With InterBEE 2025 just around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Japanese broadcast market — its remarkable history, its cautious approach to change, and how technology partners like us can help bridge the gap between tradition and transformation. Every year, InterBEE reminds me that Japan’s broadcasters stand at a fascinating crossroads: rooted in technical excellence, yet navigating one of the most significant shifts in broadcasting history.
At Capella Systems, we’ve seen this transition unfold across both file and live workflows, and it’s clear that the Japanese market’s strength in quality and precision aligns perfectly with our own focus on efficiency, reliability, and format integrity.
A Legacy of Innovation in Video
Japan has long stood at the forefront of global video innovation. From Sony, Panasonic, and Nikon to Canon and Sharp, Japanese manufacturers have defined professional imaging and broadcast equipment for decades. The country’s deep expertise in optics, precision manufacturing, and image processing laid the foundation for modern video production worldwide.
That same spirit of innovation has also driven Japan’s broadcasting industry. The country was among the first to experiment with Hi-Vision (HDTV), and later, it took the lead in introducing 8K HEVC content—years before other markets began to adopt it. Yet despite this technological excellence, Japan’s transition in recent years from traditional broadcasting to cloud-based, IP-driven workflows has been more gradual.
From Tape to File — and Beyond
Japan’s shift from tape to file-based production was slower than in many other regions. The same cautious approach can be seen in the move from SDI to IP and from on-premise to cloud workflows.
While broadcasters elsewhere have embraced cloud production and delivery at scale, many Japanese broadcasters continue to rely heavily on on-prem systems. For some, cloud migration remains a future goal, limited to pilot projects or specific use cases.
There are practical reasons for this slower adoption. Security concerns remain paramount for broadcasters managing high-value content such as live sports or entertainment. The cost of cloud computing, particularly when billed in U.S. dollars amid a weaker yen, is another barrier. And beyond economics, there’s a cultural factor — the cloud is still perceived as an unfamiliar, less controlled environment for many in the industry.
Advertising Revenue: Still Grounded in Traditional Broadcast
Business models across Japanese broadcasting remain rooted in linear TV. Traditional commercial spots continue to dominate revenue, even as audiences increasingly consume live and on-demand content online.
While live streaming is now commonplace in Japan, broadcasters have struggled to fully capitalize on SSAI (Server-Side Ad Insertion) for monetization. The challenges are both technical and structural:
1. Technical complexity and limited expertise in SSAI workflows.
2. Lack of seamless, end-to-end integration—from ingest and encoding to ad insertion.
3. Weak programmatic demand and limited partnerships with digital-first ad sales platforms.
4. Advertiser hesitation, as many Japanese brands are less familiar with live-stream ad formats and performance metrics.
As a result, even broadcasters with strong content pipelines have yet to unlock the full potential of dynamic, targeted ad insertion for live streams. These are exactly the bottlenecks we’ve been addressing through Cambria Stream, designed to make SSAI integration and cue management far simpler for broadcasters still rooted in SDI-based workflows.
Bridging Broadcast and SSAI: A Hybrid Approach
At Capella, we’ve seen these challenges firsthand through our customers in Japan—and they’ve guided the development of solutions designed specifically for this market.
Our Cambria Stream encoder enables broadcasters to maintain their traditional broadcast workflows while embracing the benefits of SSAI.
In many Japanese broadcast environments, incoming source signals don’t include SCTE-104 ad markers. Instead, ad breaks are triggered by cue tones from the master control room. Cambria Stream can automatically convert these cue tones into SCTE-35 markers, making them compatible with SSAI workflows.
When SCTE-35 signals are received, Cambria Stream can automatically switch to a slate or alternate clip. Broadcasters can register their own slates or commercials for playback during TV ad breaks—providing full control and flexibility.
Additionally, on-prem contribution encoding with SDI ingest is still a requirement for many Japanese broadcasters. Cambria Stream supports this while simultaneously sending encoded streams to the cloud for distribution, bridging the reliability of traditional infrastructure with the scalability of cloud delivery.
Hybrid Transcoding: The Best of Both Worlds
Beyond live workflows, transcoding remains a core part of broadcasters’ daily operations—and one of the areas where hybrid infrastructure offers the most tangible value.
With Cambria Cluster, Capella enables a true hybrid transcoding environment. Broadcasters can transcode most of their content on-premise, maintaining full control over secure, high-volume workflows. When workloads spike—such as during seasonal programming peaks or major events—Cambria Cluster can automatically queue and offload jobs to the cloud, scaling capacity on demand.
This seamless management of both on-prem and cloud-based Cambria FTC instances allows broadcasters to achieve operational efficiency without overinvesting in local hardware. It’s a clear example of how Capella helps customers leverage the best of both worlds—the stability and security of on-prem systems combined with the elasticity and scalability of the cloud.
For Japanese broadcasters navigating cost pressures and operational risk, this hybrid model provides a balanced, future-ready solution that aligns with both technical and business realities.
Collaborating for Smarter Monetization
For broadcasters who are still cautious about investing in full SSAI workflows, Capella’s collaboration with Yospace offers a practical, low-risk entry point.
Through Yospace Orchestration, users can easily configure live events that include ingest, encoding, SCTE insertion, and SSAI—all within a unified interface. This simplifies deployment, reduces technical overhead, and allows broadcasters to experiment with new monetization models while maintaining operational stability.
This collaboration builds on our broader strategy of open integration—Cambria Stream’s API and metadata alignment ensure that future tech partners can be added without major re-engineering.
Japan’s Next Phase: From Innovation to Adaptation
Japan has always been a global hub of technical innovation. Its engineers and manufacturers have consistently set standards that the rest of the world follows. What takes time, however, is industry-wide adaptation—especially in a field as risk-sensitive as broadcasting.
As Japan’s broadcasters navigate the next phase of digital transformation, they don’t need to abandon their legacy systems overnight. What they need are bridging technologies—solutions that honor their proven workflows while opening the door to next-generation, cloud-enabled monetization.
At Capella, we’re committed to helping Japanese broadcasters make that transition—securely, efficiently, and at their own pace—bridging today’s trusted workflows with the opportunities of tomorrow. That’s the role Capella Systems continues to play with Cambria FTC, Cluster, and Stream: practical tools designed for secure hybrid operations, transparent pricing, and uncompromising quality.
We’ll be showcasing these solutions at InterBEE 2025, working side-by-side with our Japanese partners to help the industry evolve—securely, efficiently, and at its own pace.
