Globecast – Navigating Sports Media’s Hyper-Personalized Future

Globecast – Navigating Sports Media’s Hyper-Personalized Future

 

Steve MacMurray, Head of Digital Media Development at Globecast

2024 was one of the busiest years in sport: the triumphs of Paris, major international football tournaments, and the continuing rise and powerful momentum of women’s sport. Fans had access to an unprecedented volume of live and on-demand content, highlighting both the richness and the challenges of today’s media environment.

With so much content available, the way it is delivered is becoming as crucial as the events themselves. Audiences now expect immersive, interactive, and personalized experiences—from multi-angle viewing and real-time stats to customized highlights and gamified engagement. This shift towards hyper-personalization is only accelerating, driven by giant leaps in AI, cloud-based production, IP workflows, and contribution connectivity models in the form of LEO satellite.

For rights holders and broadcasters, this abundance of tools and services present a double-edged sword. On one hand, there are more opportunities than ever to expand audiences and monetize content. On the other, the sheer volume of technological options can create “decision paralysis.” With so many vendors and a plethora of platforms promising innovation, how do organizations even begin to choose solutions that deliver sustainable value?

Here lies the growing need for expert guidance. Just as fans need help discovering the content right for them, content owners need trusted partners who can translate technological potential into clear, tailored, commercial strategies. The goal is not simply to early adopt the latest tools, but to align technology decisions with long-term audience and business objectives.

The challenge today is less about access to technology and more about making sense of the tech stack. With the picture delivered on screen comes the bigger picture of the end-to-end roadmap. Consultancy in sports media is becoming essential—providing organizations with the ability to evaluate options, weigh cost against return, and implement solutions that enhance reach, reliability and performance.

Cloud production, for example, offers gains of flexibility, sustainability, and cost efficiency, but rights holders need to be fluent with how it can integrate with existing workflows. AI can personalize content at scale, though the maximum value is with the foresight of retaining expert human input and oversight. Low-latency streaming and interactive services are translating into an enriched viewer experience, but the full and long-term benefits will only be achieved if they are integrated seamlessly into the wider media ecosystem.

This is why consultancy-led approaches are gaining ground. They help content owners move from tools to strategy, ensuring technology is an enabler rather than a dilemma.  The explosion of market options can feel like being at an all-you-can-eat buffet—so many dishes that it is hard to know what to choose. The real value comes when someone helps you select the right ingredients for a balanced, satisfying plate that matches your tastes and needs.  At Globecast, we bridge that gap, turning abundance into clarity. Our consultancy-led approach helps clients evaluate the right technologies for their needs—balancing cost, quality, sustainability, and ROI.

As we are more than half way through 2025, the pace of change is quickening. Hyper-personalization will become the new standard, while cloud, IP, and hybrid-network solutions will underpin the delivery chain. For sports organizations, the winners will be those who combine innovation with clarity—deploying the right technologies in service of audience growth and new revenue.

Trusted expertise is the key to achieving this balance. By cutting through complexity and providing direction, consultancy ensures that sports organizations can focus on what matters most: maximizing the value of their content in an increasingly dynamic media landscape.  Backed by global infrastructure, hybrid-cloud expertise, and decades of broadcast experience, Globecast combines technical depth with strategic consultancy to help rights holders cut through the noise, implement reliable and scalable solutions, and ultimately turn technology into growth—expanding reach, deepening engagement, and unlocking new revenue opportunities.

G&L Systemhaus: Efficiency Loves Company – Why Resilient Streaming Workflows Must Be Both Sustainable and Smart

G&L Systemhaus: Efficiency Loves Company – Why Resilient Streaming Workflows Must Be Both Sustainable and Smart

In streaming, efficiency is multidimensional: speed, sustainability, security, cost, and reliability must align. With decades of experience, G&L Systemhaus shows it’s no longer about the ‘best’ path, but about the best combinations that deliver efficiency in watts, time, and trust.

Alexander Leschinsky, CEO and Co-Founder of G&L Systemhaus

For decades, the streaming industry has equated efficiency with speed: higher throughput, lower latency, faster scaling. Yet it is now widely recognized that true progress also means sustainability: delivering more performance with fewer watts. With energy costs increasing and regulations tightening not only on carbon emissions but also on data sovereignty and security, the industry is challenged to deliver live and on-demand video that reduces environmental impact while maintaining resilience and reliability. At G&L Systemhaus, a leading German systems integrator for streaming media, this has become a guiding principle: sustainable performance is not an afterthought, but a core design goal.

From research to real-world: energy savings through hardware acceleration

Earlier this year, G&L engineers shared results with the “Greening of Streaming” community from controlled tests on our Audio Video Processing Unit (AVPU). The findings were striking: the AVPU, equipped with NETINT VPU hardware-accelerated encoding workflows, achieved two to three times higher energy efficiency compared to CPU-only encoding, with no significant trade-offs in video quality.

A typical 20-second clip that would cost the energy of a cup of coffee when encoded on CPUs consumed only 2–5 Wh on VPUs – often just a quarter of the CPU’s draw. And importantly, hardware acceleration consistently delivered real-time performance; something CPUs struggled with on demanding codecs such as AV1.

The lesson was clear: efficiency and sustainability go hand in hand when workloads are properly matched to the right hardware. But efficiency is not just about silicon; it’s about systems.

Enter the G&L Playout Hub: built on sustainable foundations

This insight directly shaped the development of the G&L Playout Hub, which makes its debut at IBC 2025. Designed for broadcasters, OTT services, and event producers, the Playout Hub takes the proven hardware efficiency of the AVPU and wraps it in a complete, resilient, and operator-friendly platform.

The platform was built to answer three pressing demands of today’s media workflows:

  • Always-on reliability with HA/DR – triple-layer redundancy from ingest to encode to egress
  • Sustainability by design – hardware-accelerated encoding for optimal energy efficiency, while scaling workloads intelligently across infrastructure
  • EU data sovereignty – running entirely in EU data centers, compliant with GDPR and ISO 27001. Sovereignty here does not mean isolation: in G&L’s layered model, control elements can remain in secure EU environments, while elastic capacity can be drawn from trusted partners like the Akamai Connected Cloud. This ensures flexibility without creating dependencies.

