Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

A View from the Front Line: How Coronavirus Impacts the Media Industry

31/03/2020

A View from the Front Line: How Coronavirus Impacts the Media Industry By Fergal Ringrose, SVG Europe

Tuesday, March 31, 2020 - 11:41 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

IABM and the DPP collaborated to host an international webcast on Thursday, March 26, responding to the thirst for experience and knowledge regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the media industry.

The event began with IABM CEO Peter White analysing results from its new Coronavirus Impact Tracker. Summarising the early research, White noted that, from a supply chain perspective the area for growth is in connectivity, not surprisingly, with a high demand for bandwidth and connectivity as people move to remote working and remote production.

That which is growing: virtualisation, remote production and the use of AI and machine learning. These are the three areas with key investment in the transition from SDI to IP, said White.

All of these will help the new paradigm shift we're seeing, an irreversible tech move that is going to be accelerated by this [coronavirus] event. The pandemic will have the impact of accelerating these changes.

The cancellation of live events is putting pressure on the sports industry, and a major source of advertising revenue of course in what was a quadrennial year. We're seeing a shift towards solutions that enhance fan engagement as a result.

The cancellation of productions is putting pressure on the post side of the industry and may spur creative innovation and new programming ideas. And obviously there's a hunger for live news currently, even more so than normal, leading to a higher demand for collaborative new solutions such as the use of consumer video technology in the news.

Finally, the surge in demand for on-demand streaming consumption due to our lockdown measures is leading to a pressure on connectivity resources and to Netflix and others cutting streaming quality. Obviously these solutions are good for those providing compression products, noted White.

DPP managing director Mark Harrison

DPP managing director Mark Harrison hosted a discussion among companies in the television and video production space, and wondered what lessons we can start to learn about the impact of coronavirus on the way we work and the nature of work.

Nutopia chief operating officer Helena Tait said, I've long been an advocate of people having the flexibility to work. I dislike presenteeism' intensely.

I also think that with budgets getting tighter and advertising shrinking, especially after this crisis, broadcasters are going to be looking for us to cut our overheads. And we're going to have find sensible ways of working.

We need flexibility in terms of ways of working. It helps somewhat in terms of transport if over the next months we can put into place that we not only work remotely within the same city, for example, but that we can start remote shooting and getting that data back.

Luckily the backbone of our business is pretty much based in the cloud, said Nemorin chief executive officer Pete Ferguson, so we did have contingency plans and do use a lot of online software. But at the same time we did see some productions cancelled. We were right on the brink of shooting in Europe, Mexico and Los Angeles, all back to back for a big client but unfortunately that got pulled.

Some shoots have been postponed, unfortunately, but post production is very much happening, using a mixture of online services and hard drives that are being collected from the office. We sent an email around to our staff about a week before [UK] lockdown, asking them just to be ready to keep working in the event that London was shut down. I remember thinking at the time, gosh that's a scary scenario', but of course it's the new normal now.

Yes we have gone through a real feeling of panic - but also there's a certain feeling of excitement about the future, said Ferguson. I think there's a real spirit of collaboration now.

Obviously we're going to see a sharp dip to the economy in general, but I think once everyone starts to feel healthy again it's going to go the other way very quickly and money will be made available. But people are shocked by this - it has scarred the industry, I believe.

Keith Scholey, co-CEO of Silverback Films said, I think we saw this thing coming in the middle of January. We did make some contingency plans in terms of our shoots and people working from home - but the speed of this thing has been shocking.

I remember the moment when Donald Trump said that Europeans can't go to America. That was the point I thought ah ok, this is all going to happen a lot faster'.

We had crews in Indonesia, Uganda, Hawaii, Australia - all over the place. We had plans to try to keep them going, especially in places where it seemed relatively safe. But it quite quickly became clear that we needed to bring everyone back - and we got them all back in time.

Now the question is: how long does this go on? When does the world open up again? Obviously Donald Trump is promising to open up by Easter - let's watch that one! When can we get back to business and when can we start travelling again?

