
Speaking exclusively to TVBEurope, four of its experts weigh in on the IBCs role in fostering innovation, the technological shifts on the horizon, and why sport remains a key driver of industry change
By TVBEurope Staff
Published: February 5, 2025 Updated: February 10, 2025
Speaking exclusively to TVBEurope, four of its experts weigh in on the IBC's role in fostering innovation, the technological shifts on the horizon, and why sport remains a key driver of industry change
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Speaking exclusively to TVBEurope, four of its experts weigh in on the IBC's role in fostering innovation, the technological shifts on the horizon, and why sport remains a key driver of industry change
https://www.tvbeurope.com/business/inside-ibcs-innovation-boom-whats-powering-the-future-of-media title=Share via Email class=share-email>
IBC continues to solidify its status as an innovation hub, bringing together the brightest minds in media, entertainment and technology to develop ideas. As the media landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, industry leaders recognise IBC as an essential platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breakthrough advancements.
From practical new AI advances to pioneering 5G applications to innovations cutting the industry's carbon footprint, IBC2025 is poised to showcase the latest tech trends shaping content creation, distribution, and audience engagement. As IBC prepares to accept its latest Technical Paper submissions (deadline 14th February) and its Accelerator Kickstart Day (12th February), four of its experts weigh in on the event's role in fostering innovation, the technological shifts on the horizon, and why sport remains a key driver of industry change.
Is IBC becoming more of a hotbed for innovation than ever? Why? Fergal Ringrose Fergal Ringrose, chair of the IBC Innovation Awards Jury: Innovation in the media content supply chain and the content consumption landscape is accelerating. Content providers are in a battle to retain audiences, whether broadcasters or streamers or social media platforms, and that competition for eyeballs is increasing each year - so the role of IBC as the Innovation Hub becomes more compelling, more essential. It's the one global forum where the industry comes together to share knowledge as a community for innovation.
Paul Entwistle, chair of IBC's Technical Papers Committee: The breadth of technology that impacts media and entertainment continues to grow. If you look at the complexities around delivering across all the different devices and platforms - from HD to smartphones to VR - the hybridisation of IP technologies and television continues to grow. You see that in the personalisation, targeting and data mining. On top of all that, operational efficiency, sustainability and regulation are also driving innovation.
Mark Smith, co-lead for the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme: I'd echo all that. In the Accelerator Programme, we're right in the middle of all the ideas that come in, seeing firsthand how collaboration is really the fuel for progress in the industry.
Muki Kulhan, co-lead for the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme: The innovation trajectory goes up and up every year, and the IBC audience knows they learn something new when they come to Amsterdam - whether through the Accelerator Programme, a new hall, new demos, or an emerging vendor. Many are coming to IBC just to be in the middle of that hotbed.
What are some of the big innovations and technical trends you expect to see at IBC in 2025? Mark Smith MS: AI is still a big trend. But we're going to see a lot more practical, very specific integration of AI into different processes. It will be more about the actual specifics rather than some of the big-picture, more hyped AI stories we've seen.
MK: AI is everywhere but increasingly it's about how it's being used as a tool to help with automation and to collaborate better - whether that's in production, post-production, distribution, emerging media, or newer technologies.
PE: Clearly AI is a hot topic. Within technical papers, we have seen it expand from a niche metadata extraction tool to across the board: encoding, advertising, production. But last year, only a third of the papers were AI related, so there is still a very large proportion of innovation going beyond AI.
FR: Another area is IP-based production, where media facilities running on cloud platforms enable the continuing innovation we're seeing in remote, distributed and virtualised production across the content chain. HDR is another innovation becoming established as a high-quality staple across production, and mobile devices now account for an increasingly large share of content consumption - with private 5G networks and mobile edge compute potentially powering AR and VR experiences.
More than ever, sport appears to be a huge driver of the industry innovations we are seeing at IBC. Why? FR: The bottom line is that, as audiences continue to fragment across all other areas of consumption, live sport is the one linear area retaining viewership and driving revenues. The pandemic forced the sports industry into innovations that they weren't widely adopting before, moving beyond the traditional model of everyone going to venue and producing out of trucks. Connectivity and cloud have become key to new remote and distributed workflows, with SMPTE 2110 and SRT enabling ultra-low latency while reducing the need for equipment and personnel - and the carbon footprints as well
Paul Entwistle PE: Sport has always been at the heart of TV, particularly pay-TV - and competition for money drives innovation. It has led the way in areas such as HD, 4K, HDR, VR and more. Previous years' technical papers have shared the cha
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
At NAB Show 2026, Net Insight will showcase the next evolution of Nimbra Edge, its orchestration and control layer designed to manage live media services across...