Efficiency in practice: automation and rapid deployment

A critical dimension of efficiency is not just energy, but also time and operational overhead. Here, the Playout Hub introduces:

  • Minutes-to-live deployment through multi-tenant architecture: isolated customer spaces spun up instantly with presets, endpoints, and secure
  • Event-driven automation for scheduled live streams, seamlessly blending real-time sources with pre-produced trailers, graphics, or overlays.
  • API-integration that connects directly into existing toolchains without lock-

For event producers managing high-visibility productions, this means less time spent on infrastructure and more time focusing on the content.

Conclusion: efficiency loves company

The journey from AVPU test results to the launch of the G&L Playout Hub underlines a simple truth: in streaming, efficiency is multidimensional. It’s about speed, sustainability, security, cost and reliability – all working together.

As the industry continues to debate insourcing vs. outsourcing, or cloud vs. on-prem, the question is no longer which path is “best”, but which combinations deliver the greatest efficiency in watts, in time, and in trust.

At IBC 2025, the G&L Playout Hub stands as a concrete example of how sustainable design and resilient engineering can come together in one platform, offering media providers not just a greener workflow, but also a smarter, more reliable one.

About G&L Systemhaus

G&L Systemhaus, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, is a system integrator and managed service provider specializing in modular, scalable streaming solutions for live and on-demand media. Trusted by Europe’s largest broadcasters, leading events, and government entities for the last two decades, G&L supports its customers with end-to-end services ranging from encoding and CDN to observability, content authenticity, and green IT strategies.

Etere – Transforming Media Management with Intelligent Innovation

Etere – Transforming Media Management with Intelligent Innovation

Advanced AI technologies are reshaping the way media organizations manage, organize, and deliver content. Etere AI Engine empowers broadcasters with a cutting-edge suite of intelligent tools that revolutionize workflows, elevate content quality, and captivate audiences like never before. Etere AI Engine is a game-changer for businesses looking to scale and boost their operations. Powered by advanced artificial intelligence, this solution redefines what’s possible in the world of broadcast software. It’s not just about technology; it’s about helping businesses work smarter, faster, and more efficiently in a constantly changing media landscape.

 AI-Powered Media Management

AI-Powered Media Asset Management: Transform How You Search and Automate Content Like Never Before:

Experience next-generation search capabilities and intelligent automation for seamless content organization and retrieval.  Etere Media Asset Management (MAM), powered by Etere AI, redefines workflow orchestration with unmatched efficiency and intelligent automation across the entire media lifecycle. By leveraging state-of-the-art AI technologies, Etere simplifies complex operations and delivers precision-driven results.

Smarter Search & Automation Tools
Etere introduces a new era of media management with powerful AI-enhanced features, including:

  • Facial Recognition for rapid identification and tagging
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for accurate text extraction from visuals
  • Speech-to-Text for seamless closed caption generation

Intelligent Metadata & Full-Text Search
Etere offers robust full-text search functionality across:

  • Asset titles and codes
  • Flexible metadata fields
  • Artist names
  • Embedded keywords within asset data
  • Song titles and singers

These capabilities empower broadcasters to automate content classification, detect objects, and repurpose media assets with greater speed and relevance, ultimately creating richer, more engaging content for their audiences.

 AI-Driven Workflows
AI-powered workflow engines help media teams visualize, design, and automate processes with minimal manual input.

Redefining Workflow Management with AI Precision

Etere transforms workflow management through its cutting-edge AI-powered software, delivering a unified platform to visualize, design, and optimize workflows with ease. Leveraging advanced artificial intelligence, Etere offers a smarter, more cost-effective approach by automating and precisely scheduling tasks, dramatically reducing manual intervention and operational overhead.

 Tailored for Your Needs

With robust customization capabilities, users can adapt workflows to meet their unique operational requirements. This flexibility empowers broadcasters to accelerate content delivery while maintaining tight control over expenses, making Etere AI a game-changing solution for organizations pursuing speed, efficiency, and excellence.

Seamless SQL Integration

The seamless integration with SQL enables automated handling of both internal and external data processes, ensuring smooth, synchronized operations across the enterprise.

Unmatched Speed & Scalability

Engineered for performance, Etere can initiate up to 100,000 workflows in under a second, setting a new benchmark for speed and scalability in broadcast management. Its customizable rule engine allows users to define precise broadcast parameters, ensuring every workflow aligns perfectly with business goals.

 Unleashing AI-Powered Global Reach in your Newsroom

In today’s dynamic, multilingual world, clear and impactful communication is more essential than ever.

Etere Nunzio Newsroom empowers individuals and organizations with cutting-edge AI capabilities designed to effortlessly bridge language barriers. Whether you’re broadcasting news to global audiences or tracking international developments, our integrated translation service ensures your message resonates, no matter the market.

Empowering Journalists with AI

Etere Nunzio Newsroom leverages on the capabilities of ChatGPT’s advanced language processing to transform raw input into compelling, reader-ready narratives. Journalists can seamlessly collaborate with to shape, enrich, and elevate their stories, ensuring every piece is both captivating and deeply informative. Acting as a dynamic creative partner, this intelligent tool offers insightful suggestions, sharpens language, and polishes content to perfection, all while preserving the journalist’s distinctive voice and editorial intent. Whether drafting breaking news or crafting in-depth features, Etere empowers reporters to deliver stories that resonate. With Etere Nunzio’s seamless linguistic support, your workflow becomes more efficient, your storytelling more powerful, and your reach truly global.

Automated Quality Control (QC)
AI-based quality control systems automatically analyse media files to detect technical issues and ensure compliance with broadcasting standards. Etere taps on cutting-edge algorithms and machine learning to revolutionize media quality control. By automatically analysing media files, Etere identifies technical issues and enforces compliance with the highest broadcasting standards, all with minimal manual intervention.

With Etere intelligent QC capabilities, users can:

  • Automatically detect and flag audio/video anomalies such as freeze frames, black frames, scene transitions, and audio loss.
  • Generate detailed EDL (Edit Decision List) annotations for each asset, pinpointing quality concerns with precision.
  • Assign a default quality rating upon completion, streamlining content evaluation and approval workflows.
  •  

    Imagine this, you set personalized content parameters, launch an automated workflow, and with just a few clicks, any video segments containing images that violate your censorship criteria are instantly flagged for review. No more tedious frame-by-frame inspection, this intelligent system saves you hours of manual effort, this is Etere QC powered by Etere AI Engine.