The reality is, we're probably all going to have to get it at some point. How do we manage that long tail of this disease, and the duty of care? - Keith Scholey

I think the interesting thing about this whole disease is it seems a lot of people can go through without being affected but some are terribly badly affected. What we're going to get into is a process where lots of people have had it, and the lockdowns are going to open up - but you're still going to get it. The reality is, we're probably all going to have to get it at some point. How do we manage that long tail of this disease, and the duty of care? he
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/03/31/a-view-from-the-front-line-how-...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

11/06/2026

HBSs Johannes Franken on Digital Innovations, the Role of the Influencer at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...

11/06/2026

Nielsen: Soccer Fandom in North America Tops 136 Million, Up 10.9% in Five Years

Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...

11/06/2026

Telemundo Announces All-Day Opening Day Coverage for FIFA World Cup 2026 on June 11

Telemundo will launch its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Thursday, June 11 with...

11/06/2026

Fubo Announces Distribution Agreement With NBCUniversal

FuboTV Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with NBCUniversal. Fubo customers can now stream Telemundo and Universo, with NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC...

11/06/2026

DAZN Announces In-App Features for FIFA World Cup 2026 Coverage in Spain, Italy, and Japan

DAZN has announced its in-app features for FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Spain...

11/06/2026

Roblox Report: Sports Engagement on Platform Drives Real-World Fandom and Purchases

Roblox has released the 2026 Roblox Digital Expression Report: Wave 4 - Sports D...

11/06/2026

Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta, Megan Thee Stallion, and EJAE Release Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem DNA'

FIFA has unveiled DNA, the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, performed by A...

11/06/2026

ESPN Announces Extensive English- and Spanish-Language World Cup 2026 Coverage

ESPN will provide English- and Spanish-language news and information coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 across its U.S. media platforms from June 11 through July 1...

11/06/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Teddy Batkin, Rochester Institute of Technology

The latest product of the outstanding RIT Sports Network program, this recent grad from Long Island is carving out a promising path in broadcast engineering In...

11/06/2026

DAZN and DSPORTS Announce Distribution Agreement Across Five Latin American Countries

DAZN has announced a multi-year agreement to make DSPORTS channels available to ...

11/06/2026

Resource Actors Throughout the Years at Sundance Institute's Directors Lab

Laura Dern at the 1986 Sundance Institute Directors Lab (Photo by Eric Edwards) By Lucy Spicer It takes a village to bring together the Sundance Institute lab...

11/06/2026

Introducing a New Standard for Podcast Plays and Upgraded Creator Analytics Experience

As podcast formats evolve in the streaming era, podcasting needs updated, transp...

11/06/2026

RADAR Italia Unveils 6 New Artists and a New Approach for 2026

As Spotify's global RADAR program enters its sixth year in Italy, a new class of artists is stepping into the spotlight. Today, we're announcing the six...

11/06/2026

5 Audiobooks that Amplify and Celebrate Queer Voices

Pride Month is a time for celebration, reflection, and amplifying the diverse stories and perspectives from the LGBTQIA+ community that enrich our world. To hel...

11/06/2026

VSL introduce Synchron Solo Violin 1 & Cello (sordino)

First in new line of muted string libraries VSL have just announced the launch of two new string libraries that represent the first two instalments in a new...

11/06/2026

Novation reveal the Launchkey 61 MK4 White

New colour option for 61-key Launchkey MK4 At Superbooth 2025, Novation introduced the Launchkey Mini 37 White and Launchkey 49 White, bringing an additiona...

11/06/2026

Arturia announce the MiniLab 37

Larger, but still compact! Arturia's popular compact MIDI controller keyboard is now available in a, well, slightly less compact version! The new MiniLa...

11/06/2026

Eurosatory 2026: Rohde & Schwarz shapes the new-generation battlefield

Eurosatory 2026: Rohde & Schwarz shapes the new-generation battlefield Rohde & Schwarz unveils next generation SIGINT/EW and CUAS solutions on uncrewed system...

11/06/2026

Rohde & Schwarz unveils NEMACS - Directional, ultra secure connectivity for the future battlefield

Rohde & Schwarz unveils NEMACS - Directional, ultra secure connectivity for the ...

11/06/2026

MTI FILM acquires Mango/New Edit

MTI FILM acquires Mango/New Edit Posted by MTI Film on June 10, 2026 LOS ANGELES, CA - June 2026 - MTI FILM, the multiple Emmy Award winning Hollywood post-p...

