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November/December 2020

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www.postmagazine.com 22 POST NOV/DEC 2020 OUTLOOK TECHNOLOGY ost of 2020 has been challenging for everyone globally. Looking ahead to 2021, I think we all can agree that there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the pandemic and how it will continue to impact media compa- nies. However, what companies can do is prepare and be flexible with their plans, which is something we've all learned to do more over the last six months. With production teams working re- motely, the spotlight has become focused on high-quality, IP-based streaming and cloud security. It's more important than ever for media companies to secure their workflows to protect their content and revenues, meaning media businesses have a lot to think about if they want to oper- ate effectively and efficiently amid the 'new normal' and going into 2021. The shift in how production teams are working is also driving interest in cloud-native technologies and contain- er-based deployments. Kubernetes- based container orchestration platforms, such as OpenShift, offer reproducible, high-availability, fault-tolerant infra- structure solutions that allow media businesses to move and quickly scale their workflows to or from any public or private cloud environment without a major investment in re-architecture. The inherent values of cloud-native technologies are prompting more and more media businesses to work with external partners to evolve their public cloud resources and workflows into con- tainer-based environments. Although the media industry has been relatively slow to adopt containers compared to other sectors, we're seeing growing interest in Kubernetes and the consolidation of media offerings onto a single platform powered by containers, and I think we'll continue to see interest grow in 2021. Container technology isn't the only innovation enhancing remote production workflows. IP-based streaming is also taking on more importance and we'll see this continue as remote productions have fewer office-based IT support staff. Media businesses are operating on skeleton crews, and IP-based streaming offers a flexible and cost-efficient way of operating remote production sites without requiring a full IT staff, while also ensuring a more streamlined workflow. Linked to this, of course, is the issue of security. As productions will continue to become remote with employees working from different locations, security must be considered as a central part of any end- to-end workflow. Ensuring proper identi- ty management is becoming increasingly important, presenting a need to integrate technologies such as intelligent authenti- cation, credentials encryption and secure key management integration with BYOK (bring your own key) capabilities. BYOK enables businesses to easily and cost-efficiently rotate their encryp- tion keys, and can be supplemented with other cloud security innovations such as forensic watermarking-as-a-service to counter piracy. This all can help busi- nesses ensure security by following the principles of zero-trust environments when auditing key workflows, providing a high level of control and protecting valu- able content. These security measures can help organizations currently going through this transition phase adapt to new, secure ways of working now and in the future. Ultimately, it's becoming clear that container-based deployments will become the dominant infrastructure solution in a remote and hybrid cloud world. Cloud-native technologies are vital to supporting agile and secure opera- tions, giving media businesses the tools to enhance their remote production workflows and adapt to any situation. SECURITY AND CLOUD WORKFLOWS BY JAMES WILSON HEAD OF ASPERA ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS IBM EMERYVILLE, CA IBM.COM M AUDIO BY DR. PAUL TAPPER CEO NUGEN AUDIO LEEDS, UK HTTPS://NUGENAUDIO.COM I t feels important to start by noting that the COVID pandemic this year certainly set a new path for the world, and our industry, that no one could have expected. Despite all that 2020 has brought, we are hopeful that 2021 can only be vastly improved. Over the past several months, we've seen innovation and development occur at a pace beyond any before, opening the door for endless creativity in the New Year. Before the pandemic, streaming media was skyrocketing and, since March, its tra- jectory has been astounding. From Netflix and Disney+ to YouTube and Spotify, content — albeit quite different — is being made available (and consumed) at im- pressive rates. Even more noteworthy, of course, are the innovative ways in which it is being done. Television shows have been shot and produced from living rooms, music is being recorded in spare bed- rooms and all of this is posted from the comforts of people's homes. We expect this creativity will continue to barrel along in the early months of 2021. At Nugen, we've been working tirelessly on new software solutions that will benefit not only the TV and film production mar- ket, but all facets of audio post. Our most recent offering — a convolution reverb software known as Paragon — is a perfect solution for people editing audio captured at home. Already receiving rave reviews from mixers, engineers and producers around the world, Paragon offers full con- trol of the decay, room size and brightness via state-of-the-art re-synthesis modeled on 3D recordings of real spaces. This technology analyzes, decom- poses and re-synthesizes 3D impulse re- sponses to create new, authentic spaces. That means, when editors are sent audio from different artists and actors, re- gardless of equipment and environment during capture, they can provide a final cohesive package that sounds as though it was recorded simultaneously. With this solution, editors can take at-home pro- ductions to an entirely-new level. As a company, we are looking forward to providing more tools and product updates that will support an even greater range of needs, while simultaneously working with our existing customers to develop their skills and enhance their projects. As everyday people, we simply just cannot wait for the world to get back to normal — even if that means something totally different than what we were used to. IMPROVING THE SOUND OF REMOTE PRODUCTIONS

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