The Future of Broadcast: A Conversation with Microsoft, Avid, and Haivision

What does the future of broadcast look like? Microsoft Media Entertainment’s The Control Room explores the ways in which broadcast technology is continuing to evolve, in fascinating conversations with its partners. And in its most recent episode, partners Haivision and Avid dive into how the shift to IP and the cloud is already shaping the broadcast world.

An Ongoing Shift, Accelerated

In the first interview of the episode, both Avid’s Ray Thompson and Haivision’s Marcus Schioler, agree that the broadcast industry was already beginning the shift to using IP, especially for contribution workflows. And with an open-source option like the SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) streaming protocol, it has become easier, especially for news and sports broadcasters, to control costs while bringing the latest stories. What used to take a full OB van on-location can now be replaced with an app and an internet connection, as Ray explains.

The recent pandemic has highlighted the need for contingencies within the broadcast industry, and the cloud has emerged as the standout tool for business continuity. And as more broadcasters are turning to the cloud, they are beginning to see some of the other benefits and opportunities that the cloud can provide.

One of these opportunities is Haivision Hub.

In the second interview of the episode, Haivision’s Dan Epstein explains Haivision Hub, which is a cloud-based service for live, low-latency media routing across the Microsoft Azure network. Haivision Hub provides secure and reliable global transport for contribution, production, and syndication workflows, making it an ideal solution for broadcasters and video service providers.

The Importance of Security

In the shift to IP-based contribution solutions, broadcasters and media companies want to ensure that their content is secure. This is why Haivision Hub was designed with security as a top priority.

But security needs to be dynamic, as threats continue to evolve. The SRT protocol was initially developed using 128/256-bit AES encryption, and continues to evolve with the help of the open source SRT Alliance community. Some of the new security features for SRT include secure key exchange and authentication and authorization workflows. This commitment to evolution helps to ensure that SRT remains a secure protocol.

A Dive Into the Media Industry with Microsoft

Watch the full episode of The Control Room, below, to learn more about how media experts see the future of cloud-empowered broadcasting and content delivery, including an interview with an Emmy® Award winning producer, who explores the impact of the cloud from a production standpoint.

Editor’s note: When this episode of The Control Room was filmed, Haivision Hub was known as SRT Hub; it will be referred to as such throughout the video.