Games/Interactive

IBC used its annual conference — this year as a virtual event — to debut a host of new technical papers around media and entertainment industry innovations, covering everything from drones, to VR and AR advances, to new video compression technologies.

3D conferencing, 3D capture and associated delivery frameworks were also among popular the popular topics this year, with some including video presentations by paper authors. The papers are available at IBC’s home page.

“We are … beginning to see how this technology can move from niche to mainstream as compelling experiences are blended with traditional television,” said Dr Paul Entwistle, chair of IBC’s Technical Papers Committee. “Video compression, a cornerstone technology of our industry continues to improve and surprise. And the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning goes from strength to strength with papers spanning production assistance — including a synthetic news reader — to picture enhancement.”

Entwistle said super-resolution, including adding lost detail to video, was a notable emerging theme, while blockchain was a top that saw a noticeable drop in interest.

“This year we received excellent technical papers illustrating the power of machine learning challenged with the task of up-converting a video’s resolution, dynamic range or aspect ratio,” he said. “Whilst we have a very interesting session on the importance of trust in news brand protection, overall we saw very few compelling papers using [blockchain] technology compared to two years ago.”

Also at IBC:

• Red Bee Media, Eluvio, MovieLabs, Universal Pictures, BBC and RTE were among the companies that presented Wednesday, with edge computing, IP, monetization and sports being featured in the main program of the show.

Red Bee first session — “Managing Costs, Complexity, and Risk in the Media and Entertainment Ecosystem” — examined how the industry needs to transform under the threats brought about by the pandemic, while a second looked at what sports broadcasters and rights owners main priorities are as they manage the lost revenue from canceled events. A third Red Bee session tackled emerging transformations in content delivery and linear playout.

Eluvio CEO Michelle Munson was a featured speaker during the IBC Accelerator Program, during a session discussing the “TV as Object Accelerator” project, which aims to develop a prototype demonstrating how TV can be personalized and delivered over IP.

• IBC first kicked off the show with the unveiling of a series of 5G broadcast use cases to be shared later in the week.

The 5G announcement — which is part of IBC’s Accelerator Innovation Program — is touting itself as a series of “broadcaster firsts” for 5G and remote production, with 10 of the world’s top broadcasters (BBC, Al Jazeera Media Network, BT Sport, EBU, ITV, Olympic Broadcasting Service, SVT, TV2, ViacomCBS Networks International VCNI and Yle) detailing via a live Sept. 10 transmission from Amsterdam bespoke workflows and architectures of proof-of-concept 5G broadcasts.

The demonstration will feature a live, multi-camera, multi-location production, powered by several technology ecosystem vendor participants, including Sony.

“Our challenge earlier this year was to explore and understand the ‘art of the possible’ in terms of a 5G-powered broadcast system, based on current and future use cases and a series of production scenarios in the field,” said project lead Ian Wagdin, senior technology transfer manager at BBC R&D. “With the IBC Show not happening this year, we seized on the creative opportunity to put those learnings into action by designing and configuring a live, multi-camera production as a demonstrator from three locations, that will bring a flavor of a much-missed Amsterdam to IBC’s audience.”

The IBC Showcase live transmission will also include a panel discussion from London, and viewers will be able to access links to a live 5G-enabled entertainment shoot controlled by AI cameras from a boat in the canals of Amsterdam, with MTV broadcasting a live 5G enabled remote production with artist Emma Heester.

“The IBC Accelerator program is a framework to support industry collaboration and innovation,” said Mark Smith, program head for IBC. “While the global pandemic stalled much of our planned lab testing and in-field experiments earlier in 2020, the team behind this unique collaboration of world leading broadcasting Champions were determined to put their learnings into practice, against a backdrop of their organizations accelerating strategies to decentralize production and remote production capabilities.”

• IBC also announced its decision to honor news organizations in general with its International Honour for Excellence, with a Sept. 11 presentation featuring a special program featuring contributions from leading news organizations, including the BBC, CNN, ITV News on behalf of ITN, NBC Global News, TV Globo and Zee TV.

“The need for investigative journalism to separate fact from rumor has never been greater and the news organizations of the world have been unfailing in their drive to ask the difficult questions,” said IBC CEO Michael Crimp. “They have delivered clear, accurate and timely information, keeping audiences – even in isolated communities – informed about new regulations and complex science, while facing the same restrictions on travel and social distancing as everyone else.

“As the global forum for the broadcast and electronic media industry, it is important that we recognize the excellence that the world’s news organizations have consistently delivered during these challenging times and thank them for their dedication and service.”