❝ The move to IP is beginning . This is massive and is a fundamental architecture shift .❞
April 2016 X-PLATFORM 43
SAM aims to lead industry ’ s move to software-driven solutions and virtualisation
At IBC 2015 , Snell and Quantel were merged to form Snell Advanced Media ( SAM ). Tim Thorsteinson , CEO of SAM , shares with APB the company ’ s vision and strategy for the broadcast industry .
❝ The move to IP is beginning . This is massive and is a fundamental architecture shift .❞
— Tim Thorsteinson , CEO , SAM
How was the launch of SAM at IBC 2015 received by customers , both existing and potential ? Tim Thorsteinson : The launch of SAM — bringing together Quantel and Snell , creating a unified company both technologically and financially — was greeted with excitement .
I have been in this industry for approximately 20 years and I have never seen the level of turmoil that we ’ ve all experienced during the past two years . Our customers need our help and fresh ideas more than ever . There ’ s the fractured nature of the consumer marketplace , with changing monetisation patterns and then huge technological shifts occurring on the infrastructure side .
Combined with the significant pressures on revenues that we have seen , with some manufacturers looking at recent falls in revenue of 20 % -25 %, there are real challenges for everybody .
We ’ ve taken great care in defining our product strategy , putting the right people in the right places on a global basis and creating a company architecture that allows us to both push forward into new worlds , such as IP , while supporting more traditional methodologies .
You mention IP there . What is SAM ’ s position ? Thorsteinson : There ’ s a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace around IP on the production / play-
SAM ’ s Stephen Wong : SAM is “ heading in a powerful direction ”.
As the broadcast industry moves towards software-driven platforms , SAM is now offering products such as ICE-IP , designed to provide playout facilities with a future-ready path to IP playout .
out side . The supplier base needs to educate and inform its customers . I have been through the move from analogue to digital , SD to HD ( ongoing in many regions ) and now the move to IP is beginning . This is massive and is a fundamental architecture shift .
The recently launched AIMS initiative is important in this regard . AIMS is beginning the process of de-risking some key issues for customers because what we are seeing is that while there ’ s uncertainty around IP technology , there ’ s also deferral of capital expenditure .
Secondly , some vendors say they are offering IP-based solutions but the customer doesn ’ t know which vendor to choose because at the moment they may well end up investing in dead-end technology that ’ s not going to interoperate . With vendors working together in AIMS , there ’ s a level of buy-in to interoperate over and above that provided by following a SMPTE standard . It will provide customers with confidence . It also indicates that multiple major suppliers truly
Asia remains key market for SAM
As SAM continues to strengthen its presence globally , Asia-Pacific will be one key region that the company pays particular attention to , according to Stephen Wong , SVP Sales , Asia-Pacific , SAM .
He explained : “ We had quite a presence prior to the launch of SAM , with a Hong Kong office and key people positioned across the region in Kuala Lumpur and India , as well as offices in Japan believe that the time is right to push forward with IP .
Fundamentally , the buying principals for customers don ’ t change with IP . Is it interoperable ? Is it upgradeable ? Is the company behind it strong ? These are not new questions . I think we will know a lot more about IP in the next 12- 18 months , including how far our customers want to go .
As I mentioned earlier , the thing that ’ s different is that the end-customer today has more uncertainty . Look at content delivery to customers and the fractured marketplace : their business plans are uncertain . They want a lot more flexibility — indeed , they need a lot more technological flexibility than the industry has frankly been able to provide in the past .
Extending that answer , what roles do software solutions ( using off-the-shelf hardware ) and beyond into virtualisation play as we move forward ? Thorsteinson : The business model is changing : more licensing , less
and China .
“ I joined over the summer [ of 2015 ], heading up SAM across Asia-Pacific and I have been involved in the restructuring of the company . We have worked to rationalise our team and fill any skillset gaps . It ’ s vital that we have the right people in the right places , for both pre- and post-sales .”
Wong , an industry veteran , believes that SAM is “ heading in a physical products , more after-sales support . We are going to be much more of a software provider than we ’ ve been and that will become even clearer over the next few years . We are very strong on the engineering side but it would be fair to say that sales and marketing are still evolving .
If you look at the playout business , it was very proprietary and hardware-based a few years ago ; now it ’ s fairly sophisticated , software-driven and going forward , it ’ s going to transition to a data centre model for many .
Most of our engineers are now software engineers and that ’ s a different business than what Snell and Quantel were involved in . That ’ s not to say that we ’ ve thrown out all our hardware capabilities , but times are changing and we are leading the way .
We will still be selling distribution amplifiers and converters and hardware production switchers and so on , so it ’ s not all software . But if we look at customer enquiries , there aren ’ t that many for baseband-only routing !
If you look at our CiAB range as a prime example , we started years ago with ICE , and now we are pushing forward with ICE-IP , ICE SDC ( software-defined channel for virtualised IP playout ), while still offering the entry-level ICE LE .
Technologically , what are the advantages of uniting Quantel
powerful direction ”, and is well placed to play a leading role in addressing the needs of broadcasters in Asia-Pacific . “ Looking at the broader view of where the industry is going in general , the transition to IP , the move to virtualised services , cloud technologies in general , 4K and HDR — all of these technology discussions resonate loudly here and with all of them , SAM is taking the lead .” and Snell as SAM ? Thorsteinson : We now have a truly joined-up technology strategy .
We ’ ve already carried out a lot of IP work on our connectivity products and that ’ s being rolled out across our editing products . HDR is working the other way .
In the sports market in particular , 4K is becoming important , as is HDR . We already have success in this regard , with more to be announced soon .
The fact that we offer highend post products with Quantel Rio means that we have market-leading experience with 4K , 8K and HDR . So to then filter those technologies across the portfolio becomes a much easier and more cost-effective proposition .
HDR will be across our product offering in the next year . For the size of company that we are , we have a very diverse portfolio .
What are your key challenges at SAM ? Thorsteinson : I think that we have a very strong product portfolio but some of that haven ’ t yet been monetised via product creation . As Snell , we were so engineering-focused that some key technologies never truly saw the light of day .
Now we are much more market-focused and have looked at how we can productise our technology in-depth . That ’ s a change in thinking and now a change in result . We are focusing on what the market needs and then how that intersects with our technology .
The more we can put into R & D , the more valuable we become .
The most important part of what remains for us to do , in the medium term at least , is complete this leveraging of technology across our product portfolio . We have some more work to do .
Media Biometrics — a technology unique to SAM — is one key area where we are working to extend that technology across our product range . We are doing the same with our Momentum workflow / MAM technology .