AVROTROS: Turning TV into a two-way conversation with Google Cloud
About AVROTROS
AVROTROS is an independent and socially involved broadcaster that enriches and connects the Netherlands with high-quality and innovative programs that are accessible to everyone.
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About Binx.io
Binx.io transforms organizations by refactoring applications, developing cloud-native solutions, training their teams, and implementing a way of working focused on delivering value.
AVROTROS built a cloud-native, scalable, cost-effective infrastructure for next level online development using Google Cloud.
Google Cloud results
- Keeps audience members connected with improved reliability at scale using Google Kubernetes Engine
- Automatically scales back down from peak times to save more than 30% on infrastructure costs
- Ensures continuity during lockdown with Google Workspace and Google Meet
- Empowers developers to take charge of the infrastructure with managed services and build the tools they need in-house
Handles up to 60,000 requests per second at peak times
In the Netherlands, public service broadcasting has long been a dominant force in the traditional media landscape of television and radio. But now many established broadcasters face competition from newer, more agile online media companies.
AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, and part of the Netherlands' publicly funded NPO network of channels. Rather than pitting TV and radio against online media, the broadcaster aims to foster a deeper connection with its audience by using every channel available. 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. "Our audience is very broad but we only broadcast a couple of hours of radio or television a day," says Finus Tromp, Head of Interactive Media, AVROTROS. "That means that the best way to connect with our audience is via online media and mobile apps. It’s how we drive engagement with our viewers."
Five years ago, Tromp and AVROTROS embarked on an ambitious new technology strategy, placing online engagement at its core. To make that strategy a reality, the broadcaster turned to Google Cloud. "Online interaction is how we engage our audiences, and our previous infrastructure was reaching its limits," says Tromp. "With Google Cloud, we saw the opportunity to build a platform centered around reliability and performance that could help us really connect with our audience."
"Online interaction is how we engage our audiences, and our previous infrastructure was reaching its limits. With Google Cloud, we saw the opportunity to build a platform centered around reliability and performance that could help us really connect with our audience."
—Finus Tromp, Head of Interactive Media, AVROTROSGoing beyond the web
In 2017, AVROTROS made a significant expansion into web and mobile applications. But the broadcaster's existing infrastructure had only been built to support its websites and was not optimized for the scale that popular mobile apps work at. So when AVROTROS launched its "Wie is de mol?" mobile app, some of its users were locked out of the app because of an outage. This was a warning for the broadcaster. If AVROTROS wanted to engage and retain its audience with next generation apps, it needed next generation infrastructure.
AVROTROS also sought to gain greater control and visibility into its infrastructure management. "What we had at the time was essentially a black box," explains Tromp. "We had outsourced our back-end and were totally dependent on our suppliers. When we had stability issues and outages, that was a big problem for us."
AVROTROS chose to migrate to a new, cloud-native solution that could scale with its ambitions and provide greater control over its infrastructure. After discovering how Google Cloud had helped some of the Netherlands' largest companies, Tromp knew it was the right solution for AVROTROS' online developers.
Becoming cloud-native
AVROTROS chose to work with Google Cloud Premier Partner Binx.io to build and implement the new cloud-based solution. "We had a blueprint for our desired infrastructure, and they helped us to implement the right Google Cloud tools for the right job," says Tromp.
The new, cloud-native solution was built primarily around Kubernetes, the open source microservices technology developed at Google, designed for scalability at speed. AVROTROS orchestrates its Kubernetes clusters with Google Kubernetes Engine. "Managed services with Google Kubernetes Engine were absolutely vital for us," says Tromp. "It meant we could automate most of our operations but still have visibility and control of our infrastructure. For us, it's the best of both worlds."
Google BigQuery, meanwhile, provides the broadcaster with a scalable, high performance data warehouse solution for enhanced analytics. AVROTROS can then build and disseminate reports quickly and easily with Looker Studio.
The company's current setup for sites and apps consists of a private Google Kubernetes Engine cluster running numerous scalable workloads across multiple zones, while making use of a managed cloud MySQL cluster, Cloud Build, Secret Manager, and External and Internal load balancers.