     Efficiency meets intelligence

    By streamlining the review process and ensuring only truly relevant images are flagged, this integrated solution transforms media management into a seamless and smart experience.

    Effortless VOD Media Monitoring for Customized Profiles and Diverse Markets

    VOD content distributors can seamlessly analyse and promote multiple versions of a single movie, each customized to suit distinct market segments and audience sensitivities. By incorporating dynamic content filtering, such as adjusting for varying levels of censorship, platforms can ensure that each version aligns with regional standards and viewer expectations. For example, a child-friendly edition of a VOD film can be curated to minimize exposure to sexual content, making it appropriate and engaging for younger audiences without compromising storytelling integrity.

    Ensure Market-Specific Regulatory Compliance

    Etere advanced AI-powered content moderation system automatically detects and filters inappropriate material, ensuring that all broadcasts meet regulatory standards and remain appropriate for diverse audiences. With fully customizable censorship parameters, Etere adapts seamlessly to the unique sensitivities and cultural expectations of each market. This makes it a dependable solution for maintaining content compliance across global regions, streamlining operations while protecting brand integrity.

     Author: Fabio Gattari

DOTSCREEN – Fragmentation to Flexibility: Rethinking the TV OS Ecosystem

DOTSCREEN – Fragmentation to Flexibility: Rethinking the TV OS Ecosystem

Vincent Gattone, DOTSCREEN

In today’s media and entertainment landscape, efficiency is not just about speed—it’s about smart resource allocation, scalability, and future-proofing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the OTT and connected TV (CTV) space, where the proliferation of TV operating systems—Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Vidaa, Titan OS, Whale TV, and more—poses a critical challenge for content owners, broadcasters, and telcos.

What has always been a complex app development ecosystem has fragmented even further into a web of device platforms, each with its own unique APIs, certification requirements, performance nuances, and limitations. The question is: does this fragmentation threaten operational efficiency and sustainability?

At DOTSCREEN, we believe the answer is no—not if approached with the right strategy, tooling, and architecture. This is why, for the past 15 years, top brands including TF1, HBO, Discovery, Disney, and Mediaset have chosen DOTSCREEN to build their big-screen TV apps.

Smart TVs are rapidly becoming the primary device for consuming streaming content. In parallel, TV manufacturers are investing heavily in their own branded operating systems as a way to secure their role in the content distribution chain and monetize through advertising, partnerships, or licensing.

This has led to a wave of platform-specific OSs:

  • Samsung Tizen and LG webOS dominate the high end of the market and offer robust SDKs but require deep integration and testing.
  • Vidaa, Titan OS, and Whale TV (the latter backed by Naver and used on some Asian market devices) are aggressively expanding across Europe and Latin America.
  • Roku OS, Google TV/Android TV, and Amazon Fire OS further complicate the picture by dominating connected device sales.

Each of these operating systems introduces differences in rendering engines, memory handling, playback pipelines, input management, and more. This fragmented environment increases development effort, maintenance overhead, and time-to-market—unless the process is properly streamlined.

DOTSCREEN’s approach to this challenge starts with a commitment to lightweight native development. By working directly within the constraints and opportunities of each OS, we develop apps that are optimized for performance, user experience, and maintainability.

Unlike heavier, hybrid frameworks that add abstraction layers and dependencies, native apps allow full control over:

  • Code performance and memory usage
  • Device-specific optimization (key for older smart TVs and devices with limited specs)
  • UI responsiveness and animation fluidity
  • Fast boot times and minimal latency

This lightweight approach ultimately results in reduced technical debt, fewer support escalations, and longer product life cycles—all key factors in a more sustainable media tech ecosystem.

While each platform has its own peculiarities, DOTSCREEN’s long-standing experience across all major Smart TV and OTT environments has shown that porting an application from one platform to another can be relatively easy—if the original codebase is structured correctly.

We apply strict architectural discipline from the start:

  • Separation of concerns between business logic, UI components, and platform-specific drivers
  • Use of common, shareable code modules across platforms
  • Smart abstraction layers that allow reuse without over-complication
  • Platform-specific performance testing baked into the CI/CD pipeline

This allows us to reuse up to 60–80% of the base code when porting apps from, say, Tizen to WebOS to Titan OS to Vidaa. Not only does this improve development efficiency, but it also simplifies ongoing updates, bug fixes, and feature enhancements—making long-term maintenance far more sustainable.

In today’s climate of increasing CAPEX/OPEX scrutiny, media companies need more than just an app—they need an adaptable, intelligent strategy that optimizes effort across their OTT operations.

DOTSCREEN brings platform-specific intelligence into the development process, ensuring that:

  • Every pixel is rendered where and how it should be on each screen size
  • Playback engines are tuned to the specific decoder limitations of each OS
  • Ad integrations respect the nuances of each platform’s monetization APIs

We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all frameworks. Instead, we advocate for a best-of-breed approach, where code is shared when it makes sense, and customized where it matters. This balance between reuse and specificity is what drives true efficiency.

Efficiency isn’t just about faster development—it’s also about smarter deployment, lighter footprints, and reducing energy and resource usage across the board.

Native apps, when properly developed, consume less CPU and memory, which translates into:

  • Lower power usage on end-user devices
  • Reduced backend and CDN load due to more intelligent caching and pre-fetching
  • Less frequent device refresh cycles, as even older TVs can run well-optimized native apps

This leads to leaner supply chains and a smaller environmental footprint, contributing directly to the sustainability goals of broadcasters and content owners alike.

At DOTSCREEN, we do not believe the idea that OS proliferation is inherently negative or overly complex. In fact, we see it as a natural evolution—a sign of a healthy, competitive Smart TV ecosystem that provides more choices for both consumers and content providers.

The key is not to fight the fragmentation, but to embrace it with intelligence, agility, and the right architectural strategy. The fragmentation doesn’t stop at Smart TVs, both new and legacy

set-top boxes follow a similar trend, but can easily be managed when applying the same principles. Efficiency and sustainability are absolutely achievable—even in the face of dozens of operating systems—when you:

  • Develop lightweight, native-first apps
  • Build for reuse and portability
  • Incorporate platform-specific expertise into your workflows
  • Prioritize performance and longevity

The future of media tech isn’t about simplifying the ecosystem—it’s about becoming smarter in how we operate within it. And that’s where we help our clients thrive.

