ibc155creative.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ibc2016-executive... · michael crimp, ceo, ibc...

Summary

IBC.org

“It will be a world of audience planning

rather than media planning”

Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP

“We need to improve the awareness of

European cinema by using digital media”

The Lord Puttnam CBE

“Immersive technologies are more likely to be a

success now than at any time in history”

Alex Mahon, The Foundry

Mr Ang Lee on taking filmmaking

technology to new levels

Uncompromising

Vision

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We gave the IBC2016 Conference the overall title, ‘Transformation

in the Digital Era: Leadership, strategy and creativity in media and

entertainment’.

There are forces all around us, driving change in our industry. On the

one hand there is renewed interest in completely immersive formats with

VR rapidly gaining support; but equally consumers are keen on snacking

content, often via social media. We expect any content to be available

at any time on any device; yet we are also seeing appointment-to-view

television growing in importance as we provide Ultra HD to the large

screen in the corner of the living room.

Media companies have a technical transformation in the move to IP

interconnectivity and interoperability through software-defined workflows.

But at the same time they have to be ever more vigilant in the protection

of that other IP, intellectual property rights.

New revenue streams have to be developed while nurturing the

established sources of income. We have the potential to target

advertising ever more closely to the individual, provided of course we

can find ways to tame big data. And of course there is the potential of the

cloud: what services can benefit from virtualisation to run on processors

rented by the minute?

These are the transformations, but that was only half of our conference

theme. We met in Amsterdam not to list the challenges, but to share

experiences and expertise on leadership, strategy and creativity.

IBC provides the unique opportunity to debate these

issues. Broadcasters and media companies are not

alone in managing these transformations,

but sharing knowledge and learning from

experience takes time, something that the

structure of the IBC Conference allows.

Within the conference, the IBC Leaders’

Summit is now an established date in

the calendar, a day for C-level executives

to get together, behind closed doors, to

develop the top-level thinking that will

carry the industry forward.

This publication brings together a

collection of interviews with many of the

participants in the Leaders’ Summit, together

with keynote speakers in the conference. Their

thoughts are authoritative, but are given to spur

further thoughts and further debates. I hope

you find it interesting, and I hope it develops your

own leadership, strategy and creativity to help you

prosper in this new digital era.

Michael Crimp, CEO, IBC

Managing transformation

theibcdaily Executive Summary 03

Mr Ang Lee Page 04Film Director

The Lord Puttnam CBE Page 05House of Lords

Sir Martin Sorrell Page 06WPP

Erik Huggers Page 08CEO, Vevo

Naomi Climer Page 09Institution of Engineering and Technology; Chair of the IBC Council

Elisabetta Romano Page 10Ericsson

Dominique Delport Page 13Havas Media Group and Chairman of Vivendi Content

Benjamin Faes Page 14Google

Hendrik McDermott Page 15NBCUniversal International

Dr Manuel Cubero Page 16Vodafone Germany

Christopher Whiteley Page 17Netflix

Saul J Berman Page 18IBM Global Business Services

Alex Mahon Page 19The Foundry

James Rosenstock Page 20Vice Media

Raymundo Barros Page 21TV Globo

Michael Zink Page 22Warner Bros.

Anna Winger Page 23Writer-Producer

Kevin Baillie Page 24Atomic Fiction

Charlie Vogt Page 25Imagine Communications

Derek Bradley Page 26Disney Research

Ingrid Deltenre Page 27European Broadcasting Union

Kelly O. Humphries Page 28NASA

Carlos Fontanot Page 29NASA

IBC Leaders’ Summit Pages 30-31

Dave Ward 2Cisco Systems

Wenbing Yao Page 33Huawei Technologies

Eric Black Page 34NBC Sports Group Digital

Jon Karafin Page 36Lytro

Patrick Spence Page 38Fifty Fathoms

Efe Çakarel Page 39MUBI

Kerris Bright Page 41Virgin Media

Andy Bryant Page 42Red Bee

Mark Kendall Page 43NEC Display Solutions EMEA

Andy Quested Page 44BBC Design and Engineering

Claudia Vaccarone Page 45Eutelsat

Dr Fares Lubbadeh Page 46SpaceTech TV Engineering

Jim Chabin Page 47Society/The VR Society

Fabrice Mollier Page 48TF1 Publicité

Dr Rich Chernock Page 49Triveni Digital

Alexandre Jenny Page 50GoPro

David Atkins Page 51Suitcase TV

Curt Behlmer Page 52Dolby Laboratories

Ingrid Silver Page 53Dentons

Nart Bouran Page 54Sky News Arabia

Spencer Stephens Page 55Sony Pictures Entertainment

Tom Bert Page 56Barco

Peter Kerckhoff Page 57Deutsche Telekom

Gidon Katz Page 58Now TV (Sky)

EDITORIAL Editorial Director: James McKeown Editor: Michael Burns Editorial Consultant: Fergal Ringrose Reporters: Kate Bulkley, Ann-Marie

Corvin, Chris Forrester, David Davies, Carolyn Giardina, Monica Heck, George Jarrett, Ian McMurray, Anne Morris, Adrian Pennington, Neal

Romanek, Will Strauss, Catherine Wright Photography: James Cumpsty ART & PRODUCTION Design: Adam Butler Production Manager: Alistair

Taylor SALES Sales Manager: Peter McCarthy Tel: +44 (0)20 7 354 6000, Email: [email protected] Richard Carr Tel: +44 (0)20 7 354 6000,

Email: [email protected] US Sales Michael Mitchell Tel: +1 (631) 673 3199 Email: [email protected]

IBC Chief Executive Officer: Michael Crimp NewBay Media Managing Director: Mark Burton

Published on behalf of the IBC Partnership by NewBay Media Ltd, The Emerson Building, 4-8 Emerson Street, London, SE1 9DU © The International Broadcasting Convention 2016.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information

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Inside

Awards buzz is building around

wartime drama Billy Lynn’s Long

Halftime Walk, not just because

of the film’s groundbreaking

technical production, but

because it is crafted by two-time

best director Oscar winner

Mr Ang Lee.

“The reality of it triggers your

mind to react so differently to

the way we are used to seeing,”

said Lee, of the picture’s

unprecedented visual format,

which was presented in 3D 4K

and 120fps at an electrifying

keynote to a packed house at

IBC.

However, Lee is the first to

admit that pioneering extreme

frame rates in 3D was a gruelling

experience, which caused the

whole creative team to question

what they were seeing.

“I shot 12 movies before this,

so I’m a pretty experienced

filmmaker, but this has been

humbling,” he says. “Every

answer we stumble on opens

up ten questions. The shoot has

been about survival.”

Even basic decisions like

pulling focus were a problem,

given that the amount of data –

40 times that of a conventional

shoot – meant there was no way

to play back the high fidelity

images on set, or to edit them at

120fps in post.

“It was impossible to see what

we were shooting,” he reveals

“How should actors look at each

other – since the way we engage

with a face is entirely different at

120? How do we light anything?

The amount of information

getting to your eyes makes you

question everything you think

you know about filmmaking.”

He adds, “When we saw

dailies at 60 frames we could

only guess what it might be like

at 120. In reality, the look of 120

is different even to what we see

with our own eyes.”

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime

Walk, released by Tristar Pictures

on November 11, and starring

Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart

and Vin Diesel, centres on

the celebration of a soldier’s

homecoming from a tour of Iraq

at an NFL football game.

“Coming back to Dallas from

war must have been a crazy

adrenalin-driven situation,”

says Lee. “Real life must have

seemed so unrealistic to them.

So there was a parallel, for me,

in telling this story and getting

inside the soldier’s mindset, with

changing the way we are used

to seeing movies.”

Lee studied theatre at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign, and then film at

NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

He directed the international

hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden

Dragon and films as diverse as

Hulk and Sense and Sensibility,

winning Best Director Oscars for

Brokeback Mountain and Life

of Pi.

He also picked up IBC’s

highest award, the International

Honour for Excellence.

“In the past few years, I

have come strongly to believe

that new technology will

upgrade filmmaking in terms

of storytelling,” he adds. “I

made Life of Pi in 3D not just

to immerse the audience in the

world on screen, but as a way of

adding depth to the characters

and the ideas which move

them.”

However, Lee was keen to

shoot at high frame rates to

overcome the 3D strobing which

he felt blighted the translation of

actor’s performances on screen

in sections of Life of Pi.

“I believe that [high frame

rate productions] will eventually

become the norm but to get to

that point, filmmaking needs

to change, and the culture of

watching a movie needs to

change.”

Only a handful of cinemas

will be outfitted with the dual

projectors required to present

the film at it fullest specification,

with the majority of cinemas

able to screen either 2K 3D 60

or 2K 2D 120. IBC delegates

were treated to sequences from

the film in full quality, thanks to a

special installation of technology

from Christie and Dolby.

“We are still experimenting

with this new language,”

he adds. “I am dumb about

technology to be honest…”

Big Screen Keynote

04 Executive Summary theibcdaily

Uncompromising vision

“Filmmaking needs to change, and the culture of watching a movie needs to

change”

Mr Ang LeeFilm Director

Region: Taiwan ROC

David Puttnam has always

embodied the spirit of

excellence in UK-based cinema.

As producer of some of the

great British films of the 1980s,

including Chariots of Fire, Local

Hero, The Killing Fields and The

Mission, he was at the nexus of

a renaissance in British cinema.

He continues to exert a powerful

influence on British media, not

just as producer, but through

his work as a peer in the House

Of Lords and his efforts to raise

public consciousness through

culture and education.

Lord Puttnam, in his IBC

one-on-one conversation with

journalist Raymond Snoddy,

sought to draw attention to

solutions needed in a time

of European – and global –

challenges.

“What’s missing in Europe

is confidence,” says Puttnam,

when asked if Europe can

become a global film and TV

centre independent of US

influence. “I think the reason is

the European industry doesn’t

regard itself as an industry,

whereas Hollywood in its own

way sees itself as an industry. It’s

a huge frustration.

“When I look at the New York

Times, there is always a pop-up

offering me a new US movie

trailer or showing me what is

going to be at Sundance – it’s

constant. I don’t see anything

like that out of Europe. We

need to improve the awareness

of European cinema by using

digital media. We ought to have

some way of being able to track

projects and talent.”

With 2016 the year of VR-

mania, Puttnam sees VR as a

valuable technology, but one

that will have its own path

separate from TV and movies.

“VR will allow a very different

type of storytelling. I think it will

be a bit like video games and

have to evolve its own form of

storytelling. It will end up being

as good as the people grappling

with it can make it, but I don’t

see it as a narrative form. I see it

as an experiential form.”

And the question on

everyone’s mind at IBC2016.

How will a potential British exit

from the EU affect the media

business?

“It will affect Britain negatively

without any doubt at all. Britain

has become the pivot of the

digital environment around

which the whole European

creative sector was operating.

It meant that people were

being attracted into Britain and

becoming part of a mélange that

was very successful.

“If you’re a Spanish animator

or VFX expert and you start

worrying about whether or not

you’re allowed to stay, you’re

likely to just go back to Europe

and see what you can find there.

“The problem is that once

that European talent starts to

peel away, the UK talent will

necessarily follow. I think capital

and UK talent will become much

more fluid. Things have been

thrown up in the air. I think Berlin

will emerge as an alternative, or

maybe Barcelona again. And I

know right now there are also

enormous ambitions to attract

those businesses to Dublin. I’ve

had conversations with

ministers. There’s no question,

the Irish are looking to see

how they can grab some of

that business.”

The importance of

public information

is becoming more

and more an issue

for Puttnam as

he sees the lack

of independent

news resources

dwindling.

“I’m very

concerned

about the lack

of a public

space and

the lack

of trusted

sources.

As the

world of

cinema and

media slides

into just being

a P&L account,

we cease to have

trusted sources in public spaces

that we can look to.”

Puttnam is the UK’s cultural

envoy to Southeast Asia, and

spends parts of every year

in the region, which will be

particularly affected as sea levels

rise. He has become especially

frustrated with the lack of care

given to educating the public on

climate change disaster.

“It seems ludicrous to me that

I’ve reached the age of 75 and

still I’m trying to convince people

of the same things I was when

I was 40. But I do think human

beings suffer deeply from the

boiled frog syndrome. We’re

brilliant at dealing with crises

and disaster – that’s been in our

DNA for hundreds of thousands

of years. We’re just not that

good at thoughtfully addressing

issues that are inexorably

creeping up on us.”

