Broaden your horizons
The International Broadcasting Convention, known as IBC, is a prestigious media and technology event that attracts the attention of professionals from around the world.
This year’s edition attracted 43,065 participants from 170 countries. It was held at the RAI Amsterdam from September 15-18. More than 1,250 exhibitors took part in the event, and the number of participants increased by 16%. IT Factory’s representation was not to be missed among them.
Learning, discussions and cooperation
The IBC2023 program focused on three main pillars – Transformative tech, Shifting business models , and People and purpose. It aimed to explore the latest trends, seek opportunities and solve key problems in the media and entertainment industry. It also supported M&E’s mission to promote more sustainable and inclusive business practices in the industry.
Each of the three thematic blocks was based on learning – lectures and demonstrations, discussions – debates and panels, and collaboration – organized networking meetings and behind-the-scenes conversations. The conference was an excellent opportunity to promote one’s own solutions and seek partners from around the world.
Revolutionary technologies
Innovative tools such as AI, cloud and 5G are generating new trends in media creation and distribution. They are contributing to a significant transformation of the entertainment industry, including television. Thanks to them, content is becoming more tailored to viewers’ preferences, productions are becoming more efficient and interactive, and access to content is simpler than ever before. Let’s take a look at some examples presented at IBC.
Streaming platforms use AI to analyze viewer behavior, allowing them to provide personalized recommendations. AI also enables automatic editing and enhancement of footage in post-production. This lowers production costs and reduces turnaround time for projects, while improving visual and audio quality. Cloud solutions play a key role in storing and sharing huge amounts of content in real time. They make it easier to distribute content to different platforms to reach a wider audience.
This rapid technological development provides the entertainment industry with a continuous drive to create innovations and deliver new and exciting experiences to audiences around the world.
Although new technologies bring many benefits to the entertainment industry, there are also some risks that are worth considering together.
Ideas are the most treasured currency in this day and age, thus any tool that you can use to help ypu ideate is extremely valuable.
Changing business models
The innovations described above mean that companies in the entertainment industry need to transform at the business model level. One example is that the entertainment industry is increasingly relying on cloud solutions, which means that companies can become dependent on cloud providers. Failures or technical problems at the provider can affect the availability of content and services. When creating a business strategy for the next few years, we need to anticipate and create procedures to prevent similar tragedies. Events such as IBC are an excellent opportunity to share experiences and receive support in adapting your business model to the changing post-modernity.
The most important thing is the goal
Progressive digitization should not divert our attention from human beings and their needs. At this year’s IBC, lectures and panels on ethics and inclusivity were particularly important. It is up to us to decide whether new technologies, such as AI, will serve and strengthen society or bring it harm.
International events are an opportunity to look beyond the borders of the Western World and learn the perspective of people from other parts of the globe. It’s worth remembering that while we’re talking about 5G networks, 4 million people in Australia still don’t have access to the Internet.
Soumya Sriraman at the Changenaker session said that including people, customers in the business development process is key.
I've had so many meetings with technologists or publishers at IBC where we talk about the needs of the publisher, but at Amazon we always talked about putting the customer at the center of everything, because that's where everything begins.