M+E Connections

Advanced compute including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), broadcast, editorial, previsualization, smart stages, VFX and all data-centric workflows are, at their cores, supported by a broadcast and studio operation’s data center infrastructure.

On April 24, during the panel session “Many Verticals, One ‘Intelligent’ Foundation” at the Intelligent Content Theatre during the NAB Show in Las Vegas, industry experts warned how media and entertainment (M&E) equipment rooms and workstations built outside of data industry standards risk failure.

They explained why it’s important to the M&E industry as a whole to appreciate, learn and implement existing data industry standards.

“There are many verticals within [the] space but all of them have one foundation, which is data center infrastructure,” according to moderator Eric Rigney, Media and Entertainment Data Center Alliance (MEDCA) EVP.

While everybody seems to be discussing smart stages, broadcast, vertical production, advanced compute, AI and ML – all the “sexy stuff” – in the industry now, the “less sexy part,” data and industry standards, which are “foundational,” often don’t get discussed, he noted.

There are other governance boards related to the M&E sector but they don’t focus on data center infrastructure, he said.

Quoting a colleague of his, he added: “When a facility can’t afford to build their data center infrastructure properly the first time, they somehow find the money to do it the second time.” So it’s best that an organization try to get it right the first time.

“I think the perception of a data center – and I hear this a lot – is that ‘we don’t build data centers,’” Sean Tajkowski, technical director and co-founder of the Media and Entertainment Data Center Alliance (MEDCA)

That prompts him to think: “What are you building? An AV rack?” After all, he said, “90 percent of your process is data-centric and those require data centers.”

And “anything that ingests data and pushes and pulls data is a data center,” he pointed out, adding: “I’ve even heard that the [mobile] phone is an edge data center.”

He predicted we will see “many localized data centers,” adding “connected stages are going to require that really because we’re starting to see more on-prem compute.” Meanwhile, “we’re seeing visual effects in real time” and that requires larger processing capability, he noted.

Seeking a Dialogue

“We’re not trying to create standards. They already exist,” Rigney noted. “We’re just trying to get a dialogue between media and entertainment and the IT world to create a short list of those standards that … serve the M&E space and, by doing so,” to achieve compliance in more of a technical alignment for the future, he said.

In addition to informing people in the space what’s coming around the corner, this will also provide a greater “opportunity for interoperability so, when someone comes [to] your facility and they want to plug in, it’s more plug and play than having to have to figure it all out over again,” he explained. “There’s also the risk mitigation factor,” he added.

“one of the other problems we’ve always run into is sometimes we’re, we’re all about standards when we build it.

Another Issue

“One of the other problems we’ve always run into is sometimes we’re all about standards when we build it,” according to Jeff Sengpiehl, chief technologist at Key Code Media.

“And then later, as we start adding to it, we start with an engineered solution and then it begins to grow organically and it goes everywhere,” he said. “We just throw fiber over racks and we run things across the floor and people are tripping over stuff and stuff doesn’t work.”

Chrissy Olsen, global director of data centers at Belden, also spoke during the panel session.