Keynote

On a mission to educate


“We need to improve the awareness of European cinema

by using digital media”

The Lord Puttnam CBEFilm Producer, Educator,

Member of the House of Lords

Region: United Kingdom

Interviewed by: Neal Romanek

Sir Martin SorrellChief Executive Officer, WPP


Interviewed by: Chris Forrester

Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and

CEO of creative agency WPP

and a star speaker at IBC, says

that the much discussed ‘death’

of linear TV should be treated

with “extreme caution”. Speaking

just prior to his IBC Conference

Keynote he said the latest

forecast from GroupM, WPP’s

media investment management

arm, shows that TV is pretty

resilient in the face of the digital

revolution. “Traditional TV’s share

continues to hold up, losing about

a point a year since it peaked at

43 per cent in 2010-2014.”

He also believes that the

word ‘digital’, when used as a

differentiator between ‘traditional’

advertising and the online

categories, is fast becoming

obsolete. “Digital continues to

grow, albeit at a slower rate

than before,” he says. “Digital

advertising will account for almost

all of net advertising growth

globally in 2016, according to

GroupM. But the boundaries

between categories of media will

continue to blur and the word

‘digital’ is likely to feel rather old-

fashioned, and even obsolete.

It will be a world of audience

planning rather than media

planning – a world in which data,

technology and analytics will be

even more important than they are

today.”

Sir Martin, who three months

ago admitted he was shocked by

the UK’s decision to quit Europe,

says he is still concerned by the

prospects of Brexit. “Corporates

are already over-cautious and risk-

averse, and Brexit provides a raft

of new reasons to delay or cancel

investment decisions. As a result

of the referendum we are placing

an even greater focus on growth

in Western Continental Europe,

which includes four of our top ten

markets: Germany, France, Italy

and Spain.”

WPP now employs some

194,000 people in around 3000

offices around the world, and

it owns some powerful TV-

related advertising agencies

including Grey Advertising,

Burson-Marsteller, Hill+Knowlton,

JWT, Ogilvy & Mather, Young &

Rubicam, Wunderman, TNS and

Cohn & Wolfe. In June WPP was

voted the world’s Most Creative

Holding Company at the Cannes

Lions for the sixth year running.

WPP’s medium to longer-term

focus for some time has been

outside of its UK home base.

“Fast-growth markets [the BRICs

and Next 11] will be the source of

much of the world’s GDP growth,

and therefore WPP’s own growth,

in the medium-to long-term as

their middle classes swell and

demand for goods and services

increase accordingly. This is

despite the fact that growth in

Brazil, Russia and China has

slowed – while India remains the

jewel in the BRICs crown.

“In the last year or so, mature

markets like the US and UK

have been the main drivers of

our growth, but one of our core

strategic goals is still to increase

the share of revenues from fast-

growth markets to between 40

and 45 per cent over the next five

years. In the last year we entered

two new markets – Cuba and

Iran – bringing the total number

of countries in which we operate

to 113.”

Sir Martin stressed that WPP

would not be leaving its London

HQ. Nor will WPP cut British jobs,

but it would likely increase the

number of people WPP employed

in key European markets

faster than the UK. Indeed,

he recognised that the recent

weakness in the Pound sterling

would result in a net positive

impact on revenues because 90

per cent of WPP’s business was

outside the UK.

Keynote


There’s life in linear TV yet

“It will be a world of audience

planning rather than media planning”

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Erik Huggers is no stranger to

IBC, having spoken or visited

while taking on a variety of

responsibilities. He was also

the BBC’s ‘man on the spot’

at London’s City Hall in 2008

when he made a live

transmission into IBC

of NHK’s 8K Super

Hi-Vision technology,

complete with

22-channel audio.

Today he is CEO at

music specialist Vevo,

and delivered a Keynote

at IBC 2016 itself. Speaking

just ahead of his speech, titled

‘Online Broadcasting Evolves’,

Huggers happily told us that

he had just added content

from Warner Music to his

portfolio, and relaunched the

service.

“Over the last year we’ve

increasingly taken

steps

to prioritise our owned and

operated Vevo experiences for

mobile, web and connected

TVs,” he says. “Our recent

relaunch was the culmination

of these initial efforts, as we

introduced a revitalised brand,

product and approach to our

content and programming.

We’re re-focusing our brand to

ensure that we’re putting our

artists first in everything we

do and let their content shine

with the audience.

“For our product, we’re

building a highly personalised

experience that’s anchored in

creating a community where

music video lovers can enjoy

and share their favourite

content, while discovering

new artists relevant to their

tastes. For our original

content, we’re introducing a

distinct editorial voice for the

first time, through bringing a

compelling roster of hosts and

curators onto the platform.

“We’re balancing

this with high quality

production for our

dscvr, LIFT and

Vevo Presents

programmes. The

addition of Warner

Music Group

rounds out our

content offering

beautifully,

through adding

an incredible

roster of

artists.”

Huggers

admits that

Vevo, while very important, is

not the only game in town.

“Our audience has a finite

amount of time every day,”

he says. “We have to offer

an experience that’s distinct

enough to become a daily

habit. We also see the audio

and video streaming spaces

as very different experiences,

so it’s difficult to make these

comparisons as a result.”

While Huggers was a key

player in the introduction of

the BBC’s iPlayer service,

he observes the world

has evolved considerably

since then. “The world has

increasingly moved to an on-

demand digital environment

where connectivity is

ubiquitous and consumers get

the content they love when

they want it and how they

want it, through smartphone,

TV or web.

“This new world is

ushering in an era of personal

broadcasting, where media

platforms are evolving to allow

anyone to find an audience,

and even become a star if they

can tell stories in a compelling

way. It’s changing the

fundamental way we look at

building products in the digital

media space.”

Huggers recognises that

there is still much to do, not

least geographic expansion.

“80 per cent of our views are

generated outside the US,

and moving forward for us it’s

important we capitalise on

growing market opportunities

in regions like Latin America

and selective expansion in

Europe and Asia. Core to

our success here is ensuring

we have the right regional

content, local relationships

and business model to

appropriately develop and

nurture these opportunities.”

Keynote


More than just the music

Erik HuggersPresident and CEO, Vevo

Region: USA


“Media platforms are evolving to allow anyone to find an audience”

Naomi Climer had a busy IBC2016.

She spoke in the ‘New Era, New Skills

in Broadcast and Media’ session on

attracting new talent to the industry,

again at the ‘Power Lunch: Ask The

Experts’, and then at an IBC Future

Zone session discussing the best IBC

publications.

Her main objective was to verify

her belief that the industry has a skills

issue. “I wanted to get a sense of

whether it is something with a sense of

urgency around it that demands urgent

action,” says Climer.

“It is a double edged sword in terms

of existing rich veins of skills and real

issues,” she adds. “I am a big fan of

reverse mentoring but you cannot,

on a sweeping basis, say yes we can

retrain everybody, or no we cannot.

We certainly need people coming

in who have grown up with different

technologies.”

Climer believes that retraining

must not be written off. “Frankly if

we have got a shortage we need

everybody we can get, but equally

we should not be clinging onto

all the traditional experience,

saying nobody else ought to

be able to do it. That is not a

sustainable attitude. We have

to get fresh people.”

Nobody should press the

panic button yet, however.

“When it comes to IT

savvy minds, the broadcast

industry’s needs are pretty

small. There is such a vast

array of IT savvy jobs out

there, and in a way that is

one of the threats. There are

so many other very exciting

places that people with the

right skills can go career-

wise, but then they are

out there because other

industries need vastly

more of them.

“It used to be a no-

brainer that going

into broadcasting

would be a fun,

exciting, creative

life, and it’s odd

that it is not as

obvious as it

was,” she adds. “Finding ways to re-

stimulate the idea that it is a very good

place to work is something we need to

work on.”

Climer is a big fan of the notion that

the artist and the engineer are growing

closer together. She emphasises

that some of the most extraordinary

creative output that we have seen

lately has happened when engineering

and creativity have worked together.

“It is a kind of convergence. These

days creative people need a bit of

technical savvy about them, and

engineers need to appreciate more

of the processes of creativity,” she

asserts. “The boundaries between

different disciplines and different craft

skills are definitely blurring, so the

inherent creativity that is in engineering,

which is often forgotten, has a real

chance to flourish.”

So what did she look for at the show,

and how has IBC changed since she

first visited? “As a very junior engineer,

it was very easy to navigate the show

because it was obvious from twenty

paces what you were looking at,” she

recalls. “The show is now software-

based and you need to engage much

more to understand what people are

showing.

“What caught my eye was the huge

amount of open source software.

That is an exciting enabler. I was very

interested in cloud, but because I think

it creates whole new ways of being

able to do things, like different ways

to collaborate. I was interested in the

impact on workflows and the way the

creative processes are expanding,

rather than getting deep into the

technology.”

Climer fears that open source will

blow all sorts of business models

and be disruptive. “A bit of disruption

though is likely to create something

new that we were not expecting,” she

adds. “I am interested to see what IBC

does in terms of all-year round digital

engagement. The world has changed

since the big single annual trade show,

so I am interested to see it in the social

media world that we live in.

“The show is likely to migrate in

some way, and I watch with interest to

see how that happens.”

Reverse mentoring and fresh talent

Naomi ClimerPresident, Institution of Engineering

and Technology; Chair of the IBC Council


Interviewed by: George Jarrett

Business Transformation


“The inherent creativity that is in engineering, which is often

forgotten, has a real chance to flourish”

Rising Stars


Rise of the robots

Elisabetta RomanoVice President and Head of TV & Media, EricssonRegion: USA

Interviewed by: David Davies

In her role as VP and Head of TV

& Media at Ericsson, Elisabetta

Romano is charged with helping

content owners, broadcasters

and TV service providers to

select the most forward-looking

TV and video offerings.

Logically enough, the session

that she chaired at IBC, ‘New

Skills for the Robot-Dominated

Future’, addressed one of

the thorniest technological

issues currently confronting

broadcasters and service

providers: namely, the prospect

of greatly increased automation.

While it is clear that we are

in a fairly early stage of the

transition, Romano is in no

doubt that major change is on

the way. “I am a firm believer in

the potential of automation in

general for industry, and then of

course for media in particular,”

she remarks.

Romano expects automation

to impact on broadcast

production and consumption

in several primary ways. Firstly,

there will be greater adoption of

sophisticated “machine learning”

that will enable enhanced

personalisation of content for

viewers. Romano sees this as

vital.

“More and more content is

being held in the cloud,” she

says. “Within the digital world as

a whole, what people want is a

certain level of interactivity and

personalisation. So obtaining

the [necessary] analytics and

machine learning will be very

important.”

The level of awareness about

these new technologies remains

variable across the industry,

suggests Romano, but adds,

“more and more people are

[realising what it can bring] to

their clients and customers.”

In time, she says, automation

is something that we can expect

to see having an impact all the

way up the value chain, although

it will require careful decisions

to be made about metadata

discovery, managed services,

bandwidth availability, and much

more besides.

Then there is the problematic

issue of the effect upon labour

and future recruitment – no

easy subject, confirms Romano,

although as she points out it is

hardly limited to media: “It is a

society issue, let us be honest.”

There was no shortage of

material for Romano and her

guests – MUBI’s Alexander

McWilliam, Cisco’s Dave Ward,

RTL’s Geoffrey van Meer and

Adobe’s Laura Williams Argilla

– to grapple with, then.

But Romano also made

a further conference

appearance during the

‘Wrap-Up’ session

entitled ‘Identifying

the Key

Trends’ on 12

September.

“We

have had

a very

exciting IBC,” says Romano,

whose previous roles during

a three-decade career in

telecoms, IT and media include

VP and Head of OSS & Service

Enablement at Ericsson, and

President of Pride (an Ericsson

company). “We see so much

activity around the issue of

creating new applications and

developing functionality, and that

was much in evidence at IBC

this year. There is a great interest

in finding out how to make a

success of the new technologies

and to realise their full potential

for both improvement of

business and the customer

experience – and that

is certainly a

priority for us

at Ericsson.”

