Plotting the future of production with the IBC Accelerator Programme By George Bevir
Friday, February 17, 2023 - 09:31
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The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme brings together broadcasters and vendors to solve industry issues. This year, SVG Europe is media partner for the sport-focused projects and was present at a roundtable event where ideas for one of this year's projects were discussed.
The IBC Accelerator Programme has been running since 2019. In that time, the initiative has drawn together some 180 organisations including producers, broadcasters, vendors and suppliers to solve some complex real-world challenges. Last year's eight Accelerator projects provide a great example of the kinds of business and technology problems that the programme seeks to solve, with projects on live production and sport among the innovative proof of concepts that were demonstrated at IBC in September.
Those who attended last year's IBC in Amsterdam will have seen demonstrations of Accelerator projects including 5G Remote Production (in the middle of nowhere)', Cloud Based Live Events, Analytics and Low Latency Protocols' and Volumetric Video for Broadcasting, Metaverse Production and RT3D Assets'.
The question, is how do we bring the sort of production we enjoy in top tier venues that are well connected, to venues that are poorly connected?
While each project sought to tackle very different challenges, the overall concept of the IBC Accelerator programme was common to all: challenges defined and developed by media organisations, facilitated and managed by IBC which then paired end users and buyers (known as Champions') with vendors, manufacturers, suppliers and developers (known as Participants') who helped design the solutions with the guidance of Champions.
IBC and SVG partnership
Since the programme's inception, SVG Europe has reported on many of the projects. For the 2023 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, SVG is delighted to be partnering with IBC to showcase all stages of the sport-focused projects, from conception to development through to the presentation of proof of concepts at IBC 2023 in September.
This began with a roundtable event in December, where a host of senior figures from the broadcast industry gathered at 4Wall's Studio 19 virtual studio in London to begin the process of considering some potential ideas.
Back row left to right: Gordon Roxburgh, Sky Sports, Andy Beale, BT Sport, Kevin McCue, Sky Sports, Alasdair Kennedy, DAZN, Andy Beach, Microsoft, Richard Crone, Discovery, Jonathan Hale, Discovery, Scott Davis, Microsoft Seated left to right: John Ellerton, BT Media and Broadcast, Matt Stagg, BT Sport, Purminder Gandhu, BBC.
The wide-ranging discussion centred on the use of the cloud, proprietary technology, the evolution of standards, interoperability and control mechanisms in cloud and IP-based environments. With the roundtable taking place at the same time as the latter stages of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the conversation began with a discussion about the use of data in a live sports environment with Microsoft's Scott Davis remarking that video plus data drives a meaningful experience for our customers as well as for us as producers of content .
From there, the discussion moved to the issue of synchronisation between live data and then to second screen usage and the synching of platforms with multiple devices and then to immersive audio - where the issue of interoperability and proprietary technology was considered.
Kevin McCue, Sky Sports, set the scene. He said: We're all lashing stuff together in the cloud, and we're kind of hoping for technology to catch up to our aspirations, but there hasn't been a standardised approach to control, monitoring, security and so on, so that you can know that when you put something onto the network it is going to behave itself. We are definitely not there with the cloud, even though it is such a significant part of all of our futures how do we get vendors to go from proprietary to standard, which they don't want to do, because they don't want to give up their IP I'd say the move to cloud software makes that a lot easier. Because you are no longer buying kit, you buy licences.
McCue's colleague at Sky Sports, Gordon Roxburgh, elaborated on the point. He said: Somebody will come with a great bit of tech and a great idea, and then you're locked into it. So how do we get to that level of standardisation that we need?
Encouraging innovation
One of the considerations was ensuring that smaller vendors can feel confident, potentially by developing against an API or a set of standards in order to be part of the same, single ecosystem.
BT Media & Broadcast's John Ellerton said: A lot of the things that SMPTE ultimately end up publishing are baked' somewhere else, such as the VSF. So it tends to be a group of people who identify a problem getting together and thinking, let's try and solve this and write it all down. Okay, now we've identified it, let's get it turned into something that then becomes standard so that it can't then be changed,' that's the usual approach.
Discovery's Richard Crone stressed the importance of not creating an environment in which vendors are discouraged from innovating. He said: Everyone will have their own special sauce, but at least having everyone working to a common API, platform or common workflow for the cloud, gives all vendors a better chance.
Crone's Discovery colleague Jonathan Hale added: Having some standardisation is absolutely key, to say this is the protocol of the cloud and this is how we want to control you the challenge today for controlling something in the cloud is that you have to get someone to write a custom driver for it
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Plotting the future of production with the IBC Accelerator Programme By George Bevir 
