There are plenty of headline-grabbing sessions at IBC and where this year’s ‘Hot Topics’ are debated, but the fact is that delegates often want the ‘hands on’ advice that IBC’s Content Everywhere Workflow Solutions provide. At IBC2014 it is Hall 9 (Workflow) and Hall 3 (Cloud Solutions) that the advice is being dispensed from Friday through Monday, and with a special focus on the growing importance of the Cloud in planning current and future content distribution.
IBC’s Workflow stream is free to attend. IBC Content Everywhere Workflow Solutions stream showcases the financial and production benefits of the disruptive technologies of tapeless production. But as always there are challenges. The relentless drive to end-to-end file-based digital production throws up as many complexities as it does opportunities for creative freedom and budget saving.
The events are coordinated with the help of the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) which will also mount its own presentations during the IBC event. AMWA has its own expert presentation on Friday (11.00-12.30) followed by valuable sessions from Microsoft (13.00-14.00) and Telestream (14.30-15.30). Telestream will focus on how ITV automated its multi-platform workflows with extremely speedy processes, and yet flexibility for future expansion.
There are near non-stop sessions daily from 11.00, but Sunday’s ‘Lifecycles of a software-based TV station’ (11.00-12.00) is bound to be popular, so grab a seat early. During this session Cinegy will present its advice on ‘Exploring the total cost of ownership’ helped by BBC Northern Ireland’s Mervyn Middleby (head of Tech and Operations).
Sunday also sees Quantel’s Steve Owen (marketing director) and stereographer Richard Hingley talk about the challenges of 4K/60p post production for the recent FIFA World Cup – and no doubt another packed room. Incidentally, the two describe the process as ‘an adventure’!
IBC Content Everywhere Cloud Solutions is in Hall 3, and again offers a compelling line-up of experts. Again the sessions run from 11.00 with Friday’s presentations from Piksel, Dimetis (12.00-12.25), Civolution (14.00-14.25), JVC (15.00.15.25) and Avid (16.00-16.25).
Cloud-based ‘on-demand’ programming is not forgotten. Microsoft presents with blinkbox (Saturday 14.00-14.25) and Martin Wahl (principal program manager, at Microsoft’s Azure Media) and Jon Robinson (blinkbox’s group IT leader) explain how they’ve been able to scale, both in terms of their available catalogue and subscriber growth, and reaching extra second screen options.
Saturday also sees Adobe (15.00-15.25) advise how it helped marketing implementation agency Hogarth produce advertising and a wide range of marketing communications for its clients around the world and from 20 different global locations.
Hogarth’s staffers can now view all media in one location but edit and access from anywhere they like. In Hogarth’s case, that might mean editing video in Bucharest with media that’s sitting in London.
Sunday’s sessions are every bit as fascinating and groundbreaking. ‘Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground’ (12.00-12.25) talks about a Russian retailer and how Vidmind created a ‘virtual’ TV station (TVzor) and claimed to have leapfrogged two iterations of the Russian broadcast landscape with built-in social media and OTT content.