“I am a fi rm believer in the potential of

automation to transform media”

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Dominque Delport is a man on a

mission. He not only appreciates

how fast the media business

is changing, but particularly

how powerful the big digital

players like Facebook and

Netflix are becoming. As the

media business moves into

what he calls an age of ‘content

connoisseurs’, where audiences

have buckets of choice, the

traditional media has to work

harder and smarter.

His worry is that traditional

media and brands are not acting

fast enough in the face of what

he calls ‘the GAFA’, the acronym

for Google, Apple, Facebook

and Amazon.

As a senior executive at

Vivendi and Havas, with roles

across both content creation

and distribution as well as in

global advertising, Delport has

a unique perspective on TV,

advertising, and audiences,

and these tech giants have

both deep pockets and big

ambitions in the media space.

“The only way to compete with

the GAFA is to work together

as broadcasters and as telcos,

otherwise it’s going to be really

hard to compete,” he says.

Not only are the digital giants,

along with Netflix, reaching out

directly to the consumer, he

says, but they have control of

the data about their audiences

and are able to serve their needs

and tastes much more directly.

However, it is also providing

a challenge to brands and

advertising agencies, and the

traditional business model of

free to air broadcasting.

“Programmatic [delivery]

has literally transformed digital

advertising in less than three

years. It has been a complete

pivot,” says Delport. “The TV

networks are not ready for this

and yet it is coming and we can’t

stop it. You only have to look at

the Olympic audiences on NBC

where 30 per cent of the total

audience was not live, either

watching recorded or on some

kind of asynchronous feed, to

see that the advertising can be

completely automated. And that

is a big challenge for traditional

broadcasters.”

Delport points to the

combined market capitalisation

of the big digital tech companies

– it’s over $23bn – as a threat

that must be countered with

more ‘bridge building’ by

traditional media companies

and telcos. An example of

this is Vivendi’s recent launch

of STUDIO+, a new content

creation company that is making

high-quality, shorter-form

programmes destined for mobile

telecom companies. STUDIO+

has already spent €1million per

series on 25 projects that are

planned to be available in 30-40

different countries by the end of

the year. A deal has been struck

for a roll out across several Latin

American countries beginning at

the end of September.

“It’s the first global mobile

premium content offer,” says

Delporte. “For telcos that are

pushing video content, it’s a way

to help them package better

offers for their users.”

Delport is also a big believer

in creating a European media

powerhouse. Although Vivendi’s

much reported deal to expand

its European footprint by buying

the premium pay business of

Italy’s Mediaset was derailed

during the summer over

valuation issues, Delport says

the two sides are still talking.

Meanwhile, Vivendi’s Canal+

free- and pay-TV business is

going though a re-casting of its

executive team and its business

model.

The point for Delport is that

traditional media companies

have advantages in creating

content that resonates well with

local audiences, and these need

to be leveraged across many

platforms and with better use of

data intelligence.

“What is the future for

aggregated audiences beyond

big live sports and big political

events?” he asks.“However

when it is about meeting

everyone’s desire, then you

move into the ‘my device

first reality’ where I want to

see the content I want to; it

has nothing to do with live

aggregated audiences. It is the

little speedboat and not the big

armada, and we have to find that

business model.”

Keynote

Dominique DelportGlobal Managing Director, Havas Media Group

and Chairman of Vivendi Content

Region: France

Interviewed by: Kate Bulkley


“Advertising can be completely automated … and that is a

big challenge for traditional broadcasters”

Building bridgesto support contentconnoisseurs

Google’s acquisition of YouTube

in 2006 was arguably one of the

first substantial manifestations

of the company’s serious

intentions towards broadcast

and content creation. Since

then a number of major

initiatives have followed, not

least the creation of the Google

TV smart TV platform in 2010,

which was succeeded by

Android TV four years later.

At IBC, MD Partner Business

Solutions Benjamin Faes

reflected on the company’s

current and future plans in

television in a dedicated

conference session, ‘Google’s

Plans in Television’.

“We aim to be a technology

partner to broadcasters

across all elements of the TV

ecosystem,” says Faes. “From

content creation, to distribution,

to discovery, to monetisation,

technology and the internet

are becoming more and more

important in the world of

broadcasting.”

The implementation of the

Google-developed Android

mobile OS is a case in point.

“Today we have over 400 OEM

and 500 carrier partners who

produce over 4,000 distinct

Android-powered devices.

And because they all use the

same core operating system,

developers only have to build

one app to reach consumers

across all 4,000 devices. These

developers include many of

Europe’s major broadcasters,

such as the BBC, ITV, Sky,

TF1, RTL and RAI, who partner

with us to use Android to build

their catch-up and on-demand

apps.”

Indeed, Faes repeatedly

stresses the importance of

collaboration in this brave

new world that is now

taking shape. “We built our

business on a partnership

model, and we’ve seen some

fantastic partnerships with top

broadcasters this year, such as

Olympics highlights and clips

from official broadcasters on

YouTube. Take RTL Group, for

example, who acquired two

of YouTube’s multi-channel

networks and are now our

biggest YouTube content

partner globally.”

The development of the

YouTube platform continues

apace. A London YouTube

store – described as “a place

where our creators can come to

create, collaborate and learn”

– was opened in August, while

Faes highlights the increasing

tendency of “many ‘traditional’

broadcasters [to] use the

YouTube platform to broaden

the reach of their programming

and find new audiences, who

use different devices at different

moments of viewing. Earlier this

year, BT Sport screened two big

football finals on YouTube and

drove up audience numbers as

a result.”

Faes also draws attention

to the development of such

technologies as dynamic ad

insertion, allowing broadcasters

to deliver personalised ad

experiences across devices.

TF1 France used the

technology during both the

2015 Rugby World Cup and

2016 Euros, he notes.

“If I look ahead I see even

more opportunity for Google

and the broadcast industry to

work together. For example,

virtual reality is an area

where we’ve already made

several investments. But this

technology only comes to life

with amazing content, and

this is where it’s critical that

we work together with the

industry to ensure the tools

are understood and can be

leveraged to create amazing

stories in this new exciting

genre.”

Platform Futures


Benjamin FaesMD, Partner Business Solutions, Google



If you want to keep up with the

Kardashians, not just with their

latest TV adventure, but in any

past episode and on social

media too, then there’s a service

just for you.

hayu, delivered via

multiscreen app, is much

more than this. NBCUniversal

International’s all-reality

subscription video on demand

(SVOD) service contains 3000

episodes, with 500 added a

year, direct from the unscripted

content creator behind The Real

Housewives franchise, Made

in Chelsea and The Millionaire

Matchmaker.

The service – which has now

rolled out in the UK, Ireland

and Australia – distinguishes

itself with a comprehensive

search function that identifies

all material related to particular

stars. Users can directly access

the social media feeds of the

shows’ stars within hayu.

Hundreds of specially made

short-form content ‘snippets’

can be shared directly via fans’

social media accounts. The

service also links to third-party

news sites with relevant content

for reality consumers, such as

OK! and MailOnline.

“This is next-generation

VOD,” says Hendrik McDermott,

who steered the service to

its launch in March. “All the

cast members of our series

have Twitter or Instagram

accounts, which viewers can

follow visually along with the

broadcast, and interact directly

with them on social media. The

news feeds are curated, not fed

by an automatic news robot.

We haven’t seen this type of

innovative integration on any

other product.”

McDermott began his

career as a business analyst

at Rogers Media in Toronto,

completed his MBA at the

Judge Business School at

the University of Cambridge

and, as MD of KidsCo, led the

business activities and growth

opportunities of the children’s

pay-TV channel across Europe,

Africa, Asia and Australia. He

joined NBCU in 2006, spending

six years as a founding member

of the international corporate

development team with

responsibility for all territories

outside the US and Canada.

“SVOD is opening up

new markets led by new

consumption patterns,” he told

the IBC Conference, in a session

at which hayu was presented

as a case study, ‘The New

Broadcasters: Next Generation

Video On Demand - NBCU

and hayu’. “We have to take

our content where the demand

is, which is anywhere, anytime

viewing, and while this is driven

by the younger generation,

we don’t see this trend as

exclusively about millennials.

“A key element for users is

the speed at which can they

view content on the service,”

explains McDermott. “When

the latest Keeping Up with the

Kardashians episode airs

in the US, fans have

typically had to wait

many days to

watch it

on TV,

whereas we get it just hours

after the US broadcast.”

For avid reality TV fans

this has the benefit of

swerving spoilers.

“When newspapers

write eight stories

a day about the

Kardashians, it’s pretty

hard to avoid details

of what’s happening

in an episode,” he

adds. “We are seeing

Monday morning

spikes in viewing,

just hours after the

shows are aired

in the US, which

seems to prove the

concept.”

With a rolling

monthly subscription,

McDermott is conscious

that NBCU has to

constantly innovate to retain

consumers. “We know the

service will not look the

same in 12 months as it

does now. We have to

keep iterating with

compelling new

features.”

Platform Futures

Keeping up with reality TV


“We have to take our content where the demand is, which is anywhere, anytime viewing”

Hendrik McDermottSenior Vice President - Branded on Demand

SVOD, NBCUniversal International


Interviewed by: Adrian Pennington

The market for pay TV in

Germany has always been

difficult – too many free TV

options and premium content

that was historically too

expensive for the pay-TV

operators to make a good

margin – but Dr Manuel Cubero,

Chief Commercial Officer at

Vodafone Germany, has been

figuring out some answers.

After Vodafone completed the

€7.7bn purchase of Germany’s

biggest cable operator Kabel

Deutschland in 2014, Cubero –

who stayed on as CCO under

the new owner – has been on

the hunt for synergies between

the two companies. He is

setting out a roadmap that will

see the converged cable/mobile

operator start to deliver all

kinds of content to all screens,

including TVs, tablets and smart

mobile phones, starting this

autumn. It’s all about becoming

what Cubero calls ‘a convergent

player’.

“The strategy is that in the

long run the right thing to do

is to be a fixed and mobile

convergence player,”

says Cubero. “So far

the experience in

Germany has created

a lot of value for the

shareholders by using

the fixed network

infrastructure, the go-to-

market approach with

marketing and sales,

and by starting to offer

bundles of services to

customers.”

Today Vodafone

Germany has three

million subscribers, and

the big question that was

asked about the wisdom

of Vodafone buying KDG

seem to have been answered:

Cubero says that both the

broadband and the mobile sides

of the businesses have been

improved by working together.

“It wasn’t easy, but there have

been synergies on the network

side and mobile has improved

performance as well, and now

the video part of the business,

which is not a big part of

Vodafone, is evolving,” he says.

Cubero is one of German

cable’s pioneers, having joined

Kabel Deutschland in 2003.

He was appointed to the

management board in late

2005 with responsibility

for TV and content and

in June 2006 he added

responsibility for internet

and telephony operations.

But it was in 2004 that

Cubero started offering

a “pay-TV lite” service

at KDG after the then

management of Sky

Deutschland refused

to do a commercial

wholesale offer for their

content. But when Sky

realised that about half of

the 38mn TV homes

in Germany are

barred from

putting a satellite receiver on

their roof, Cubero was able to do

a deal. “In Germany Sky is more

of a partner than a competitor,”

says Cubero. “Half of German

TV homes have cable, so Sky

needs us.”

Whereas a few years ago

Cubero was negotiating

cable rights only, he now

has to work out cross-

platform deals including

mobile rights, and also

how to add SVoD players

like Netflix and German

OTT operator

maxdome to his

offer. Cubero wants

to carry all the

content he can to all

the screens he can,

but unlike BT in the

UK, he’s not interested

in splashing out big

chunks of cash to get

exclusive content like live

sport. “We don’t want to

spend too much money on

Bundesliga for example. We

can carry Sky’s programmes

and also Germany is a

very tough

market for content rights.”

Being such a long-time cable

guy has helped Cubero see

the long-term perspective of

the industry. There was even a

question mark over Vodafone’s

strategy to buy Kabel

Deutschland in the first place,

but Cubero has turned the new

company’s plans around by

accelerating broadband take-up,

increasing subscribers to the

mobile service, and saving

money through operational

synergies.

Having experience coming

from the mobile side and the

cable side has helped in many

ways, particularly with the

development of what Cubero

calls the “household view” of

the consumer. “Even if when

we look at a market like Spain

or Holland, which have a more

mature quadruple play (TV,

broadband, mobile and fixed

line phone) than we have in

Germany, we have nonetheless

found amazing synergies.”

