![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
Interview: Appear CTO Andy Rayner on R&D, security and future growth By Jo Ruddock
Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - 13:59
Print This Story
As Appear celebrates its 20th anniversary, CTO Andy Rayner speaks to Jo Ruddock about the company's R&D priorities, the importance of security and where future growth opportunities may lie.
What trends are you currently seeing when it comes to media processing and content delivery solutions?
Basically, what I call location agnostic or distributed production is really coming of age. That's where the people resources, the equipment resources, don't need to be co-located with where the acquisition event is happening. That's transformational from a workflow perspective for content creators, because it means they can make better use of their people, make better use of their equipment and of all their data facilities, so it's actually a genuine cost saving workflow and enables them to use their talent over more events.
But to do that you need a massive amount of connectivity infrastructure. So, as an example, when you're doing what in the US they call REMIs, where you're actually pulling back every individual video feed from an event, every individual microphone, that's creating more and more demand for connectivity infrastructure to facilitate that.
What we're finding the sweet spot with what we've done, which I think is quite fortuitous for Appear, is that we have an unbelievably high density, low power and small size footprint for that connectivity interfacing that we provide in our platform. And, as people want to do these massive numbers of backhaul, we're in a very sweet spot for that, which gives lots of cost savings, but also from an environmental perspective, it gives massive power and space savings as well.
I think the other trend that goes alongside that in live production, which is a real transformation in the last couple of years, is using public internet connectivity on live production. That's something that was unheard of, but the reality is that if you use the same bandwidth on a public internet connectivity, it'll possibly cost you 1/100th the cost of renting a private leased line. So, if you can actually do that, that's a massive cost transformation.
So some of the technology toolkit we've got within our platforms in new ARQ technology and ALT technology is instrumental in getting public internet to work to the performance level we need for live production. Public internet connectivity is getting better and better natively in its quality anyway, but that alongside the significant cost saving, and then the ARQ capabilities we have in the platform, that's a great story combined for enablement. And I think it does two things. Firstly, it means that people can produce an n-camera event for less cost. It's also an enabler for lower tier sports where a traditional broadcast would be economically unfeasible to actually run and we're now able to do a live multi camera production, something that was completely unviable previously.
We've seen a number of innovations from Appear in the last few years, not least the X Platform. What would you say are your R&D priorities going forward?
We're continuing to enhance the X Platform, so we're doing things like further increasing the density of the unit. We're also introducing new processing capabilities that are required for UHD HD workflows. We're also just starting on the journey of developing some complementary software tools to complement the X Platform. So the X Platform will continue to be our flagship product, but we're now developing a suite of software tools, which are actually going to complement that and allow us to increase our share of the production workflow.
On the density increase we've also just released a 100G interface, significantly upping the bandwidth and that provides even higher levels of aggregation.
What about sustainability is this something your customers are focused on and how can Appear help them on their sustainability journey?
I think there's a limit here on what content producers are being mandated to do, depending on where they are in the world. In Europe, including the UK to a large degree, there is quite a good level of what I will call obligation due to state legislation. I have to say that's not consistent across all parts of the globe. But more and more, we're finding that customers are ending up with contractual obligations on their providers, their suppliers, to be more compliant to sustainability agendas.
And I think the way we've architected our offering actually plays into that spectrum really well because we're focused on lowering power consumption and maximising density. We are right in a very sweet spot and with the product family to actually help our customers meet that need. The other thing is, especially for events based, I mentioned that we're starting to move towards some software infrastructure. While running production capability on compute is not the most power efficient way of doing it, the fact that for events you run on compute, you only spin it up for the period of time when the event's actually running, that's a massive saving and therefore a more sustainable approach.
You're involved with a number of standards bodies. How is that landscape looking when it comes to standardisation in live production?
I think in what I would the call traditional live production world, when we're talking about appliances and equipment on the ground, I think those standards, the 2110 suite and all of the peripheral standards around those, are maturing really well.
I think the place where standards are still needed significantly is in compute because that's relatively immature. There are no what I call proper ope
More from Sports Video Group
06/09/2024
NFL Kickoff 2024: Coming Off Super Bowl High, CBS Sports Adds 4K Zoom Tech, AI-D...
06/09/2024
SVG Rewind: Freedom Broadcast Studios Remotely Produces Browns-Seahawks Preseaso...
06/09/2024
NFL Kickoff 2024: FOX Sports Precedes Super Bowl LIX Production With Tantalizing...
06/09/2024
Philip Garvin, Mobile TV Group Founder and Live-Production Titan, Dies at 76 Garvin was a leader and pioneer in the regional-sports-production community By Jas...
06/09/2024
Hero Digital Revamps LPGA.com Website; WSC Sports Powers AI-Created Highlights Initiative builds upon SeatGeek and Legends partnerships aimed at expanding expos...
06/09/2024
Quickplay Promotes Prabu Chelladurai, Hires Sean Lynch and Adam Mitchell to Stre...
06/09/2024
RTL Deutschland boosts coverage for second NFL season on RTL, Nitro and RTL By George Bevir
Friday, September 6, 2024 - 10:13
Print This Story
RTL's ...
06/09/2024
NFL Kickoff 2024: CBS Sports Overhauls Studio 43 for NFL Today'; Renames Fa...
05/09/2024
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Cerberus Tech's Chris Clarke on the Emergence of ...
05/09/2024
Production Tech in Laramie: University of Wyoming Leverages Spalk for Virtual & ...
05/09/2024
Sports Podcasts Score Big: Kelce Brothers' Podcast Is Latest in Series of Bi...
05/09/2024
NFL Kickoff 2024: NBC Sports Starts the Party with Thursday Night Opener; Adds P...
04/09/2024
Live From the US Open: Sky Sports UK Delivers HDR to Viewers, Expands Presence A...
04/09/2024
A Catch-Up on MAM: Media Management Workflows for the Modern Age Execs from the PGA Tour, Riot Games, WBD, FOX Sports & NBA take a look at the current state of ...
04/09/2024
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Head of Tennis Sarah Milburn on the Importance of a Goo...
03/09/2024
Paris 2024: Inside WBD's Olympics broadcast operation By George Bevir
Friday, August 30, 2024 - 10:24
Print This Story
Studio 1 at WBD House with a vi...
03/09/2024
Bigger, better, more: How IMG is upping production values for its remote EFL cov...
03/09/2024
At Home and on the Road: The Changing Face of Live Game Production at Regional S...
02/09/2024
Live From the US Open: USTA Makes Leap to HDR; Rights Holders Expand Presence Ac...
02/09/2024
NBC Sports Selects EMG/Gravity Media for NFL's First Game from Brazil Fly-away system features Sony cameras, Canon lenses, Grass Valley router and switcher,...
29/08/2024
An IP-Powered Fall Season: University of Minnesota Brings SMPTE 2110 Control Roo...
29/08/2024
College Football Kickoff 2024: CBS Sports Enters Sophomore Season of Big Ten Foo...
29/08/2024
College Football Kickoff 2024: A New Era Dawns at Big Ten Network as the Confere...
29/08/2024
College Football Kickoff 2024: SEC on ABC Poised to Become Marquee Sports TV Pro...
28/08/2024
Paris 2024: Channel 4 opens new fully accessible remote production facility in W...
28/08/2024
Paris 2024: ISB on how it will bring the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremoni...
28/08/2024
Paris 2024: How ARD and ZDF connected the dots to bring the Olympics and next th...
28/08/2024
NBC Olympics Calls Team USA House Home for Paris Studio Coverage of Paralympics 1,500 hours of coverage across 22 sports begins today with Opening Ceremony from...
28/08/2024
MAM-as-a-Brain : An Inside Look at NASCAR's New Cognitive Asset Management&...
28/08/2024
NBC Sports, 3Play Media Enhance Digital Accessibility for Paris 2024 By SVG Staff
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - 9:59 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Stor...
28/08/2024
Paris 2024: International Paralympic Committee set to bring unprecedented global...
28/08/2024
Paris 2024: YouTube and International Paralympic Committee team up to create the...
28/08/2024
ESPN Adds Interactive Where to Watch Feature to ESPN App, ESPN.com By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - 12:46 pm
Print This...
27/08/2024
Live from Dublin: First for Ireland as TG4 broadcasts College Football Classic By Fergal Ringrose
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 09:04
Print This Story
Kieran...
27/08/2024
Live from Dublin: ESPN moves goal posts for college football season opener By Fergal Ringrose
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 08:51
Print This Story
ESPN aired...
27/08/2024
ESPN Content President Burke Magnus Announces Restructuring; Mike McQuade Named ...
27/08/2024
Hoop History: Inside the First Live Broadcast of the Harlem Globetrotters in 40 ...
27/08/2024
ESPN's 2024 College Football Coverage Takes to the Cloud for Super Slo-Mo Re...
26/08/2024
National Tools Go Regional: Inside MLB Local Media's Increased Use of UmpCam Go behind the scenes with MLBs Kendall Burgess and Doug Johnson By Jason Dachm...
26/08/2024
Former NBC Sports Exec Bob Basch , and Father of the Phrase Breakfast at Wimble...
23/08/2024
Sportico Report: Diamond Sports Group Reaches Deals With NBA, NHL By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, August 23, 2024 - 6:31 pm
Print This Stor...
22/08/2024
Microsoft Azure, Generative AI Are Empowering Cloud-Based Live Sports Production By SVG Staff
Thursday, August 22, 2024 - 7:53 am
Print This Story | Subsc...
22/08/2024
Paris 2024: ISB's Ursula Romero on how OBS' quality control teams made t...
22/08/2024
Paris 2024: Creating the Olympic spirit with ISB's production of the shootin...
22/08/2024
Little League World Series: Sports-TV Legacy Carries On With ESPN Bringing Big-G...
21/08/2024
SVG Sit-Down: Perifery's Abhijit Dey on Meeting M&E's Modern-Day Storage...
21/08/2024
Riot Games Media Managers Ericka Duffy and Ian Owen Explore MAM's Role in Re...
21/08/2024
The Only Constant Is Change: How College Athletic Departments Are Transitioning ...
21/08/2024
Live from the Supercup: Softseed demos world first live 360 10K stream By Adrian Pennington
Tuesday, August 20, 2024 - 09:22
Print This Story
German foot...