What are the key sports production business and customer trends you are addressing in 2025?
Sean Lee CEO OpenDrives

Q. Business & Tech:
What is one key technology trend that is having a major impact on your business and/or overall strategy today? In 3-5 years?

Although 2024 was a challenging year for the overall M&E industry, it has been successful for those live-sports broadcasters who have evolved to hybrid or purely remote workflows to increase efficiencies and reduce operational costs. Hybrid and purely remote workforces have managed to fulfill the content void; now they can concentrate on solving for platform fragmentation, which has made it harder to find which platforms to better reach their viewers. Tackling the lack of data accessibility while simultaneously improving production efficiency has hugely impacted OpenDrives’ business and strategy. In the next few years, we will be working to make data easier to access from anywhere and everywhere, helping our customers ship content easier and ultimately monetize their content.

Q. Remote and Cloud-Based Production:
How is the shift towards REMI and Cloud changing the landscape of sports-production technology?

As remote and hybrid workforces become more common, sports production companies will continue to evaluate how they can produce and deliver equivalent (if not better) content than the traditional “on-premises” production setup. Cloud and REMI have proven that geographically consolidating creative systems and users is no longer a requirement; decentralization can actually improve content quality and efficiency (one team to do the work from anywhere) and reduce costs (less travel expenditures and overhead costs that come with purely on-premises technology). Wider adoption of cloud and REMI has also pushed the industry to begin standardizing how cloud technologies interoperate with existing workflows. The net result of these advances is that cloud-savvy managed service providers have become much more valuable to teams looking for a turnkey solution.

Q. AI, ML, and Automation:
How are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation transforming video production and broadcast technology?

As remote and hybrid workforces become more common, sports-production companies will continue to evaluate how they can produce and deliver equivalent (if not better) content than the traditional on-premises production setup. Cloud and REMI have proved that geographically consolidating creative systems and users is no longer a requirement; decentralization can actually improve content quality and efficiency (one team to do the work from anywhere) and reduce costs (lower travel expenditures and overhead costs that come with purely on-premises technology). Wider adoption of cloud and REMI has also pushed the industry to begin standardizing how cloud technologies interoperate with existing workflows. The net result of these advances is that cloud-savvy managed-service providers have become much more valuable to teams looking for a turnkey solution.

Q. 5G, Transmission, and Connectivity:
What connectivity/transmission technologies will have the biggest impact on the industry in the coming years?

The blazing-fast speeds, extremely low latency, and massive connectivity achieved with 5G technology raised consumers’ mobile-content availability and performance expectations. Behind the scenes, data-storage solutions like OpenDrives must live up to that expectation and work with 5G to enable these viewing experiences. Older, conventional storage infrastructures face various technical limitations in terms of scalability, bandwidth management, and security. Modern storage technologies must support AI-driven edge technology and a distributed-storage architecture to provide content where it’s needed now and must adapt to 5G’s performance on broadcasting and mobile-broadcasting workflows to ensure viewers enjoy always-on seamless experiences.

Browse more Perspectives Go Back to Survey Questions

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters