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Google Cloud Platform > Case Studies > AVROTROS: Enhancing Audience Engagement and Operational Efficiency with Google Cloud
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AVROTROS: Enhancing Audience Engagement and Operational Efficiency with Google Cloud

Technology Category
  • Networks & Connectivity - RFID
  • Robots - Wheeled Robots
Applicable Industries
  • Cement
  • Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions
  • Maintenance
  • Quality Assurance
Use Cases
  • Construction Management
  • Infrastructure Inspection
Services
  • Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
  • Training
The Challenge

AVROTROS, a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, was facing challenges in engaging its audience through online media and mobile apps due to the limitations of its existing infrastructure. The broadcaster's infrastructure was not optimized for the scale that popular mobile apps work at, leading to outages and users being locked out of the app. This was a significant issue as AVROTROS aimed to foster a deeper connection with its audience by using every channel available. Additionally, AVROTROS had outsourced its back-end and was totally dependent on its suppliers, leading to stability issues and outages. The broadcaster needed a next-generation infrastructure to engage and retain its audience with next-generation apps and gain greater control and visibility into its infrastructure management.

About The Customer

AVROTROS is an independent and socially involved broadcaster based in the Netherlands. It is part of the Netherlands' publicly funded NPO network of channels. AVROTROS focuses on event TV, such as 'Wie is de Mol?' ('Who is the mole?'), a long-running adventure reality game show that gets weekly viewing figures of approximately 3 million people, roughly one-sixth of the total population. The broadcaster aims to foster a deeper connection with its audience by using every channel available, including online media and mobile apps. AVROTROS embarked on an ambitious new technology strategy five years ago, placing online engagement at its core.

The Solution

AVROTROS turned to Google Cloud to build a cloud-native, scalable, and cost-effective infrastructure for next-level online development. The broadcaster worked with Google Cloud Premier Partner Binx.io to build and implement the new cloud-based solution. The new solution was built primarily around Kubernetes, orchestrated with Google Kubernetes Engine, providing AVROTROS with the ability to automate most of its operations while still having visibility and control of its infrastructure. Google BigQuery provided the broadcaster with a scalable, high-performance data warehouse solution for enhanced analytics. AVROTROS also decided to pilot Google Workspace as a replacement for its office productivity solution, which proved to be a seamless process for the employees when they had to start working from home due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Operational Impact

  • The adoption of Google Cloud has not only provided AVROTROS with a technological upgrade but also changed the way it works. The broadcaster has been able to bring the expertise in-house, making it more flexible and enabling it to develop its own online applications and react more quickly to new developments in the media technology landscape. The ability to collaborate live on Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides was crucial for teams used to working in the same space. Google Meet proved to be the most reliable, with the lowest latency and the highest quality, enabling multiple communications per day with colleagues and superiors. AVROTROS has also started experimenting with Google BigQuery and Looker Studio to build custom reports on how individual episodes of television are affecting social media use and other metrics, providing valuable insights to producers.

Quantitative Benefit

  • AVROTROS can now handle up to 60,000 requests per second at peak times, triple the limit of its previous infrastructure.

  • The broadcaster has saved more than 30% in infrastructure costs with its cloud-native infrastructure.

  • Approximately 1 million people use the 'Wie is de mol?' app and log in every episode.

Related Case Studies.

Case Study
IoT System for Tunnel Construction
The Zenitaka Corporation ('Zenitaka') has two major business areas: its architectural business focuses on structures such as government buildings, office buildings, and commercial facilities, while its civil engineering business is targeted at structures such as tunnels, bridges and dams. Within these areas, there presented two issues that have always persisted in regard to the construction of mountain tunnels. These issues are 'improving safety" and "reducing energy consumption". Mountain tunnels construction requires a massive amount of electricity. This is because there are many kinds of electrical equipment being used day and night, including construction machinery, construction lighting, and ventilating fan. Despite this, the amount of power consumption is generally not tightly managed. In many cases, the exact amount of power consumption is only ascertained when the bill from the power company becomes available. Sometimes, corporations install demand-monitoring equipment to help curb the maximum power demanded. However, even in these cases, the devices only allow the total volume of power consumption to be ascertained, or they may issue warnings to prevent the contracted volume of power from being exceeded. In order to tackle the issue of reducing power consumption, it was first necessary to obtain an accurate breakdown of how much power was being used in each particular area. In other words, we needed to be able to visualize the amount of power being consumed. Safety, was also not being managed very rigorously. Even now, tunnel construction sites often use a 'name label' system for managing entry into the work site. Specifically, red labels with white reverse sides that bear the workers' names on both sides are displayed at the tunnel work site entrance. The workers themselves then flip the name label to the appropriate side when entering or exiting from the work site to indicate whether or not they are working inside the tunnel at any given time. If a worker forgets to flip his or her name label when entering or exiting from the tunnel, management cannot be performed effectively. In order to tackle the challenges mentioned above, Zenitaka decided to build a system that could improve the safety of tunnel construction as well as reduce the amount of power consumed. In other words, this new system would facilitate a clear picture of which workers were working in each location at the mountain tunnel construction site, as well as which processes were being carried out at those respective locations at any given time. The system would maintain the safety of all workers while also carefully controlling the electrical equipment to reduce unnecessary power consumption. Having decided on the concept, our next concern was whether there existed any kind of robust hardware that would not break down at the construction work site, that could move freely in response to changes in the working environment, and that could accurately detect workers and vehicles using radio frequency identification (RFID). Given that this system would involve many components that were new to Zenitaka, we decided to enlist the cooperation of E.I.Sol Co., Ltd. ('E.I.Sol') as our joint development partner, as they had provided us with a highly practical proposal.
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