Alvino Cordeiro, ATEME’s Area Sales Manager was present on the stand of CVE Italy – our Business Partner in Italy- meeting with both existing clients And new prospects.
MFC: Alvino, this is your third time at the Radio TV Forum, how do you see the evolution of the Italian broadcast industry?
AC: This show is taking place during a very special period while several regions are preparing for Analog switch off. This year we realized that most discussions around challenges that we focus on as a compression provider: Multiscreen delivery and the transition of broadcast contribution to MPEG-4 – There is a need to comply with the new international demand and be ready for accelerating the HDTV productions and broadcast.
RADIOTV FORUM is a great occasion to reaffirm ATEME’s leadership in these fields. Based on successful projects and continuous cooperation with our Partner- CVE Italy, we decided to increase our visibility using more space and dedicated advertising. Large space was assigned to demonstrate ATEME’s CM3102 contribution encoder including integrated modulator for which we had many meetings planned during the show, mainly with SNG operators. We are also showcasing the TITAN platform for Multiscreen/OTT applications.
MFC: How would you describe the main challenge for broadcasters?
AC: I would say the challenges revolve around two topics:
First is “Flexibility”. We are in a phase of new investments to address new demand and new standards; new features are arriving at a fast pace. For example, it is important to launch Multi-screen services allowing to deal with new standards coming soon such as MPEG-DASH. ATEME’s Software based strategy for OTT / Multiscreen addresses specifically this solution to ensure our customers future proof of investment.
The second challenge is that operators must be “Cost conscious”. Indeed, the on-going financial crisis has not spared broadcasters. Budgets are being watched carefully and investments not only need to be future proof, but also in line with available resources, with a demonstrated short term return on investment. ATEME developed new technologies that save money for its customers.
We can mention as example the cost effective CM3102 and DR8400 designed for contribution or the bandwidth saving on web and mobile distribution CDNs thanks to the high quality compression performance of the TITAN platform.
In ATEME, we are feeling a significant change in our customers approach to the OTT: while for several years the important thing was “just to be on the web and mobile with at least one channel” with quality aspects not really looked at, today large broadcasters realize that they need to offer all their channels on web and mobile. This brings a significant cost increase on bandwidth. To make economies some broadcasters might lower the bit rate. But they are aware, customers won’t accept lower quality!
ATEME have continuously improved the quality/bandwidth ratio in the past years and thanks to our dedication to the Compression technology, more and more broadcasters feel confident about our solutions.
Today ATEME is paving the way to new bandwidth gains in the future by taking part in the research program called 4EVER. The aim of this program is to reduce the bandwidth needed to deliver Ultra High Definition Television(UHDTV) using High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). This shows how advanced our technology is and that ATEME is a confirmed and successful front leader in the industry.