ContentWise – What operators will one day expect: Agent Engine for real-time personalization

ContentWise – What operators will one day expect: Agent Engine for real-time personalization

Infinite orchestration possibilities for video operators with the use of AI

New series drop daily, live events ignite online buzz, and cultural moments flare up without warning. Editorial and marketing teams in media are under constant pressure.

To seize those opportunities, they need to respond immediately. The challenge is that current workflows aren’t built for this pace.

Campaign launches often require coding knowledge, hours of manual setup, and a deep familiarity with multiple disconnected tools.

It’s time-consuming, stressful, and inefficient.

What’s missing is a way to shorten the distance between a team’s intent and the execution of that intent.

A way to promote new titles to the right segment, see it happen across platforms, in real time, without code, and without logging into five different systems.

That is what agentic AI makes possible. This is about orchestration: aligning tools, tasks, and timing in one motion.

Agents can understand instructions, connect with your existing tools, and carry out multi-step workflows under editorial guidance.

Let’s take one of the most common challenges: the launch of a new campaign.

You want to capitalize on the buzz around a major sports event (the 2026 World Cup is around the corner). Building and launching a campaign takes

 

time: coordinating assets, defining segments, setting up messages across different platforms…

The Marketing Campaign Agent removes that friction.

It assembles the necessary assets, applies targeting rules to build precise audience groups, and connects everything to your marketing delivery systems.

The campaign can then be scheduled or triggered instantly, with personalized notifications and content packages going out in real time.

What once required hours of manual effort across multiple tools becomes a single, automated workflow, leaving your team free to focus on creative strategy instead of execution.

Every operator has its specific challenges and workflows: from refreshing a homepage carousel based on trending conversations, to adapting promotions around live sports results, to testing discovery flows before deploying them.

The power of Agent Engine lies in its flexibility.

Operators can design agents tailored to their unique needs. Editorial and marketing teams can finally stop wrestling with tools and start crafting great experiences for their audiences.

The Broadcast and Media industry is moving toward orchestration as a baseline. Just as content recommendations once shifted from

“nice-to-have” to “must-have,” agentic AI will become standard for digital experience teams.

Agentic AI is no longer a concept for the future.

It is the practical step operators can take today to free their teams and deliver experiences at the speed of culture.

Closed Caption Creator – Scaling Closed Caption QC: How Automation Reduces Operational Overhead in Multi-Platform Delivery

Closed Caption Creator – Scaling Closed Caption QC: How Automation Reduces Operational Overhead in Multi-Platform Delivery

Closed Caption Creator screenshot showing the QC & Review panel and Event Errors for each Subtitle Block.

The broadcast landscape has fundamentally changed. Where broadcasters once managed content for a handful of distribution channels, today’s operations span dozens of platforms, each with unique technical requirements and format specifications. This expansion brings a particularly complex challenge: closed caption quality control.

Modern broadcasters manage exponentially more content across diverse platforms—from traditional broadcast to Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and emerging FAST channels. Each platform demands specific caption formats (SRT, VTT, TTML, SCC, EBU-STL, PAC), character limits, reading speeds, and timing synchronization rules. When you factor in multilingual content delivery, the complexity multiplies dramatically. A single piece of content might require caption variants for broadcast TV (32 characters per line, 2-line maximum), Netflix (42 characters per line), and YouTube (platform-optimized formatting)—each requiring individual quality control.

The traditional approach of manual QC scaling linearly with content volume and platform count is becoming operationally unsustainable. The work required to QC caption files scales directly as you acquire more content or deliver to more platforms.

Current Approaches and Their Trade-offs

Most broadcasters today employ one of three QC strategies, each with limitations.

The first approach involves basic spot checks on original caption files, trusting they’ll meet requirements across all delivery platforms. While this minimizes upfront QC investment and enables faster delivery, it results in higher failure rates at platform endpoints. Platform rejections delay content availability and often incur redelivery fees.

The second approach requires manual QC for each platform delivery. This ensures higher accuracy and catches platform-specific issues before submission. However, it creates a linear scaling problem where QC work increases with platform count. For a broadcaster delivering to 10 platforms, this means 10 times the QC work—an unsustainable operational model.

The third approach—automated QC with exception handling—breaks this linear scaling pattern by leveraging technology to handle routine quality checks while preserving human expertise for complex problem-solving.

Understanding QC by Exception

QC by Exception represents a fundamental workflow shift where automated systems handle predictable, rule-based quality checks, and human operators intervene only when automated systems detect issues or cannot resolve problems automatically.

This methodology operates on core principles that maximize efficiency: automation handles routine tasks, human expertise focuses on complex problem-solving, clear escalation triggers determine when files require manual review, and continuous improvement uses exception data to refine automated rules.

The workflow benefits are substantial. Organizations typically see 70-90% reduction in routine QC tasks, faster processing times for standard files, consistent application of quality standards, detailed reporting with audit trails, and scalability that handles volume increases.

Technical Implementation with Automated Solutions

Implementing automated caption QC requires robust technical solutions that integrate into existing broadcast workflows. Closed Caption Converter addresses this need through flexible deployment options—available as a CLI tool for on-premise workflows and as an API for cloud-native architectures.

The Style Guide Manager can be used to configure custom style guides for each delivery platform.

The system’s strength lies in its custom style guide configuration options. Users can build platform-specific rule sets that automatically validate caption files against precise requirements. For example, a Netflix style guide might enforce 42 characters per line with 2-line maximums, while a broadcast TV guide ensures FCC compliance with 32-character limits and specific timing requirements. Reading speed validation can be configured for maximum 20 Characters Per Second (CPS) to ensure viewer comprehension.

When files undergo automated QC, the system generates comprehensive reports identifying issues with timestamps, severity classifications (critical, warning, informational), and automated pass/fail determinations. These reports integrate seamlessly into workflow management systems through JSON/XML output formats.

Converter also offers automated correction capabilities through process modules. The Automatic Format module intelligently inserts line breaks to meet character limits while preserving readability. The Automatic Reading Speed module adjusts caption timing to meet CPS requirements while maintaining synchronization with audio/video content.

Files that cannot be automatically corrected are flagged for manual review with clear documentation of attempted fixes and remaining issues, ensuring seamless handoff to subtitle editors.

