By: Mohammad Tanveer
IBC2024 has unveiled a world-class mix of cutting-edge keynotes, presentations, panels, and other sessions at this year’s IBC Conference, which shifts to a new location within the RAI Amsterdam when it runs from 13-15 September. The Conference offers delegates exclusive access to insightful, inspirational, and entertaining content from a diverse array of thought leaders from across the global media, entertainment and technology industry.
“The specific topics that our visionary line-up of speakers are addressing range from AI and human-machine collaboration to FAST and its impact on monetisation to the fight against fake news and disinformation – plus other disruptive trends that present both new challenges and opportunities,” says Sally Watts, Head of Content for IBC. “In addition, the move to a new part of the RAI reflects the fact that the Conference continues to evolve while adding new and excusive elements that elevate delegates’ IBC experience.”
Scaling up to three days in 2024 from two last year, the IBC Conference is moving to the Auditorium Complex at the RAI with two theatres and a large, self-contained Delegate Lounge open to all attendees for breaks, happy hours, roundtables and other exclusive events. The Lounge will exclusively offer all delegates complimentary refreshments, dedicated WiFi, a concierge service and semi-private meeting rooms to work, make calls or have quiet chat away from the bustle of the exhibition floor. The Conference will also play host to the IBC Innovation Awards on 15 September.
The Conference kicks off on 12 September with an IBC Welcome Party, to which all delegates are invited, on the 23rd floor of the nearby nhow Amsterdam RAI hotel. Event guests can enjoy breathtaking views of the city as they spend the evening networking with fellow attendees and speakers over drinks and canapes ahead of IBC2024 opening the following day.
The Conference itself will focus on some of the critical trends and technologies redefining the media landscape, beginning with Benedict Evans, the internationally renowned media and technology analyst who has worked with Orange, Channel 4 and NBC Universal, giving a keynote entitled ‘Navigating a changing media landscape: AI and everything else’. Evans will explore how disruption has become the new normal in the media and entertainment (M&E) ecosystem, looking at how immersive technologies, AI, new connectivity, personalised content experiences, and other developments are reshaping M&E.
This opening session will be immediately followed by a series of short fireside chats looking at tech innovation in digital media and broadcast, featuring:
- Grace Boswood, Technology Director at Channel 4
- Cristina Gomila, Managing Director of Content Technology & Innovation at Sky
- Sinead Greenaway, Director of Broadcast and End User Technology at the BBC.
These sessions culminate in a panel featuring all three women, entitled ‘Building the future of tech’.
The second day of the Conference features keynotes offering CTO Perspectives. These two sessions include: Girish Bajaj, Vice President of Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios Technology, speaking on ‘Building a future ready tech stack for an evolving media landscape’; and Phil Wiser, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Technology Officer at Paramount Global, looking at the winners and losers in the changing broadcast and streaming landscape and what business models will drive long-term monetisation in ‘From ideas to impact: Blending technology, creativity and business’. There is also a joint keynote fireside chat entitled ‘At the intersection of AI and creativity: Why the future lies in human-machine collaboration’ with Sachin Dev Duggal, Founder and Chief Wizard at Builder.ai and Andy Hood, Vice President of Emerging Technologies at WPP. Both sessions will be chaired by Jeremy White, Senior Innovation Editor at WIRED.
Another Day 2 session that promises to be a big Conference draw is ‘Olympics 2024: Technology to broadcast beyond expectations’, featuring Israel Esteban, Chief Technology Officer at beIN Media Group and James Miles, Senior Director of Live Event Workflows at NBC Sports, discussing the tech used, lessons learned, and what that means for the future of sports broadcasting. The following day, another session on ‘Gen AI in Paris 2024 Olympics: New analytics to reach new audiences’ features Chris Jackson, Global Head of Digital Data and Analytics, Olympic Channel, discussing the real-time data challenges his group faces and how AI can help.
Other headline speakers at the 2024 IBC Conference include:
- Chem Assayag, Senior Vice President of Home Services Innovation at Orange
- Kerry Ball, Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer at BritBox International
- David Bouchier, Chief TV and Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media O2
- Laura Florence, Senior Vice President Global FAST Channels at Fremantle
- Kasia Jablonska, Director of Digital and On-Demand at BBC Studios
- Manish Karla, Chief Business Officer at Zee5
- David Salmon, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of International at Tubi
- Jonathan Thompson, Chief Executive Officer at Everyone TV
- Joshua Tidsbury, Senior Manager of Technology Evangelism, Worldwide Developer Relations, at Apple
The Conference also offers delegates exclusive access to presentations on the IBC Technical Papers, which showcase world-renowned, peer-reviewed original research delving into solutions to real-world industry challenges. This year’s programme, running throughout the Conference, includes papers on:
- Sustainability – energy efficiency, spanning devices to delivery systems
- AI in Production – training and targeting
- Audio & Speech – advances in production
- Provenance – what can we trust?
