Spotlight on Switching in M2A Connect
This article was written by Simon Harrison, Head of Product, M2A Media.
This month, M2A Media releases a major upgrade to its live video IP transport product, M2A Connect, opening up the product’s Switching functionality through its intuitive UI.
M2A Connect provides orchestration of AWS Media Services to bring flexibility, scalability and ease of use for live video transport in the cloud.
The arena of acquiring, delivering and distributing live video requires a complex mix of forward planning for capacity allocation and last minute or even in-progress changes. Whatever the glamorous pull of live production as a career choice, what tends to carry the day is a risk-averse mind with a box filled not with tricks but alternatives, plan Bs. Live video content is precious, so it needs fall backs. It also cries out for all kinds of flexibility: flexibility of timing, routes, and outcomes, not to mention the flexibility necessitated by the unforeseen, and the history of technology choices and compromises that led everyone to this point in time.
This creates complexity and the traditional way of handling the what-ifs has been to over-allocate capacity. In terms of what this landscape looks like in practice, it’s an international web of unintegrated teams, tools, and kit, all devoted to planning, booking and executing the routes for live video. Teams with remarkably similar skill sets are divided not by process but by technology.
By bringing the flexibility of AWS’s Media Services to allocating network routes, M2A Connect tackles this complexity and the utilisation conundrum head on. Scheduling, allocation of capacity and resources, and now live switching are proffered through M2A Connect.
M2A Connect has ease of flexibility at its core. The addition of real-time switching allows rights licensing teams to create dynamic commercial partnerships. With direct access to a flexible supply of live content, broadcasters receive a better service from their partners, in choosing what content matters most to their viewers in the moment.
Through the M2A Connect UI, a broadcast partner is now able to view all available feeds and select which to acquire based on secure, pre-defined entitlements, thus giving them greater editorial control before and during the live broadcast. And switching in the UI means that the user can change the live video sources in the cloud without having to re-book an existing set up with a provider. It also means that there is no longer a need for the luxury of over-provisioning incoming feeds so that switches can be made in-house.
This is a simple and intuitive solution to provide the kind of switching capabilities you’d expect to see between at least two organisations without the need to provision fixed resources for every eventuality. In short, this takes the switching functions of provider and taker MCRs and offers them in a single screen, making the resources active as required.
Switching in M2A Connect extends M2A’s offering of recognisable broadcast services in the cloud, and underlines their commitment to bringing the benefits of cloud to all.
To learn more about how M2A Connect can change your business, get in touch.
