An Internet of Things Architecture for Cloud-Fit Professional Media Workflow

Flexibility, agility, and scale are key benefits of moving media production infrastructure to the cloud and/or commodity data center platforms, enabling content providers to respond to changing consumer habits. This includes new formats and new propositions, such as personalized immersive social television. Can a lift and shift approach—deploying existing production tools designed for enterprise computing environments into the cloud—deliver these benefits? This paper presents an alternative architecture that is designed to be cloud-fit, using a software-only approach for deploying dynamic software infrastructure. This paper starts by outlining both the benefits and constraints of cloud-based systems, including issues related to virtualized systems being inherently non-realtime. An architecture that overcomes these limitations is then presented, along with an approach for dealing with security and scaling. This consists of a combination of mainly IT tool sets (e.g., monitoring tools, orchestration engines, cloud application programming interfaces, and automated software deployment) with media-specialist software components. An instance of this architecture has been created using an open source Internet of Things wiring tool. This is being trialed as part of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Northern Ireland’s internet protocol proof-of-concept activity, working jointly with Streampunk Media and Cinegy through Advanced Media Workflow Association Labs. The lab environment has enabled the testing and measurement of aspects of this approach, including gesture-based control (e.g., via smartphone/tablet), HTTPS media transport, fast networking with consumer devices, and virtual infrastructure replacing traditional hardware solutions—including a virtual video mixer. Results from the lab are presented, along with a description and pointer to the open source tools used to produce the results, further analysis, and next steps.