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Inside this year’s Accelerator Projects

IBC’s Accelerator Media Innovation Programme has 80 global media and technology brands taking part in 2023, including BBC, ITV, IMDB, Fox Entertainment, Paramount, Vodafone Group, Verizon Business, Cisco and Google

A 5G powered remote production for MTV as part of IBC’s Accelerator project showcases in 2020

Since its launch in 2019, the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme has quickly become one of the highlights of the show, and this year it has grown significantly to include 80 leading media and technology companies.

The programme brings together a range of pioneering companies from across the media, entertainment and technology ecosystem to enable fast-track, collaborative innovation experiments to understand and solve some of the complex challenges of transformative new technologies. The format comprises project ‘Champions’ who harness the expertise and skill sets of multiple large, medium and start-up ‘Participant’ vendors to explore real-world new use cases, architectures and workflows. There are also Academic Partners such as University of Strathclyde, Kings College London, Goldsmiths University London, Trinity College Dublin, University of Southampton, and Bowie State University.

Returning ‘Champions’ in 2023 include the BBC, EBU, RAI, ITV, Sky Sports, ITN, TV2, Yle and DAZN. They are joined this year by ITN, VRT, Fox Entertainment, IMDB, Outernet Global, Verizon Business, Xperi, as well as a host of major technology companies new to this year’s programme, including Cisco, Google, In-Sync, Limitless Broadcast, LAMA, Techex, Tinkerlist , EZDRM, CuVo, Osprey Video, Red5, Signly, Salsa Sound, 4DR Studios, Metarex, Infuse Video, and Pluxbox.

“We’re incredibly excited by the progress each project team has made this year. Aside from the challenges of transformative tech, improving accessibility and inclusion are also critical issues for the industry today, and it it’s a recurring theme across several of this year’s projects,” said IBC innovation lead Mark Smith.

“Whether that’s deploying AI and AR tools to bring virtual, visual sign language translators via digital ‘synthetic humans’ to life or 5G-enabled animation experiences for children in hospital wards, or taking live performance art to other parts of the world via 5G motion capture. We also have a project that is developing live IP production workflows with edge compute to cover niche,  or remote sports and cultural events more efficiently, all truly inspiring projects that are harnessing technology to serve a wide range of audiences with astonishing new experiences.”

Ahead of the show, we take a look through the Accelerator Innovation Projects that will unveil their proof of concepts (PoC) at IBC2023.

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Synthetic Humans for Entertainment and Accessibility

This project comprises a team of broadcasters and immersive technologists who are harnessing leading-edge motion capture, virtual production, and AI workflows in two work streams, to showcase how digital synthetic humans can act as ‘virtual translators’ and create photorealistic sign language interpreters for accessibility in broadcasting, and secondly to recreate the experience of seeing historical performers, bringing them back to life virtually.

Project Champions: BBC, EBU, ITV, RAI, Unreal/Epic Games, Verizon Business, VRT, Unity Technologies, YLE, and Champions/Academic Partners are Kings College London and University of Southampton.
Project Participants: 4DR Studios, D&B Solutions, HAND (Human & Digital), Pluxbox, Respeecher, Signly and V-Nova.

 

5G Motion Capture for Live Performance & Animation 

The 5G motion capture project taps into the capabilities offered by private and public 5G technologies to power new entertainment and immersive audience experiences. The project has two workstreams; to leverage 5G via motion capture and beam live performance art to audiences regardless of location, and secondly leveraging 5G to bring joyful, interactive animated characters to children in hospital wards.

Project Champions and Academic Partners: University of Strathclyde, The Scotland 5G Centre, Outernet Global, Vodafone Group, Goldsmiths University London, Curing Kids Cancer and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Project Participants: AMD, Cisco, D&B Solutions, Neutral Wireless and Noitom.

 

Responsive Narrative Factory

Here, project teams are streamlining metadata-powered content customisation workflows that empower broadcasters to tailor their storytelling for diverse regions, demographics, and to suit individual needs and regulatory requirements. This new component-based approach to quickly and cost-effectively create multiple versions of content from a single master, ensures inclusive, accessible, and age-appropriate content experiences.

Project Champions: The BBC and IET
Project Participants: Infuse Video, Metarex, CuVo, EZDRM and JPB Media Solutions.

 

Authenticated Data Specification

A project that set out to define a standardised distribution package for entertainment data, including artwork, imagery and usage rights and a secure and certified system that enables studios and content creators to authenticate the definitive version of their metadata for gold standard industry sources, such as IMDb, and EIDR.

Project Champions: ITV, Fox Entertainment, IMDB, Paramount, Xperi and SMPTE.
Project Participants: Fabric, Flomenco, EIDR and LMT.

 

Connect & Produce Anywhere 

Connect & Produce Anywhere has been exploring end to end IP workflows for live production, with the emphasis on cloud/edge as part of the workflow. By dynamically moving live production media processing stages between cloud and edge computing at an event, the project aims to allow production crews to deploy software to the best location making the most efficient use of resources in locations where bandwidth and connectivity can vary greatly. 

Project Champions: BBC, DAZN, Sky Sports, BT Media & Broadcast, TV2 Denmark, Vodafone Group, Verizon Business.
Project Participants
: AMD, Microsoft, Techex, Google, Grass Valley, LAMA, Vizrt, Open Broadcast Systems, InSync, Limitless Broadcast, Singular.live and Zixi.

 

Gallery Agnostic Live Media Production 

The aim of this challenge is to bring media productions into the modern, present day via device-agnostic, gallery-agnostic and hybrid ways of working to prove control of both existing on-prem and cloud devices. 

Project Champions: ITN, BBC, TV2 Denmark, News UK (TalkTV), Yle and TransMixr.
Project Participants: Tinkerlist, Techex, Grass Valley, Singular.live and Zixi.

 

Real-Time XR Sport Edge

This project aims to broadcast digital twin XR sports, including combat MMA (mixed martial arts), and the progressive AR techno-sport into a live, immersive 3D world with high-end graphics, virtual advertising, spatial and social audio, and real-time edge-compute deliverability to fans in VR headsets, computers and mobile devices.

Project Champions and Academic Partners: Prima Terra Labs, Outernet Global, Vodafone Group, Bowie State University, Kings College London, Trinity College Dublin, University of Southampton and RVPA. 
Project Participants
: AMD, D&B Solutions, Salsa Sound, HearMeCheer, Movrs, Sparkup, HAND (Human & Digital).

 

Real-Time Interactive Streaming Personalises Live Experiences 

A project that aims to demonstrate that additional revenue and ROI can be achieved through personalising viewer engagement from the streaming of live interactive experiences, such as sports and other major events. Essentially, it has been striving for next-generation real-time (ultra-low latency) interactive experiences, with the fan in the driving seat.

Project Champions: ABL (Alumni Basketball League), LoLGPA (Legends of Ladies Professional Golf Association) Unity Technologies and Verizon Business.
Project Participants: AMD, Red5, Snipitz, Osprey Video and Singular.live.

 

All Accelerator Media Innovation Programme projects will be presented on the Innovation Stage in Hall 3 during IBC2023, including a full project overview, proof of concept findings and opportunities for visitors to put their questions to the project teams.

 

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