Please explain what your Accelerator project is in as much detail as possible.
At IBC 2026, Shure is participating in five Accelerator projects, each focused on a different challenge facing the broadcast and media industry. Collectively, these projects explore how emerging technologies such as immersive audio, AI-enabled production, intelligent workflows, audience personalisation, and accessibility can shape the future of content creation and audience engagement.
One of those projects is IFeL (Immersive Festival Live), which is exploring how immersive video, spatial audio, and interactive participation can create richer remote experiences that bring audiences closer to live events. Shure is contributing immersive audio capture technologies that help make these next-generation experiences possible.
Shure is also participating in Intelligent and Personalised Broadcasts for Live Sports and Beyond: From Broadcast to ‘meCast’, a project exploring how AI and intelligent audio can transform a traditional broadcast into a personalised viewing experience. This includes experiences such as following a particular player, accessing localised commentary, or tailoring the audio experience to individual preferences. Shure’s DCA901 array microphone technology and intelligent processing help capture and isolate the sounds that make this level of personalisation possible.
Through SMART STORIES: The Agentic Production Ecosystem, Shure is helping explore how AI agents can work alongside production teams as stories develop. The project examines how technologies including the Story Object Model (SOM), Agent Skills, and Time-Addressable Media Store (TAMS) can support more intelligent production workflows. Shure’s role focuses on bringing audio into that environment so device status, audio analysis, and processing can become part of automated production workflows.
The remaining two projects are VooPla: The Decision Twin, which explores digital twins for remote production planning and resource management, and Crystal Clear, which focuses on improving speech intelligibility and accessibility across media environments. Shure is supporting both initiatives through its expertise in professional audio, microphone technologies, and wireless systems.
Taken together, these projects represent a broad effort to explore how audio can contribute to more immersive experiences, more intelligent production workflows, greater accessibility, and more personalised content experiences.
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Why do you believe these projects are important to the media industry?
The broadcast industry is experiencing significant change. Broadcasters are under pressure to create more content, deliver more engaging experiences, and operate more efficiently, while audiences increasingly expect personalised and immersive experiences. The Accelerator programme provides an environment where the industry can collectively explore solutions to those challenges.
The five projects Shure is supporting address several of the industry’s most important topics, including immersive audience experiences, AI-assisted production, personalised viewing, production efficiency, accessibility, and intelligent workflows. Audio plays a central role across all of those areas because it helps connect audiences to content, provides context, and enables new forms of storytelling and interaction.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced as part of the projects?
One of the biggest challenges has been bringing together a diverse ecosystem of broadcasters, technology providers, and production specialists around a shared vision while ensuring each technology integrates into a cohesive end-to-end workflow. The IBC Accelerator programme is intentionally collaborative, requiring organisations with different areas of expertise, priorities, and technologies to align around a common objective.
Across all five projects, the challenge is turning ambitious concepts into practical solutions that deliver real value for broadcasters. Whether the goal is more immersive audience experiences, AI-assisted production, greater accessibility, or personalised content, success depends on creating workflows that can move beyond proof-of-concept and into real-world production environments.
Why did you want to be part of this year’s IBC Accelerator programme?
The programme provides a unique opportunity to work alongside industry leaders on real-world challenges affecting the future of media. Many of the topics being explored this year align closely with Shure’s innovation priorities, including immersive audio, intelligent processing, AI-enabled workflows, audience personalisation, and next-generation content creation technologies. Participating in the programme allows us to collaborate with partners across the media ecosystem and explore how audio can contribute to future production environments.
