12
NEWS & VIEWS
July 2018
Arista Networks fills skill sets and
expertise gaps in IP transition
One of the key challenges facing
broadcasters looking to move to
IP infrastructures is the require-
ment of a different skill sets among
traditional broadcast engineers,
said Richard Bayliss, director of
systems engineering, Asia-Pacific
and Japan, Arista Networks.
Speaking to APB at the IP
Master Class organised by APB and
Ideal Systems last month in Singa
pore, he pointed out: “This can
create constraints on how quickly
broadcasters can move to an IP
network — there are the skills that
they need, there’s the experience
of working with the technology,
and when we are talking about live
TV, we do need to ensure that the
end-user experience is the primary
focus.”
To help fill these gaps, Arista
Networks has been, in Bayliss’
words, “working very hard” through
industry forums and public show-
cases to demonstrate the compa-
ny’s readiness to help broadcasters
transition to IP. “If you think about
the skill shortages, particularly
when it comes to broadcast engi-
neers having the experience in IP
networking, this is an area where
Arista has been working hand-in-
hand with broadcasters to fill these
gaps and to use our IP expertise to
bring greater benefits and faster
results to the projects that we work
on,” he continued.
“We have a lot of experience
through conducting a number of
trials and public testings; we can
take these experiences, and we can
share best practices with our cus-
tomers so that while they may not
yet have all the skill sets required
within their own organisations, we
can certainly partner with them
to help them get to the outcome
they want.”
One prominent partner of
Arista Network in Asia-Pacific is
NEP Australia, which in 2017 chose
the former to provide core network
infrastructure to its new production
hubs. And while Bayliss acknowl-
edged that it will take time for
broadcasters to learn about IP, he
identified the NEP Australia project
as a leading example of why being
a first-mover can pay handsome
dividends.
“If you look at the timeline, it was
a very aggressive project,” Bayliss
described. “In fact, it was started
before many of the standards in
SMPTE ST 2110 were ratified. All
it required was for NEP Australia
to work with Arista and a range
of technology providers to make
sure that the technology and
the architecture was going to be
standard-compliant, and was still
going to be delivered based on the
SMPTE standards.”
By pushing forward and not
waiting, NEP Australia has been
able to deliver an innovative solu-
tion that has given them a whole
❝ Arista has been working
hand-in-hand with
broadcasters to fill these
[skill sets] gaps and to use
our IP expertise to bring
greater benefits and faster results. ❞
— Richard Bayliss, Director of Systems Engineering,
Asia-Pacific and Japan, Arista Networks
new set of skills and core structure
for their business, according to
Bayliss.
This includes the ability to pro-
duce multiple live sports produc-
tions from a single Andrews Hubs
facility, without having to send
a team of producers to different
locations. “This gives NEP Australia
the ability to increase the amount
of content they are producing, and
to reduce the cost of creating that
content. It also allows them to scale
up their teams and make them
more competent as they go
through their work,” Bayliss
added.
And as a final t