G&L Newsletter, April Edition: Your regular dose of streaming media news, video engineering insights, industry updates and sometimes a funny meme or two.
NAB Insights | ANGA COM & Breakfast Panel | DVB-I in Action | G&L joins SVTA | Fresh Reads: Blog and Press News
/* CEO Alexander Leschinsky’s review */
G&L's NAB insights
Where the industry is headed
Cost pressure & efficiency as top priorities
Clearly the dominant theme across all sectors. Attendees and exhibitors alike focused on budget-conscious workflows and sustainable ROI.
Shift from traditional broadcast to IP/cloud
Hardware-heavy booths were giving way to software-first and cloud-native offerings. This rapid shift challenges legacy models but opens the door to new, flexible streaming opportunities.
Attendance: fewer, but more focused
Attendance declined slightly to around 55,000, but the quality of conversations was remarkably high: fewer walk-ins, more purposeful meetings. The show floor felt calm, focused, and collaborative.
Strategic alliances on the rise
Instead of pure competition, many vendors are choosing to collaborate. These partnerships aim to reduce costs, speed up innovation, and navigate the increasing complexity of modern streaming ecosystems.
What NAB revealed for G&L
Hybrid workflows: on-prem & multi-cloud
G&L’s adaptable architecture for media processing resonated strongly with clients looking to optimize cost and boost operational resilience. Of particular relevance: our readiness to support both US- and EU-based processing – an increasingly important factor in global deployment strategies.
EU digital sovereignty
The topic surfaced in nearly every client conversation, driven by growing concerns around data sovereignty and the evolving US political landscape. A recognized challenge: balancing dominant US-based solutions with EU-based alternatives to ensure flexibility and compliance.
NETINT Quadra Cards: energy-efficient video encoding
G&L’s focus on energy-efficient 4K transcoding gained strong traction. That aligns with the broader interest in VPUs (Video Processing Units) and specialized hardware that reduces power and bandwidth costs.
Live showcase: hybrid & multi-cloud streaming in action
Our live demo received strong feedback for showcasing real-world hybrid workflows and distributed encoding: An SRT stream from the Cosmopolitan Hotel was delivered via a multi-cloud setup to Linode locations in Los Angeles, Chennai, and Frankfurt, as well as on-prem in Düsseldorf. Processed via the G&L Playout Manager with graphics overlay, the stream was pushed to Akamai MSL4 and YouTube.
Social & networking event
The G&L & id3as/Norsk Happy Hour combined relaxed networking with live jazz. Well-attended and warmly received, the evening underscored how informal settings can spark future collaborations and open new perspectives beyond the show floor.
Technical & product spotlights
MoQ & CMSD: enabling low-latency & deeper insight
Media over QUIC (MoQ) and Common Media Server Data (CMSD) are gaining traction as key innovations for ultra-low-latency delivery, granular visibility into CDN-delivered streams, and potentially reshaping streaming workflows and monitoring.
AI in media workflows: buzz vs. reality
AI branding was everywhere, but full end-to-end implementations were limited. The industry continues to approach AI with pragmatism, demanding clear ROI before full-scale adoption.
Codec conversations
AV1 took center stage in many “codec corner” discussions, reflecting the broader industry shift toward more efficient codecs. This codec needs a lot of resources to encode, and makes the Netint Quadra Cards even all the more relevant. Meanwhile, conversations about future standards such as next-gen MPEG continued behind the scenes.
Awards & recognition
Touchstream’s new eVQA product (powered by CMSD) won a NAB Product of the Year award
Bitmovin received a Best of Show award for its AI Scene Analysis
Meet us at ANGA COM 2025 from 3 to 5 June in Cologne – you’ll find us in Hall 7, Stand B40.
Hybrid streaming setups
At this year’s ANGA COM, G&L Systemhaus showcases what it means to go beyond building blocks. As a systems integrator and managed service provider, we bring together best-in-class technologies into fully managed, production-ready hybrid workflows. Whether you're delivering live broadcasts, temporary event channels, or long-term services, our approach combines the control of on-prem with the flexibility of the cloud – placing workloads where they perform best to optimize cost and efficiency.
