In December 2021, I was super miserable at having to miss the SVG event in New York due to UK/USA travel restrictions. I could have gone, but then the chance of being quarantined for Christmas was too much of a risk. Fast forward to April, and to have attended the SVG Chairman’s Forum event in Red Rock, Las Vegas was a real treat for many reasons:
- That old ‘people’ argument. I don’t really care if I ever hear the phrase “Nice to meet you in 3D finally” again but the sentiment is a good one. Seeing people in the flesh is one thing but hearing conversations, witnessing, and reacting to body language, being able to interact in round table discussions without the awkwardness of the mute button… well that was amazing.
- Networking without the cables. A bit like point one but networking in the real world is a whole lot easier in person than online and SVG has created such a fantastic community in the USA that it is possible to sit at any table, introduce yourself and start what could be a long-lasting relationship. That is just not easy on Zoom. it is impossible (It is also not possible on the show floor at any of the large shows). Curated events like this breed trust and conversation which is why it is where our marketing pounds will continue to be spent.
- The format of the event was great with tech talks, Josh from Devoncroft doing his usual brilliant thing, case studies, etc but the best session for me was the session that opened the mic up to the audience enabling them to ask questions of the SVG management team. This was a great opportunity for companies like OM to ask the burning questions or make points to an audience that listens. I made the point that these events need to create a means for the smaller vendors to have a voice (the same goes for HPS, DPP, etc). With Platinum sponsors dominating the narrative the voice of innovation is lost. Small companies in the M&E space create the lion’s share of innovation. You really need to hear what they have to say. The great thing is that the SVG crew listened, and I am sure will come up with something meaningful!
- Tech Talks. As ever the range of topics covered was fantastic. Sound featured large on several occasions but some of the case studies were very impressive in terms of how these sports tech professionals wrangle cameras, content, metadata, and live feeds on the fly.
- Day two was time for the Round Table Discussions and I joined the very lively, entertaining, open, and excellent Content Management Session which incorporated MAM, Storage, and of course cloud. Nice work Jason and Tab for keeping things moving! Suffice to say the topic of cloud has moved on and 3 things jumped out at me.
- Hybrid is the way forward. Use cloud for what it is technically and commercially best for. Use on-prem for sovereignty copy, performance copy, and guilt-free access to all your content.
- Content and metadata need to be portable. No more vendor lock-in. Content needs to be self-describing and stand-alone so it can be accessed by any workflow. Work to do here for some MAM and storage vendors
- MAM is dead. Spat my coffee out at this one but with the ability to self-describe and intelligent storage tiers being able to index content and metadata, the MAM is more about orchestration and automation so maybe it’s not dead after all, but it’s hold on customer metadata will need to be loosened some…
- The same topic was covered on the WIG TALKS podcast and at the DPP in Berlin. The industry is facing a demographic time bomb with engineers ageing out’ and new recruits are few and far between. Why? TV tech is merging with IT tech, so teaching new kid’s old tricks is not as appealing to them as working for the big guys. And those big/Hyperscaler guys have hyper-scale resources to take the talent where and when they want. I think Linkedin has a special new job graphic just for AWS
All in all, a fabulous event, and I cannot wait for the next one.
Diolch
Nick
About Object Matrix
Object Matrix is the award-winning software company that pioneered object storage and the modernisation of media archives. It exists to enable global collaboration, increase operational efficiencies, and empower creativity through deployment of MatrixStore, the on-prem, hybrid and cloud storage platform. Their unified deployment approach ensures content spans on-prem and cloud storage whilst their focus on the media industry gives them a deep understanding of the challenges organisations face when protecting, processing, and sharing video content. Customers include BBC, Orange, France Televisions, BT, HBO, TV Globo, MSG-N and NBC Universal.
