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STRONGERTOGETHER PROMOTING INNOVATION Tim Richards, chairman, IBC Board
“Collaboration, sparking ideas off each other, pushing for the best possible outcome. This is what we wish for all who participate in IBC”
#IBC2021
It would of course have been wonderful to be able to welcome people back to a physical IBC event, but the ongoing impact of the pandemic has unfortunately once again prevented us from meeting at the RAI. Instead, we welcome you all online where we hope you will be able to experience much of what Amsterdam would have offered.
Over the past few years – long before the pandemic – we moved towards a 365-day-a-year presence, with digital events, information and networking supporting the days in Amsterdam.
When Covid struck, that became the centre of our efforts, and in 2020 IBC was purely a digital event. That did not change either the scope or the ambition: we still had presentations from all the world’s leading vendors; keynote addresses and technical papers; comment and networking. This year, we knew that if a physical event was to take place that some of you would not have been able to attend, and so it was important to be able to provide content and the chance to connect with exhibitors in an online environment. We see a hybrid of physical event and a continuing online presence in depth as the new normal for IBC and as the best way to serve the industry. So, the first big change from 2019 to 2021 was the launch in October this year of IBC Digital, which I see as truly embodying all the flavours of IBC in an online form. It provides us with the ability to deliver a hybrid – and this year, fully online – event, and includes Workflow Tours, thought-leading keynotes and presentations, along with the ability to network and share knowledge.
Those are the key factors of the live event, so we have been keen to incorporate them into our online offering. Rather than a conference away from the show floor, this year would have seen the integration of presentations on stages in exhibition halls, so they would have been available to all. And, of course, the same is now true with this year’s online experience; once you have registered, many hours of content are available to you on-demand. The broad themes for these panel and demonstration sessions are production and post production, live and remote production, the content supply chain, and the challenges of OTT and D2C. Sessions include both insight from key industry figures and detailed experiences from leading vendors.
This notion that users and vendors should work together is at the heart of an IBC initiative I find particularly exciting. The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme was first held in 2019, and it is even stronger in 2021. The idea behind the programme is that IBC provides the stimulus for novel partnerships to come together and create something new and potentially industry changing. It is a framework for agile, collaborative, fast-track innovation which brings together the best from each of the partners. This year there are eight projects in the programme.
Three take 5G as their technological starting point but move in very different directions: live workflows, remote production for sport, and location-based extended realities. Three look at the ways technology can drive forward both productivity and user engagement: using smart
remote production for real-time animation, developing immersive audio imagery, and 3D and extended reality content creation. The last two are very much of this time. BBC, BT Sport, Sky, Albert, and Multichoice and SuperSport are championing thoughtful, innovative work on sustainability in live production. And Al Jazeera is championing the application of AI to bias detection. It aims to detect, measure and report bias in the representation and portrayal of diverse genders, cultures and ethnicities.
Each of the eight is led by one or more Champions, who are seeking to drive the innovation forward. They are joined by technology collaborators, who draw on leading-edge technology in attempting to realise the ambitious targets.
Following the success of the 2019 programme, the IBC2021 Accelerator Programme brings together some of the leading names in the industry, like AP, Audible, Digital Domain, EBU, ESL, Fox Sports, OBS, Reuters, Pixar, RTÉ, TV2, VRT, YLE, Unity Technologies, Unreal/ Epic, ViacomCBS and more. Collaboration, sparking ideas off each other, pushing for the best possible outcome. This is what we wish for all who participate in IBC. We hope that you are able to join us on IBC Digital, we very much hope that IBC2021 delivers for you.
Tim Richards is chair of the IBC Board, which is made up of representatives from the six partner organisations: IABM, IEEE BTS, IET, RTS, SCTE and SMPTE.
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