Certainly pay-TV has come

a long way in a country where

only about a third of TV homes

take it. However, between

the cable operators and Sky,

that number has grown from

around 3.3mn just eight years

ago. “It’s been at times a

painful development,”

says Cubero. “But my

conviction is that the

market will continue

to grow towards

pay-TV, against

all odds.”

Keynote


Screen test for a convergent player

“The market will continue to grow towards pay TV, against all odds”

Dr Manuel CuberoChief Commercial Officer, Vodafone Germany

Region: Germany


Christopher Whiteley, currently

leading business development

across EMEA for Netflix, spoke

at the IBC Conference session,

‘The New Broadcasters: The

Rise of Internet TV Networks

- Netflix’ where he discussed

Netflix’s distribution strategy in

EMEA through partners.

You were at IBC this year to

discuss partnerships. Which

key companies has Netflix

partnered with and why are

they important to you?

We look to work with partners

who make it easier for our

subscribers to discover

Netflix, watch our shows,

pay seamlessly, or enjoy a

better streaming experience.

This includes pioneering new

technologies and offering

content in new formats such as

4K and HDR.

It’s hard to single any one

partnership out as being more

important than others but we

value the relationships that

we have with the consumer

electronic industry, early MVPD

partners like Virgin and Com

Hem as well as our more recent

ones.

Our global consumer

electronic partners like LG,

Samsung and Apple continue

to be important allies for us

and they helped amplifying

our global launch in

January of this year.

Your partnerships

with pay-TV

operators such

as Virgin would

traditionally have

been regarded as

rivals…

It can sometimes

be a challenge

persuading partners

to work with us.

It was initially a

strategic bet on

both parts that we

could be a real

complimentary

content service

and not cannibalistic. The

convenience of watching

Netflix through a set-top box is

highly valued by some of our

members, and online video is

a strong customer acquisition

tool for network operators.

Our app has been available on

Virgin’s streaming service since

2013 and we still have a great

relationship with them. We’re

also collaborating on other

strategic partnerships with local

operators across many territories

globally.

In January Netflix went global,

simultaneously launching

services in 130 countries.

What’s the company strategy

now for localising into these

markets?

We were really excited to be able

to bring the service to the world

and become the first global

internet TV service. As well as

gaining new members, we are

learning so much to continue

to improve the service. For

instance, we don’t have local

language services everywhere

yet and there are a whole heap

of languages to localise into.

We’ve just announced the

next wave of localisation (with

subtitling and dubbing) in Poland

and Turkey. Flipping the switch

in January was just the start of

the journey; it’s a good way of

getting a feel for each of those

territories – gathering data,

finding out what works and what

doesn’t.

Is data crucial to your

business?

Absolutely. Data shapes

everything we do – we use it as

best we can in every decision we

take. This sometimes removes

the emotion behind a decision.

If we know that something

has been A/B tested and does

improve the user experience, it

simplifies our decision making

process and our efficiency.

Original content is a big part

of your strategy – how are you

addressing this in European

markets?

It is important to note that in

general, we have seen that great

stories transcend borders – we

may be different culturally but

we all seem to love a great story.

We see this with Narcos, a big

production that is 75 per cent in

Spanish about Pablo Escobar,

and Making a Murderer, a legal

docu-series about a murder

in a small Wisconsin town

that no-one’s heard of. Both

ranked among the top 10 most

viewed content in nearly all of

our markets when they became

available.

We have committed

hundreds of millions of euros

in European productions so far,

an investment that continues

to grow. Our first Netflix original

series created in Europe,

Marseille, premiered in early May

and is getting strong viewing

everywhere. A second Europe-

produced Netflix original, The

Crown, launches later this year.

Additionally, we have series in

the works in Spain (7 Anos and

a TV series with no title yet), Italy

(Suburra) and Germany (dark)

and are actively looking for

additional projects.

What are the main challenges

you face in your job?

The biggest challenge is

prioritisation. We are in a lucky

position in that many companies

want to work with us – so where

do we go? We are still a relatively

small company employing

around 2,500 dedicated people.

We need to make sure that we

are focusing our engineering and

content acquisition following the

data we get from consumers.

Platform Futures

The power of partners

Christopher WhiteleyVP Business Development EMEA, Netflix

Region: Netherlands

Interviewed by: Ann-Marie Corvin


“Data shapes everything we do – we use it as best we can in every

decision we take”

Saul J Berman Ph.D, as Chief

Strategist at IBM Global

Business Services, is very well-

qualified to talk with authority

on today’s media. Indeed, his

view is that today’s broadcasting

scene is more fluid than ever,

with the competitive pressures

for ‘traditional’ media companies

only growing and with new

competitors continuing to arise

from within and beyond the

industry.

“OTT specialists now

account for an increasing

amount of customer attention

and spending, with Netflix for

example now claiming 83m

subscribers in 190 countries.

Internet giants such as Amazon

play across many spaces,

including film and television

production, cloud-based media

supply chain, OTT, and physical

product distribution,” he says.

However, Berman warns that

today’s media value chain is

much less clear. “For example,

studios like Disney established

their own channels to take their

content to consumers. Telecom

network operators are creating

and acquiring unique content.

OTT providers buy content

from studios and production

companies, but also develop

their own content.”

Berman says that while

linear TV is not going to vanish

overnight, and data suggests

that a 1-2 per cent drop per

annum in cable subscriptions

in the US, while worrying, is a

manageable decline, he stresses

that there is no doubt that

consumer habits have changed

and some OTT providers have

built strong businesses. “For

example, the Rio 2016 Olympics

generated nearly twice as much

digital coverage as traditional

TV coverage. NBC reported

significant growth in online

viewing and a 17 per cent drop

in linear viewing for the first

10 nights. This indicates how

broadcast TV as we knew it is

gone!”

“What we do expect is that

linear television and online and

on demand services will co-

exist. However, this does mean

the rewards are likely to shift. It

is about who gets the money.

The consumer just wants to

find and watch programmes

that interest them, when they

choose, on whatever device they

choose, and with a great user

experience. This implies access

to all forms of television – linear

and on demand – with a degree

of personalisation. It is difficult

for a traditional broadcaster to

achieve this dramatic change in

strategy.”

Berman says that it’s

time for ‘digital reinvention’

for broadcasters. “Digital

reinvention is about rethinking

and reimagining your entire

business starting with the

customer experience. It’s

a framework that helps

organisations create unique,

compelling experiences for their

customers, partners, employees,

and other stakeholders. The

most successful digitally

reinvented businesses establish

a platform of engagement

for their customers, acting as

enabler and conduit.”

Berman’s proposal combines

multiple technologies, including

cloud, cognitive, mobile, and the

Internet of Things (IoT), and uses

them as enablers for the new

customer experience they are

developing.

“For traditional organisations,

digital reinvention involves

a fundamental ground-up

reinvention of strategy,

operations, and technology.

Organisations need to pursue

this new strategic focus, build

new expertise, and establish

new ways of working. It is

critical to orchestrate these

elements to achieve the

new vision, with customer

experience at the centre. This

means a new strategic focus on

personalisation, which requires

the organisation to develop new

tools and techniques to acquire,

process and deploy customer

insight in real-time. It will require

collecting customer information

and using the data to improve

the experience.”

Leaders’ Summit


The big rethink

Saul J BermanChief Strategist, VP & Interactive Experience

Partner, IBM Global Business Services

Region: USA


“Broadcast TV as we know it

is gone!”

Nintendo’s Pokemon Go has

been downloaded more than 100

million times, but Alex Mahon

expects the location-based

augmented reality game to also

grow consumers’ appetite for

immersive TV content. In her IBC

Conference session, ‘From TV to

VR: New Content Frontiers’, the

CEO of The Foundry urged TV

executives to pay close attention

to developments in the gaming

world.

“There’s been a coming

together of computing power,

a change in devices and the

amount of data that can be

stored in the cloud,” says

Mahon. “It means that immersive

technologies such as augmented

and virtual reality are more likely

to be a success [now] than at

any time in history.”

Uses for augmented reality,

she adds, are more immediately

apparent for retail and gaming.

“I haven’t yet seen a good

narrative use of AR – but I am

sure that will come. What is

exciting about VR is that it plays

to the trend of binge viewing

where consumers want to be

pulled into a world. That sets

a precedent for storytellers to

direct emotions through char-

acters with a greater sense of

immediacy than is currently

possible.”

Mahon was previously CEO

of Shine Group, and has held

executive posts at Talkback

Thames, FremantleMedia

Group and RTL Group. She

sees parallels between the

consolidation of the indie

production sector and the

burgeoning tech scene.

“Technology is changing

extremely fast, and there’s also

a lot of volatility making this a

very exciting and fertile sector

to be in,” she says. “I was there

when media was dominated by a

few big companies like RTL and

Liberty, and I saw a lot of small

producers start and rise up. I

can see a similar trend where we

have Amazon, Microsoft, Google,

and Apple today, but also a low

barrier to entry where a good

idea can really make an impact

on an international scale.”

Having begun her career as

a Ph.D. physicist and then at

strategy consultants Mitchell

Madison Group, working in the

internet retail sector, Mahon’s

career has arguably come full

circle.

“I started out amid the first

internet wave, so technology

has always been a natural link

for me. I enjoy working with

creative people and I think pure

technology firms and content

producers can learn a lot from an

exchange of ideas.”

The Foundry develops

software used to deliver high-

end VFX and 3D content for

the design, visualisation and

entertainment industries. Every

single film nominated for the

best VFX Academy Award in the

last five years was made using

The Foundry’s software.

“Technology is nothing in and

of itself,” she says. “It is the use

to which it is put which makes

the difference. I am lucky to be

working with a team of people

who not only have great ideas

but are able to make it happen,

and with customers who

don’t just stop when they get

something that does a job well

but push to make it even better.”

Mahon is also non-executive

director of The Edinburgh

International Television Festival,

Chairman of the RTS Awards

and served on the DCMS

advisory panel on the BBC.

Does she feel Brexit puts

the UK creative sector at risk?

“The Foundry employs fantastic

talent from 27 nationalities in

Silicon Valley, LA, Shanghai

and London. I want to continue

to attract the best talent but

there’s a risk of barriers to that

with Brexit. I hope the British

government comes up with new

ways to ensure the UK remains

at the forefront of the world’s

creative industries.”

Content and Production

Playing games with reality

Alex MahonCEO, The Foundry




“Immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality are more likely to be a success than at any time in history”

Vice Media is on a growth

trajectory, with the ambition to

be the world’s leading youth

media company. It is striking a

path that has gone far beyond

its roots, now encompassing

both a linear TV channel called

Viceland as well as mobile

and online programming, and

creative production services.

In the USA, Vice now

produces a segment for

HBO, while in Central and

Eastern Europe it has struck

a massive deal with Greek TV

company Antenna, to roll out

its programming and new linear

TV channel to a dozen markets,

including Serbia and Greece.

“We’re not becoming a TV

company,” states Vice Media’s

James Rosenstock, “We think it

will be an important part of the

company, and we are looking

to get the Viceland TV channel

distributed into over 100 million

homes over the next year or

two. Our experience in North

America so far has proven that

really growing the brand and

getting people into our overall

ecosystem is the key.”

Founded in Montreal, but

based in New York City for the

past 15 years, Vice is on a roll to

launch in more than 50 markets

around the world. In the next

18 months, it aims to bring

the reach of its digital and TV

channel from 30 markets today

to more than 80.

In the UK, Vice has a deal

with Sky for both Viceland TV

– which is set to launch in the

autumn – and for its on-demand

programming offered through

the new Sky Q set top box. In

France, it has struck a deal with

Canal+ for its Viceland channel,

and at least a dozen other

markets in Europe – as well

as Russia – will see a Viceland

channel launch over the next 15

months.

The international rollout

is being spearheaded by

Rosenstock, a former Discovery

executive who joined Vice

Media as Executive Vice

President, International and

Chief Corporate Development

Officer, a little over a year ago. At

that time Vice already had a deal

with Rogers of Canada to help

it ‘scale up’ in its home market.

During the two years since,

its Canadian revenues have

quintupled.

