Moving to the Media Cloud

8/3/2019 Moving to the Media Cloud

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Consumers increasingly expect anddemand content anywhere, anytime,and across a dazzling array of media

and devices. To compete and succeed in

this environment, organizations of all kindsneed more efficient, cost-effective ways tocreate, store, manage, share, and deliverdigitized content. For many, cloud capabilities

tuned specifically for media and entertainmentrequirements may be the solution.

Moving to the Media Cloud

Viewpoint paper

in todays consumer-driven environment.


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Table of contents

Media consumption is changing ................................1The media cloud solution ..........................................4

Architecting the media cloud .....................................5Benefits of the media cloud .......................................6HP and Intel cloud capabilities ...................................6Cloud on the horizon: a real-world example ................7Conclusion .............................................................8Contributors............................................................9


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HP and Intel examine key trends affecting

broadcast and cable networks, telecomcarriers, and other content-oriented players.We explore the functional and technical aspectsof a media cloud and the measurable benefits

of this approach.

Media consumption is changingThe challenge now is to get ahead of that change andto meet the consumption requirements of the future.

The rapid growth in mobile phone usage, Wi-FiWiMAX and broadband availabilityfueled by theadvent of next-generation networks (3G, Multimedia

Broadcast, and Multicast Services [MBMS]), Fiber tothe Home, converged devices, advanced compression,and streaming technologieshas dramaticallychanged how consumers touch and use content.

Todays consumers use social networks, Internet-basedtelevision and radio, streaming and on-demand video,mobile music and applications, and personalized oruser-generated content. They are increasingly willingto sample and consume both new and traditionaltypes of content online and on-the-go. This is creatingan explosion in the digital multimedia content beingmade available. In fact, industry estimates suggest that

by 2015, up to 500 billion hours of content will beavailable for digital distribution.1

Moreover, consumers increasingly expect anddemand anywhere, anytime access to content througha dazzling and growing array of devicesfromtelevisions, digital video recorders (DVR), in-homeentertainment systems, PCs and laptops, tablets,mobile phones, portable media devices, digitalsignage, and in-car entertainment systems. Asexamples, by 2015, there will be 1 billion mobilevideo customers.2 And 15 billion devices will be ableto receive content over the Internet.3

1 iSupply, YouTube, 20082 ABI Research, Mobile Video Services, 20103 IDC, ICT Outlook: Recovering Into a New World, #DR2010_GS2_JG,

March, 2010

We see these megatrends as continuing the ongorevolution in TV viewing habits. Long gone are tdays when a few dozen program streams deliverevia broadcast channels would suffice. The futurenot going to be the 500 channels envisioned in thearly 1990s, either. Instead, we see an evolution ta media world thats a combination of TV, moviesmusic, games, and information services, clusteredaround four broad customer experiences:4

The Informative ExperienceWith media in dform, examination and analysis of its content isno longer limited to human eyes. Computers cannow watch video and autonomously detect anrecognize people and other content. If you consthere are some 500 billion hours of content, it isclear that it will take a sophisticated, cloud-basemultimedia analysis search capability to discoveand locate the material of interest to one individ

The Ubiquitous ExperiencePeople increasing

want the option of enjoying their chosen media cowherever and whenever they want it. Besides drthe obvious requirements for higher performancehigher availability, and more mobile network accewill also drive requirements for storage and deliof content suitable for transport over differentnetwork types and complex rights management.

4 Screen Future: The Future of Entertainment, Computing, and the DevWe Love, B.D. Johnson, Intel Press (to be published)


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The Personalized ExperienceThe concept ofchannels is rapidly dying. First, with the videocassette recorder (VCR) and even more so with thedigital video recorder (DVR), consumers no longerneed to be at home at a specific time on a specifieddate to watch the desired content: AppointmentTV is a thing of the past. Traditional TV networksare increasingly making their content available forstreaming online, even for high-value content suchas primetime series and the World Cup. The amount

of content being made available is overwhelmingthe traditional electronic program guide (EPG).Consumers increasingly will want to watch theircontent when and where they choose on the devicethey choose.