Integration with Professional Editing Tools

Closed Caption Creator screenshot showing a project currently in Review.

For files requiring manual intervention, integration with professional subtitle editing tools becomes critical. Closed Caption Creator offers multiple integration options designed for modern broadcast workflows.

For organizations requiring programmatic task management, the Work Order API enables automated assignment of correction tasks, integration with work management systems, and automated progress tracking with completion notifications.

Desktop versions remain available for high-volume correction workflows, offering full-featured editing capabilities with advanced timing and formatting tools suitable for complex corrections.

Moving Forward

The broadcast industry’s content complexity will only continue growing. Organizations that implement automated caption QC workflows today position themselves to handle tomorrow’s scale requirements without proportional increases in operational overhead. By embracing QC by Exception methodologies, broadcasters can maintain quality standards while achieving the efficiency necessary to compete in an increasingly complex distribution landscape.

The question isn’t whether to automate caption QC, but how quickly your organization can implement these workflows to stay competitive in the evolving broadcast ecosystem.

Reference Links
www.closedcaptioncreator.com

Nathaniel Deshpande,  CEO/Founder Closed Caption Creator

Clear-Com – A Clear Commitment to a Sustainable Future

Clear-Com – A Clear Commitment to a Sustainable Future

Bob Boster, President, Clear-Com

Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a fundamental value that shapes how organizations operate today. Across industries, leaders are increasingly recognizing that protecting the environment, minimizing impact, and building a sustainable future are not just ethical imperatives, but also smart business practices. The most effective sustainability strategies are those embedded into everyday operations.

Building Energy Efficiency for a Greener Tomorrow

Modern corporate facilities can be a proving ground for sustainable innovation. Many organizations are investing in renewable energy systems such as large-scale solar arrays, which not only reduce reliance on fossil fuels but can also bring facilities to carbon neutrality. Title 24–compliant LED lighting, energy-efficient HVAC systems, and partnerships with clean energy providers are further ways businesses can significantly reduce their environmental impact.

Even small steps like installing EV charging stations or adopting smart landscaping practices that conserve water can produce outsized results. Collectively, these changes add up, both in environmental benefit and in long-term cost savings.

Responsible Recycling and E-Waste Management

Waste reduction is another essential pillar of a sustainability strategy. Comprehensive recycling programs that include cardboard, plastics, aluminum, and e-waste are becoming the norm among companies committed to stewardship. With electronic waste in particular, responsible disposal ensures that valuable materials are reclaimed while toxic components are kept out of landfills.

The lesson is clear: every ton of cardboard or pound of electronics recycled represents measurable progress toward a cleaner planet.

Product Responsibility and Supply Chain Ethics

Sustainability extends beyond facilities into the design and distribution of products and services. Companies across sectors are self-certifying products to global standards like RoHS, ensuring they are free from hazardous materials. Supply chain transparency is also critical, with organizations adopting policies that comply with international regulations and explicitly reject forced and child labor.

These practices are not only about compliance, they build trust with customers, partners, and regulators while aligning with the growing consumer demand for ethically produced goods.

Driving Sustainability Through Lean Principles

How we work is just as important as what we build. Lean principles, which encourage continuous improvement and waste reduction, are increasingly being applied with sustainability in mind. Employee-driven programs, such as certification tracks that require annual efficiency or process-improvement projects, empower teams to embed innovation and sustainability into the DNA of the company.

Looking Forward

Real progress doesn’t happen overnight. But organizations that take measurable steps toward sustainability today, in energy use, waste management, product design, and supply chain ethics are laying the groundwork for a better tomorrow.

Ultimately, sustainability is about more than compliance or corporate social responsibility. It’s about creating resilient, efficient, and forward-looking organizations that can thrive in a world where environmental stewardship is no longer optional, but essential.

 

Cinegy – Breaking Down the Broadcast/AV Divide

Cinegy – Breaking Down the Broadcast/AV Divide

Jan Weigner, CTO, Cinegy

When we decided to install what’s likely the largest 8K LED wall at IBC2025, it wasn’t just about creating eye candy for our stand in Hall 7. Sure, we’ll be shamelessly promoting our products with it, delivering rapid-fire messaging to the thousands walking past on the escalators. But it was also about proving a fundamental point that the industry has been slow to grasp: the lines between broadcast and professional AV aren’t just blurring, they’ve practically disappeared.

Resolution is Just a Number

Here’s the thing about 8K that everyone keeps missing – it’s not about broadcast television. The majority of HD channels globally still broadcast in 1080i today. This creates an absurd situation where we’re producing interlaced content for flat screen displays that never supported interlace in the first place. Apart from some prototypes in museums, HD tube televisions simply never existed.

These standards persist not because they make technical sense, but because change costs money. Meanwhile, cinema after 4K will be moving to 8K projection. Event venues like the Sphere in Las Vegas operates at a resolution that make broadcast standards and 8K look quaint. Corporate venues, houses of worship, and live events are demanding display capabilities that dwarf what traditional broadcasters consider cutting-edge. The cameras exist – Black Magic’s 17K camera costs less than what broadcasters used to spend on a single lens.

The disconnect isn’t technical, it’s economic. Broadcasters won’t upgrade until they see clear revenue benefits. But content creators shooting today would be foolish not to capture at the highest resolution possible. You can’t go back twenty years later and reshoot that wildlife documentary when the species is extinct and AI upscaling does not perform miracles.

Where Innovation Actually Happens

Let’s be honest about who’s driving production standards today. It’s not the broadcasters, it’s Netflix. Camera manufacturers care about getting on Netflix’s approved equipment list, not what traditional broadcasters specify. Netflix defines post-production workflows, subtitling standards, and AI integration because they have the budgets that matter.

Most traditional Hollywood studios are still operating like it’s the 1930s, weighed down by nepotism and legacy thinking. Even basic technical decisions like shooting at 24 frames per second persist not because they’re optimal, but because change is hard and expensive. It is cheaper to call it the “film look”.

This creates opportunity. Professional AV installations  want broadcast-quality capabilities without broadcast-industry constraints or timelines. They need 4K and 8K output (or more), flexible format handling, and reliable automation, but they also need the agility to deploy quickly and scale efficiently – in hours not years.