The deal with Rogers

provided a good roadmap

and Rosenstock has used the

partnership approach to expand

Vice’s reach beyond North

America. Building on a deal with

Antenna, originally instigated

by Vice founder Shane Smith,

Vice is taking advantage of the

Greek broadcaster’s regional

footprint, cross-promotional

and distribution capabilities

across a wide range of Central

and Eastern European markets.

Antenna was thrilled to add Vice

programming to its services

because it was able to attract

the ‘Gen Y’ audience reach that

it had lacked. “This is a very

impactful deal for our company,”

says Rosenstock.

So why does a company that

started in print and transitioned

fully into digital, now want to

launch linear TV channels?

“What we are really doing by

introducing TV to our digital and

creative services agency and

our other businesses that exist

already is to really accelerate the

brand-building and as a way to

produce premium local content,”

says Rosenstock. “The most

important thing we focus on is

localising in the right way, so in

some markets we have good

strong local teams. Now with

linear TV in the equation we are

able to produce more premium

video, so I think it’s about

localising the whole offer in the

right way.”

Rosenstock believes that

Vice’s USP is that it understands

its young audience,

produces all its own content

and is looking to monetise it

through multiple windows.

“If I look at Vice, we are

developing, and are well

advanced frankly, as one of the

most distributed, international

media companies that will exist.

If you look at Fox and Discovery

they are very international,

but most of the other media

companies are not. Netflix is still

very early on in their journey and

they are going about it a little bit

differently. We are trying

to figure out TV, while

everyone else is

trying to figure out

digital – and that

is an interesting

place to be.”

IBC Leaders’ Summit


March of the millennials

James Rosenstock Executive Vice President, International, and Chief

Corporate Development Officer, Vice Media

Region: USA


“We are trying to figure out TV while everyone else is trying

to figure out digital”

Globo is a TV (and radio)

behemoth, and its Projac (Projeto

Jacarepaguá) production facility

is simply enormous. At 600,000

square feet, and with new

studios under construction, this

year it adopted a new name

as Estúdios Globo. Raymundo

Barros is CTO of the Brazilian

broadcasting giant, and will

modestly tell you that, in fact, it’s

the largest production facility in

the world.

Barros is bringing UHD to this

party, and also HDR. “Our plan is

to produce up to six 12-episode

primetime TV series in UHD HDR

in 2017, and our first 100-plus

episode telenovela from 2018,”

he says.

He was well-placed then to

take part in the IBC Conference

session, which asked ‘Is There

a Business Case for UHD?’

Talking to us just ahead of his

appearance, Barros gave an

emphatic ‘yes’ as his answer, but

with some caution.

“The whole Media and

Entertainment (M&E) industry

is facing not only technology

disruption but also a business

model disruption,” he argues.

“The traditional M&E value chain

is upside down. The boundaries

between content providers,

content aggregators and TV

operators have disappeared.

Broadcasters have to leverage

their capabilities to speed up the

digital transformation.”

Globo’s first UHD HDR

production was available this

summer, Dangerous Liaisons,

a high-value, high-profile mini-

series following the country’s

super-rich in the Roaring 1920s,

and based on Pierre Chonderlos

de Laclos’ 1782 novel. “We

have been capturing content

that could be finished in HDR

for at least three years, and now

we are able to distribute such

content in Brazil,” says Barros.

“It is a milestone in our market

evolution, and places us ahead

of the most modern experiences

available in worldwide television.”

Barros admits that lessons

were learned on the production,

not least in post. “Post

production is the main bottleneck

for UHD HDR,” he explains.

“Our house standard for HD

production is SStP (440Mb/s).

Every primetime TV series we are

doing in UHD HDR is based on

raw, which means 16 times more

storage space compared to HD

in SStP. The other challenge is

the speed of production. It takes

way more time to colour grade,

add visual effects, and edit in

UHD HDR raw.

“We have tried some

compression schemes to

produce our UHD HDR content

instead of raw. Although the

UHD quality is quite good

using compressed UHD HDR,

when down-converted to HD

for the traditional over-the-air

distribution the final HD quality is

not up to TV Globo standards.”

Barros reveals that Globo is

working with vendors towards a

new mezzanine level UHD HDR

compression, “so we can have

the final quality we need, in both

HD and UHD HDR. When we get

this new compression, then cost,

storage and production speed

will not be relevant anymore.”

Despite the hard work, and

the commitment to UHD HDR,

Barros is not optimistic about

UHD achieving terrestrial

transmission any time soon.

“We are still in the middle of

the analogue switch-off process,”

he explains. “But I really think

that we will be able to provide

a UHD HDR linear channel via

traditional cable to satellite pay

TV operators in the coming two

to three years. Meanwhile the

Globo Play app for connected

TVs will be our main distribution

medium for UHD HDR.”


Building for a bigger and brighter future

Raymundo BarrosChief Technology Officer, TV Globo

Region: Brazil


“The traditional M&E value chain is upside down”


As VP of Technology, Michael

Zink is responsible for exploring

the emerging technologies that

could enhance Warner Bros.’

capabilities in production, post

production and distribution.

Concentrating mainly on

scripted content for TV and film,

his work includes assessing

new technologies and assisting

with the setup and integration

of digital workflows. He also

participates in a number of

standards associations including

BDA, SMPTE and UHDA. At

IBC he appeared on the panel

‘High Dynamic Range and Wide

Colour Gamut: The Art and

Science’.

What is your stance on high

dynamic range (HDR) and

wide colour gamut (WCG)?

We’ve always bundled HDR,

WCG, high frame rate and

resolution together because, for

us, it is the combination of all

four that makes the difference

to the viewing experience. While

we noticed fairly quickly that it

was difficult for some people

to recognise the difference

between HD and 4K resolution,

we found that it was very easy

for people to make out the

difference between HDR and

standard dynamic range. So

we decided that if we wanted

to truly provide a differentiated

experience for viewers, then

HDR with WCG was an

important element.

What lessons have you

learned so far?

That HDR needs to be

considered throughout the end-

to-end chain. It starts in shooting

and moves through the entire

process, including production,

post production, DI, VFX and

then onto finishing. Every part

of this process is vulnerable to

compromising dynamic range.

The range you get in the area

where it is compromised the

most, is the maximum range

you are going to get out of

your product. Once you start

compromising, and the detail is

lost, you are never going to get

the dynamic range back.

Do you consider the final

display screen when creating

content with HDR?

Our experience with consumer

displays is that they improve

every year, yet our masters

are made available for 10

years, maybe longer – so

creating content just for today’s

consumer technology seems

rather limiting. Instead, what

we try to do is use the best

technology currently available

for production, independent of

what is currently being used

in the home. Most of the top-

end consumer displays in the

market currently do about 1500,

maybe 2000, nits of brightness.

Our masters are created using

a Dolby Pulsar professional

monitor that goes up to 4000

nits.

How do consumer HDR

displays screens differ?

Each manufacturer converts

high colour volume to a lower

colour volume in a different way.

And, because of the innovation

and competition in this area, the

content then ends up looking

very different on each of the

displays. As a consequence

we spend a lot of time trying to

understand the capabilities of

the consumer display. The goal

is to ensure that the content

that we create maintains its

creative intent throughout. If

you create a master that has

higher luminance values and

larger colour gamut than current

consumer displays can support,

then displays need to apply

colour management, which

includes both colour gamut

mapping and luminance tone

mapping. We actively work

with the manufacturers to help

them understand which items

are important to us so that they

can improve their products and

ensure our content looks better

on their devices.

Do we need to change our

workflows to accommodate

HDR?

Yes, and along with the rest

of the industry, we are still

trying to work out exactly what

needs to change. So far there

have been a lot of existing

titles remastered with HDR

and, in some cases, HDR has

been added to new titles, but

as an afterthought. I believe

that this process is somewhat

backwards, and that over time

it will change and we will start

with an ‘uber’ master that will be

the HDR theatrical version. From

there we will work our way down

to other versions. I think that

will be a more logical approach

and will ensure an optimum

quality product in any viewing

environment.

Big Screen Experience


Living colour

Michael ZinkVice President of Technology, Warner Bros.

Region: USA

Interviewed by: Will Strauss

“HDR needs to be considered throughout the end-to-end chain”

Writer Anna Winger and her

producer husband Jörg Winger

moved from the US to Germany

15 years ago. With Jörg riding

on the success of producing

SOKO Leipzig, one of Germany’s

most successful crime dramas,

the couple decided to break

the mould of German television

and develop a series based

on a young East German spy’s

experience in Cold War West

Germany. The result, Deutchland

83, has been universally praised

as one of the great pieces of

serial drama of the last year.

Winger had worked in

advertising for more than a

decade before Deutschland

83. She was also a journalist,

contributing to The New York

Times Magazine and Condé

Nast Traveler, and creator of the

NPR Worldwide series Berlin

Stories. In 2008, she published

her first novel, This Must Be The

Place.

“Making Deutschland 83

brought together everything I

had done in the past. I feel like

the longform storytelling of serial

television is similar to planning a

novel. It’s a story in chapters, but

also there was also the element

of visual storytelling, and that

part came out of my advertising

background.”

For Winger, Deutschland 83’s

vision of the Cold War and the

totalitarian reach of the East

German police state was much

more than just an exercise in

costume drama.

“I’m most interested in history

as a metaphor for present

day concerns. We deliberately

played with how things that had

happened then resonated with

things that are happening now.

That was more interesting to

me than just making a biopic

or a direct representation of

what Germany was like in the

80’s. The goal was always to

make it heightened, to make

it metaphorical and like a real

adventure show, which I think

was atypical of German TV.

“Part of the challenge has

been that you don’t have writer-

producers [in Germany], Winger

states. “There isn’t that creator-

driven, writer-driven model yet,

and there hasn’t been a tradition

of writers rooms or serial

storytelling. To sustain a story

over time, over several seasons,

requires a certain way of thinking

about story that’s different from

how German TV is traditionally

done.

“I was really inspired by

Scandinavian TV. Watching

Borgen was like watching a

novel. I thought, if they can

make that in Denmark, we can

make that here in Germany. A

lightbulb went on.”

With Deutschland 83

as a proof of concept, will

Germany now throw its hat

into the ring of scripted

TV for an international

audience?

“There is a sense of

‘This is possible here.

We can make world-

class series here.’

And I’m proud

that a lot of the

people who worked

on Deutschland 83

are now making some

of the more interesting

things being done

here at the moment. I

feel like that’s a sign of

something beginning.”


Lightbulb moments

Anna WingerWriter-Producer

Region: Germany



“We can make world-class series

here in Germany”

Visual effects pro Kevin Baillie

sees the notion of virtual

production moving beyond use

of a virtual camera, to involve

tasks such a location scouting

and incorporating an increased

reliance on the cloud.

Baillie, a longtime collaborator

with Robert Zemeckis, having

served as visual effects

supervisor on The Walk and

on the director’s upcoming

film Allied, is co-founder of

Atomic Fiction, a VFX house

headquartered in Northern

California. Atomic Fiction also

maintains a studio in Montreal,

and is behind the Conductor

cloud rendering platform.

“Our process [of building

computer generated

environments] is very

computing-intensive,” he says

of VFX production. “Traditionally,

people basically have to build a

data centre. But the cloud allows

us to create virtual data centres,

lots and lots of infrastructure

when we need it. It’s a way of

scaling up infrastructure in a

pay-per-use way.”

An example of its use is

Atomic Fiction’s work on

Zemeckis’ 2015 feature The

Walk, the story of Philippe Petit’s

1974 high wire walk between

New York’s Twin Towers, which

required a digital environment

to recreate the feat. It was the

focus of Baillie’s ‘Virtual Sets and

Virtual Production’ Masterclass

session at the IBC Conference.

Shot on a Montreal sound stage,

Baillie and his team virtually

created, among other elements,

the Twin Towers and the

accompanying period-accurate

New York skyline in order to

replicate the high wire walk

between the two buildings.

Baillie reveals this film needed

9.1 million processing hours of

rendering time. “It would take

over 1,000 years on a single

processor,” he estimates, adding

that they instead relied on cloud

rendering.