The Social ExperienceYouTube and Skype havedemonstrated that consumers are not satisfied withpassively watching studio-created, one-way content.Consumers also wish to share and interact sociallywith others. This takes place in forms both real-timeand interactive (e.g., Skype), and via personalpublishing (YouTube, blogs).

Rattling the value chainThose tectonic shifts in content form and usageare creating both challenges and opportunitiesacross the communications landscape. They affectcontent providers including cable operators, satellitecompanies, and telecommunications firms, as wellas media and entertainment companies, over-the-topplayers (such as Amazon, Apple TV, Google TV,and Netflix), publishers and information services,and a growing array of commercial and industrialcompanies of all kinds. In fact, these changes willimpact literally any company that uses images, audio,

video, or digitized content in any form and that relieson a network to enable those capabilities.

The growth in digital media is also driving real change.More and more content is either created in orconverted to digital formats. That building wave ofelectronic material is creating complex new storage,management, and delivery challenges. As the familiarchannel model for the delivery of content has collapsed,ad revenues from traditional sources continue to erode.Convergence continues in many levelsboth amongIT, telecommunications, and media and entertainmentorganizations and in the hardware, software, and

services used to create, manage, and disseminatedigital content.

Looking across those content providers, we cansee clear similarities, distinctions, and competitiveoverlaps. All must deal with the general effects of theworldwide economic slowdown, while at the sametime adjusting to a number of industry- and niche-specific trends.

Looking across the value chain of media use andconsumptionfrom content production through comanagement and distribution, to the managementof the entertainment experience and enterprise-levconcernsa number of clear trends emerge.

The service areas of key telecom service providersexample, now overlap those of leading cable operaby some 96%, and most players now compete dirin many regional market segments. For video producable subscriptions are down, while telcos have

gained video market share. Just the opposite hashappened in U.S. high-speed data and voice, withtelecom carriers losing ground to cable operators.

Cable operators are feeling real pressure from telccarriers and from powerful Internet-based competiand have seen erosion in both their customer baseand bottom-line performance. In response, the cabindustry is pursuing a number of forward-lookinginitiatives. One is the TV Everywhere effort to crearevenue streams when consumers view televisioncontent online. Another is the growing use of RemStorage DVRs (RS-DVR) to shift content storage frothe home to a centralized storage center, givingconsumers more functionality and greater flexibilitin where, when, and on what device they accessthat content, enabling ubiquitous and personalizedexperiences. Industry analysts have estimatedcontinued strong growth in the sale of DVRs, asmeasured both in market share and as a percent ooverall storage capacity.

Together, these trends and forces exert tremendoupressure on players across the communicationsspectrum. Content is the unifying factor. Virtually a

organization that delivers content across a telecomcable, satellite, or enterprise network will be affecby the accelerated need for change.

Content is the key; the network is the enabler; andemerging generation of cloud-based solutions willthe fabric upon which this new era of content will built. Some of those solutions are direct responses tescalating cost of localized storage and functiona

The cost of deploying and managing DVR-basedset-top boxes (STB) continues to rise. As of 2009,the average STB cost USD 160, required a USD450 house call for deployment, and added anoth

USD 10 to 15 each for additional features such asmultiple tuners, whole-home DVR, and multiroom vdistribution support. While data storage costs aredecreasing, the industry spends an average of fro40 to 45 cents per GB for STB-based storage. All the cost of deploying and managing a STB exceedUSD 600 for most service providers.


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As DVR usage grows, so will those costs. Industryobservers predict that by 2015, the number of DVRsubscriber households in the United States will grow to53 million, or 44% of all television households. In thatsame timeframe, managed services-based video on

demand will reach 66 million homes, or about 54%of TV households. By the end of 2015, more than 89million U.S. homes will enjoy broadband access.5

Aside from the deployment costs involved, while DVRsgo a long way in helping provide the personalizedexperience in the home, even a whole-home DVRprovides no value to mobile video services consumedwith devices outside the home. So increasingly, therewill be the desire to drive that functionality into thecloud and virtualize it to provide anytime/anywheredelivery of a specific program.

