IBC is preparing to honour the highest achievements in technological innovation and social impact with the announcement of the long-listed entries in the five IBC Innovation Awards categories for 2024: Content Creation, Content Distribution, Content Everywhere, Environment & Sustainability and Social Impact.
The expanded IBC Innovation Awards recognise the best in collaborative efforts to develop new solutions to real-world technical challenges and to address social and environmental issues.
ESPN - Making Live Cloud Production a Reality - By partnering with Riedel Communications and AWS, and other cloud providers – along with suppliers such as Audinate, ENCO, Sienna, Solid State Logic, TSL, Unity Connect and Vizrt – ESPN is committed to refining cloud-based workflows to maximise financial and resource efficiencies while maintaining flexibility in live sports productions.
france.tv Paris 2024 - 100% cloud glass to glass major broadcast - France.tv, Obvios, TDF and TVU Networks pioneered the first 100% cloud-based glass-to-glass broadcast for a major event, the Olympic Torch Relay, utilising the first hyper compact moving private 5G network, throughout 1625km, with up to 12 hours of live coverage daily for 11 weeks.
Goal Arena - the Bundesliga Konferenz - Goal Arena is a ready-to-air live format for Bundesliga’s international media partners that switches to the most exciting incidents and decisive moments in multiple concurrent matches. Technical supporters: AWS, Singular.live, VIDI.
Ireland AM - AI Special - Virgin Media Television’s Ireland AM breakfast show introduced a pioneering, three-hour, live episode that was crafted using artificial intelligence (AI), with every element — script, music, graphics, questions and content — shaped by advanced algorithms. Technical supporters: Beatoven.ai, ChatGPT, Google Bard, Runway Gen-2, Studio Neural.
MoViewer LED XR - Partnering with Mo-Sys, Disney Star launched a pioneering content creation initiative for the Cricket World Cup 2024, addressing challenges associated with green screen filming and multi-camera technologies to deliver immersive coverage with enhanced talent engagement. Technical supporters: Dot Connector, Erizos.
NFL Toy Story Football Funday - This project leveraged AI and real-time 3D virtual recreation technologies to create a fully animated NFL alternative broadcast, integrating Toy Story characters and storytelling. Technical supporters: Beyond Sports, Hawk-Eye Innovations, Next Gen Stats, NFL, Silver Spoon Animation.
OBS Paris 2024 - OBS Paris 2024 - Olympic Broadcasting Services and partners for live broadcast production with more than 200 smartphone video contribution for Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony and a sea-based 5G network for sailing competitions in Marseille. Technical supporters: AMP Visual TV, Cisco, CyanView, Haivision, Orange, Neutral Wireless, Samsung, Intel.
Streaming start-up Dyn Media and NEP Germany - In 2023, Dyn Media launched as a streaming destination for non-football sports programming in Germany, increasing efficiencies to give second-tier leagues top-tier production values. Technical supporters: AWS, Broadcast Solutions, Cutting Room, Dina, DirectOut, Harmonic, Mimir, Munich Media Operations, PACE Media, Pixellot, Riedel, Spalk, VideoXLink Europe, WSC.
Virtual Reality over RF for A2RL Series - Vislink, in collaboration with technology partner FocalPoint VR, has developed and provided a cutting-edge virtual reality over RF wireless solution for use during the inaugural season of the A2RL (Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League) Series in 2024.
VPOST - Fully featured post-production platform at scale in the public cloud - NBCUniversal’s VPOST platform includes a full suite of features and automation tools that have reached 2100+ users as of 2024, proving the viability, performance and scalability of cloud-based post production platforms. Technical supporters: Avid Technology, Adobe, AWS, Drastic, EVS, Evertz, Haivision, Microsoft Azure, Signiant, Telestream.
World Rally Championship - Integrated Onboard Camera & Recording System, developed for WRC Promoter by Domo Broadcast Systems in collaboration with NEP Finland, supporting successful live broadcasting of all stages of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) despite harsh, remote conditions and a multitude of car locations.
Remote cloud-based editing at scale for A+E Networks - This multi-year enterprise transformation project hit a critical milestone with the roll-out of cloud-based remote editing and delivery workflows. Once disparate pipelines are now unified in AWS using Arch Platform Technologies, SDVI Rally and TMT Insight’s Polaris software.
