Scott Stiefel, CEO of Telos Alliance, discusses how innovation in AoIP, virtualization and cloud-based workflows is helping broadcasters produce more content with fewer resources.
RedTech: What emerging challenge in broadcaster operations most influenced your recent product or platform development, and why was it important to address it now?
Scott Stiefel: One of the biggest challenges broadcasters face today is producing more content with fewer resources while supporting an increasing number of distribution platforms.
Remote production has become a key part of that shift. While the transition accelerated during the COVID era out of necessity, it proved that broadcast workflows no longer need to be tied to a single physical facility. Broadcasters discovered they could create, manage and distribute content from virtually anywhere if the underlying technology was designed for it.
That reality strongly influenced the development of our recently introduced Studio Essentials family of cost-effective, small-form-factor virtualized production tools. Built on modern AoIP infrastructure, these systems are inherently well-suited to remote workflows, enabling broadcasters to deploy production resources where needed while maintaining centralized control.
At the same time, broadcasters need simpler systems that deliver more capability with fewer operational touchpoints. By building on standardized AoIP layers and using familiar control interfaces such as HTML-based tools, we focus on integrating multiple broadcast functions into a cohesive environment that is easier to operate, maintain and scale. The facilities that succeed today are the ones designed for flexibility, rather than physical proximity.
RedTech: How does your technology help broadcasters save costs, grow revenues, simplify workflows, or enhance the audience experience?
Stiefel: Modern broadcast infrastructure is rapidly shifting toward IP networking, virtualization and software-defined workflows. Telos Alliance has been building in this direction for years with AoIP technologies, which allow audio, control data and metadata to move together across standard IT networks. This approach simplifies operations by replacing complex hardware signal chains with flexible, network-based systems that are easier to deploy, scale and manage. Virtualized products on COTS servers, such as our Omnia Forza audio processors for FM, DAB and streaming, the Infinity VIP Virtual Intercom Platform and Telos Zephyr Connect multichannel codec software, extend that same philosophy into cloud and software environments.
Broadcasters can spin up virtual audio processors, codecs and studio tools on standard hardware or cloud infrastructure while maintaining the reliability and synchronization required for professional broadcast operations. Metadata plays an increasingly important role in this environment, especially in today’s converged media facilities where OTA radio and TV coexist with streaming services on a combined network.
Metadata drives audience measurement, targeted advertising, content discovery and compliance requirements across both broadcast and streaming platforms. By tightly integrating metadata with the media processing chain, our platforms help ensure that this information remains synchronized with the content as it moves through production, distribution and delivery. The result is a more flexible infrastructure that lowers operational costs, simplifies workflows and allows broadcasters to adapt quickly as new distribution platforms and monetization models emerge.
RedTech: Are there any other operational or technical limitations that restrict broadcasters’ ability to move forward today, and how is your company addressing them?
Stiefel: The biggest barrier to modernization in broadcasting today isn’t technology; it’s transitioning from traditional broadcast engineering to IT-centric workflows.
Broadcasters already recognize the advantages of software-based infrastructure, virtualization and scalable IP systems. These approaches reduce reliance on large capital investments in fixed hardware while enabling greater flexibility and interoperability with modern IT environments. But making that shift requires new skills, new operational models and often a new generation of technical talent. In many organizations, the real challenge isn’t replacing equipment, but developing the knowledge base needed to design, operate and maintain these newer systems.
Our role as a technology provider is to make that transition easier. We focus on designing systems that hide complexity while maintaining the reliability broadcasters depend on. In many cases, that means allowing software-based tools to run on dedicated hardware appliances or standard computer platforms so customers can adopt new workflows at their own pace.
Just as importantly, we invest heavily in education and support so broadcasters can build the confidence and expertise needed to move forward with modern, flexible infrastructure.
RedTech: Looking ahead over the next three to five years, what practical change do you believe will most affect how audio services are produced, distributed or monetized?
Stiefel: Over the next three to five years, the most significant change in audio services will be the continued migration to IP-based infrastructure running on generic compute platforms, along with greater adoption of cloud-based operating models. This shift gives broadcasters and content creators the flexibility to scale services up or down quickly while adapting to changing audience preferences and new distribution opportunities. In a media environment where smaller, highly focused creators can compete successfully, serving relatively small audiences, agility becomes just as important as reach.
As a result, broadcasters will increasingly focus on how efficiently they can move content across multiple platforms.
The ability to reuse and repurpose existing material for broadcast, streaming, podcasts and other digital outlets will become a key factor in both operational efficiency and monetization.
That means being able to quickly and economically condition, encode and adapt content deliverables for different platforms. The organizations that succeed will be those that build flexible production and distribution infrastructures that make it easy to transform a single piece of content into multiple deliverables, each optimized for the platform on which it will be heard.
This originally appeared in the special edition, The Innovators 2026. You can view or download this publication for free here.
You can read or download all RedTech publications for free here.
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