The growth in digital media is also driving real change.

More and more content is being either created in orconverted to digital formats, and that building wave ofelectronic material is creating complex new storage,management, and delivery challenges.

As the familiar channel model for the delivery ofcontent has collapsed, ad revenues from traditionalsources continue to erode. Convergence continuesin many levelsboth among IT, telecommunications,and media and entertainment organizationsand inthe hardware, software, and services used to create,manage, and disseminate digital content.

5 On-Demand Quarterly, MAGNA, June, 2009

A shift to the edge

Analyzing these fundamental changes, HP and Intforesee a fundamental shift in how content will bedelivered in the futurefrom todays device-centricmodel to a more practical and efficient networkcloud-based approach. (See Figure 1.) The adventof cloud-based services will spur two additional aimportant changes: the shift of intelligence away fthe network core and toward the network edge, aa similar movement of storage and some functionaaway from the home and toward the network edg

In response to these changes, carriers are deployimultiple delivery platforms, multi-room DVRs, HDDVRs, and devices to support time- and place-shiftThey are also working with television manufactureto create universal plug-and-play (UPnP) solutions function as fully featured media centers.

Just as those macro changes are forcing changesin many fundamental business models, digitizationis pushing many firms toward new methods ofproducing, managing, storing, and deliveringcontent. Companies simply cannot hope to push anew generation of digital content through the samprevious-generation pipes and joints. Adaptingto newer-generation pipes can present its ownchallenges, such as the delays and buffering thatoccur when network congestion or changed chanconditions require a shift in encoder parameters avideo resolution.

Figure 1Future road map for TV delivery

Integrated IPTV Devices

TV Sets(Home Network, UPnPembedded IPTV Clients)

HD Whole Home DVR

Media Center TV(Software Plug-in)

Cloud-Based Services

Media Management &Delivery from Cloud

Wireless Broadband IPTV(WiMAX, LTE)

P2P enabled CDN, SIP foIPTV Signalling, VOD via R

All in One Devices

Set top Boxes

Whole Home DVR

Place Shifting Devices

(SlingBox, HAVA)

Hybrid Content Feed

Device Centric Network Ce

Future Road Map for TV Delivery


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Any company that runs or depends on a networkshould beat the very leastinvestigating therequirements and possibilities of the media cloud.

Cable providers that run complex networks and haveintimate connections to subscribers are interested,because they seek ways to reduce customer premiseequipment costs, to control truck rolls, and to improvesubscriber satisfaction. Telecom service providers andothers are racing to provide the time- and place-shiftedcapabilities todays consumers demand, and to do

so across the three-screen (and tomorrows n-screen)device universe.

Given those realities, companies across thiscommunications spectrum must find new ways to create,store, share, and manage digital materials. Somehave tried to cobble home-grown solutions. Most areseeking more advanced tools and methods.

The age of content has arrived. The winners in this newmedia-centric world will be those who learn to bettercreate, share, manage, and deliver digitized materials.

The media cloud solutionA rapidly maturing addition to information technologycapabilities, cloud computing allows flexible, highlyscalable services to be delivered and consumed overthe Internet on an as-needed basis. Cloud computingis already opening new ways to source, deliver, andgovern a growing range of information, content, andcommunications technology services.

As such, the cloud holds very real promise forcommunications service providers, cable andbroadcast firms, production companies, media

outletsand virtually any organization that creates,stores, and disseminates digital content.

But not just any cloud will do. To meet the uniquerequirements of content-oriented organizations, HP andIntel believe cloud computing must provide a number ofspecific capabilities. It must enable ubiquitous deliveryacross three screensand the futures n-screenuniverseof live and on-demand content. The cloudmust function to distribute and deliver content, and tostore and manage subscriber documents for serviceproviders. Using universal plug-and-play standards,this approach should also allow clients to quickly and

efficiently discover content within the cloud.