BBC media asset platform - Software-centric broadcast technology in a cloud-native architecture - BBC Motion Gallery, Getty Images and VIDA collaborated to develop a new platform enabling programme-makers to intuitively search the entire BBC Archive library.
BBC hybrid cloud archive - The aim of the programme was to harness scalable public cloud storage infrastructures in a sustainable way, to unify workflows and provide long-term secure storage of archive content through the migration of 25PB of BBC Archive and deprecation of legacy systems. Technical supporters: AWS, Cloudfirst IO.
Transforming live content management at Channel 4 - Prime Focus Technologies embarked on a journey to innovate simulcast and live to VOD services for Channel 4. The solution uses intelligent split and stitch transcode techniques, scalable cloud architecture, live clipping and multi-format deliveries with DRM. Technical supporters: AWS, Harmonic.
The new TV platform - ‘TV of the Future’ is a platform that intelligently aggregates content to meet consumers’ needs for personalisation and curation. Claro Brazil is redefining the pay TV distribution value proposition, in collaboration with Amazon Alexa, Bang & Olufsen, Broadcom, Dolby, Harmonic, Nagra, Sagemcom, Spideo and Teleidea Middleware.
France Télévisions 4K UHD going for gold - In time for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, France Télévisions, in collaboration with Enensys, Eutelsat, TDF and Towercast, has modernised its DTT platform to provide full live coverage of the events in 4K UHD over DVB-T2 for superior video and audio quality, and DVB-SIS to optimise network delivery.
National Hockey League with Verizon Intelligent Broadcast Edge - Verizon, in partnership with the National Hockey League, AWS, Zixi, Vizrt, Net Insight and Evertz, has produced a 5G and Edge compute framework for assembly, control and delivery of live broadcasts.
NBCUniversal fully automated cloud content supply chain - NBC has reinvented its central content supply chain to expand annual asset delivery from two million to 22 million over a three-year span. Technical supporters: Amagi, AWS, Bitpress, Closed Caption Creator, Comscore, ETLWorks, GrayMeta, IBM Aspera, Nagra, Signiant, SDVI, Telestream, Venera Technologies.
NBCUniversal Redefining Linear Channel Operations - NBCUniversal Operations and Technology’s pioneering project to transform the way its TV channels are delivered to consumers worldwide. Technical supporters: Appear, AWS, Dolby, EEG, Harmonic, Imagine Communications, Intopix, Nevion, TAG Video Systems, Techex.
TVNZ’s Digital Leap - TV New Zealand has launched its new sports streaming Sports Hub streaming service on the TVNZ+ platform, partnering with Qvest to bring the hub to life in six months and provide secure access to live streams for viewers. Technical supporters: EZDRM, qibb.
Radio broadcast attribution with Bauer Media - Veritone’s near-real-time broadcast advertising attribution solution provided Bauer Media with a powerful new way to measure the impact of radio advertising, demonstrating the direct relationship between radio advertising and online activity. Technical supporters: Adobe Analytics, AWS, BigQuery, Google Analytics.
A set top box in an app - EE TV. EE, an operator traditionally associated with mobile, sought to establish a new pay TV service. The EE TV app on Apple TV achieves this by bringing the familiar linear EPG experience with native IP linear playout within a single application on a non-proprietary device, alongside BVOD and SVOD offered through EE’s partners. Technical supporters: AWS, YouView TV.
Franceinfo first 100% interactive news show - Franceinfo integrated PimpMyLive to aggregate text/audio/video/photo messages from various platforms and broadcast them live on air. The project enabled real-time interactivity and increased audience numbers plus viewer loyalty, while combating disinformation and promoting diverse perspectives.
Globo innovates with dynamic ad insertion for OTT - The future of TV has arrived in Brazil with the launch of Globo’s Dynamic Ad Insertion offering. It integrates traditional broadcast with the digital economy, boosts advertising opportunities and offers a personalised experience. Technical supporters: Google, Mirakulo, Pebble, Permutive.
QuickFlip automated vertical production for the ICC - The International Cricket Council’s vertical productions in 2023 required new crews and equipment, increasing costs and carbon footprint. QuickFlip from Quidich Innovation Labs works downstream, enabling its use for the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup and revolutionising the way cricket fans enjoy the game on their phones.
Star Sports MaxView for ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 - Indian sports broadcaster Star Sports and the International Cricket Council introduced MaxView, offering vertical mode streaming on mobiles, tablets and iPads, along with live feeds, ads and scorecards, transforming how fans watch cricket on the move.
