Chairman & CEO, Globecast Group, Globecast
In Conversation with Globecast
In this IABM TV Interview, Stan Moote, IABM’s CTO asks Philippe Bernard, CEO Globecast about some specific examples of how they have assisted companies worldwide to adopt cloud operations. One such company runs over 1,000 channels. Philippe has a great way to explain how the CAPEX-OPEX shift improves the use of technology rather than controlling it.
About Philippe Bernard
In a December 2023 interview with IABM, Philippe Bernard described 2023 as a year of "massive transformation" in the broadcast market, driven by a shift to IP workflows and cloud operations. He stated that the key benefits for customers moving to the cloud are "more agility" and a move from capital expenditure (CAPEX) to operational expenditure (OPEX), which he said is "from a financial perspective very important for some customers." Bernard noted that Globecast has been involved in cloud operations for over six years, but that the company is now focused on providing end-to-end integration through partnerships with cloud providers. Bernard said that Globecast is "in a big transformation" from a "pure distribution company on satellite fiber RP" to "an integrator now in the cloud." He mentioned that the company is moving its U.S. facility from Culver City to a new location near Los Angeles, which he described as an opportunity to "catch up new opportunity for the big customers in the us because we have a huge capability for remote production." Bernard also said Globecast is moving facilities in South Africa and transforming facilities in Paris to accompany the market's shift to more IP and cloud-based operations.
Transcript (13 segments)
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Stan Moot0:04
I'm Stan Moot, CTO at IBM, and I'm lucky today to have Philippe here, CEO of Globecast. We're going to talk about what's happened in 2023 and Philippe's vision for 2024. So Philippe, how would you categorize the market across 2023?
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Philippe Bernard0:22
Yes, hello. I think what we could, let's say, highlight is a massive transformation of the market, especially with tremendous trends of the move to IP workflows and, of course, into the cloud. It's not really new, but I think this is now a new scale of this transformation of the market, especially from the US first and then moving to Europe and Asia. And it translates into fundamental changes in the way the customer can operate their end-to-end chain. So this transformation is now happening. We see a clear willingness of the big customers to move to the cloud, from the premises to the cloud, opting for SaaS solutions.
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Stan Moot1:21
And I was just going to say, let's just talk about that for a minute. What are the benefits really of going to the cloud for them?
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Philippe Bernard1:27
All right. So the key benefits for the customers are definitely more agility. It means that they can size their operations according to their customer request and their fundamentals of the business, which means that they can shut down some channels, they can open new ones, like pop channels. I think that's the main benefit, so that they can control their investment. There is a move from CapEx to OpEx, which is, from a financial perspective, very important for some customers. And definitely, what is true is that they don't have to invest in very skilled people to make the transformation. They just outsource the transformation into the cloud to SaaS providers and to integrators, so that they can focus their energy, attention, and their investment to what is more important for them, which is the go-to-market and the production. So I think technology is no more the taboo of what we observed for the last 10 years, where they wanted to control technology. Now they can consider outsourcing it, and this is through the transformation to IP first, the standard of IP, and the capabilities of the cloud platform.
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Stan Moot2:58
I really like the way you framed that, specifically with the CapEx/OpEx and control of the technology anymore, because that's a great way of putting it: use the technology, not to control it anymore. So what is Globecast's role when it comes to the cloud? And you announced some things in 2023 to help broadcasters.
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Philippe Bernard3:23
So cloud is not new for Globecast. I think we started many operations in the cloud, more than six years ago. We did the UHD playout in the cloud of a big UK channel, we did a lot of transmission as well. It's not new. What is new is that now we have strong partnerships with SaaS providers, so that we can provide an end-to-end integration for the customers, integrating different bricks of services — from input, MOS or encoding platform, encryption, distribution in the cloud — providing an orchestrator to organize from end to end these different pillars of the end-to-end chain. So for us, the move to the cloud is this capability to accompany the customer who now just wants to outsource all their chain. We master the key elements of the cloud, we have strong partnerships with the cloud providers, and we are ready to provide more and more in the cloud. So this is what we have capitalized over the last five years, and now we've just transformed that into real opportunities.
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Stan Moot4:46
So can you give me a couple of customer examples when it comes to the cloud?
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Philippe Bernard4:50
I can give you two examples. The first one is a news channel in Europe, Euronews, where we provide the full integration from the journalist room to the OTT platform, including MOS, multi-segment approach, OTT distribution, encoding, all that stuff — so from end to end. We accompany the customer who has decided to revamp completely his chain. This is the distribution of a lot of channels, this is playout, and this is what we do in partnership with our partners, especially with AWS. That's the first one. The second one is we accompany a big European telco that is the first European telco to move all the encoding platforms into the cloud. We are talking about more than 1,000 channels, so we provide all the encoding platforms in AWS in order to provide this facility. Those are two examples: one for a live news channel and the other one for a telco.
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Stan Moot6:03
Well, a thousand channels is very impressive. So beyond the cloud, what else stands out for you this year as well as going towards 2024?
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Philippe Bernard6:15
I think, of course, we are now in a big transformation within Globecast, because we are moving from a pure distribution company — channel distribution on satellite, fiber, IP — to, let's say, an integrator now in the cloud. But what is as well good to know is that we will move our facility in the US from Culver City to another new facility, which is close to Los Angeles, Westlake. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to catch new opportunities for the big customers in the US, because we have a huge capability for remote production, for instance. So I think that's a big shift for us. We as well move our facilities in South Africa, and we are transforming a lot of facilities in Paris. So I think we are in this transformation process to accompany the move of the market to more IP and more cloud.
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Stan Moot7:22
Well, that's great. Well, certainly a good chat today, and I wish you well for 2024.
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Philippe Bernard7:27
Thank you. It will be a very exciting year. Thank you.
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Stan Moot7:32
Thanks, Philippe.