TKT1957 presents the final annual survey of the television, radio and film industries around the world.

2023 has been an eventful year driven by changes in consumer behavior, technological innovation, and challenges faced by companies. Marc Baillavoine, CTO of Video Network at Synamedia, shared his thoughts and experiences while answering important questions:

1. What trends will be most important for broadcast, cinema and Pro AV industries in the last 5 years? 

The cloud and SaaS transition – from just-in-time video processing and IP distribution, to watermarking and advertising – is finally happening and accelerating after years of false starts, allowing content owners and operators to focus on their core values and areas of expertise rather than on operating a video system.

2. Which technologies and solutions do have the greatest perspective? What doesn’t have much of a chance for success?

More content is being watched online than via traditional systems, but a financial model for streaming that works for all types of providers still needs to be invented. The good news is streaming offers many monetisation possibilities, especially around ad targeting and content personalisation, and we’ll see an increased appetite for turning these new techniques into more revenue. We’ll also see solutions that improve operational efficiency and cut costs take centre stage – whether that’s managing subscribers’ broadband devices or using AI to orchestrate CDN traffic.

When used wisely AI is a force for good, not just for improving operational efficiencies, such as bitrate reduction and quality optimisation at the codec level, but also for bringing new experiences and ways to consume content, including personalised TV and content generation. But AI also makes it easier for pirates to syphon off revenue from content owners. This is why cyber-based counter piracy technologies will be more critical than ever to keep content and services secure.

3. How did 2023 influence your company? What are the most important events in 2023 for your company?

A major focus of our company’s innovation has been driven by the acceleration in the migration of media operations to the cloud across our portfolio including video processing, security, targeted advertising, business analytics and more.

Synamedia’s cloud and SaaS portfolio has evolved to support service providers and streamers in three segments: B2B distribution, D2C streaming, and IP network optimisation. Customers can simply buy a service that dynamically switches to the best model for their needs at that time.

The shift to the cloud and multi-tenant solutions makes great commercial sense for operators in terms of flexible business models and ease and speed of deployment which all helps to lower TCO.  Reliability at any scale is increasingly critical and we’re pretty proud that in a year operating 26 customers with SaaS solutions in the cloud we had zero interruptions.

4. What plans does your company have for 2024?

We’re committed to bringing new ways to deliver, enrich and protect video while maximising monetisation possibilities, optimising workflows, and keeping a tight lid on TCO.

One of our main missions in Video Network is to ease content delivery at scale. It may sound simple, but there are multiple aspects to making sure the content that exists can be streamed easily. The two main considerations are 1: using technology to scale and stream video to more people and making sure the right content is reaching the right people and 2: simplification, including in the realm of legalities and contracts when sending content to affiliates.