The Convergence Reality

What we’re seeing isn’t really convergence, it’s recognition that content delivery requirements have always been similar regardless of the destination screen. Whether you’re delivering to a smartphone, a broadcast transmission, or a concert hall LED wall installation, you’re dealing with the same fundamental challenges: format conversion, quality optimization, and reliable playout.

The difference is that AV installations don’t care about arbitrary broadcast standards. If you need 60Hz output in Europe, nobody’s going to penalize you. If your content library mixes PAL, NTSC, different frame rates, and various resolutions, you just need it to work, not comply with decades-old technical standards that made sense when bandwidth was expensive, and displays were primitive.

This is where software-defined approaches prove their worth. Instead of separate hardware boxes for every conversion and processing task, you get flexible software that adapts to whatever your output requirements demand. Scale from single channels to dozens without architectural changes. Handle mixed playlists with automatic format adaptation. Upgrade capabilities through software updates rather than equipment replacement.

AI: Beyond the Hype

Everyone’s talking about AI, but most miss the practical applications that actually matter today. Forget about generating entire videos from prompts: that’s interesting but legally and creatively challenging. Focus on fixed-function AI solving specific problems: real-time speech-to-text subtitling that outperforms human transcribers who rotate every 15 minutes in high-pressure environments.

Our real-time upscaling and format conversion capabilities exemplify practical AI implementation. Take mixed-format content: SD music videos from the 1980s alongside  HD material, and output consistent, high-quality results automatically. No more watching legacy content that looks like “Lego man in a storm” because of poor upscaling.

These aren’t revolutionary capabilities, they’re evolutionary improvements that solve expensive, time-consuming problems. But they represent the kind of AI implementation that delivers measurable benefits rather than impressive demonstrations.

The Economics of Change

Industry consolidation is accelerating. Public broadcasters face funding pressures. Streaming services are cutting content budgets while raising subscription prices. Sports rights costs continue escalating. In this environment, operational efficiency isn’t optional: it’s survival.

Software-defined infrastructure addresses these pressures by eliminating the hardware upgrade treadmill. The same platform that handles today’s requirements scales to future needs without architectural replacement. Whether that’s supporting higher resolutions, additional channels, or new delivery formats, software approaches adapt rather than obsolete.

This matters equally for traditional broadcasters seeking operational efficiency and AV integrators pursuing new market opportunities. The technology requirements increasingly overlap, and the most successful organizations will be those that recognize content delivery as a unified challenge rather than separate broadcast and AV markets.

Looking Forward

Our 8K demonstration at IBC isn’t about convincing broadcasters to upgrade their transmission standards: that’s a business decision they’ll make when economics justify it. It’s about showing that the technology infrastructure exists today to support whatever resolution and format requirements emerge tomorrow.

More importantly, it’s proof that the same software-defined tools powering broadcast operations can drive immersive installations, corporate communications, live events, and digital signage. The screens may be different sizes, but the fundamental requirements: reliability, flexibility, and scalability, remain constant.

The future belongs to organizations that understand content delivery as a technology-agnostic challenge. Whether you’re feeding a traditional broadcast transmission or a concert venue LED wall, success comes from having infrastructure that adapts to requirements rather than constraining them.

That’s what software-defined television actually means: the freedom to focus on content and audience rather than technical limitations. It’s taken the industry longer than expected to reach this point, but we’re finally here.

Cerberus Tech – From Marginal Gains to Major Wins: Real-Time Control and Cloud-Native Orchestration in Live Video Workflows

Cerberus Tech – From Marginal Gains to Major Wins: Real-Time Control and Cloud-Native Orchestration in Live Video Workflows

Chris Perkiss, Head of Operations, Cerberus Tech

Live video workflows are becoming more complex and increasingly central to how media organizations engage audiences. To meet these demands, many are adopting cloud-native platforms that offer greater flexibility and efficiency. These platforms are reshaping live broadcasting, which was traditionally supported by robust but rigid on-premises infrastructure.

In the past, broadcast systems were built to handle peak demand, requiring large capital investments to ensure reliability. While effective, this approach often led to underused resources and high ongoing costs. Even minor changes, such as adding a new format or channel, were slow and expensive to implement.

Cloud-native platforms offer a more responsive model. With on-demand provisioning and elastic scaling, media teams can deploy and release resources in minutes. Usage-based pricing aligns costs with actual consumption, reducing the need to overbuild for occasional spikes in demand, and avoiding operational cost shock.

Beyond these operational efficiencies, cloud-native systems support continuous optimization. Small, targeted improvements across workflows, otherwise known as marginal gains, can accumulate into measurable advantages in speed, cost, and reliability. These gains, once considered incremental, now play a critical role in helping media organizations stay competitive and agile.

Orchestrating the Entire Workflow

Earlier cloud solutions often addressed isolated tasks like encoding or storage. This created operational silos and required manual integration. Today’s cloud-native platforms manage the entire live video workflow, from ingest to packaging and delivery, within a unified control layer.

Operators can design and manage workflows through a single interface or API. These systems support a range of protocols, including SRT, Zixi, HLS, and CMAF, and can operate across multiple cloud environments. This integration simplifies operations and reduces the risk of errors.

By eliminating the need to manually stitch together disparate tools, orchestration platforms accelerate time-to-air and simplify the launch of new channels or services. Teams can respond more quickly to last-minute changes, fulfill complex syndication requirements, and maintain reliability under pressure.

This end-to-end orchestration also improves consistency across events and regions. For example, a broadcaster managing simultaneous live streams for different markets can replicate workflows with minimal variation, ensuring uniform quality and compliance. The ability to orchestrate not just streams but the full operational context — transcoding, metadata handling, scheduling, and distribution — marks a significant evolution in live video delivery.

Automation With Real-Time Insight

Automation is essential for scaling live video operations, but it must be paired with visibility to be effective. Cloud-native platforms now embed monitoring, alerting, and analytics throughout the workflow, giving operators real-time insight into system performance.

Dashboards provide immediate access to metrics like latency, packet loss, and resource usage. Alerts help teams respond quickly to emerging issues, reducing downtime and maintaining stream quality. Logs and diagnostics are centralized, making it easier to trace problems and resolve them efficiently.

These platforms also offer detailed billing analytics. Teams can track resource usage by stream or component, identify inefficiencies, and adjust workflows to manage costs more effectively. Automation becomes more than a time-saver. It becomes a tool for strategic decision-making.

