Technology research company MovieLabs has launched this year’s 2030 Showcase Programme, which recognises organisations in the M&E industry that are using emerging cloud and production technologies to advance the industry.
The aim of the programme is to show how companies are helping to realise the MovieLabs 2030 Vision and its goals of enhanced efficiency and interoperability within the entertainment industry.
The submission window is open until 14th July, and MovieLabs will announce the selected 2030 Showcase Case Studies at IBC 2023.
TVBEurope spoke to MovieLabs CEO Rich Berger about the programme and what it means for the media tech industry.
What is the aim of the programme?
The goal of our 2030 Showcase Programme is to highlight how organisations have not only embraced and aligned with the MovieLabs 2030 Vision, but have also begun to implement its principles in real-world workflows with partners and customers across the global media creation industry. We’ve been impressed with how the Vision has resonated widely within the industry and how it has inspired strategic roadmap decisions across organisations beyond the major Hollywood studios who helped articulate and launch the Vision at IBC 2019. We have launched this Showcase Programme to celebrate and “showcase” progress, as well as to inform and inspire others to begin their own journey to the MovieLabs 2030 Vision.
How can companies get involved and what do you need from them?
It’s really quite simple to submit to the Showcase programme. All the details are on our website https://movielabs.com/showcase-submissions/ but essentially, the initial submission should be a short 10 – 15 minute video that tells us about your organisation, the case study you are presenting, the problem it solves, how that works technically and importantly, which principles of the 2030 Vision it demonstrates. We are not looking for a slick, high quality video. It’s the implementation story that counts. And we are not looking for a product demo or company pitch. It’s all about how your organisation is implementing the vision for stakeholders, partners and customers in real-world product/service implementations or workflows. If that sounds like what your organisation has done, head to our website and read a great summary of how to “study for the test” and then submit your case study for consideration.
What kind of case studies are you looking for? Can it be on any topic?
Surprise us! Last year’s submissions did. They showed us that organisations across the entire media creation supply chain have been more than thinking about the Vision. They’ve been hard at work putting these 2030 Vision principles into practice across pre-production, production, post production, editorial, visual effects, sound, and delivery/distribution workflows in television, film and broadcast. While our initial focus for the Vision was on the production of scripted film and television, what is apparent, and what did surprise us, was the amount of work being done across global players (large and small) in areas of our industry that before our Showcase programme, we did not have much insight or visibility into. The novel application of the Vision was the real story last year and we are looking forward to hearing from any organisation on any topic that meets our criteria.
You’ve chosen three areas to focus on this year – why those three in particular?
We’ve suggested these three areas for case studies because they align with the active work MovieLabs is doing in 2023, they are – the Common Security Architecture for Production (CSAP) and the journey to Zero Trust, implementations of our Ontology for Media Creation and Asset/Data Interchange that demonstrates interoperability quite deliberately. These are areas where there are gaps to fill and frankly, some hard technical, workflow and change management challenges to solve. Showcase submissions don’t need to cover one of those three areas but consider them ‘extra credit’! We have been continually impressed as we learn about companies tackling and solving issues that drive the Vision forward. We are hoping that there are organisations that are beginning to focus on these specific challenges as filling some of these gaps accelerates the potential benefits across the entire industry.
You had a lot of submissions in 2022, which ones really stood out, and why?
Can we say that we love all of our children and all submissions, which made selection difficult? Of course, the ones we published especially stood out. And as you look at the ones we did select, what you’ll find is that these case studies came from across the world and across the industry in places and workflows that expanded our own notion of how the vision is resonating. We were impressed at the sheer number of submissions last year and are getting ready to evaluate this year’s submissions in time to announce them at IBC 2023.
Who will be judging the submissions?
There is really not a “judging” process per se as this is not an award, a certification, endorsement or MovieLabs 2030 Vision “compliance” programme. What we will be doing is evaluating submissions based on how they meet our criteria and help the industry better understand the implementation of our MovieLabs Principles. This process involves the key members of our MovieLabs team. We learned so much from the last round including how we understood and explained our own Principles in real-world applications. So, in many ways, this process provided our MovieLabs team with a deeper understanding of what it means to really implement the Vision. And of course, the entire industry is the beneficiary as we help define and refine how best to invent our industry’s future.
What happens to the selected case studies – are they made available to everyone?
After our announcement of the selected participating companies at IBC 2023, we will work closely and directly with the participating organisations to help draft and hone their case studies. We will then release them and make them widely available to the industry as well as help promote them on our website, social media and through engagements with industry trade press and at selected venues such as IBC and the Hollywood Post Alliance Technology Retreat. At this year’s IBC conference, we will be featuring a number of our current case studies in a “speed dating” of rapid-fire presentations hosted by MovieLabs’ Mark Turner on Saturday, 16th September. We’re building a library of these case studies online so the industry can refer to them and hopefully be inspired to begin their own implementation journeys. You can find our current case studies library here: https://movielabs.com/2030showcase/
Anything else you want to tell us?
Thanks for the opportunity to help us spread the word that while we have seen amazing progress on the road to our industry’s shared Vision, there is still important work to do. These Showcase submissions demonstrate and highlight the deep technical and thought leadership that has spread throughout our industry and is proof that this is work that cannot be done by any one organisation alone. We are truly in an exciting time of dynamic transformative change that is being driven by many people and organisations around the world and across every corner of this industry. What we are really showcasing here is the amazing collaborative process of what can happen when thoughts and Vision are aligned, and the industry works together for mutual benefit.