A workable media cloud consists of several key elem

IPTVAs operators move away from traditionaldelivery methods, cloud-based computing providthe service delivery and middleware capabilitiesneeded to provide live and on-demand video ove

Three- and N-Screen DeliveryThe cloud is alideally suited to meet the evolving, multi-screenexpectations of todays content consumers. Cliencan access the cloud for live, on-demand, and rtime content transcoding, streaming managemen

and multi-screen workflow management services Time and Place ShiftingConsumers expect

content to be available virtually anywhere and aany time. Cloud-based services can support roband affordable time- and place-shifting capabiliwith remote storage and network-based DVRs,advanced content and asset management, andstorage as a service (SaaS) solutions.

Value-Added ServicesOrganizations of virtuaany kind can also access cloud-based services fcontent delivery network (CDN) and for plug-anplay content discovery. The inherent flexibility of

the media cloud allows targeted ad insertion onnational, regional, local, or even personalized b

Personalized ChannelConsumers todaymake use of a combination of the heuristic learncapabilities of TiVo devices and Web searches tlocate the content they want. They want a servicwith which they just register their preferences, thmakes use of metadata reading and video analyto find the content they want.

Video AnalyticsVideo analytics are used to seand index video streams, both archive and real-

As the fastest growing data type on the Internet in storage, video can be far more useful, effectivand efficient when analyzed correctly.

To drive the progression of these four elements, seproviders, cable operators, media firms, and otheshould also seek a core set of media-oriented clousupport capabilities. Crucial media cloud supportservices include:

Storage and infrastructure management

Cluster and grid management

Workflow automation

State-of-the-art capabilities in a multitenantcloud environment


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Architecting the media cloudHP and Intel believe that to be effective, a cloudmust be designed to meet stringent and very specificdesign requirements. Figure 2 depicts a logical cloudarchitecture for media companies. As shown in Figure2, the cloud consists of five primary elements:

Cloud administrative services including OSS andBSS, cluster management, ingestion routing, streamdirection, DVR controlling, and video analytics formeta data generation (for EPG and surveillance).

Ingest services, such as live or file content ingestion,video complexity measurement, wrapping, andformat adaptation. Ingest services accept media

input from a wide range of sources, including real-time and on-demand video, Internet-based content,and external content storage.

Streaming services including native MPEG TSstreaming, web and Flash media servers, digital rightsmanagement, and various value-added services.

Video services, to manage video on demand (VOD),RS-DVR, Pause Live TV (PLTV), Network Personal

Video Recorder (nPVR), and Time Shifted TV (TSTV).Video is then flowed across media delivery channelsto televisions, PCs, and mobile devices.

Storage subsystems for content cache and

movement, storage, and asset management.

Design considerations

A cloud must be able to deliver content via multip

pathways, including STB-based television, cable-caready TV, desktop computers, and mobile devicesshould provide reliable support for multiple tenantallowing multiple system operators (MSO) and serproviders to take advantage of common and econinfrastructures and software components.

By making services available in a hosted environma well-designed cloud allows tenants to shareoperational costs and to use plug-and-play integrato quickly and easily add new applications, whileminimizing the impact on service delivery. Thosequalities allow cloud services to be selected based

their functional utility to subscribers and consumerA media cloud must be elastic. To meet the changineeds of multiple tenants, the cloud infrastructure be capable of machine counts ranging from thehundreds into the thousands, and should include dstorage capacity exceeding the 100 PB range. Clarchitecture should allow capacity scaling throughquick, cost-effective additions or removals of serveand other storage elements.

Cloud technology should, of course, deliver high-efficiency, low-latency content caching, streaming,

transcoding, and delivery from various edge locatIt should also support fast and effective site-to-sitereplication and synchronization of content.