"Managed services with Google Kubernetes Engine were absolutely vital for us. It meant we could automate most of our operations but still have visibility and control of our infrastructure. For us, it's the best of both worlds."
—Finus Tromp, Head of Interactive Media, AVROTROSDiscovering new ways of working with Google Workspace
After building out its new infrastructure with Google Cloud and binx.io, in late 2019, AVROTROS decided to pilot Google Workspace as a replacement for its office productivity solution. After a successful pilot, AVROTROS rolled out Google Workspace to all 400 of its employees in January 2020. The timing could not have been better. Just two months later, the Dutch government ordered the country into lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. "It was a strange time. Everyone left the office in one day with their laptops and started working from home overnight," says Tromp. "But it was as if nothing had changed. Because we were all using Google Workspace, working from home was a seamless process and we didn't lose any production hours."
The ability to collaborate live on Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides was crucial for teams used to working in the same space. For Tromp, the real highlight was Google Meet: "Collaboration is hugely important for us. The ability to communicate multiple times a day over Google Meet with our colleagues and superiors was crucial for our continuity. I've tried a number of different video calling solutions but for me, Google Meet was the most reliable, had the lowest latency, and the highest quality."
Delivering scalability at speed
Even though the pandemic resulted in a forced working-from-home situation for AVROTROS, that didn't stop the broadcaster from taking on new technology challenges and developing newer, better apps for its audience.
The revamped "Wie is de mol?" app has proven incredibly popular. Approximately 1 million people use the app and log in every episode to vote off contestants and connect with other fans of the show. That results in a massive spike in traffic which AVROTROS can now cope with. "Google Cloud gives us massive scalability when we need it. For perhaps five minutes of each episode, we are dealing with 50,000 to 60,000 requests per second through our app," says Tromp. "That’s triple the limit of our previous infrastructure."
AVROTROS is not just able to scale up to accommodate its audience. It can scale right back down after the peak times to save on infrastructure costs. In fact, because it only pays for what it uses with Google Cloud pricing, the broadcaster has saved more than 30% in infrastructure costs with its cloud-native infrastructure, at the same time as dramatically increasing the power reserves it can draw on.
Building a foundation for future engagement
Google Cloud has been more than just a technological upgrade for AVROTROS. By adopting a cloud-native approach to its infrastructure, the broadcaster has changed the way it works. "We had gotten used to a constant cycle of upgrades and we had to outsource lots of the maintenance," says Tromp. "Now, we can bring that expertise in-house, and it's actually made us more flexible. We can develop our own online applications, and react much more quickly to new developments in the media technology landscape."
In just a few years, AVROTROS' developers have gone from maintaining websites to building, testing, and releasing a host of high quality online applications for deeper audience engagement. In cooperation with Elements Interactive, AVROTROS' released a Eurovision Song Contest voting and discussion app in 2021, which proved very popular and saw a year-on-year growth of 20% in 2022. A recent test showed that AVROTROS' in-house apps could withstand up to 1 million users at any one time.
AVROTROS is doing more than just building new online applications. Recently, the broadcaster 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. This information can be relayed directly back to producers who can use it to tailor their shows to what the audience best responds to. The broadcaster's developers are also looking to explore Cloud Functions and Cloud Run, for even more automation and responsive infrastructure.
"Our technology strategy is based on three pillars," says Tromp. "We want to be cloud-native, data-driven, and we want to future-proof our online development. I'm confident we can achieve all three with Google Cloud."
"Our technology strategy is based on three pillars. We want to be cloud-native, data-driven, and we want to future-proof our online development. I'm confident we can achieve all three with Google Cloud."
—Finus Tromp, Head of Interactive Media, AVROTROSTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About AVROTROS
AVROTROS is an independent and socially involved broadcaster that enriches and connects the Netherlands with high-quality and innovative programs that are accessible to everyone.
About Binx.io
Binx.io transforms organizations by refactoring applications, developing cloud-native solutions, training their teams, and implementing a way of working focused on delivering value.