In a sports tournament, more than 10 matches may be played simultaneously. As TV viewers, we could get only the highlights of the individual matches. It is possible that in one such match, India is participating. However, it could not be telecast live. If all the matches are to be beamed live, it would be an expensive proposition. The equipment cost is high. Even then, as the tournament progresses, many teams are out of the tournament. By the time, the semi-finals come, there could be two teams only. The equipment, therefore, would lie idle.

The dramatic change came after the introduction of SaaS — Cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS). It makes media broadcasts easier. There is no need to invest capital in equipment. You can spin up or spin down the infrastructure depending on your need. It is a question of positioning the cameras depending upon the viewer interest.

In the coming Olympics, you will receive hundreds of different streams coming live.

Videos consume too much storage space and huge bandwidth. There is a complex cloud factory serving as the backend. There are encoders which change video into different bit rates. This enables all to watch the stream with different kinds of internet connections and screen sizes.

It is surprising that with Cloud and SaaS, an OTT platform can be launched in 6-8 weeks. The same thing required previously 6 months to a year.

It makes use of machine learning or ML. Information is automatically extracted from the videos to create highlights, thumbnails and promos. A machine is trained to comprehand football and its intricacies. Thus highlights are created as soon as the match ends.

India needs manpower trained in Cloud, programming, data and algorithms. It will give a big boost to many more media companies.