Virtual location scouting is

also on the agenda. “For Allied,

we did virtual location scouts

of locations that were going to

be heavily augmented with set

extensions,” Baillie says. ‘[This

involved] going to Google Maps

and sketching out what was

there and what could be added

with VFX. … We could give Bob

[Zemeckis] the virtual camera

and have him ‘scout’ around the

location to find the ideal spot for

his shots. By the time we got to

the location, we already knew

what we were shooting.”

Baillie projects that this

process will become more

prevalent in production. “With

virtual location scouting we

can even see a location at the

right time of year and time of

day, and where the sun will be

positioned,” he says. “We can

[save time] by avoiding taking

vans, or even the four-hour

flights I’ve had to get on, just

to see something for half an

hour. It’s insane to do that when

we can see a location virtually,

and in a context that’s more

appropriate for what we have to

shoot.

“Any level of inefficiency in

the workflow is expensive,” he

concludes. “I think the next 18

months will be about moving

more of the workflow to the

cloud. That’s really important

because the production and

economic benefits make life

better for artists and help

businesses to be more stable.”



Expanding the viewof virtual production

Kevin Baillie

Region: USA

Interviewed by: Carolyn Giardina

“The next 18 months will be about moving more of the

workflow to the cloud”

Since joining Imagine

Communications in 2013,

Chief Executive Charlie Vogt

has transformed the company,

creating a new brand and a new

strategic direction, successfully

integrating four technology

acquisitions and delivering a

steady flow of industry-changing

innovation. Prior to joining

Imagine Communications, he

served as chief executive of

GENBAND, the IP networking

and software firm. At IBC he

was on an IABM Breakfast

panel called ‘The Business

of Broadcast and Media;

Technology Supply Vital

Statistics.’

The broadcast industry is in

a state of flux in both content

delivery and technology

supply. From a vendor

perspective, where do you

think the smart money is

being spent?

Three years ago we made

disruptive predictions about

where the industry was headed:

towards IP, software-defined

networking (SDN), OTT and the

cloud. Looking at IBC2016 and

the key themes of the show this

week, our vision and outlook

three years ago looks to be

directionally correct. We already

have 25 unique IP deployments,

50 channels running on IP

and 3000 live streams. The

media broadcast industry is

adapting to and accelerating

towards IP, SDN and Cloud – the

intersection of vision and reality

is here.

It has prompted a new spirit

of collaboration and openness

among vendors too.

AIMS (Alliance for IP Media

Solutions) was fostered by the

collaboration between Imagine

and Grass Valley with the goal

of creating an ecosystem

from which broadcasters, TV

networks, and multichannel

video programming distributors

would value and benefit. AIMS

is off to an encouraging start

with more than 40 equipment

suppliers and an increasing

number of media companies,

including CBS and FOX as

members.

Is it fair to say this is not just a

technology change but also a

cultural one?

Definitely. Our industry has

historically designed, built and

marketed hardware-centric,

proprietary solutions. Today, we

are developing next-generation

IP-enabled, software-defined,

cloud virtualised solutions that

leverage commercial off-the-

shelf computing platforms.

With so much technology

advancement and market

disruption, one of the most

challenging areas we must

overcome is the culture shock,

or maybe better put, the freeze

frame, it has created. The pace

of change is not just a mind-

set shift with the technology

suppliers, but maybe more

importantly, with the media

broadcasters and TV networks.

Is it harder to sell a solution

than a box?

In an industry historically

influenced by pixels, flat screens

and SD, it was arguably easier

to design, develop, market

and sell proprietary purpose-

built products. As our industry

transitions to software-defined

end-to-end IP workflow

solutions, fewer companies

will successfully make the leap

forward. The transformative

change to selling and supporting

software-based end-to-end

workflow solutions, versus

selling and supporting products

from a catalogue, is certainly

more challenging, and the

reason Imagine is among the

thought leaders and innovators

in the evolutionary change to

selling solutions.

Has it been successful?

Yes. We track success at the

product, region, channel, size,

scale and margin level. The

number of next generation

network (NGN) projects

continues to increase and is

up 35 per cent year-on-year.

The size of the projects that

we are involved with today is

significantly larger and more

complex than when I joined

Imagine, which was then Harris

Broadcast, three years ago.

Are you still selling to the

same customers?

We have approximately 2,000

active customers and over 100

customers and partners that

invest more than $1m per year

with Imagine. These customers

define the pace, influence

the standards and impact the

trends. We have been very

active over the past two years,

investing in next-generation

technology and proof of

concepts. We continue to invest

time, money and energy with our

key customers around the globe,

customers who will ultimately

help us define and differentiate

in the years to come.


Ahead of the game

Charlie VogtCEO, Imagine CommunicationsRegion: USA



“The intersection of vision and reality is here”

From Avatar to Dawn of the

Planet of the Apes, motion

capture has enabled animation

to become ever more lifelike

and photo realistic. Now

Disney Research is advancing

this science with emotion

capture, and systems that offer

filmmakers continuous control of

facial performance in live action

motion pictures.

“People can be surprised

that a certain character in a

film is digital – a prime example

being the Winklevoss twins in

The Social Network – but with a

trained eye you can discern the

nuances,” says Disney Research

scientist Dr. Derek Bradley, who

told IBC all about it in a special

conference session. “The biggest

issue is when motion starts. You

can make a pretty realistic render

of a face, but this can break

down if you want real subtlety,

especially when rendering a

known person.”

The Canadian studied

computer science in Ottawa

and gained a Ph.D. from the

University of British Columbia,

before being recruited by Disney

Research in 2010.

“I had studied the 3D

reconstruction of objects from

cameras, in particular objects

like clothing and faces that can

deform over time,” he explains.

“I was driven by a love of movies

and VFX and hoped one day to

apply these techniques to films.

I was quite fortunate that when

Disney was starting up a new

office in Zurich, [Lab Director]

Markus Gross happened to be

in Vancouver, came by for a visit,

saw my research and invited me

to come over.”

It was the right call. Bradley’s

efforts have helped result in

the Medusa Performance

Capture System, a mobile rig of

cameras and lights coupled with

proprietary software that can

reconstruct actors’ faces in full

motion, without using traditional

motion-capture dots.

“We know where every point

in an expression moves on the

face, which is a key ingredient

for VFX artists building a facial

animation rig for an actor.” So

key that Medusa has been used

on such high profile features as

Star Wars: The Force Awakens,

Maleficent, and The Jungle

Book.

While these films are pushing

toward the ultimate merger of

production with post production

– virtual production – Bradley

thinks there’s a way to go yet.

“Realtime facial performance

capture is not at the quality or

resolution of offline processes.

Every stage of the pipeline

can still be improved. You can

achieve a good representation

of a face in real time, but it won’t

exactly model their expressions.”

Among Bradley’s other

projects is FaceDirector, a

prototype intended to reduce

the number of takes required

for performance capture during

principal photography.

“FaceDirector blends together

different takes of an actor’s

performance,” he explains. “You

could have a single take where

the actor is angry, another take

where they are sad, then choose

the moments of transition in

post.”

Of Zurich, Bradley says there’s

a growing tech scene with IBM,

Google and several spin-offs

located nearby. “One of the

reasons Disney based here was

because it had the smart idea to

partner with universities which

were already strong in the areas

it wanted to research. It chose

to base next to the campus of

the Swiss Federal Institute of

Technology because it’s one of

the world’s leading centres for

computer graphics.”

The ultimate goal is to create

a fully realistic digital human, but

to get there, filmmakers must

overcome the ‘uncanny valley’,

the curious disconnect between

actual humans and digitally

constructed ones.

“The trouble is no-one knows

exactly what it is or how to fix it,”

he says. “Most people believe it’s

a problem around the eyes and

mouth. We have focussed some

research into that area.”

If anyone can crack it, then

you can bet it will be Bradley

and the team of world-class

scientists at Disney Research.



Facing the future of motion capture

Derek BradleyResearch Scientist, Disney Research

Region: Switzerland


“We know where every point in an expression moves on the face”

A calming voice among the

frenzied clamour surrounding

Brexit, Ingrid Deltenre is

measured when assessing the

potential impact of a UK exit

from the European Union (EU)

on the broadcast industry just as

the Digital Single Market (DSM)

initiative promises to ‘tear down

regulatory walls and moving

from 28 national markets to a

single one’.

“From my point of view, the

draft I’ve seen of the DSM looks

quite reasonable,” she says.

“It tackles important points,

things like regulating similar

services regardless on which

platform they are delivered.

“The subsidiarity

principle is to a large

extent still respected,

so it’s not a revolution,

but an evolution,”

adds Deltenre, who

has been at the helm

of the European

Broadcasting Union

(EBU) since 2010.

In a way, Deltenre

is a perfect

incarnation of the

founding principles

of a united Europe:

a Dutch and Swiss

National, she

speaks Dutch,

German, English,

French and Italian

and has worked in

Switzerland for much of

her high-profile career. This

gives her a unique perspective

on the potential challenges

and opportunities of a UK

operating outside of the EU,

perhaps through bilateral

agreements similar to

those bestowed upon

Switzerland.

“I think the major

impact of Brexit on the

broadcast industry will be

threefold,” she explains.

“A major factor will be

the macro economic

conditions and the overall

economic situation. If the

economy is weakened, there will

be less advertising revenue so

broadcasters won’t be able to

invest in as much content. That’s

something that could go in the

wrong direction.”

A loss of EU funding for

broadcast productions also lies

in the balance with Brexit on the

table. “Independent producers

benefit from the EU media

programme, which contributes

between 20 and 25 million euros

to the independent production

scene,” adds Deltenre. “Of

course, the UK government

could compensate for that

because it’s not that much

money in the greater scheme

of things. But from the EU’s

perspective you’d lose that

money and third party content

could get expensive if the pound

is weak.”

Last but not least is the

principle of ‘country of origin’,

which isn’t granted automatically

in the case of an exit from

the European Union. “I can

see this being a real issue for

some companies that operate

broadcasting channels from the

UK,” she says. “They may have

to seek another EU hub in order

to gain simpler access to the

single market.”

But it’s not all bad news,

according to Deltenre, who notes

that the UK may gain freedom

from burdensome red tape and

tax requirements. That is, if it

negotiates a strong deal for itself

which aligns somewhat with

the principles of the European

Union. “If you’re not a member

of the EU, you are free to be

more generous in some areas,

but life becomes complicated

in other areas,” she explains.

“Ultimately, if you have great

people, ideas and talent, you will

work with those people whether

they’re from an EU member

state or not.”

Leaders’ Summit

Access to asingle market


“It’s not a revolution, but an evolution”

Ingrid DeltenreDirector General, European Broadcasting Union

Region: Switzerland

Interviewed by: Monica Heck

Keynote

From the ISS to the home


The U.S.’ National Aeronautics

and Space Administration

(NASA) makes its spectacular

space imagery available through

initiatives including a UHD public

TV channel.

Such initiatives earned NASA

this year’s IBC Judges’ Prize,

which was collected by the

agency’s IBC keynote speakers,

Carlos Fontanot, Imagery

Manager for the International

Space Station (ISS) and Kelly

O. Humphries, News Chief

at NASA’s Johnson Space

Center and the voice of mission

control for more than 50 shuttle

missions.

Humphries explains that to

make these projects possible,

NASA uses its own resources

and enters into Space Act

Agreements to collaborate with

various entities. “Our mandate

under the U.S. Space Act of

1958 is to share what NASA

does, as widely as practical,” he

explains. “Through the years,

we have matured from black

& white stills and television

images, exclusively through the

news media, to today, when we

are combining that with reaching

out directly to the people of the

world through the internet and

social media. As we continue

our exploration farther out into

the solar system, we’re looking

forward to working with new

partners and developing new

technologies that will improve

our ability to share that imagery

and bring people along with us

for the journey.”

For example, NASA partnered

with Harmonic to launch the

world’s first public UHD channel.

“Our biggest challenge with

launching the channel was

dealing with first generation,

serial #1 hardware,” says

Fontanot. “There were no

manuals, and firmware and

software was not stable.

Leveraging NASA’s existing

broadcast capability and with

the help of Harmonic, the

necessary bandwidth for the

UHD channel was allocated

on the NASA broadcast

transponder.”

Jeff Koehler, VP Solutions

Engineering at Harmonic, joined

Fontanot and Humphries for

the IBC Conference headline

session, ‘Live from Space: NASA

and Imaging’.

