The Amagi roundtable on 'Cloud Adoption in the MENA' was organised jointly with BroadcastPro ME.
Industry experts from regional telcos and broadcasters participated in a two-hour roundtable on the cloud, organised by BroadcastPro ME in association with Amagi, a provider of cloud-managed broadcast services and targeted advertising for TV and OTT.
The roundtable, titled ‘Cloud Adoption in MENA’ was moderated by KA Srinivasan , Co-founder of Amagi and held on January 11, 2018 at Kempinski, Dubai.
The participants looked at issues related to cloud as part of their growth strategy, and explored various factors such as the barriers to cloud adoption, and AI and machine learning in TV broadcast, among other topical issues.
The varied pace of cloud adoption was evident as participants made their opening remarks, although all agreed that cloud adoption would be inevitable in the future.
Representatives from OSN commented that they were considering cloud from glass to glass and had done considerable research into the investment and the business model they would have to follow to make a successful entry into the cloud. The telco representatives highlighted the collaborative efforts between them to ensure the ease of adopting new technologies for broadcast and other sectors.
Smaller-sized broadcasters stated that cloud adoption was a luxury currently given the costs of connectivity. Regardless of the size of the company, participants spoke of the skepticism from management about the investment in cloud. All agreed that if the decision to move to the cloud came from the management, the transition would be a lot smoother.
Cloud adoption is still at a nascent stage among MENA broadcasters, stated the telcos. While management fears around security and latency were considered a roadblock, other aspects regarding retraining technical staff as well as integrating cloud into the overall business strategy, were discussed vigorously during the two-hour roundtable.
A number of participants believed that telcos needed to do a lot more than they were currently doing to get the broadcast industry up to speed with international counterparts.
The roundtable was a platform to hear diverse views on the cloud while enabling peers to share their challenges and the concerns going forward.
A detailed account of the discussion will feature in the February issue of BroadcastPro ME.
