Media and broadcast executives called on their peers and the supplier ecosystem to work together as a network to solve some of their greatest technical and leadership challenges at the DPP Leaders’ Briefing 2021.
While workforce and business and transformation were shown to be the top two priorities for leaders, managing supplier relationships and tackling complex technology transformation programmes were discussed as areas where content providers and the media supply ecosystem could come together to tackle the industry’s biggest pain points. And ultimately, to deliver better experiences for customers.
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Chief Engineer at BT Sport, Andy Beale, called on his strategic partners to work together, enabling microservices and interoperability so content providers could develop modular best-of-breed platforms.
“I don't want vendors to say: ‘You can have it all, but you have to have it all from me’,” he said. “Because the truth is, everyone's got different parts of the jigsaw which are better.
“This is the model we must have in the cloud: interoperability with microservices for each of these things running properly, with low latency and properly interoperable. That's what I'm asking for.”
Chief Engineer at BT Sport, Andy Beale, at the DPP Leaders' Briefing 2021. Click image to watch Andy Beale session.
Thomas Milford, Project Manager, Infrastructure & Delivery at TV2 Norway, was among the representatives from European broadcasters discussing how common, flexible architectures were required at the backend to enable customer-facing innovation.
In particular, Milford said that “we want to get things as building blocks and modules” when procuring software and hardware, while avoiding vendor lock-in.
Aditi Pandey, NRK Head of Vendor Management & Partnerships, with DPP CTO Rowan de Pomerai at the Leaders' Briefing 2021. Click image to watch Aditi Pandey session.
Aditi Pandey is Head of Vendor Management & Partnerships at NRK, and expressed how the Norwegian national broadcaster was looking to tap into the innovation expertise in the vendor market, while enabling flexibility and agility.
“We are in a transitional phase, so what would help us to work together, to collaborate more, would be to run proofs-of-concept, where we are experimenting with models,” Pandey said.
“So it's very important not to predict what's going to happen in the next seven years, but rather to take it step by step and to enable us to do what we want. We want to work with vendors: we're open to collaborating, and then building upon success.”
Channel 4 Director of Technology, Grace Boswood, at the DPP Leaders' Briefing 2021. Click image to watch Grace Boswood session.
Channel 4 Director of Technology, Grace Boswood, provided a summary of the potential for collaboration with both fellow customers and suppliers.
“Let's work together, ally around our infrastructure, work towards simplicity and conversion, and sell a vision of the future that if done right, will increase our service level, reduce cost, mean a little less weekend working and bring a future where hopefully we could spend less advertising dollars on delivery,” she said.
The DPP Leaders’ Briefing 2021 summary report can be downloaded by DPP members here. If you are not a DPP member, and would like to know more about becoming one, please contact membership@thedpp.com.