This level of transparency also supports collaboration across departments. Engineering teams can monitor technical performance, while operations and finance teams gain insight into resource allocation and cost trends. With shared visibility, organizations can align technical execution with business priorities more effectively.

Built for Change

Live video delivery is constantly evolving. New formats, shifting audience expectations, regulatory changes, and emerging platforms all influence how workflows are designed and deployed. Cloud-native platforms are built to accommodate these changes.

With platform-agnostic and protocol-flexible architectures, media organizations can deploy workflows in the environments that best meet their needs, whether for compliance, performance, or cost. Workflows can be customized, replicated, or extended without major reconfiguration.

This flexibility supports experimentation and innovation. Teams can test new formats, launch pop-up events, or adjust distribution strategies with minimal overhead. In a fast-moving industry, the ability to adapt quickly is a competitive advantage in itself.

Consider a sports broadcaster covering a global tournament. With cloud-native tools, they can spin up localized workflows for different regions, each with tailored graphics, commentary, and compliance settings without rebuilding the core infrastructure. When the event ends, those resources can be decommissioned just as easily, keeping operations lean and responsive.

Efficiency That Compounds

Improving efficiency in live video is a continuous process, not a one-time fix. Cloud-native orchestration, automation, and real-time monitoring provide the foundation for ongoing refinement, where each small improvement builds on the last.

By adopting these platforms, media organizations gain more than operational savings. They gain the ability to see and control every part of their workflow, respond to change with confidence, and build a more resilient, scalable foundation for the future.

These efficiencies are not isolated. They compound. A faster setup process reduces time-to-air. Fewer manual steps lower the risk of errors. Real-time insights allow for quicker adjustments and smarter resource allocation. Over time, these improvements reinforce one another, creating a more agile and cost-effective operation.

In an industry where teams are expected to deliver more with fewer resources, the ability to optimize in real time is no longer optional. It’s a strategic necessity, and one that turns marginal gains into lasting advantage.

 

Meet the IABM Bursary Students at IBC 2025

Meet the IABM Bursary Students at IBC 2025

Eleven current University students from across Europe are attending IBC this year, thanks to IABM and YOU – our members.

The IABM Bursary scheme allows us the bring the best and brightest new Media Tech talent to Amsterdam – paying for their travel and accommodation as well providing conference passes for the full four days.

This year we have two students from Germany, four from the UK and five from France. All are excited and desperate to see what IBC has to offer this year.

The students will be taking part in the World Skills Café on the Thursday afternoon prior to the show’s launch, and will be around the IBC Talent programme activities on Friday. You might even see a couple of them on stage! We’ll also be meeting some of them in the IABM hub with an Impact stage fireside chat on Monday morning.

Here’s your chance to get to know them…

 Alice  Ainsworth

Solent Southampton University, BA Hons Film and Television

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 

I have been on the course for 2 years and I have 1 year until my course is completed.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? 

It is always so difficult to pick a favorite anything, but my favorite film is Mark Osbourne’s 2015 ‘The Little Prince’.  When I was a child, my Great Aunt owned a copy of the original French book and when she passed it was given to my family. The story is heartwarming and the message that it pushes is one oof love and hope which never fails to bring me to tears. I think the fact I can rewatch it repeatedly is testament to how I feel about the film.

In contrast, my favorite TV series is Channel 4’s ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’. I really love the way the competition is laid out and I’m a big fan of pottery. The show has also been a connection to home as when it is being broadcast, I call my Mum and we watch it together live, something I can’t often do when I’m at university.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

The Ideal first job once I finish my degree would be as a camera operator. I would especially love to be involved in non-fiction productions such as ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’

 And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

10 years from now I hope to have established myself as a camera operator and I would love to have written and produced some of my own work. The future will shape itself and I just want to be part of this industry that I love.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?  

I’m looking forward to the talks surrounding AI and the future of the industry. I think that AI will become an invaluable tool in the future and will absolutely affect the way I enter the industry. Listening to experts discuss this will be an amazing opportunity to learn how to adapt myself into the changing world.

 Hendrik Albrecht 

Hochschule RheinMain, Advanced Media Technologies

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete?

For 1 Semester, and there are 2 Semesters left.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why?  

My favorite film is Catch Me If You Can because I love it when the protagonist is clever and outsmarts others.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

Working as an engineer for the broadcast industry e.g. ZDF.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

On a longer term, I aim to take on a leadership position because I want to do work that has meaningful impact.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?  

What I’m most looking forward to at IBC is exploring LED production technology. I believe LED volumes represent the future of virtual production, especially in broadcasting. Traditional green screen studios will likely be phased out over time, and I want to gain expertise in working with LED-based environments, as they offer more realistic lighting and interactive backgrounds.

George Blower

Southampton Solent University, (BSc) Live Event Technology

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete?

I have just completed my first year, with another two to go.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why?

My favorite film is Interstellar. The cinematic brilliance from Christopher Nolan paired with Hans Zimmer’s thrilling soundtrack really created a beautiful narrative. The excellence of the film really made me question the technology behind it and how it was produced.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree?

My ideal first job would be either vision or broadcast engineering. Gaining hands-on experience with equipment and technology whilst feeling the buzz of live production would really give me a strong platform to advance my career.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now?

Designing and creating broadcast systems would be ideal, having a creative yet technically minded role. It would also be amazing to have the chance to work around the world, giving myself the opportunity to collaborate with people from all over the globe.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?

Having worked at university, broadcasting a few conferences this year, I’m excited to attend one all about broadcast technology! The chance to explore multiple halls and watch new technologies demonstrations will offer me the opportunity to identify the latest cutting-edge developments in the industry.

Alice Carlin 

Université-Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, Audiovisuel Médias Interactifs et Jeux (DREAM)

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 

1 year done, 1 to go.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? 

Over the Garden Wall, it’s a yearly Halloween rewatch. Very spooky, very cozy, with amazing attention to detail in its storytelling and costuming. And there is no disliking the music by the Blasting Company.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

No clue, no preference for now since I don’t know the reality of any job yet, really, I just want to get my hands busy and try things out until I find my favorite job.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

To be honest I don’t know.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC? 

Listening to a lot of different people, see what the different stances are on the current state of the industry in general.

