback, advertising, and more.
The traditional broadcast system is complicated and involves expensive equipment to transmit. It uses cable or satellite and is not receptive to all devices. Broadcasters spend so much money on machinery and have too much device dependency. A typical broadcast device has a limit and only reaches a defined range. Besides being expensive, video quality, video latency, and service quality were some of the regular issues in a conventional broadcast. Cloud playout overcomes all these issues and offers a captivating viewing experience to viewers.
Advantages of Cloud Playout -
- Easy to deploy
Launching a linear channel doesn’t take much time since Cloud Playout solutions are ready-to-go. Content ingestion is made easy and quick, supporting various formats. Previewing content before delivery, editing metadata, content tagging, creating segmentation, and adding subtitles are done in a jiffy.
2. Scalability
One of the main advantages of cloud playout is its ability to scale. As the demand for content distribution increases, broadcasters can quickly scale their cloud infrastructure to meet the demand. It helps them to devise business plans based on the market needs to survive the competition. This allows for a more efficient and cost-effective content distribution process, as broadcasters can deliver content to multiple platforms and devices.
3. Flexibility
Since cloud playout delivers content from the cloud, it gives the utmost flexibility to broadcasters to customize content easily for different platforms and devices. This flexibility ensures a personalized and superior viewing experience for the end user. Since videos are stored securely, they can be easily accessible from any part of the globe.
4. Efficacy
Managing video-on-demand assets and scheduling live feeds in a cloud playout system enable you to work more efficiently, as you can quickly upload and organize your content, schedule and publish it, and deliver it to your viewers.
5. Cost saving
Since no expensive and extensive hardware is required, Cloud playouts broadly reduce the cost, and broadcasters will only spend for what they use. Because of this, they can scale up content production, reach more customers, and improves business growth.
6. User-friendly
The user-friendly interface is secure and safe. Also, easily customized for adding videos, modifying playlists, and delivering the output. With Cloud playout software, there’s no need for a big team of in-house employees to manage the workflow. Cloud TV setup needs minimal staffing for operational activities.
7. Storage and Security
Content stored on the cloud server drastically reduces the investment cost for machinery and manpower. Multi-DRM technologies used by Cloud Playout solution keep the content safe and secure on the Internet. They also use CDNs which helps in delivering content much faster.
8. Data-driven approach
Cloud Playout offers significant insights into understanding user behavior and viewing patterns. Detailed information on targeted audiences helps content producers to deliver a variety of content catering to the needs of the end users. This data is beneficial in analyzing engagement rate, viewing time, user preferences, and more. All of these help in attracting more customers and increasing revenue.
Therefore, broadcasters must choose a perfect end-to-end cloud-based playout to launch live TV linear channels. Most of these playout solutions provide customized services based on the needs of broadcasters. It is worthwhile since they pay only for what they use and reach more viewers.
