Has IBC come at a good time for the electronic media industry? Why?
IBC comes at a great time for the industry — there has been so much excellent hardware and software development as of late, it is great to gather together and take it all in. That and we love to get over to Amsterdam in September to speak directly with our customers, potential clients, and industry cohorts. Post-IBC is always a very fertile time back home with all of the ideas that we’ve heard.
What do you think are the key developments in, or threats to, your market sector at the current time?
Never before have there been so many wonderful opportunities in our industry. It sounds cliché, but the rate of change in our field accelerates daily. The massive technology upheaval that we are in the midst of with cameras and other gear is incredible. From the advances in silicon making hardware smaller, cheaper, and infinitely more capable, to the internet enabling production methods and distribution unheard of just a few years ago, to new collaborative financing methods such as Kickstarter and Indigogo — the price of entry has never been lower and the audience has never been more accessible.
Think about how a motivated person or small group can write software or produce content (in 4K nonetheless!) and instantly upload this to literally the entire world in seconds. This sort of production and distribution just a few years ago was only possible with millions of dollars and thousands of workers. Also, the quality of the professional content, from movies to traditional broadcast to shows on Netflix, HBO, Amazon and the like, is simply stunning.
Why should delegates visit your stand at IBC?
We have exciting new hardware and firmware for our products — both audio and video. Sound Devices has become the gold standard in field audio capture; we continue to innovate and produce bulletproof mixers and recorders with audio quality, which is second to none. With our newer brand, Video Devices, we are bringing this same commitment to rock-solid reliability to best in class video recording and monitoring. Our new PIX-E line of recording monitors record full 4K video using Apple’s ProRes codecs.
