A mammoth migration effort shifting hundreds of channels to cloud-based processing, costing multiple $millions and reaching millions of eyeballs, has just completed in the UK marketplace. The bottom line, according to people involved, is that this project exemplifies the future of broadcast processing and distribution as we know it. Based on a “smart broadcast network” coined Vena, cultivated by UK operator British Telecom in 2021, a new era of software-defined infrastructure has spearheaded a landmark move away from legacy hardware for D3&4 – the multiplex broadcasting joint venture between local British broadcasters ITV and Channel 4. The result is a futureproofed and streamlined content production and distribution process – claiming a world-first for cloud processing of digital terrestrial TV (DTT)…