SVG Sit-Down: Microsoft's Simon Crownshaw on How M&E Should Be Planning for a Cloud-First' Future Its IBC 2022 booth showcased an end-to-end workflow in the cloud By Jason Dachman
Friday, October 7, 2022 - 1:46 pm
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Microsoft believes that media organizations are ready to pursue a cloud-first future and is looking help its customers navigate that journey in the coming years. With that in mind, its IBC booth in Amsterdam last month showcased how a live broadcast can run exclusively in the cloud from end to end.
Microsoft and several technology partners teamed up to produce live sports commentary on the convention floor to demonstrate how broadcasters can move content directly from the camera to the cloud and then to the customer. In addition, Microsoft showed how this content can be distributed immediately in multiple languages and how to use data to drive user engagement around that content.
SVG sat down with Simon Crownshaw, worldwide strategy director, media and entertainment, Microsoft, during the show to discuss the demos taking place at the booth, the company's close partnership with the NBA (which resulted in the relaunch of the NBA App just after the show), why he believes the industry needs to adopt a cloud-first philosophy, and more.
Microsoft's Simon Crownshaw: You're going to need the cloud to create [a more immersive experience]. The cloud is ready.
What is Microsoft demonstrating here at the booth?
Our booth is based around bringing content all the way from the camera to the viewer. We have the same content running all the way through the booth: produced right off the camera, into the switcher, through the color correction and processing, all the way through distribution, and, lastly, the engagement piece. It's a full end-to-end workflow in the cloud using the same content.
By doing that we are demonstrating that you can keep it all in the cloud and you don't have to bring it down [on-premises] from one step to the next. And you can have that live experience and engagement that's based around it, which is where we see the future.
This was an important chance for us to demonstrate Microsoft's credibility, relevance, and the partners that we bring to the table. Everything is running natively on Azure; we are keeping that content fully in the cloud and doing it seamlessly without any issues. We've showed up at this IBC show differently than we ever have before: we are focused on the entire story from beginning to end.
How are you seeing the M&E market evolve today, and what role do you see the cloud playing in the future?
Whether we're talking about linear, OTA, OTT, or whatever else it might be, everyone is expecting to experience content differently than we've ever done before. There are a lot of organizations in this space today who are still reluctant to think of going beyond their linear platform. But the global demand for content is not going to change; it's only getting bigger and bigger. And in order to serve that surge in demand, you're going to have to go to the cloud.
If you look at the MovieLabs 2030 Vision, which is now being applied more broadly - not just for studios but also for advertising and broadcast content - it's heavily focused on the cloud. In this [technology roadmap], everything goes to the cloud first, has common ontology around data, and includes interoperability between ISVs to access the core benefits of the cloud. We know our partners want to get there but may be reluctant to leave behind some of the cash-cow models they have today.
But we're coming up on do-or-die time because, at some point, someone is going to come along and do the same [task] much quicker in the cloud. I absolutely see that cloud-first [mentality] as the future. Everyone needs to be focused on always giving creative people the ability to choose exactly what they want to tell the story. And the cloud is how you do that.
You are also showcasing Microsoft partnership with the NBA here. Tell us a bit about how you two are working together.
We are extremely focused on our NBA partnership here [at IBC]. It's a huge deal for us in terms of illustrating how we can truly bring Azure to life for the NBA. They are very excited about a lot of the native services that we offer around AI and ML, as well as some of the burst and rendering capabilities going on in the background [in Azure]. They are focused on offering more-personalized experiences for their fans, and we're working closely with them to enable those experiences. We're both very excited about the future. [Editor's note: this interview was conducted before the announcement of the new NBA App.]
Where do you think we are in terms of the roadmap for fully virtualized, cloud-based live productions?
My honest answer is that I think we're quickly accelerating but we have a very long way to go. It's certainly easier for sports broadcasters to go that direction because of the nature of the one-off events, where you need to spin up and spin down. That gives the industry a logical direction moving forward when it comes to cloud and virtualization.
Is it viable yet for 24/7 broadcasting? I don't think so. We're not quite there in terms of the infrastructure. I do think that people are realizing that, in order to provide the types of experiences that the customers expect in the future, especially for sports, the cloud is where things are going to have to go. The access to GPUs, the processing capabilities, the overlaying of gamification, the advanced graphics engines, and things of that nature - you're going to get that only from the cloud. In my mind, there's no way you're going get that from an on-prem infrastructure anymore.
Microsoft has emphasized its role in
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SVG Sit-Down: Microsoft's Simon Crownshaw on How M&E Should Be Planning for a Cloud-First' Future Its IBC 2022 booth showcased an end-to-end workflow in the cloud By Jason Dachman 
