Video shouldn’t cost the earth – a a discussion around the specially commissioned report from Blackbird looking at reducing the climate impact from TV and video production
Flexible Development and Payment Models: Blackbird Interview
IABM Head of Knowledge Lorenzo Zanni interviews John Honeycutt, Non Exec Director at Blackbird about changing media technology sourcing models, including the increased propensity of media companies to insource technology operations as well as the benefits and challenges of cloud operating platforms.
John Honeycutt becomes non-executive director of Blackbird – what’s the scoop?
With a track record of innovation at CTO level in leading broadcast and media companies including Liberty, Fox, Discovery and most recently Google that stretches back over 30 years, John Honeycutt recently made a major change of direction, becoming a non-executive director of Blackbird. The company is currently making waves with its cloud video editing and publishing platform. We spoke to John to find out why and how Blackbird got his attention, and what he sees coming next for this innovative ’20 year-old start-up’.
In Conversation with Blackbird
In this IABM TV interview, Ian McDonough (CEO, Blackbird) discusses the ways Blackbird have dealt with the Coronavirus situation, and some of their recent key contract wins.
The Voice UK uses Blackbird to power massive production workflow efficiencies
Running since 2012, The Voice UK is an enormously popular British television talent show that searches for the next big singing star. The show features artists drawn from public auditions who battle it out each series to win a £100,000 cash prize and recording deal. Over the years, the show’s judges have included music royalty such as Sir Tom Jones, Kylie Minogue, Boy George and Rita Ora.
The show producers, Wall to Wall, needed to work with a 17 camera multi-cam setup with 8 audio tracks from each HD camera source. The standard Avid workflow only supported up to 9 cameras and using low-budget computers with core i3 processors, the logging team needed to remotely log all camera feeds simultaneously with the option for rough cutting.
The R&A and IMG use Blackbird to deliver rapid and engaging content at The 148th Open
The oldest of the four golf majors, The Open Championship represents the pinnacle of achievement for the world’s greatest golfers. For over one hundred years, fans have been enthralled by golfing legends such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and the superstars of today including Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, compete for the most prestigious title in golf.
With a global audience of millions, the appetite to catch all the highlights from 4 days of play by the sport’s best golfers is extremely high – particularly over social media.
Blackbird and TownNews power digital news production
The way news is consumed is changing fast. In the US alone 43% of adults now choose websites and social media as their primary news sources over traditional TV and print media.
The dramatic shift to digital news consumption has led news networks to seek solutions that will enable them to deliver engaging content fast to consumers across the full digital spectrum.
Buffalo Sabres deploy Blackbird for ultra-fast content delivery to fans online
Two-time Stanley Cup finalists, The Buffalo Sabres, are stalwarts of the U.S. National Hockey League (NHL). Boasting one of the largest and most vociferous fan bases in the league, the New York team competes in the Atlantic Division against the mighty Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings.
The Sabres’ production team manages a popular daily talk show called ‘The Instigators’ as well as pre and post-game shows featuring expert opinion, interviews and match action. Creating and publishing engaging content for fans to enjoy online had been very slow using traditional on-premise editing systems. The production team was keen to adopt a faster, more agile solution that would dramatically reduce the time taken to deliver Sabres content to fans online.
Deltatre use Blackbird to rapidly edit and publish game highlights for NFL Game Pass
Founded in 1920, the National Football League (NFL) remains the most popular professional sports league in the United States. The famous New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers are amongst the 32 professional teams in the East and West Conferences battling it out each season to reach the iconic Super Bowl final.
With its domestic popularity firmly established, interest in the NFL amongst international audiences has grown rapidly over the past two decades. For fans outside of the US who want to see their favourite teams and players in action, the NFL offers Game Pass – the league’s premium subscription over-the-top (OTT) service operated by Bruin Sports Capital company, OverTier, with sister company Deltatre providing the streaming platform technology.
Esports leader, Gfinity, increases fan engagement and content monetization with Blackbird
The rise of esports has been rapid. By 2022 the industry is expected to be worth $1.8 billion, fuelled by a reported 2.5 billion gamers worldwide.
With gamers fiercely loyal to their favourite titles and star players and teams, the global appetite for gaming action online is enormous with a growing number of companies forming to meet this demand.
Leading the way is esports specialist, Gfinity – born out of a desire to design, develop and deliver a world-class platform for gamers, game publishers, sports rights holders and commercial partners. The company now hosts the ‘Gfinity Elite Series’ enabling esports teams and professionals to compete across a number of the world’s most popular games including Call of Duty, FIFA, Halo and Fortnite.