Live contextual interactivity for LaLiga - LaLiga for working with Play Anywhere and Ease Live to enable true fan interactivity for itself and its worldwide broadcast and streaming partners. This led to dramatically increased viewing times, whilst generating fresh advertising and sponsorship inventory.
Peacock makes live sports streaming history with NFL - In January 2024 Peacock showed the first-ever streaming-exclusive NFL playoff game, reaching 32 million viewers across the United States to become the biggest live-streamed event in history – and breaking its own records for audience usage, engagement and time spent. Technical supporters: AWS, Harmonic.
Red Bull Erzbergrodeo - Cross-platform storytelling. Despite camera blind spots and inconsistent live timing in a remote, active iron mine, the team’s technical implementations for athlete GPS tracking, data aggregation, validation and visualisation elevated the race viewing experience across platforms. Technical supporters: Girraphic Park, ProteGear Global SafeTrack Systems, Teravolt.
TF1 innovates targeted advertising - French broadcaster TF1 embarked on a mission to innovate targeted advertising on its new TF1+ streaming platform. Collaborating with Broadpeak, AWS, and FreeWheel, TF1 launched the first live addressable TV service monetised at the spot level, revolutionising targeted ad delivery.
Anton/Bauer Salt-E Dog -Traditional power sources like diesel generators pollute and create noise, while lithium batteries present safety and ecological issues. Anton/Bauer’s Salt-E Dog addresses the environmental, safety and operational challenges of TV and media production, harnessing the power of sodium chemistry to enable sustainable production practices.
Clearcast and Ad Signal - The implementation of Ad Signal’s Match into The Clearcast Library is a transformative project in broadcasting and advertising, significantly decreasing the environmental impact of AI by deduplicating content before sending it to AI processors. It can lead to reduced AI processing costs of 80% for image and audio content.
Humans Not Robots and Greening of Streaming - The environmental impact of video streaming is a critical issue that demands the media industry’s urgent attention. HNR is working closely with GoS, with HNR’s analytics platform HNR to ZERO serving as the single source for all data that GoS collects across its working groups, and is key to the organisation’s ability to test, prove and generate ideas for a greener streaming industry.
Formula E - In partnership with Aurora Media, Gravity Media, Mimir, and Roku, Formula E developed a remote production workflow for motor-racing broadcasts using public internet and cloud-based solutions. Sustainability gains in numbers: overall carbon footprint reduction of up to 50%; freight reduced by 40%; space needed (for the broadcast team) reduced by 35%; and 25% fewer people on site.
France.tv Paris 2024 - Reducing CO2 emissions by 300 tons and achieving over 70% cost savings via a 100% glass-to-glass cloud production and private 5G network. In collaboration with Obvios, TDF and TVU Networks, France.tv broadcast a 24/7 channel dedicated to the Olympic Torch Relay, with up to 12 hours of live coverage daily for 11 weeks.
Greening of Streaming - An organisation with international reach, thirty member organisations and nine working groups, created to address growing concerns about the energy impact of the streaming sector. Members include DAZN, DTG, EBU, Franhofer Fokus, IABM, Intel, Mainstreaming, Microsoft and Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA).
Advancing sustainable storage practices - The data centre industry is at a crossroads, facing the dual challenges of meeting the growing demand for AI-powered storage and doing so sustainably. Innovations in storage technology, particularly in hard drive areal density such as Mozaic 3+ from Seagate Technology, offer a promising path forward.
Storj distributed cloud object storage - Traditional cloud storage providers fall short in speed, scalability, cost, compliance, security, performance and environmental impact. By storing data on underutilised disk drives across tens of thousands of PoPs globally, Storj eliminates the need for more drives and data centres, and can reduce emissions by up to 83%. Technical supporters: Ad Signal, Valdi.
Powering the AI revolution – sustainably - HyperGAI, leveraging Sustainable Metal Cloud’s Sustainable AI Factories, has achieved advancements in AI and Multimodal foundation models, setting new standards in Multimodal LLMs, backed by significant CO2 savings and enhanced computational efficiency. Technical supporters: Dell, Kubernetes, NVIDIA.
Varnish Software content delivery server - Varnish Software collaborated with Intel on a project demonstrating the exceptional energy efficiency and performance of content delivery servers using Varnish Enterprise software on Intel hardware. The tests showed significant reductions in energy costs and carbon emissions compared to legacy systems. Notably, up to 95% power savings were recorded.