- Streaming – the view from each end
- XR – advances in capturing, rendering, and delivering
- Advances in Video Coding – encoder optimisations and film grain
- 5G Case Studies – public network slicing trials and striving for low latency
- 5G Technology – convergence with broadcast
The Conference will also feature in the Delegate Lounge a roundtable session with Maria Rua Aguete, Senior Research Director at OMDIA, presenting findings on current media and entertainment themes and trends, including the impact of AI, evolving business models, changing consumer viewing habits, the influence of smart TVs, and other M&E developments.
AI Tech Zone
IBC2024 has unveiled a host of exciting new show features and speaking sessions to showcase real-world artificial intelligence (AI) advances across the IBC Conference, the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme and the show itself, including the new AI Tech Zone, powered by EBU. AI innovators and media and entertainment (M&E) companies will be able to learn, network, collaborate and unlock business opportunities driven by new AI use cases throughout the event, which takes place in the RAI Amsterdam on 13th-16th September.
“The media industry is ready to look beyond the AI hype and focus on real-world applications that deliver tangible benefits for businesses and consumers,” said Mike Crimp, IBC CEO.”IBC2024 will showcase an array of hands-on demos and use-case driven discussions — reflecting M&E’s demand for grounded conversation on how AI is impacting our sector today and in the long term.”
“AI spend in media is set to reach $13 billion by 2028. It is influencing every element of the content value chain but businesses need more clarity around where and how it can be harnessed most effectively,” said Maria Rua Aguete, Omdia’s Senior Research Director, Media and Entertainment. “Spotlighting high-impact use cases and collaborating to overcome adoption challenges will be key to unlocking AI’s transformative potential for the media industry.”
The new AI Tech Zone, brings together emerging AI providers, established producers, content creators and innovators looking past the tried and true to re-imagine media creation and operations from the ground up. The zone will be presented by headline sponsor AWS and partner, NVIDIA, fueling hands-on AI demonstrations. Dell Technologies has been announced as platinum sponsor with partner, NVIDIA. The AI Tech Zone Stage will be sponsored by Wasabi Technologies, while the AI networking zone – sponsored by DOT Group and IBM – will empower the IBC community to engage directly with some of the most innovative players pioneering AI for M&E.
Hans Hoffman, Head of Media Fundamentals and Production at the EBU, says: “The AI Tech Zone is a must-attend for show attendees. We are now moving on from ‘future potential’ discussions to seeing how practical AI applications in the workflow can enable public service operators, broadcasters and other media organisations to generate real value. Visitors to the AI Tech Zone will witness firsthand how AI is shaping a smarter, more efficient media world.”
An array of sessions on the AI Tech Zone Stage will spotlight groundbreaking AI advances across areas including content authenticity, intelligent media storage, accessibility, mixed reality and creativity in production while sharing critical insight into regulation and policy developments. AI thought-leaders taking to the stage include zone sponsors and representatives from AI Caramba!, BBC Studios, Eluvio, EPFL, Fraunhofer, IBM Aspera, Ina, KBS, Liverpool Football Club, PacGenesis, RTVE, Univeristy of Seoul, VIDEO.TAXI, and YLE News Lab.
Alongside sponsors, AI Tech Zone exhibitors will showcase pioneering AI technologies ranging from automated video editing and music-audio separation to advanced data analytics and business optimization to content provenance tracking and fast and secure cloud storage. Exhibiting companies include AI4ME, AudioShake, Blu Digital Group, Brai, CheckSub, Deepdub, Eleven Labs, Eluvio, EU Project X Reco, Globant, HP (Z by HP), Imaginaro.ai, ITTIAM, Magnifi, Media Monks, MobiusLabs, PacGenesis, Scenery, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, Seagate Technology, Tabsons, The Weather Company, V-Nova, Vera.AI, Video.Taxi, Videolinq.ai, VionLabs, and Zaibr.
AI-focused sessions and thought-leaders will feature across all show floor theatres and at the IBC Conference, where AI will be one of the primary themes explored — with keynotes from industry visionaries charting the evolution of AI in media and presenting new strategies to harness AI for creative workflows. The conference will also spotlight a number of AI in Action case studies, unveiling how generative AI and new data frameworks are already transforming live sports fan experiences and enhancing business operations for major broadcasters including ITV, Olympic Channel, and Sky.
Meanwhile, a number of companies across other exhibition halls will showcase new AI product launches and technologies for the first time at IBC2024, including Ateliere Creative Technologies, Backlight, Cinegy, Evergent, farmerswife, HAND, IMAX, InSync, ioMoVo, Media Excel, MediaKind, nxtedition, Operative, Periphery, Pixotope, Profuz Digital, Telestream, Telos Alliance, and Vubiquity.
Another IBC-first is the introduction of the AI Media Production Lab within the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, exploring a series of specific AI concepts to improve creativity in storytelling, deepen non-bias audience feedback and engagement, and power real-time predictive analytics to personalise live sports viewing. The three project strands, ‘Generative AI in Action’, ‘AI Audience Validation Assistant (AAVA), and ‘Changing the Game: Predictive Generative AI’ are being driven by Champions including Al Jazeera, BNNVARA, Channel 4, EBU, Evangelische Omroep (EO), IET, ITV, Paramount Global, Rai, Verizon Business, Vodafone, World Freestyle Football Association, Yle, and Zwart. Technology participants include Magnifi, Plan 9 Labs, Pluxbox, Respeecher, RKG Creative, Somersault, and Xansr Media.
