NEW YORK—Sinclair Broadcast Group has inked a deal with Amagi to migrate on-premise playout of its local broadcast stations to the cloud. Sinclair says the deployment is designed to the broadcast group optimize its media operations, enhance business agility, and significantly reduce the risk of maintaining its legacy on-premise systems.
"For Sinclair and its stations, we needed a platform that would align with our vision for transformation in our media operations," said Mike Kralec, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Sinclair. "We've successfully partnered with Amagi in the past and their proven track record of deploying playout systems in the cloud, along with our combined success in deploying proof-of-concept and test environments, demonstrated their ability to be that transformational platform for us. We're beyond happy to work with them as we get this new playout environment underway."
The announcement comes less than a week after the nation's second largest broadcast group revealed a similar deal with AWS as its preferred cloud provider. In that arrangement, Sinclair plans to leverage AWS Media Services, such as AWS Elemental MediaConnect, to develop centralized, dynamic and scalable media operations for 200+ channels, including converged media storage and optimized media workflows with relevant metadata.
Amagi utilizes AWS cloud infrastructure to deliver its media technology solutions, such as channel playout, content delivery, and monetization.
Broadcasters have traditionally run their automation and playout systems on-premise at the local broadcast station which, at scale, can lead to uniquely differentiated workflows, duplication in media operations, management of multiple different playout systems, and high costs in fixed architectures that don't quickly or easily adapt to business requirements.
To unify their environment while maintaining rigorous and resilient architecture requirements, Sinclair will use Amagi's flagship products: Amagi CLOUDPORT channel playout platform; Amagi LIVE News and Sports Orchestration platform; Amagi's smart hitless switcher; and the Amagi MONITORING solution for their playout, playlist, and ingest monitoring. Evolved to suit the fast-paced needs and hectic workflows of traditional broadcast, Amagi's full technology stack will improve Sinclair's resiliency and enable the company to upgrade service capabilities at a much faster rate than what is possible on-premise, according to Sinclair.
Del Parks, President of Technology at Sinclair, said, "As Sinclair continues our cloud media transformation, we are looking forward to partnering with Amagi and incorporating their vast capabilities into our technical operations, including our deployment of ATSC 3.0, NextGen Broadcast."
Amagi and Sinclair will together launch—for the first time—over-the-air (OTA) local broadcast station affiliate playout origination in the cloud, which is set to go live for the first channel in June 2023 with continuous rollout through 2025. This event will mark the first large-scale, cloud-based playout solution by a major broadcaster in the U.S. for local terrestrial broadcast networks, Sinclair said. To meet the ever-changing needs of these networks, Amagi will continue to scale and evolve its Amagi CLOUDPORT solution over time working closely with Sinclair.
"The broadcast industry is rapidly changing, and with these changes, broadcasters will need improved agility, cloud resiliency, cost savings, and unified workflows," said Srinivasan KA, Co-founder at Amagi. "Our work with Sinclair signifies a shift in the options and opportunity that the cloud can finally bring to broadcasters of all origination needs. By understanding the principles of performing traditional ground operations in the cloud, Amagi is poised to become the industry leader in affiliate-level cloud broadcasting."