Sohel Charef

Université Polytechnique Hauts-De-France (UPHF), Audiovisual & Multimedia Engineering course (In the Engineering school INSA Hauts-De-France which is part of the UPHF))

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 3 years of preparatory school and 2 years of engineering. Right now, I’ve got 1 year left.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? Wall-E because I love space and Robots.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree?

I would say maybe a job that can mix my 2 passions, audiovisual and theme parks (MackOne for example).

 And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now?

Don’t know exactly yet, either on the IP Broadcast or Computer Rendering or audiovisual integration

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?

Looking into the latest technologies of IP streaming and maybe virtual production integration.

 Lisa Haddou

Polytechnic University of Haut-de-France, links with INSA group. (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées), Master’s degree in Post Production (Audiovisual, Digital Interactive Medias and Game).

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete?

As a Master’s degree lasts two years, I’m in my last year of college. I entered this course the last September.

 What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why?

I’m a huge fan of Interstellar because it gathers realistic scientific knowledge and artistic audiovisual talent to highlight a beautiful and stirring storyline. I do love Christopher Nolan’s movies and Hans Zimmer’s music as well even though the main point of this movie is the fact that science, art and technology unite in order to create a masterpiece.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree?

I would love to join an audiovisual production company as a camera operator and film editor in order to participate in enough film-making tasks to run as a future film-maker.

Ad in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now?

I’m hoping to be able to put my skills in the spotlight in order to be a multipurpose film-maker: scriptwriter, film editor, film-maker, trainer, I’m willing to prove that lights, cameras and sounds are fascinating technologies.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?

I’m looking forward for inspiring meetings and a professional piece of luck at IBC so that I could link up with technology and media experts and enthusiasts.

Antoine Laurent

INSA Hauts-de-France, Audiovisual and Multimedia

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete?

I’ve been studying this course for 2 years, and I have just one year left, including an internship in the final semester.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why?

I don’t have a favorite film or TV show, but as a musician, I always appreciate a good movie soundtrack.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree?

I would like to work as a Broadcast Systems Integrator or Broadcast Project Engineer.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now?

In 10 years, I hope to be in a leadership role such as Technical Director or Head of Engineering, while still being actively involved in innovative projects.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?

I’m looking forward to meeting people who share the same passion for the broadcast and discovering new trends in this industry.

Lukas Lawall 

Rhein Maine University of Applied Sciences, Media Technology, Bachelor of Engineering

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 

I finished the third  semester and have 4 semesters left. I’m planning to graduate in 2027.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? 

My favorite Film is Lord of the Rings. From a technical standpoint I like the use of visual effects in a time which didn’t have the resources we have today.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

I would like to work in a position where I can combine the worlds of broadcast and large scale events, using the experience I gained in my years of working in the industry before I started studying. In an ideal job I would travel the world and meet people along the way showing me different ways of using the equipment I use on a daily basis. Developing a better understanding of the possibilities we have with the resources available to us.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

I hope I will be doing something that gives me joy, maybe even in a position I’m not familiar with at the moment, working along great people, who strive to deliver the best whenever they can.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?  

I’m looking forward to have a look at the newest technology and trends our industry is providing. Furthermore I want to look at developments regarding XR-Production and workflows.

  Linke Li 

Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, Audiovisual – Postproduction

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 

I have been on this course for one year, and I have one year left to complete it.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? 

My favorite films include classics such as Persona, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Breaking the Waves, and Mulholland Drive. My favorite recent films are The Turin Horse, The Florida Project, Memoria, and Beau Is Afraid.

I like these films for their unique, coherent, and inspiring artistic visions, as well as their strong audiovisual storytelling and high production quality. These works may not rely on the most cutting-edge filmmaking technologies of their time, but they demonstrate masterful use of the tools they chose. In each film, form and content are seamlessly integrated to deliver ideas with both efficiency and profound artistic impact.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

I would like to become a film editor or a visual effects compositor/CGI artist.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

I hope to gain enough experience to eventually start my own production studio and become an independent filmmaker.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?  

I would like to learn more about emerging technologies in virtual production, AI-assisted production techniques, and new trends in filmmaking that can help reduce costs or simplify the postproduction process. I am also interested in the latest developments in 3D animation and special effects/CGI.


Daniella Smith 

Southampton Solent University, BA (Hons) Television Production

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 

I have been at Solent since Sept 2023, and I am now entering my third and final year.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? 

My favorite films are the Harry Potter series. I have always been fond of them since I was young, and have always been fascinated by the London Studio Tour and the magic behind the scenes.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

Through experiences I’ve managed to get for myself by networking while studying at university so far, I am very eager to start off as a Graphics Operator for live sports.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

In ten years’ time, I’d love to progress in my career by doing more exiting and bigger sports shows as either a Graphics Operator, or even an EVS Operator, and by doing so – visiting new countries.

I’m passionate about both EVS and Graphics, currently I believe Graphics is more achievable as a career starter. However, I am determined to keep building my skills, keep networking, and hopefully I can get to progress to the VT dept at some point in my career.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?  

I’m most looking forward to seeing industry connections I have already made and, making new ones who can help me further along my journey into the industry.

As well as learning more deeply about the industry I’m about to enter in terms of up-and-coming tech, and even resources that I can use to learn and train myself on before starting my career this time next year.

Ben Thomas 

Southampton Solent University, Live Event Technology

How long have you been on this course and how long do you have left until you complete? 

I am in my 2nd year of a 3 year degree.

What is your favorite Film or TV Show? And why? 

It is not quite a show or film but in the same sort of category I love SailGP. I very much admire the technology behind and have sailed since I can remember so it is something that really intertwines 2 of my passions: technology and sailing.

What would be your ideal first job once you complete your degree? 

I am already freelancing as a broadcast engineer and live sound tech when I can so I would love to continue this into my career as I complete university studies.

And in the longer term, what do you hope to be doing in 10 years from now? 

I would like to have worked my way up in the broadcast industry and I think my interest lies in system design and integration so I would like to have a role doing that.

What are you most looking forward to at IBC?  

I am looking forward to seeing the technologies that I see on LinkedIn and be able to get a bit more hands on. I also can’t wait for the networking opportunities whether they be meeting people I have connected with but not met, meeting up with people I know and most importantly getting to know more people within the industry.