11/06/2026

Ungrounded LLM Fabricates Every Detail for Nearly 1 in 5 Movie and TV Titles Tested, New Gracenote Report Finds

Study underscores the need for authoritative content intelligence to build trust...

11/06/2026

PTZOptics, LayerJot Partner on AI-Powered PTZ at InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Chyron Unveils PAINT 10.4

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Maxon Brings Real-Time Architectural Visualization to AIA26 With New Redshift for Revit and Archicad Integration Beta

Maxon Brings Real-Time Architectural Visualization to AIA26 With New Redshift fo...

11/06/2026

ABC Kid's Caper Crew Shoots Australian Adventure with Blackmagic Design

ABC Kid's Caper Crew Shoots Australian Adventure with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton June 11, 2026 0 Comments DP Judd Overton and team bring Wes A...

11/06/2026

PTZOptics and LayerJot demo Visual Reasoning at InfoComm...

PTZOptics, and LayerJot today announced live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how prompt-based AI, robotic camera control, and high-performance computing...

11/06/2026

Lightware launches GPIO Button to deliver simplified hard...

Lightware, an industry leader in signal management, announces the release of GPIO-Button-10S, a dedicated control interface enabling straightforward press-to-a...

11/06/2026

NABs LeGeyt Urges Congress to Limit NFL's Antitrust Exemption

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Fubo Inks New Distribution Agreement with NBCUniversal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Kiloview to Showcase Broadcast-Grade AV-over-IP Solutions...

Kiloview, a leading innovator in AV-over-IP video solutions, will return to InfoComm 2026 (Booth# N8327) with broadcast-grade AV-over-IP solutions designed for ...

11/06/2026

Australian Games Industry Glossary of Terms

Australian Games Industry Glossary of Terms 10 June 2026 From DAU and EULA to COT and QADE, here's a list of game industry terms, industry jargon and their...

11/06/2026

Berklee's Tonya Butler Named Music Business Educator of the Year

Berklee's Tonya Butler Named Music Business Educator of the Year The Music Business Association honored Butler at its annual Bizzy Awards. June 10, 2026 ...

11/06/2026

Ann Mincieli to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee NYC Graduate Commencement

Ann Mincieli to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee NYC Graduate Commencement The five-time Grammy-winning engineer and producer, known for her longstanding...

11/06/2026

Daisy May Cooper rallies the nation ahead of ICC Womens T20 World Cup

Thursday 11 June 2026 Daisy May Cooper rallies the nation ahead of ICC Women's T20 World CupTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy options and...

11/06/2026

Hadewych Minis and Geert van Rampelberg to Star in New Netflix Series Directed by Paula van der Oest

Back to All News Hadewych Minis and Geert van Rampelberg to Star in New Netflix...

11/06/2026

Official Trailer for Anime Adaptation of Thunder 3' Unveiled Ahead of July 9 Premiere

Back to All News Official Trailer for Anime Adaptation of Thunder 3' Unvei...

11/06/2026

RT Radio 1 and Irish Lights mark RT 100 with special broadcasts from Ireland's Lighthouses

Summer solstice shows from C il House and Late Date from 9pm on Saturday 20 Jun...

11/06/2026

Save Big and Play Bigger: GeForce NOW Summer Sale Brings Major Membership Savings

The GeForce NOW summer sale kicked off today with limited-time savings of up to ...

10/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Team Whistle's Joe Caporoso on Building World Cup Content Around Fans, Culture, IRL Experiences

DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...

10/06/2026

Clear-Com Appoints Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager

Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...

10/06/2026

Caretta Research: 2026 World Cup Revenue Growth Due to More Matches; Rights Revenue Up 32%

An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...

10/06/2026

Women Without Boundaries Awards Are Back!

The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...

10/06/2026

On Eve of World Cup Kickoff, FIFA and HBS Offer Deep Dive into IBC Operations, Commentary, and Ref Cam

Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...

10/06/2026

SES Supporting World's Biggest Soccer Tournament Broadcast Distribution Worldwide

SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...

10/06/2026

BirdDog Achieves Full NDI 6.3 Compatibility Across Entire Product Line

NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...

10/06/2026

Emmy Award-Winning Audio Team To Present at SVG Audio Symposium

Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...