I went into this year’s IBC Show expecting to spend most of my time talking about both artificial intelligence and sustainability and that’s exactly what happened.
Artificial intelligence isn’t new to the media technology industry, but vendors are finding new ways to use it, particularly generative AI.
While some vendors were talking about how they’re using the technology already, others are starting to look at how they can use it to enhance their product offerings in the future.
We know that AI is perfect for areas such as metadata, automation, dubbing and localisation. But at IBC, I heard about how it can be used for audience predictions, disaster recovery (anomaly predictions), frame interpolation in slo-mo cameras, and content matching.
I also discovered that ChatGPT is already being used by some vendors as an aid to answering customer questions – more on that in the October issue of TVBEurope.
Sustainability was also a huge talking point, and it was great to see some vendors really understanding how important it is for the technology side of the industry to be supporting what’s happening in production.
I do worry though that some vendors are not even thinking about their carbon footprint. We know that broadcasters and production companies are adding ESG clauses within their RFP documents, and a company that isn’t able to provide details is going to find it tough going finding new business.
One point that was made to me was that it’s the next-generation of media technologists who are really focused on this. That gives me hope, so long as we can keep bringing them into the community.
One final phrase I heard more at IBC 2023 than previous shows was the “convergence of broadcast and Pro AV”.
From virtual production to cameras, sound to video switching, the gap between broadcast-quality technology and Pro AV is shrinking. I expect to hear much more about that at IBC 2024.