The MovieLabs 2030 Vision has become a content production and distribution standard followed by creative and technology stakeholders as they prepare for the future of media and entertainment.
Outlining ten principles for technology in filmmaking, the 2019 whitepaper titled “The Evolution of Media Creation” serves as a ten-year roadmap to efficient, secure, cloud-based media pipelines. Many have worked toward this shared goal and made notable progress. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the only cloud provider to demonstrate five of the ten original MovieLabs principles in its AWS Studio in the Cloud solution.
Achieving fully-integrated interoperability has proven a persistent hurdle, partly due to a reluctance to give up legacy approaches to infrastructure and pipelines. But the tide is changing, as MovieLabs’ guidance is increasingly taken to heart: “Media companies embracing open interoperability today will be optimally positioned to capitalize on the future of virtualized, cloud-based production. Those still relying on monolithic, proprietary stacks will be impeded.”
To maximize the potential of cloud-based workflows, creators need to be able to assemble tech stacks tailored to their requirements. This is where interoperability becomes imperative.
Why interoperability matters
Like open-source technology, interoperability encourages cross-industry collaboration and equips creators with the ability to work nimbly and scale effectively. Without interoperability between different tools and platforms, studios and creators risk being locked into rigid, inflexible pipelines that constrain creativity and collaboration. Vendor or format lock-in can lead to technical debt, higher costs and an inability to adapt. Disparate systems that don't communicate seamlessly result in inefficient handoffs between creative stages, duplicated efforts and the potential for errors and data loss.
By developing interoperable solutions, pipeline decisions can be made based on each project’s needs, reducing iteration time and encouraging more experimentation with different elements.
Creating an interoperable industry
Interoperability hinges on industry-wide commitment, from technology providers, studios, developers, integrators and standards bodies. A standardized approach and support for modular pipelines are essential to progress.
Successful modular pipelines need fundamental interoperability. This includes common data classification and security models, compatibility with open-source file formats and reusable integration patterns. They also require software-defined workflow interoperability encompassing standardized connectivity and API integration layers. With these pieces in place, creative teams can configure preferred tools, infrastructure and processes for each production, as well as leverage interchangeable modules.
Interoperability is also needed to achieve a holistic cloud-based workflow, as the cloud provides the compute fabric to stitch together multiple software-defined tools and services into cohesive virtual pipelines. Interoperability augments the key benefits of leveraging cloud computing for content production – including scalability, agility and the ability to assemble tailored solutions.
As the required technologies and architectures to enable interoperability evolve and become more accessible, media and entertainment companies will be able to harness more of the benefits of modular, interoperable workflows. Those who do will not only future-proof their operations, but also position themselves to thrive in the rapidly evolving landscape of media creation and distribution.
Chris Blandy is Director, Strategic Business Development, M&E, Games & Sports at Amazon Web Services (https://aws.amazon.com). AWS is a broadly-adopted cloud that offers over 200 fully-featured services from data centers globally.