VITEC GreenPeg initiative - The initiative goes beyond investment in carbon reduction projects to retroactively offset all emissions. Creating efficient, environmentally sustainable operations is critical, from photovoltaic panels to modification of entire product design processes made to minimise environmental impact.
CatnClever - An initiative to address a significant gap in early childhood education, particularly for children in underserved communities and humanitarian crisis areas. Research reveals that 75% of educational apps for pre-schoolers are of low quality, posing a serious problem as many parents rely on these apps for early learning. Launched in 2023, CatnClever is filling this gap by offering a high-quality, engaging and safe educational app.
CultureQ - This new technology platform was initiated by Kiwa Digital (KIWA) an indigenous-owned media tech company based in New Zealand and working with indigenous groups globally to amplify their voices through publishing apps, video and other digital solutions. The new SaaS platform is developed from KIWA’s cloud service for the post-production industry, VoiceQ Cloud, hosted by AWS.
Elimu TV enabling education for all - Elimu TV was born at a time when Kenya had made primary education free for all children. However, high school education was still not accessible to many children because of high school fees. Elimu TV airs 11 high school subjects from Agriculture to Mathematics, and broadcasts on the StarTimes platform.
LED Movement – Light on Education - Committed to Brazil’s social and economic development, Globo, the largest media company in Latin America, reinforced its historical commitment of more than 50 years with this topic and, in 2021, launched the ‘LED Movement – Light on Education’, which recognises and promotes innovative initiatives in the field of education, through an award, a festival and a community for enhancing and boosting projects.
Royal Television Society Bursary Scheme - 2024 marks ten years since the launch of the Bursary Scheme by His Majesty King Charles III. In that time, the RTS has supported 332 students from low-income backgrounds across TV Production, Journalism and Digital Innovation subjects, with 82% of graduates going on to secure work in the screen industries.
Watch Play Learn Distribution Hub - A web application from Sesame Workshop showcasing the Watch Play Learn: Early Learning Videos, 140 animated segments that promote education and development for children in crisis settings. The Hub allows government agencies and aid organisations to preview and request videos. It is a cloud-based solution integrating Airtable, Frame.io and Telestream Vantage, streamlining video processing and delivery.
Empowering youth sports in Africa - SuperSport Schools and Pixellot undertook an initiative to democratise access to sports coverage for schools across South Africa. The primary objective was to leverage AI-automated solutions to provide high-quality coverage of school sports events without the need for costly and resource-intensive traditional broadcasting methods.
Star Sports sign language for IPL 2024 - Star Sports, in collaboration with India Signing Hands (ISH), introduced live sign language with descriptive commentary for IPL 2024. This feature brings cricket to 66.7 million deaf and hard-of-hearing fans in India, including four million exclusive to Star’s Channel 3.
TNT Sports Sign Up - Into Football - TNT Sports launched new show Sign-Up - Into Football to elevate the profile of the deaf community and raise the visibility of British Sign Language (BSL). TNT Sports built pioneering hardware and devised a range of new production techniques to collaborate effectively with deaf crew members, creating more long-term opportunities for the deaf community in production.
Game Changers, from Megaverse, was an innovative, free-to-play, live interactive show that aimed to inspire climate activism and provoke discussions about the climate crisis among online audiences.
