Looking back at 2018
How was this year which is about to end? Fast and exciting. For the TV industry, it was a year of learning. There are many new technologies available and in various phases of adoption or testing by media companies. A key factor here is the generation change. The broadcasters, who understand the difference between IT and broadcast technology, are disappearing. The new generation of IT professionals is reaching positions with decision making power. For them, cloud-based services are just something they have been using throughout their entire life, and thus migrating media operations to the cloud feels natural. IP-based baseband transport, based on IT industry standards, will solve all of today’s challenges. And finally, all has to be virtual.
In this year, we learned that the cloud may be a good solution for some channels, but does not work for others. IP will not make the future cheaper. And when we look at the top companies in cloud-based playout, they do not use virtualization, but run their software on bare metal. This is a good sign – the customers evaluate the technologies carefully and try to use them smartly, to find an optimum mix that meets the requirements of that particular media company.
This mixed world, where various technologies are to be glued together, is ideal for Aveco. Our automation and media management products have always been used to build an effective media production line out of a pile of boxes, systems and services of third-party vendors.
In 2018, we introduced Redwood Black, an integrated playout device that mixes SDI and IP I/Os and supports formats up to 4K UHD. We introduced plenty of new features, one of which won the Best of Show award at NAB. We assisted our customers in launching many interesting projects, from multilingual multichannel news facility for mobile platforms, to huge entertainment broadcasters. Our company has grown; we have more people in more geographies to better serve our customers.
It has been a good year.
But, there is also another point of view, and I really think we should keep that in mind. It is the content that our technologies gather, manage and deliver to viewers. Did you see in the media that the NASA’s InSight spacecraft has landed on Mars? It is a great success! At the same time, the most important planet in the whole universe, the Earth, has been left without any care, and maybe without any hope. Brainless consumption, pollution, overpopulation, with our inability to agree on any solution due to our commercial interests, does not give many reasons for optimism.
Well, the weather has changed and my country is seriously drying, maybe this imminent danger leads me to think and write from a wider angle. I just hope our technologies will be used to inform openly about the real challenges, to help to make our lives better, not only more spectacular.
Pavel Potužák, Aveco's CEO