The shortlist of finalists for the IBC2012 Innovation Awards come from North and South America, Europe and the Middle East. In the Content Creation category, broadcaster FX UK wanted to enhance its audience’s experience of post-apocalyptic horror series ‘The Walking Dead’ and asked Red Bee Media to develop not just an app but, using technology from Civolution, a means of linking it to the television programme, whether it is a live broadcast or from a DVR. Sports specialist ESPN is recognised for enhancements to its coverage of Grand Slam tennis, working with Orad, to help viewers understand the strategies top players employ to gain an advantage over their opponents. Finally, TV Globo Network in Brazil is shortlisted for its in-house development Vate. This is an intriguing way of helping directors and camera operators to provide flawless coverage of unpredictable live events. Two of the three finalists in Content Management come from the world of sport. Turner Sports Central is recognised for its new asset management system, developed to track, log and retrieve 27,000 live recording hours of content. The system was developed in house with technology partners including Dalet Digital Media, EVS, Stainless Code, Active Storage, Quantum and NetApp. NASCAR recently created a new HD replay system, developed with Telestream in association with Promise Technology and Quantum, which gives operators and officials instant access to any part of the content from any camera angle. One of the biggest system integration projects undertaken in recent years supported the launch of Sky News Arabia in May of this year. The build, by TSL, features technology from included ScheduALL, Miranda Technologies, EVS and Broadcast Bionics. The first of the four finalists in the Content Delivery category is CBS Sports Network, which turned a radio sports talk show based in Louisiana into a television programme produced live from its control room in New York. ITV in the UK has completed a trial of a personalised content replacement system, to insert content tailored for different users on different platforms into live streaming outputs. The technology developed by Yospace works in close collaboration with ITV’s Snell playout automation. In the USA DIRECTV has developed a new Home Media Center, which provides a central server and delivery into multiple rooms. Technology partners included Broadcom, Entropic Communications, Jethead Development, Pace and Samsung. Finally Channel 4 in the UK has allowed the Microsoft XBox 360 to access the on demand service 4oD. The app, developed by KIT digital with technology partners Microsoft, Red Bee Media, Akamai, 24/7 Realmedia and Metabroadcast, allows the full range of XBox and Kinect controls to be used. The IBC2012 Awards Ceremony takes place on Sunday 9 September at 18:30. The ceremony is free to all IBC visitors. www.ibc.org/awards