Figure 2Media cloud architecture

ExternalContentStore

VOD

M

RealTime

Internet

Media IndexGeneration Native MPEG TS

Streaming

RSDVR

PLTV

nPVR

TSTV

VOD

Flash MediaServer (FMS)

WebServer

StorageManagement

ContentMover

Content/AssetManagement

ContentCache

Video FormatAdaptation

Video ComplexityMeasurement

Content Ingest(Live or File)

Video/MediaWrapping

OSS/BSS ClusterManagementIngest

RoutingStream

Re-DirectorDVR

ControllerVideo

Analytics

DRM

APPAPPAPP

Value-Added

Services

MediaInp

utSources

MediaDelive

ryChannels

VideoServices

Media Cloud Admin

IngestServices

StreamingServices

StorageSub-System


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Disk I/O subsystem speed is crucialand by using next-generation processors, SAS interfaces, solid-state drives(SSD), and other advancestodays most advancedsolutions can achieve exceptional disk I/O performance.Given the many systems and memory subsystems thatconstitute a robust media cloud, any workable solutionmust also provide efficient power utilization.

The cloud should protect content with advancedidentity and privacy management techniques, ensuringthat content is secured during ingestion, storage, and

play-out. Network utilization and security can beoptimized with methods such as soft-routing-basedfirewalls, which serve to isolate clients in shared, multi-tenant cloud environments.

Finally, by incorporating todays most sophisticatedavailability and fault tolerance mechanisms, a well-crafted media cloud will provide both fail-proof readsand writes and automatic recovery in the event of asystem failure.

Future possibilities

Given those current capabilities, how might the

media cloud evolve? In the future, the cloud mayfunction as a digital assembly line for the production,customization, and marketing of digital content of allkinds. Content providers might go directly to cloudtechnology providers, as we have already seen withthe relationship between YouTube and MSNBC.

The cloud could support a range of new capabilities suchas just-in-time media and marketing and, increasingly,intelligent and audience-specific messaging. Serviceproviders will likely use asynchronous replication tosupport subscribers as they move in a moregeographically diverse global environment.

Those are just a few of the possible variations on theflexible media cloud environment.

Benefits of the media cloudBy adopting a service-oriented cloud computingapproach, organizations can realize a number ofmeasurable advantages. The media cloud:

Provides edge-based intelligent management ofinfrastructure, content, and services designedspecifically for service provider and media environments

Supports the consistent, efficient service managementand content delivery from multiple wireless, data,TV, and special-access networks to three-screen andemerging n-screen devices of choice

Also supports efficient home-to-core content flows

Drives service and offer differentiation withpersonalized time- and place-shifted content delivery

Maximizes in-place network investments

Harnesses more powerful processors to measuraboost STB performance, lower the cost of storagand extend STB life expectancy

Opens new, long-term revenue streams bysupporting targeted, 1/1 local advertising insertacross multiple service networks and the deployof next-generation advertising products and tool

Creates a more agile, cost-effective environmentmedia production, collaboration, and dissemina

Takes full advantage of oversubscription quota sy

Uses industry-standard, easily inserted modules support fast and affordable capacity scaling andseamless upgrades to next-generation servicesand functionality

Incorporates advanced architecture, servers, andprocessors to lower power consumption and to reinfrastructure, operational, and maintenance cos

Makes the most of sophisticated service deliverycapabilities to accelerate time-to-market for newservices, even across multiple networks

HP and Intel cloud capabilitiesTogether, HP and Intel have built an intelligentmedia cloud solution that enables content-drivenorganizations to deliver video and other content togrowing array of clients, devices, and screen typeThis next-generation media cloud and associatedsystems take full advantage of industry-standardplatforms to provide exceptional flexibility, economand scalability.

The solution uses the latest HP DL380-G7 and HPDL580-G7 servers with Intel Xeon processors 56

and 7500 series.Intel Xeon processor 5600 series automaticallyregulates power consumption and intelligentlyadjusts server performance according to applicatidemand, maximizing both energy cost savings anperformance. Intel Xeon processor 7500 series-baservers can dramatically increase performance,efficiency, and reliability and offer the industryshighest virtualization performance and support formore virtual machines per server.

These multiprocessor systems incorporate increasememory and Intel QuickPath Technology to estabhigh-speed interconnects between processors andmemory. In addition, 10 GB Intel Ethernet Netwoadapters provide increased throughput and overasystem performance. Intel Solid State Drives (InteSSD) drive increased performance in critical areasthe media cloud.


