Landscape

Media organisations face many challenges to remain competitive and relevant – in a fast-changing world.

There is an increasing demand for more content and new services from a diverse, yet globalised marketplace. As the recent Ericsson ConsumerLab TV & Media Study 2017  observed – “The average number of on-demand services used per household has increased from 1.6 in 2013 to 3.8 in 2017”. This upward trend in demand for content is set to continue and indeed accelerate!

In this landscape, traditional operating models and ways of working must evolve. Key to this is the drive towards operational agility – being able to respond to market opportunities quickly and as they arise. As a media services provider, Red Bee Media must act as the conduit – allowing our customers to maximise the potential to showcase and monetise their assets.

This is where the technology choices play a major role. How Red Bee Media services platforms are deployed, architected and managed has a direct correlation with how agile both we and our customers can be.

The Red Bee Media Approach

We have long concluded that a standardised approach to architecture, technology and services, delivered from a single multi-tenant platform is the best direction. This has meant a conscious break-away from local, bespoke, vendor-driven and often custom system implementations.

In 2015, we introduced the first iteration of a cloud-based media management strategy. This offered a unified platform, enabling centralisation of resources to drive operational efficiency.

The platform has been designed from the ground up and based on our experience of delivering services to numerous global media organisations. The choices we made are forward thinking and provide a future-proof framework for evolving service’s needs. Key principles of our approach are:

  • Cloud-based to take advantage of inherent elasticity and rapid provision of resources
  • High availability based upon resilient components and hybrid-cloud replication, backup and DR options
  • Multi-tenant with every customer benefitting from common features developed in a flow of continuous deployment
  • Access to services with rapid onboarding for event on-demand requirements
  • High degree of automation for workflows, processes and tasks
  • Transparency through real-time reporting, monitoring and access
  • Location-independent operation from consolidated technology hubs and centres of expertise
  • OPEX – technology choices supporting flexible cost models including PAYG

Red Bee Nucleus

More recently, the platform has been branded as Red Bee Nucleus. Even today, Nucleus is delivering fully orchestrated content aggregation, processing, storage, preparation and publishing services – for several broadcast customers including BBC Creative.

Is it our strategy to develop all media services on the Nucleus platform?  Absolutely not.

We will continue to focus on key areas including unified platform architecture, API interface, media management, workflow and reporting – whilst partnering with third-party suppliers for integrated services such as cloud enabled transcoding, auto QC and DRM packaging.

Nucleus represents a significant investment from Red Bee Media and indicates our long-term commitment to the media and broadcast industries. We will continue to develop the platform to support the new services and business models that our customers need.

There is no doubt that the overall delivery of service, to an agreed quality – is what matters most.  However, the right underlying technology, operated and managed by Red Bee Media experts is fundamental to a successful Media Management Services delivery.

Daryl Blair, Strategic Product Manager, Media Management