The modern studio is becoming less a fixed room and more a connected production environment, shaped by signal flow, software, control and operational flexibility.
As broadcasters rethink how studios support live production, streaming, remote contribution and distributed teams, architecture and infrastructure decisions are becoming inseparable from workflow strategy.
In this Industry Insights roundtable, part of NCS’ multi-part series on broadcast studios and systems, vendors and suppliers examine how studio design is adapting to IP, automation, orchestration, hybrid systems and software-defined production.
The discussion looks at where IP infrastructure creates flexibility, where it still adds complexity, how MXL may fit alongside SMPTE ST 2110 and what future-ready facilities need to support as production models continue to evolve.
Key takeaways from this Industry Insights roundtable
- Studios are distributed: The studio is increasingly defined by connected production resources, signal flows and workflow coherence rather than a single physical room.
- Flexibility is architectural: Vendors emphasized that long-term adaptability depends on modular, interoperable and software-defined systems that can evolve without major rebuilds.
- IP is foundational: IP infrastructure is now central to modern studio design, but it also introduces complexity around timing, observability, network design and operational expertise.
- MXL is complementary: Participants generally framed MXL as an emerging layer for software-based processing and shared compute, not a direct replacement for SMPTE ST 2110.
- Operators are shifting: Automation and orchestration are moving operators away from repetitive manual tasks and toward monitoring, workflow optimization and exception management.
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How are organizations designing systems for long-term flexibility?
Sam Peterson, COO, Bitcentral: We’re seeing media companies move away from fixed, hardware-centric infrastructures and toward software-defined and hybrid cloud environments that can scale quickly as business needs change. The requirement is to build systems that are modular, scalable and interoperable, giving teams the freedom to evolve workflows, launch new services and support emerging distribution models without having to rebuild their entire infrastructure.
Is MXL the right “next step” beyond SMPTE ST 2110?
Sam Peterson, COO, Bitcentral: Automation is shifting operators away from repetitive, manual tasks and toward higher-value responsibilities such as monitoring and workflow optimization. As channel counts and delivery endpoints increase, orchestration tools give teams a way to manage more complexity with greater consistency and reliability, while keeping operators focused on the decisions that require human judgement.
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Read the full article here: NewscastStudio.com/Industry-Insights-Broadcast-Studio-Infrastructure-Facility-Design/.