By Cassy van Eeden
The content workflow on our continent is still very linear. This means that content is recorded, stored and distributed in a single format and is rarely made availiable on multiple platforms. Live television broadcasts, for example, are still being transmitted to a single broadcaster over a private network. The result: one-way communication. This workflow is costly, complicated and restrictive.
The Africa Media Exchange (AMX) is about to change all of this.
The need
About a year ago, Tom Salmon, senior solutions architect at Workonline Communications, identified a gap in the South African and African media industry: there is a desperate need to deal with “the convergence between the telecommunications industry and the broadcast industry”.
Salmon explains that traditionally, the telecommunications and media industries have existed independently of one another. This is no longer a viable way of doing things. “That’s where we saw a bit of disparity,” says Salmon.
Salmon and Edward Lawrence, Workonline Communications’ business development director, also identified the need for an information exchange tailored specifically to the media industry. “The media industry has requirements which are more technical or different to the telecommunications or ISP industry, for example,” explains Lawrence. These are requirements include the need to accept any format of cabling (including Coaxial) and to distribute it in whatever format the person or company needs.
The solution
Africa’s first ever media exchange platform, AMX, was launched six months ago by Workonline Communications in partnership with, Teraco who deployed a coaxial infrastructure in their Isando data centre for the AMX.
The exchange AMX allows broadcasters, content distribution networks and content producers to connect and exchange data and live feeds in real-time. Users are able to both contribute and receive content in any format.
Lawrence says the AMX is not only going to simplify and streamline the way we do things, but it will also have a massive impact on costs, revenue, time and distribution. “It opens far more channels for the exchange of content,” he says. “The exchange provides a platform for content to reach a far broader [or even] global audience, through the most apt channels.”
But the AMX isn’t only going to benefit the parties that create and distribute content; it is also going to have a sizeable impact on audiences. For one, says Lawrence, content will be far more available than it has ever been. This means that audiences have access to a broader range of content at a significantly better cost. It also means that content can be viewed more readily across any device or platform, rather than being limited to just radio and TV.
What is important to note, says Lawrence is that: “The media exchange isn’t competing with the media industry or the telecoms industry. It’s a subsidised carrier-neutral platform. It will never form a business that will bump heads with either parties.”
The future
The AMX is the first of its kind on the African continent, which means that we can now connect with the rest of the world on a much larger scale.
As Salmon says, currently the AMX’s biggest impact on the South African and African media industries is that it is “simplifying and managing the connectivity between the different players in the industry”. But what about the future?
The AMX will, in no way, remain static. Workonline Communications intends to adapt the platform as the industry evolves in order to continuously stay ahead of the curve. “I think we will see the local industry catching up to the workflow on other continents,” says Lawrence. “And that will change the media industry quite drastically. It will make it a lot more efficient and it will start enabling people to generate and distribute more content than ever before.
The Africa Media Exchange is going to revolutionise the media industry the way we know it; from workflow and efficiency to revenue and availability. It is almost impossible to fully comprehend the impact that the platform will have on the way we do things. Let the revolution begin.
For more information, visit the Africa Media Exchange website. Alternatively, connect with the platform via Twitter and LinkedIn.