Other Submission Entries Include:
+ League of Legends World Finals – Reimagined
+ Modernising broadcast systems and workflows with Elgato and Bitfocus
+ AIDitor
+ Vidispine Web Render Engine
+ EPIC, futureproof news production through the use of modular journalism
+ Centreville TV teams with Seagate to address real time access challenges while securing its work content off-site
+ NBC Election coverage and Digital twins
+ Editorial Copilot AI to craft stories with heart
+ Home Run Derby – StatCast Edition: Live virtual 3D event coverage
+ Angelique Kidjo ‘40th Anniversary’ live concert stream
+ Bundesliga In-Match Analysis
+ Smart Studio
+ Self-operating fast-turnaround studios
+ NINA Smart Mini Battery with low capacity alarm
+ TVMonaco’s seven-month journey to a state-of-the-art facilityQuantum
+ Transforming media production for a greener world: TUI’s journey with Projective
+ Audience First: Building more public value by overcoming data silos at WDR
+ 4C Production
+ The future for software-based 4wire
+ AI presenter on Asharq News
+ Transforming sports digital coverage with integrated solutions
+ UHD and 5G end-to-end proof of concept in Spain
+ Melodie
+ Thunderbolt 5 Technology
+ WaterBear x Nikon: The History of the Carabiner
+ Adobe Premiere extention for Trouvé by Perfect Memory
+ AI Media Studio
+ Hollyland Lark M2
+ Premier League Universe from Starhub
+ Cinesearch Social Impact
+ Mainstreaming’s edge video delivery network
+ Wasabi AIR
+ World-first use of OneWeb LEO technology to transmit the Champions League from the Faroe Islands
+ CNN FAST Channel collaborative model
+ Netgem end-to-end media processing and streaming platform
+ Midstream multi CDN switching
+ Helios LED processing platform & 100G input module
+ World’s first: migrating of bespoke Linux STBs to Google’s Android TV
+ Innovative remote production and VAR for Denmark’s premier football leagues
+ Everyone TV & YouView for the development of Freely
+ Streaming platform waipu.tv relies on Seagate MACH.2
+ The collaborative strategic planning process at NRK
+ Optimising content performance and ad sales at Talpa Network
+ RB Cloud
+ Globo, Interra Systems, Phase and Google Cloud team up
+ IKO Media Group brings gaming & esports content to TV
+ The media supply chain project at A+E Networks EMEA
+ Revedia Digital
+ Advanced live horse streaming for ATG
+ POST Luxembourg: The road to optimised QoS
+ Custom streaming enhancement for 17LIVE Market Japan
+ Verizon Network Edge Delivery for Fios TV+
+ Playkids TV from Sandbox
+ Proximus TV: Platform of the future
+ OctoADS
+ The Delivery Workspace from Limecraft and DPG
+ PTZOptics Hive Studio
+ Redefining the streaming experience for viewers worldwide
+ mivoz: The first non-disruptive AI speech2speech solution
+ Backblaze – event notification
+ CaptionHub Live
+ NDI 6
+ Netgem’s SuperApp
+ Evergent collaborates with Baltic Go3 OTT platform
+ ADVisor leveraging Video AI to improve operational efficiency
+ AI dubbing project by Dubformer CRITIC
+ Accsoon Tri-Band wireless video transmission
+ Driving digital success with a shift to cloud-native
+ Menaflix
+ SmallRig’s DreamRig program
+ World’s first: migration of bespoke Linus STBs to Android TV
+ JW Player – broadcast live
+ HKT’s Now TV, Viaccess-Orca and Amino for Hong Kong
+ Playkids TV from Sandbox
+ ViewLift powering LIV Golf
+ Radix Android TV Manager
+ Goal Arena: The Bundesliga Konferenz
+ VTrap
+ Sustainability@Irdeto Program
+ Globo’s Waste Management Program
+ From Blue to Green: Canford’s journey
+ Pess Energy - Flywatt, the clean and mobile power source
+ Portuguese Football Federation and Pixellot
+ Game Changers: Inspiring climate activism
+ AI for audio description: Enhancing Brazilian broadcast TV
+ Women in Streaming Media, Speaker Engagement
+ Sustainability@irdeto Program
+ Zille Audio Description Editor
+ Harmonic Care Program
+ Bridging the Digital Divide with La Piste de la Francophonie
+ Green Production Unit - RTBF
+ Rise Mentoring Programme
+ Our Eco-Good DNA - Filiago
+ Canon’s World Unseen Brand Campaign
+ MAORI+
+ AI counselor – U+tv
+ Inclusive Emergency Alerting - EQ4ALL
+ Chakravyuh
+ IPTV usability improvement using on-device AI – LG UPlus
+ Polyglot Radio
+ Canon’s Miraisha Programme
+ Public Warning Chatbot - one2many (an everbridge company)
+ Alternatif Bank – Addressable TV campaign
+ Vivendum Production Solutions – Action4Good
+ Focus Smart Gaming from Sandbox
+ First Steps Cinematography
+ Let’s Talk QC! - Quezon City Government
+ Vantiva joins forces with VisualOn
+ ScreenCraft Works
+ Jet-Stream’s commitment to data protection
+ ‘For You, We Are Here’ - GDRFA-Dubai
+ Women of Science documentary
+ BECiNE
+ Operation Quest - Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires
+ AI for disability - Alaqat Qatar