“Now that the channel is

up and running, the primary

challenge is managing the huge

files to be sent to Harmonic for

editing, and for Harmonic to

remotely access their playout

server,” explains Fontanot.

“All NASA centres have 4K

acquisition capability, and B-roll

is being provided to Harmonic to

create programming. Stunning

4K footage is being shot on the

International Space Station,

Kelly O. HumphriesNews Chief for Johnson Space Center, NASA

Region: USA


Carlos FontanotImagery manager,

International Space Station, NASA

Region: USA

Keynote


including breathtaking Earth

views, that are being broadcast

on the UHD channel.”

HDR is a very big topic at

IBC this year, and Fontanot

says the technology is critical

for use in space. “Changes in

colour, contrast and intensity are

essential for imagery analysis

as it applies to performance

of rocket engines, structures,

satellites and other space

hardware and systems. For

instance, slight discolouration

on a surface may be an

indicator of material fatigue

or other anomalies, such as

abnormal temperatures or

radiation. Cameras that can

capture HDR may be a key

during troubleshooting or other

investigations.”

He finds HFR also essential,

“especially to capture frame by

frame high speed activities like

launches, rocket engines firing.”

NASA has been tapping

into VR and AR capabilities for

many years, and the agency has

already found uses for the latest

commercially-available VR gear

in its labs, for areas including

space walk training, space

robotics, use of mechanical

arms to grapple satellites, and

space modules.

“Cameras with a 360-degree

field of view with no

moving parts would also be

advantageous for spaceflight.

We wouldn’t have to fly the

mass of a pan tilt unit – as well

as design a pan tilt unit that

could survive the vacuum of

space and extreme temperature

variations,” says Fontanot.

Looking ahead, he says,

“a challenge for space and

interplanetary exploration is

imagery hardware size, mass

and power. NASA looks to

industry for equipment that

could be used in the next

decades for the Mars voyages.

[That includes] embedding

intelligence in systems so they

could be automated, such

as auto-tracking, self-aware

imaging systems that could

detect a change and store the

incident for later review.”

Adds Kelly O. Humphries,

“NASA is using various

partnerships to encourage

a robust commercial launch

industry to help further our

exploration of the cosmos and

share it with the public.”

“A challenge for space and interplanetary exploration is

imagery hardware size, mass and power ” – Fontanot

IBC LEADE

Grégoire PoladDirector General,

Association of Commercial

Television (ACT)

Efe ÇakarelFounder and CEO,

MUBI

Kate BulkleyMedia Commentator and Journalist,

KGBulkley

Gidon KatzManaging Director,

Now TV (Sky)

Ingrid SilverPartner,

Dentons

Nicolas BryInnovation Senior VP,

Orange Vallée (part of Orange Innovation)

Saul J BermanChief Strategist, VP & Interactive

Experience Partner,

IBM Global Business Services

Jorge EspinelVP, Global Business Development,

Spotify

Ingrid DeltenreDirector General,

European Broadcasting Union

ERS’ SUMMIT

Filmon ZeraiChief Operating Officer,

maxdome

Susan ElkingtonInterim Director of Content,

IBC

Susanna DinnageExecutive Vice President &

Managing Director,

Discovery Networks UK & Ireland

Tom Toumazis MBEChairman,

TVbeat & NED TheLADbible Group

Sophie GarnhamHead of Commercial

Development,

Sky

Dr Manuel CuberoCCO,

Vodafone Germany

Dana StrongChief Transformation Officer,

Liberty Global

Jay RosenstockEVP International and Corporate

Development,

VICE Media

Geoff StedmanSVP Marketing and Scale-out

Storage Solutions,

Quantum

As well being SVP, Chief

Architect and CTO of

Engineering at Cisco Systems,

Dave Ward also has ownership

connections with both a

vineyard and a tomato farm.

Recognised both as a Cisco

Fellow and a Juniper Fellow,

Ward took on three session

duties at the IBC Conference,

talking alongside other CTOs

in ‘The IP Studio: A Proof of

Concept’ and ‘CTO Strategic

Roadmap: The Technologists’

View’, and speaking again in

a Rising Stars session, ‘New

Skills for the Robot-Dominated

Future’.

With so many young people

wanting operational or

creative careers in media,

rather than technical

credentials, where do you

think we stand?

People are going to need more

of the general IT skills, and

especially networking and cloud

and virtualisation skills. Creative

talents to explore new formats

will also be important.

Should we be more excited

about the potential of AR

and VR than 3D, especially

given the need for new skills

to exploit it, and the issues

around finishing VR projects?

As we know, the formats and

trends that resonate with the

public are very hard to predict.

The industry will need to try

many new formats and double

down to invest on the successful

ones; the rise of flexible and

programmable production

infrastructures will increasingly

enable this. Beyond VR and

headset constraints, the use of

immersive formats, AR, and also

free-viewpoint video, could be

game changers.

What do you expect the next

strategic technology issues

will be?

One main challenge is

the need to continue

to build a bigger and

better internet,

as the demand

to consume

richer forms of

entertainment

online, at home or

on mobiles, has

only just started.

There is a lot we

can do to improve

the native ability

of IP networks to

scale and meet

this demand.

Media innovation

no longer exists

in its own bubble.

Developments in other

domains as diverse as

mobile, drones, displays or the

internet itself are all connected

and driving innovation

acceleration in media.

The cycles of innovation

are getting shorter across all

industries, but it doesn’t make it

easier to predict. Co-innovation

with academia and start-ups is

also a precious way to anticipate

innovation trajectories.

Ultimately it’s all about timing.

Now we have the proof of

concept of IP and IT, are

end users frustrated by the

process of easing SDI out and

IP in?

At NAB this year there appeared

to be a real growing momentum

behind the transition to IP. This

is a major step towards

embracing true virtualised

infrastructures,

which will bring

unprecedented

flexibility to run

and expand

media

operations.

Whether

remote

production,

deploying new

live channels,

or testing five

different studio

configurations in

a few minutes,

it will be a

complete

game

changer. As users adopt new

technologies, their expectations

and use of those technologies

evolve, and demanding

interoperability is a great

example of this.

What of the other huge game

changers – OTT and HDR?

Successful OTT platforms have

been designed with and driven

by analytics from day one. It’s

a very powerful way to drive

viewer satisfaction and it’s not

a surprise to see these best

practices now rapidly adopted

across all media platforms.

HDR content looks fantastic,

and if successful, it will be

required to support increasingly

heavy uncompressed video

streams, beyond 40 Gbit/s for

a single 4K live stream, across

virtualised production data

centres and applications. This is

a good example of what we at

Cisco are going to enable.

Advances In Technology


Building a bigger internetDave WardSenior Vice President, Chief Architect and CTO,

Engineering, Cisco Systems

Region: USA


“Media innovation no longer exists in its

own bubble”

“4K is pushing the broadcast

industry to a whole new level,”

says Huawei Technologies’

Wenbing Yao, who claims

this can be aided by a move

towards open platforms based

on Information Communication

Technology (ICT).

Yao, who took on her

current role as Director of

Strategy and Marketing at

Huawei in 2012, and holds a

Ph.D. in Communications and

Information Systems, notes that

the entire broadcast workflow

is involved in the inevitable shift

towards IP-based platforms.

Traditional broadcast platforms,

she claims, simply cannot

handle the demands of 4K.

“Office and production

networks in TV stations are

separated from each other;

that makes transferring data,

especially large files, and sharing

data not efficient. Moreover,

journalists can only produce

programmes after returning

to TV stations, impacting

news timeliness and quality.

Resources need to be shared,

stored and archived; this must

be done via IP networks and the

cloud.

“The move from analogue

signalling to IP-based IT

platform architectures

accelerates 4K video evolution,

lowers programme production

costs and simplifies system

maintenance,” she observes.

“However 4K video production

– and its related demands –

bring challenges to the existing

storage system. Deploying a

SAN architecture may meet the

requirements of performance,

but increases the cost.”

Huawei, an information and

communications technology

company, is joining the

broadcast industry as a

newcomer to a certain extent,

despite having quite a large

presence in the Chinese IPTV

space. “This is our third IBC

and it’s becoming increasingly

important for us,” muses Yao,

who was speaking as part of

the IABM Breakfast session,

‘The Business of Broadcast

and Media; Technology Supply

Vital Statistics’. “We are hoping

to help the industry transform

into an IP-based production

zone and to illustrate how

new ICT technologies can

transform entire businesses,

entire sectors, for the better.

These new technologies are

based on an open ICT platform

that allows partners to innovate

their solutions, effectively

support media customers in

convergent media production,

and drive future-oriented media

transformation.”

Yao also highlights that the

more isolated, legacy layout

of the broadcast production

process simply doesn’t meet

the needs of an industry

hurtling towards end-to-end

4K broadcast production and

beyond. Instead, she welcomes

the move away from dedicated,

on-premise hardware and

software towards cloud-based

platforms running on commodity

IT hardware.

“The idea of making a ‘smart

investment’ is hard to pin down;

every company has its own

definition of what that means.

However, we see the move

towards cloud for example as a

way for companies not only to

save their capital expenditure,

but to view and share resources

in the cloud when they need.

We think that’s the smart way

forward.”

The production area of

broadcast making use of private

or hybrid cloud to improve

efficiency is a particularly good

example, according to Yao.

“We’ve been involved in projects

recently around the use of

desktop cloud for editing news

using a shared resource pool

inside broadcasters’ production

division. In some cases, this has

improved production efficiency

by up to 40 per cent.

“Virtualisation technology isn’t

new in itself, Huawei has used it

internally for years, we

probably run the single largest

scale virtualised desktop

system in the world for 70,000

developers. But to bring that

power to the production

area, you need a system that

is optimised to offer faster

speed and to link to internal

resources, so production and

post production can share

resources conveniently. That’s

what we’re bringing to the

broadcast market.”


Calling time on traditional broadcast

“We are hoping to help the industry transform into an IP-based

production zone”


Wenbing YaoDirector of Strategy and Marketing,

Huawei Technologies



As an example to illustrate

the ways in which viewer

consumption patterns are

changing, the recent Rio

Olympics is hard to beat.

For NBC it was particularly

significant, with a post-show

overview revealing that its

Olympics digital coverage

broke several records and

generated 3.3 billion total

streaming minutes, 2.71 billion

live streaming minutes, and 100

million unique users across its

platforms.

In total, NBCOlympics.com

and the NBC Sports app live-

streamed 4,500 hours during

the Games. Distribution to

connected TVs was part of

the mix for the first time, while

the broadcaster also provided

4K UHD content to NBCU

distribution partners, as well

as VR programming – both

Olympic firsts.

All of which means that

Eric Black, CTO, NBC Sports

Group Digital, was an obvious

candidate to participate in the

IBC Conference session entitled

‘The Battle for Eyeballs’, looking

at the opportunities presented

by connected TV and other

‘disruptive developments’. But

Black himself believes that we

are in a fairly formative stage

of the transition, all things

considered.

“This is an early

phase and there

are still a lot

of lessons to

be learned

regarding [developments such

as] connected TV,” he says.

The same goes for VR and

augmented technologies, “which

are fantastic technologies and

for which I have high hopes –

although, again, it is early days.”

With so many platforms

and distribution mechanisms

moving into the frame, Black

feels it is not necessarily easy

to make a decision about

which ones to pursue. “We

tend to focus on what the

customer is looking for,

which involves trend analysis

and examining the top tiers

of content consumption

– thereby ensuring that

we are satisfying the new

expectations. The aim is to stay

one step ahead of the market,”

he confirms.

One positive aspect is that the

actual amount of infrastructure

required to service the new

platforms, such as those

deployed by NBC in Rio, is

fairly minimal. “It’s not the case

that they are needing much in

the way of new infrastructure

– but what they do require is a

substantial amount of planning

and preparation,” he says.

“That involves careful

consideration

of scaling and how the

technology [supports] the

workflow.”

In terms of NBC’s experiences

at Rio, Black feels the new

or expanded distribution

methods “performed really

well” and thereby underline

his observation that “99 per

cent of the work is in preparing

the platform. If you do that

successfully, then when you

get to the event it’s largely

just a case of making it

operational.”