Looking to balance your cloud and on-prem infrastructure in your streaming setup? Whether for temporary event channels, live broadcasts, or long-term operations, this panel will explore strategies to optimize cost, flexibility, and sustainability with adaptable workflows.
We invite all broadcasters, cable operators, telecoms, and network providers to join us at ANGA COM for breakfast and an insightful expert-led panel discussion.
DVB-I in action: Bringing broadcast and IP together
At this year’s DVB World in Munich, the spotlight was clearly on DVB-I – and how it’s shaping the future of linear television over IP. G&L attended the event in March and returned with valuable insights: DVB-I is rapidly moving from concept to real-world implementation, especially in the German market.
Built on established components like DVB-DASH, HbbTV, and now DVB-NIP (which enables streaming formats like DASH or HLS to be broadcast via satellite), DVB-I allows for the integration of broadcast and IP-based streaming into a anytime/anywhere TV experience – with unified content discovery, improved guides, and seamless access to additional services even on any IP-only tunerless device.
G&L is actively supporting this evolution. Our DASH livestreams from German public broadcasters are already included in the German DVB-I pilot’s service list. Beyond delivery, we enable caching and dynamic adaptation of DVB-I service lists – right at the CDN edge, tailored to regional or functional requirements. Besides, G&L provides catchup TV solutions and G&L Packager delivers VoD services widely adopted now also supportung Multi-Audio, DVB-DASH compliant and ready to serve ABR finally to a broad HbbTV landscape.
Meanwhile, a nationwide effort is underway: Germany’s major broadcasters (ARD, ZDF, RTL Deutschland, ProSiebenSat.1) and several key organizations – including the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM) and the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) – are working together as part of the DVB-I Round Table to define technical profiles, ensure fair access, and prepare the market launch of DVB-I in Germany.
Whether it’s enabling major players or empowering regional platforms with white-label-ready, open frameworks, DVB-I is set to transform how linear content is delivered. And G&L is ready to help shape that transformation – from stream delivery to service list integration.
G&L joins the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA)
We’re excited to be part of the SVTA – the global alliance of streaming experts working together to shape the future of video delivery. As a systems integrator and managed service provider, this is an important step for us to deepen our expertise through international collaboration.
Facing real-world challenges
Whether it's reliable peak delivery for large-scale live events, efficient multi-CDN strategies, or scalable infrastructure – these are the challenges we solve every day. The SVTA’s technical insights and collaborative energy help us stay ahead and refine what we build for our customers. AI-driven codecs, modern player architectures, interoperability, and operational models are just some of the areas where SVTA input connects directly to our day-to-day work.
Smart people, shared knowledge
Projects like the Common Media Library show how collaboration and standardization can drive innovation. We’re particularly interested in contributing to working groups like the Streaming Sports Council and the Streaming Video Operations Working Group, where practical experience and technical innovation go hand in hand.
Streaming democracy: EU Parliament goes live in 24 languages
Some platforms do more than deliver video: they bring institutions closer to the people. G&L’s new solution for the European Parliament streams over 2,000 events a year, live and on demand, across 30 channels with up to 32 audio tracks per stream – to websites, social media, and millions of citizens across Europe.
Beyond private vs. public: When does edge computing make sense? Can you avoid vendor lock-in? What’s the best hybrid setup for your streaming workflows? Our blog posts explores the non-trivial questions that shape long-term cloud decisions.
ISO 27001: building security and trust into every workflow
Why work with an ISO 27001-certified provider? It’s about more than compliance – it’s about protecting sensitive content, ensuring continuity, and meeting rising security standards in the media space.
Lower egress costs, more flexibility, and future-proof architectures – Akamai Connected Cloud continues to power how we deliver high-performance streaming solutions across VOD, observability, and live events.
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