Each project strand will be showcased with proof-of-concept demonstrations in Hall 3 at the Accelerator Zone and on the Innovation Stage.
IBC Innovation Awards finalists
IBC has announced the finalists for this year’s IBC Innovation Awards, taking place at IBC2024 in the RAI Amsterdam on 13-16 September. The IBC Innovation Awards celebrate and honour collaborative initiatives leading to ground-breaking solutions that address real-world media, entertainment and technology industry challenges. This year’s awards bring together under one roof IBC’s innovation and social impact awards to create a unified celebration of industry advances, with five categories now being judged: Content Creation, Content Distribution, Content Everywhere, Social Impact, and Environment & Sustainability.
In a year dominated by big sporting events such as the Summer Olympic Games and the UEFA European Football Championship, this year’s awards finalists reflect the power of sports as a driver of innovation, with at least one entry in this area shortlisted in four of the five categories. Overall, the broad array of entries from every corner of the globe underlines the truly international nature of IBC.
“This year’s entries once again showcased the global reach and appeal of the IBC Innovation Awards with projects of the highest quality received from six continents,” said Fergal Ringrose, Chair of the 2024 IBC Innovation Awards Jury. “Meanwhile, constantly evolving delivery methods and audience consumption patterns demand that content producers around the globe must innovate dynamically in order to stay relevant and competitive in the modern media and entertainment technology ecosystem. I would like to sincerely thank our panel of judges for their diligence and ability to adapt, as we brought our three Content categories together with Environment & Sustainability and Social Impact this year for our new-look IBC Innovation Awards.”
The 2024 awards will be announced in a ceremony hosted by presenter and former news anchor Sasha Qadri, taking place in the Auditorium Complex at the RAI on Sunday, 15 September.
This year’s finalists in the Content Creation category include:
- The National Football League (US), ESPN, Disney/Pixar and Beyond Sports for creating the first fully animated, real-time NFL alternative broadcast set in the Toy Story universe.
- Olympic Broadcasting Services and partners for live broadcast production with more than 200 smartphones contributing video for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony and a sea-based 5G network for sailing competitions in Marseille.
- Aspire for working with Vislink and FocalPoint VR to develop a virtual reality over RF wireless solution for the inaugural season of Aspire’s Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL).
The organisations named as finalists in Content Distribution are:
- Claro for creating a new approach to pay TV in Brazil, integrating streaming channels and applications, delivering entertainment to consumers with a complete pay TV offer.
- NBCUniversal Operations and Technology for its pioneering project to transform the way its TV channels are delivered to consumers worldwide.
- The National Hockey League (Canada and US) in partnership with Verizon, AWS, Zixi, Vizrt and Evertz, for producing a 5G and Edge compute framework for assembly, control and delivery of live broadcast.
The Content Everywhere finalists are:
- LaLiga for working with Play Anywhere and Ease Live to enable true fan interactivity for itself and its worldwide broadcast and streaming partners.
- Red Bull Media House for bringing together real-time GPS tracking, data management and advanced visualisation to transform viewing experience across live broadcast, web widgets and AR mobile app.
- Franceinfo (France Télévisions) for working with PimpMyCompany to aggregate text/audio/video/photo messages from various platforms and broadcasting them live on air.
The Social Impact finalists are:
- Disney Star, Star Sports for working with India Signing Hands to bring cricket to almost 67 million hard of hearing and 34 million visually impaired fans watching IPL 2024.
- CultureQ for a new technology platform developed by indigenous-owned tech company Kiwa Digital that enables indigenous peoples globally to revitalise their language and culture at scale, while retaining sovereignty.
- Sesame Workshop for its Watch Play Learn Distribution Hub which allows government agencies and aid organisations to preview and request videos for children in crisis settings.
The Environment & Sustainability finalists are:
- France Télévisions for reducing CO2 emissions by 300 tons via a pioneering 100% glass-to-glass cloud production and private 5G network.
- GreeningofStreaming for addressing growing industry concerns about the energy impact of the streaming sector, with international reach and over 30 member organisations.
- Anton/Bauer for Salt-E Dog which harnesses the power of sodium chemistry to enable sustainable television production practices.
The Innovation Awards ceremony will also feature the presentation of the IBC International Honour for Excellence, which goes to an individual or organisation that has made an outstanding impact in the industry, and the Best Technical Paper, with all papers being presented at the 2024 IBC Conference that runs 13-15 September in the Auditorium Complex of the RAI. IBC also released for the first time earlier in the month longlists of the final 10 contenders for each category of the 2024 Innovation Awards, selected from the hundreds of entries that poured in from media organizations and their technology partners worldwide.