27/03/2026
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced powerful new innovations that further elevate the company's sports streaming solution. The advanced capabilities enh...
27/03/2026
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced significant new capabilities for Player Web X, its next-generation web video player...
27/03/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Czech-based production company CS live has equipped its newest outside broadcast (OB) van with an integrated Riedel i...
27/03/2026
130 Industry Experts Confirmed as Show Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
MPTS, the UK's largest and most influential event for the media, production and tech...
27/03/2026
Grass Valley today announced the successful completion of a major live production deployment with NVP, a leading European media company specializing in live spo...
27/03/2026
Showcases resilient solutions for satellite-to-IP migration, REMI and hybrid live production
Appear ASA (Appear, OSE:APR), a global leader in live production t...
27/03/2026
San Francisco, California, March 2026 - Microsoft Ignite, a major annual conference hosted by Microsoft for developers, IT professionals, partners and business ...
27/03/2026
Clear-Com is proud to highlight its support for worship teams through professional communication solutions, with the deployment of its EQUIP wireless system a...
27/03/2026
Orban Collaborates with Sage on Virtualized EAS Technology Demo
Brie Clayton March 26, 2026
0 Comments
Sage Alerting Systems (SAS), in cooperation wit...
27/03/2026
Berklee Alums Bring GIANT to Broadway Brian and Dayna Lee BM '13 met and fell in love at Berklee, and now their production companys first Broadway debut i...
26/03/2026
Extron and Audio-Technica have announced that their Design Solutions devices, Ce...
26/03/2026
SPORTEL Asia took place March 24-25 at the Orchard Hotel Singapore, drawing 370 participants representing more than 220 companies from 35 countries. Approximate...
26/03/2026
LTN will demonstrate satellite-to-IP migration solutions for broadcasters, cable networks, MVPDs, and station groups at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2100).
The C-Ban...
26/03/2026
The Seattle Mariners have partnered with Daktronics to install an upgraded outfi...
26/03/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) has awarded National Team Partner status to organizations and individuals across more than 100 countries and territories for the Esp...
26/03/2026
Telestream has announced expanded integration between its Vantage workflow platf...
26/03/2026
FOR-A Corporation has announced a partnership with Nippon TV and NVIDIA to distr...
26/03/2026
CBS Sports and the WNBA have expanded their partnership through a new long-term, multiplatform rights agreement. CBS Sports will feature up to 20 regular-season...
26/03/2026
Zac Brown Band will star in the Sunday Night Baseball show open on NBC and Peacock, NBC Sports announced. The open was filmed at American Family Field, home of ...
26/03/2026
Major League Baseball opens the 2026 season with nationally televised games across multiple media partners. Fans can visit MLB.com/Watch for a complete schedule...
26/03/2026
DIRECTV has announced an agreement to carry nine new MLB-operated team channels, covering the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers (Detroit SportsNet), Kansas City R...
26/03/2026
Nationals.TV, the Washington Nationals' local broadcast channel, is now avai...
26/03/2026
Starting Thursday, March 26, MLB.TV will be available on the ESPN App, giving fans access to more than 2,000 out-of-market regular season games. Fans can also r...
26/03/2026
Spotify's partnership with NAVER, Korea's leading digital platform, is built around one simple goal: making it easier for listeners in Korea to discover...
26/03/2026
Exclusive to ComposerCloud for first month
Sample library and virtual instrument gurus EastWest have announced the upcoming release of a new virtual drum i...
26/03/2026
Friday 27 March
Friday 27 March will mark Dynamic Range Day 2026, the annual day of online activity that was started in 2010 by mastering engineer Ian Sheph...
26/03/2026
Includes four separate instruments
Max Richter's SRM Sounds venture have just announced their fifth release, ASMR Choir. Captured at the main live room ...
26/03/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), has been tasked with administering the Sixth Presi...
26/03/2026
By Matt Klein
Hello to everyone reading this - whether you're a current YEP, HPA member, or just YEP-curious. I'm Matt Klein, one of the co-chairs of t...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
28 participating companies, from start-ups to blue-chips, lead the UK Group as part of the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland presence across all the Halls at N...
26/03/2026
Arkona Unveils BLADE//planner and Major Usability Enhancements at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton March 26, 2026
0 Comments
New graphical configuration tool and...
26/03/2026
Bitfocus showcases complete control at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton March 26, 2026
0 Comments
Continuing development drives advances in security, availa...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Nevion introduces powerful new Panel Builder to enhance VideoIPath broadcast con...