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Network loading can be reduced, and customerquality of experience (QoE) can be enhanced whencontent is streamed to Intel Core processor-basedclients implementing video post-processing algorithms.

Video post-processing can be especially powerfulwhen used cooperatively with cloud-based videoencoder enhancements. Also, the use of Scalable

Video Coding (SVC) in both cloud and client allowsfor very ef ficient, low-latency, post-encoder adaptionof the data rate to real-time network conditions. Thiscan reduce cloud storage and data managementrequirements and power consumption, since onlyencoding is needed for multiple different pipes. Inthe future, joint source-channel coding (JSSC) maybe added for higher efficiencies, and no-referenceobjective video quality may be used to improvemeasurement performance.

HP and Intel have long been at the forefront of cloudcomputing research and development. HP has worked

with Intel and leading R&D authorities to create aglobal cloud computing test bed to drive collaborativeresearch on the management of cloud computing datacenters and applications.

HP continues to collaborate with selected partners torefine and develop a wide range of cloud-relatedtechnologies and capabilities, including communicationsas a service (CaaS), video streaming, outsourcedsolutions, and comprehensive integration capabilities.

Cloud on the horizon: a real-worldexampleConsumers once gathered to watch programmingat a set time and from a single screen. But those dare gone.

In the age of social media, more potent mobile dev

and expanded wireless and wireline network capaviewers increasingly demand anywhere, anytime acto content on a growing array of screens. Researcshows a 70% increase in mobile subscribers acceplace-shifted content on mobile phones, smartphoand computers and a 32% increase in time-shiftedin-home television viewing habits.6

It comes, then, as no surprise that content creatorsmedia planners, and network operators are seekinways to satisfy next-generation content expectatio

One promising advancethe remote-storage DVR(RS-DVR)takes the set-top DVR concept of recordand playing back digital content to a new and higlevel. RS-DVRs provide managed, network-basedstorage and play-out of broadcast content with qumanagement, live TV pause, and other advancedcapabilities. The RS-DVR approach supports seamcontent delivery to multiple screens and the additiadvertising, real-time transcoding, and other valueadded services during delivery.

Content-driven organizations can use the RS-DVRmodel to create new revenue streams, to managecapital and maintenance costs, and to create

opportunities for new geographic, OTT, and multiscreen service offerings.

6 Nielsen Company research statistics.


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ConclusionContent-dependent organizations of all kinds arestruggling to produce, store, share, and distributemassive new volumes of digitized material. They serveconsumers who now expect content to be readilyavailable at any time, in any place, and across agrowing multitude of devices and media.

Forward-looking organizations are now usingadvanced media cloud capabilities to better managecontent across the value chain. The power andflexibility of cloud computing support sector-specificsolutions for telecom service providers, cable networkoperators, and media and entertainment firmsandfor virtually any company or agency that uses orshares digital content.

A media cloud can be deployed to reduce bothcapital and operating costs, and to extend the usefullife of in-place infrastructure. The cloud can be used

to reach new market segments, to drive long-termrevenue, and to introduce productive new advertisingstrategies. Organizations can use cloud-basedcapabilities to enhance customer service, satisfaction,and spend.

In the coming content-driven world, smart companiesare moving their media to the cloud.


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ContributorsHP

Steve PoehleinDirector of Media & EntertainmeSolutions, HP Enterprise Services

Vinay SaxenaChief Architect, AmericasCommunications Media & Entertainment (CME)Solution Center, HP Enterprise Services

Gregory T. WillisClient Industry Executive, GlobMedia & Entertainment, HP Enterprise Services

Intel

Jeff FeddersChief Strategist & Solution InnovatiSales & Marketing GroupTelco Service Provider S

Martin GuttmannPrincipal Architect, Sales &Marketing GroupData Center Solutions Worldw


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Copyright 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change withoutotice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying suchroducts and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable forchnical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

opyright 2010 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, and Xeon are trademarks of Intelorporation in the U.S. and other countries.

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