Six Advantages of Live Production with Cloud Technology

In an industry where productions are historically defined by the quantity, quality, and overall price tag of the gear in your rack room – cloud technology has represented a major paradigm shift for broadcasters to get their head around. With the advancement of cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), live production in the cloud no longer entails a compromise of creativity and quality of final output. In fact, by leveraging the power of the cloud, both big-player broadcast networks and up-and-coming live content creators alike can power top-tier shows with less cost, fewer constraints, and more agility than ever before.

With the recent release of Chyron LIVE, the product team at Chyron has built a professional-grade control room with production switching, real-time motion graphics, clip server functionality, audio-mixing, replay creation, and sports telestration – into a single cloud-native platform. Accessible from any device with an internet connection and on-demand subscription models, LIVE makes Chyron-Grade live video production available to anyone who wants to create content like a broadcaster.

In today’s blog article, we’ll walk you through the advantages of executing your productions in the cloud rather than in a physical control room or OB van.

1. Get Creative With Streaming and Broadcast Camera Inputs

In today’s streaming and remote-source heavy productions, the cloud is a better infrastructure than ever to centralize all your different live inputs to produce your show. With a platform like Chyron LIVE, producers can leverage: 

• Tried-and-true streaming protocols like Real-Time-Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) to bring in various streaming media
• Low-latency, high-quality stream protocols like Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST), Secure Reliable Transport (SRT), and ZIXI to transport video sources – such as a feed from a mobile device – over unpredictable internet connections and private IP networks
• Traditional broadcast sources such as NDI and SDI cameras via a simple stream-encoding process that makes these sources available in a cloud environment

Historically, video engineers would shudder at the thought of bringing anything but a top-quality SDI camera into their broadcast. But increasingly, modern audiences care more about speed, ease-of-access, and excitement of the coverage itself – rather than the video quality. Use a variety of different sources to provide more dynamic, energetic coverage of your live events from unique viewpoints!

Watch the Chyron LIVE video to see how a professional production comes together on a cloud-native platform

2. The Power of an OB Van Anywhere You Need

The ability to spin-up a cloud production control room on-demand presents incredible cost-savings and reduction in operational logistics. Think of your classic sports production scenario, covering a match for televised broadcast from an OB van. You need a heavy-duty vehicle, a full rack’s worth of expensive production gear, and all the necessary operator staff on-site to execute your show. This scenario entails logistic, equipment, maintenance, and staffing costs that put broadcast out of reach for smaller-tier content creators and niche sports with fledgling audiences. 

On the flip side, utilizing a platform like Chyron LIVE, the only on-site requirement is camera equipment, camera operators, and the network connectivity to transport the video feeds into the cloud. You can simply spin-up your cloud control room and start producing.

[READ: All-in-One-Production on a Cloud-Native Platform]

3. Collaborate with a Global Production Crew

While your production demands may still require onsite camera operators, the rest of your production crew can handle their role from anywhere in the world. Technical directors, graphic ops, replay ops, and telestrators – these roles are usually associated with a seat in the truck and a hefty hardware interface to get the job done. With an all-encompassing platform like Chyron LIVE, users can remotely collaborate in real-time on the same cloud production instance via dedicated browser interfaces. A TD can switch the show, a graphics op can queue and play graphics, and a replay op can put together illustrated replay packages – while observing what changes and actions other users are making.

4. The Real Remote Production Experience

As “the cloud” has become a bit of an industry buzzword, some vendors try to pass-off jagged remote control of onsite hardware engines as “cloud workflows” – but this simply isn’t true. The downfall of these faux cloud workflows is that you’ll likely miss out on quality-of-life you enjoy in a hardware control room. Reduction in feature set, scaled-down control, or maybe your control interface lacks any live video previews of the sources you’re working with.

By building key video production components into a cloud-native architecture – production switcher, CG, clip playout, replay, and telestration – Chyron LIVE provides a producer experience that’s just like what you’d expect in a physical control room. With live monitoring of every external video source and internal graphics, clips, and replay sources – and the features to use each component to it’s fullest potential.

[READ: Chyron LIVE Wins 2022 NAB Show Product of the Year Award]

5. Hit Your Revenue-Generating OTA, OTT, and Social Channels

In the same-way that live inputs for a production have become increasingly web-connected and streaming-based, so have the channels where you’ll find the growing majority of viewing audiences. Live streaming platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook LIVE provide rapid-access to full-length live content from any device – while social media channels themselves are ripe for grabbing attention with eye-catching highlight clips. With a web-based platform like Chyron LIVE, you can easily publish directly to these cornerstone online channels, as well as your own proprietary OTT platform. And again, for OTA broadcasting, the process is as simple as encoding your stream output into a suitable format for broadcast.

6. Cloud Technology = More Opportunities for Great Content

Perhaps the most significant advantage of cloud technology is it’s ability to eliminate the massive cost barriers associated with top-tier live content. Chyron LIVE makes the production capability of a six-figure control room available for only $50-$100 an hour. This on-demand subscription model eliminates the need for massive upfront investments, and gives you the agility to capitalize on revenue opportunities that were previously unfeasible from a cost and logistic standpoint. Spin-up a popup channel for a specific live event or build audiences in promising yet currently small-scale markets by activating your cloud control room for only the few hours you need to prepare, produce, and wrap-up your shows. Without having to give an arm and a leg to create professional content, you can bring that excitement and energy to entirely new channels and audiences.

What New Content Can You Realize in the Cloud?

Cloud technology makes the creation of broadcast-grade productions more flexible and affordable than ever before. While this is fantastic news for how you fulfill your existing programming, think of how you can apply this new paradigm to address your organization’s wish-list of content, channels, and audiences that just weren’t quite feasible from a cost and logistic perspective in the past. To learn just how powerful production in the cloud can be, visit the Chyron LIVE web page to learn more.