More power, less chaos: the hyperconverged advantage

Ross Video’s Todd Riggs, Director, Product Management – Hyperconverged Solutions. addresses the evolution of the broadcast industry and sheds light on solutions that could change established processes.

The past several years have been turbulent, especially in the broadcast industry, and this has amplified the desire for increased efficiency in many different areas. This includes new compression schemes to reduce the overhead of data traveling across networks, remote workflows to produce live events, and more.

In nearly any industry, technological progress involves combining functions that once were independent products into a single platform.

To address these issues, systems are being streamlined, and functions are being combined. This is nothing new – the live production industry has been doing it for years by putting DVEs in production switchers, adding audio effects into audio mixers, and putting multiviewers inside routing platforms. In nearly any industry, technological progress involves combining functions that once were independent products into a single platform.

However, there comes a point where converging functions goes beyond adding a few tasks to a primary device and instead begins to take shape into a platform with endless possibilities and configurations, much like the smartphone. At Ross Video, we refer to this concept as hyperconvergence. It’s a concept at the core of our entire development – and, we believe, crucial for the industry’s future, too.

Hyperconverged Efficiency

In this industry, everyone is always looking to do more with less, and be more efficient with the time, space, and resources that they have. On top of that, we are all striving to be better global citizens, reduce energy consumption, and find greener ways of achieving our results. All of these things are key contributing factors to our goal to deliver a hyperconverged platform that allows our customers to do more with less – without compromising functionality.

Flexible software-defined devices can be easily upgraded as live production demands change.

Hyperconverged solutions simplify system design, equipment installation, cabling, and more. Merging systems together decreases the number of inter-rack failure points, which also reduces maintenance requirements. As a result of all these factors, the ownership cost for these solutions is much lower than other similar, hardware-based options, which makes the return on investment more obvious.

And while hyperconverged solutions offer smaller footprints, less power consumption, and better return on investment, the full scope of these systems includes much more than just that. Hyperconvergence is more than simply combining multiple products in one frame – it’s an entirely new way to conceptualize workflows and hardware allocation based on the concept of software-defined production. Instead of investing in expensive “forklift” replacements, flexible software-defined devices can be easily upgraded as live production demands change.

Upgrade On-the-Fly

For software-defined solutions like Ultrix, our routing and AV processing platform, we can enable new features and functions on the fly without the need for users to invest in additional hardware. Thanks to the software-defined architecture, users can simply buy what they need, when they need it, via software licenses. There’s no reason for users to make design decisions that lock them into a rigid configuration right from the get-go.

Choosing the right product from the start and then building around it to leverage its strengths is one of the best ways to achieve maximum efficiency.

Long after a system is deployed, these benefits of software-defined architecture continue to provide users with simple ways to expand and even drastically change a system. In many cases, the software-defined efficiencies can reduce time, resources, wiring, and equipment, which allows users to achieve radically different results within the same platform. Choosing the right product from the start and then building around it to leverage its strengths is one of the best ways to achieve maximum efficiency.

Good system designs take time, and the best system designs account for as many variables as possible so that you can always get the most out of your investment according to your needs. Hyperconverged systems offer a no-compromise approach that simplifies all the complications and allows you to plan for future variables in a way that defers the cost with the software-defined platform.

A Leap Forward

When society makes progress, we rarely realize it at the time, but often when we look back, we can’t imagine returning to the way things used to be. Think about going from a smartphone back to a flip phone, from email back to snail mail, or even from an SUV back to a station wagon. We live in a fast-moving, technological age where we can do more with less, and do it faster, cheaper, and more reliably.

Hyperconverged solutions are exactly that: a leap forward in the modern technical age where results are achieved in a cutting-edge, economical way through robust hardware and software-defined architecture. With so many functions combined within a single platform, there is an instant simplification by reducing connections, cables, distribution, matrix sizes, and more.

A centralized hyperconverged system approach will make discrete components seem like an ancient way of thinking and provide a level of simplicity you didn’t know was possible. For those looking to take a new approach to their system design, functionality, and workflows, a hyperconverged solution checks all the boxes.

Todd Riggs

Director, Product Management – Hyperconverged Solutions at Ross-Video