With NBC hailing the

Rio Olympics as “the most

successful event in media

history” and achieving a total

audience delivery average of

27.5 million viewers – equating

to the second-highest primetime

audience for any non-US

Summer Games – it seems

pretty clear that the broadcaster

is on the right track as viewing

habits diversify. One can only

speculate about the new

platforms and technologies that

will have come to the fore by the

time the next Summer Games

take place, in Tokyo, four

years from now.

Rising Stars


Engaging eye-contact for a connected future

“99 per cent of the work is in preparing

the platform”

Eric BlackCTO, NBC Sports Group Digital

Region: USA


��

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The merger between science

and the arts has energised Jon

Karafin throughout his career,

culminating in what may be the

most exciting breakthrough in

imaging since the invention of

photography.

“Everything I did in academia

was about how you

re-conceptualise technology in

art forms,” says Karafin. Among

his six degrees are a Masters

in digital animation and fine art

photography. He’s worked as a

photographer on the set of Spike

Lee productions, and spent a

year in India for stereo VFX and

conversion company In-Three.

When that business was

acquired by legendary post

facility Digital Domain, Karafin

ran its Florida operation and

tackled the VFX for blockbusters

like Transformers: Dark of

the Moon; then at RealD he

helped launch digital image

enhancement tool TrueImage,

a process first used by Peter

Jackson on The Hobbit.

At Silicon Valley camera

maker Lytro since 2014, Karafin

has been leading

the Lytro Cinema

initiative. This takes

the epic leap into light

field cinematography, a

technology that is able to

capture not only the colour

and intensity of light, but

also the angular direction of

each pixel.

“Imagine you could

capture a holographic

image of the world,” he

invited IBC delegates in a

session titled ‘Light Field

Cameras: Technology that Is

Indistinguishable from Magic?’

“If you think in those terms, then

anything that was previously

a decision made on-set and

baked into the final image can

now be made computationally.”

Lytro is in advanced test

stages of its Cinema camera

that lets you adjust practically

everything after the fact,

including some things that are

simply impossible with any other

camera. For example, you can

tweak focus position, depth of

field, frame rates and shutter

angles in post, changing

those values within the

same continuous shot

for dramatic effect. Since

the camera captures the

three-dimensional depth

of all objects in a scene, the

traditional and limiting green

screen for conventional VFX

shoots would be redundant.

“You now actually have the

directionality of the pixel itself,”

says Karafin. “You have angular

information, and you effectively

have a completely virtualised

camera. You have the subject’s

colour, the directional properties,

and the exact placement in

space. It becomes a truly

holographic image.

“I could take a lens from

the last century and ray trace

its characteristics in software,

with look-up tables to enable

filmmakers to tell stories in ways

not previously possible.”

The camera itself is tracking

towards commercial production

use in early 2017. It is also the

size of a small car, making it

impractical for anything outside

of a studio, or a studio budget.

“We are already working

towards the next generation

which will be handheld and

portable,” reveals Karafin. “Right

now this is a niche market

technology to support bleeding

edge VFX or tent-pole feature

films, like an IMAX or Phantom

camera. The first generation is a

development platform to ensure

we get the technology right.”

The very concept of Light

Field is alarming to some

cinematographers.

“It’s a very polarising

discussion,” Karafin admits.

“We would say that the

current workflow and craft of

a cinematographer and focus

puller working with a director

does not have to change at

all. We provide all the tools for

decisions to be locked down on

set. As to who has control over

final imagery, that is a studio call.

“I believe strongly that this

is the future of all imaging

technology and I wanted to be

on the ground floor making that

history. It’s a very exciting time.”



Conjuring with light

Jon KarafinHead of Light Field Video, LytroRegion: USA


“Anything that was previously a decision

made on-set and baked into the final image can now be made computationally”

It’s almost a cliché now: We

are living in a ‘golden age’ of

scripted TV. But what drives this

TV renaissance and how it will

evolve is a matter of ongoing

debate. In his IBC Conference

address, ‘Are We Living in

a Golden Age of Content?’,

Patrick Spence, founder of UK-

based production company

Fifty Fathoms, answered an

unequivocal “yes”, and delved

into the causes and conditions

that brought about the new

scripted TV landscape and what

the roadmap might be for the

future.

“People ask ‘How long will it

last?’”, says Spence. “There are

the doomsayers who say that

it’s coming to an end, and that it

might even be a bubble about to

burst. Then there are others who

say this can only get better”.

Spence is of the latter opinion.

But not everyone in the

Golden Age is a winner. “While

it’s really cool to be a writer and

a producer now – it’s a seller’s

market – it’s very hard being a

network or a streaming service.

The competition for high-end

content is ferocious. It means

cutting through all the clutter,

getting your show noticed and

getting a loyal audience is harder

than it’s ever been.”

The explosion of scripted TV

content has been pivotal in the

changing fortunes of the feature

film world. And some would

argue that they have been the

big losers.

“It could be a problem of

their own making,” suggests

Spence. “We might also have

seen a movie world going

through a golden age, but we’re

not. Cinema, in terms of artistic

expression, is not in a good way.

They’re making fewer movies

than ever before, but spending

more and more money on them,

so they’re taking less risk. And I

think the talent has woken up to

the fact that if they want to make

good work, then TV is the place

they want to be.”

Spence notes that producers

who want to thrive can no

longer let themselves be caged

by distribution formats: “As a

content producer, I now think

of myself as competing against

Pokemon Go, as well as the next

big cinema blockbuster.”

Looking to the future,

Spence is convinced Europe

will play a key role in the next

phase of scripted TV, in which

global producers step out of

the shadow of American pre-

eminence.

“The next part of this

golden age will partly belong

to Europe. Many of the truly

exciting dramas now are coming

out of Europe. I would name

Deutschland 83 and Gomorrah

particularly as being as good, if

not better than anything coming

out of America at the moment.

“Ten years ago I could only

talk to three British networks.

Now I can talk to British

networks and American

networks. In the next phase

there will be projects we can do

about Europe and for Europe,

that can be financed in a big

scale way. So while I will

continue to work with

the big American

platforms, I

can imagine

a world

when

Europeans team up to make

highly authored, hugely

ambitious dramas.”

But does Spence see his

vision clouded by a potential

Brexit from the EU?

“As producers we

wake up every day

having to overcome

enormous

obstacles on

every front. Brexit

is not going to

stop us telling the

stories we want to

tell.”



What comes after the Golden Age?

Patrick SpenceManaging Director, Fifty Fathoms



“ Brexit is not going to stop us

telling the stories we want to tell”

Efe Çakarel founded MUBI

in 2007, after he discovered

that he couldn’t watch Wong

Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love

in a café in Tokyo. That spurred

him to create a company that

hand picks what it considers

to be the best films within a

particular region, and makes

them available to subscribers in

200 territories globally.

Speaking before his two

IBC Conference sessions ‘Is

the Future of Video Vertically

Integrated?’ and ‘Online

Platforms Evolve, Becoming

(Closer to) TV’, the Turkish-born

entrepreneur explains that his

company’s challenge is to “figure

out what is the right consumer

experience. In a world where

Netflix and Amazon exist, how

do people like us differentiate

ourselves meaningfully?”

It’s a complex issue that will

take time to resolve. But Çakarel

is very clear on one point: he

is not planning to create a new

Netflix.

“I am not competing with

them. I am completing the

experience with a very focused

offering,” he says. “It’s crazy

to do exactly what Netflix is

doing now and have any hope

of winning. I am still trying to

understand what they are doing

and how we can differentiate

ourselves. The market is so big;

if we have the right strategy then

we can create a good place for

ourselves.”

The Stanford and MIT

graduate adds that the video-

on-demand and streaming video

sector has a great deal to learn

and he believes it is still very

much in the early stages of its

development.

“VoD has existed since early

2000, and it has been so slow to

develop. But everything started to

happen about three years ago,”

he comments. “This market is not

even close to maturity.”

As Çakarel told the IBC

Conference audience, he

is interested in exploring

how to provide the best

content experience for users,

and whether that means

creating original content, or

simply distributing the film

and TV content from the

more traditional production

companies and studios.

“I would like a meaningful

discussion on what is the right

value proposition for users

in terms of original and other

content,” he adds. “What do

consumers really want? That is

an important point.”

A further challenge is to

determine the right strategy for

each market.

“Every market has its own

different flavours. Turkey, for

example, has about 30 million

people below the age of 30,

but it also benefits from a very

strong free TV market. But in the

UK, there is a smaller share of

free TV, and that makes it a very

exciting market,” Çakarel says,

implying UK consumers might

be less resistant to new paid-for

services.

As things stand, MUBI has

made good use of partnerships

to expand its business. For

example, Çakarel cites a joint

venture with Sony Computer

Entertainment that has enabled

the company to distribute its

services in 58 countries. MUBI

also has a global partnership

with Samsung for a presence on

its Smart TV user interface.

“We are all trying to provide

a good consumer experience,”

he says. He is also very bullish

on Netflix and Amazon, because

of what they have achieved to

date.

“However, I am focused on

creating a business that has

a higher return on investment

than Netflix. I want to create a

profitable business with a strong

focus on ROI and not just size of

revenue,” he concludes.


In the mood for moviesEfe ÇakarelFounder and CEO, MUBI


Interviewed by: Anne Morris


“This market is not even close to

maturity”

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It’s a tough world out there, and

not just for traditional media

service providers battling against

OTT disrupters. The average

consumer of TV – or perhaps

it’s best to say ‘video content’

– can be forgiven for feeling

overwhelmed by the multiplicity

of choice.

“Ultimately, customers want

to watch the programmes they

want, the way they want to

watch them,” says Kerris Bright,

Virgin Media’s CMO, spying an

opportunity for her company to

exploit. “There’s a real role for

a customer champion to bring

them wonderful programming

in the most convenient way and

then to help people navigate

what is an increasingly complex

world.”

While people still love to

watch great programming, the

way people watch has changed

profoundly. “From binging

on box sets to on-demand,

on-the-go via tablet, the multi-

screen universe challenges

service providers to respond,”

she asserts. “At the same time,

the number of different sources

of programming and price

models out there is confusing

to people. Our role is to simplify

this for consumers and offer an

open platform for linear or catch

up or OTT providers to reach

consumers in one place.”

Bright, who has a Ph.D. in

molecular neuroscience, was

lending her insight to ‘The

Evolution of the Consumer

Experience’ session at the IBC

Conference. Her belief is that

connectivity and entertainment

are colliding.

“Different people in a

household are watching different

things on different devices at

different times, and for that you

need great bandwidth,” she

says. “Our customers use 50

per cent more bandwidth than

our competitors because we

have great connectivity. Our

customers really want to do

more online, from streaming to

gaming, and that makes this

business incredibly rewarding.”

Prior to joining Virgin

Media, Bright earned herself a

reputation as a ‘fixer’, having

worked at brands such as

Unilever, British Airways, Ideal

Standard and Dulux paint owner

AkzoNobel, where she led the

turnaround of Dulux from ‘your

dad’s favourite paint’ to a brand

synonymous with colour. “I’ve

had my greatest successes

and most fun when I have been

bold and taken risks, but it’s not

always a comfortable place to

be,” she says.

The collection of data and use

of analytics made possible by

broadband is a key advantage

which media has over her

previous career experiences, she

says.

“At British Airways we knew

a lot about some passengers

who regularly travel with the

airline but hardly anything

about many of the fellow

travellers onboard each

flight. Likewise, in a fast

moving packaged goods

environment you are

several steps removed

from that direct customer

relationship. At Virgin, we

have the ability to use

data to really help and

inform what we do for the

customer, and for us it’s

a source of competitive

advantage.”

That said, she finds the

broader media industry

“very technology driven

and product development

focused” – strategies

which may not always be

putting the customer at

heart.

“The opportunity

to combine brilliant

technology and product

focus with insight into how

customers really live their

lives can be very powerful.

That is what I find exciting.”

Platform Futures

Putting the

Kerris BrightChief Marketing Officer, Virgin Media




“We have the ability to use data to really help and

inform what we do for the

customer”

There are some timeless

principles of brand building,

according to Red Bee’s Andy

Bryant, and he claims they

remain true, even though the

world around us is changing

dramatically.

The MD of the London-

based entertainment and

content marketing agency and

his executive creative director

colleague Charlie Mawer have

penned these key principles

in a new tome, The TV Brand

Builders – How to Win Audiences

and Influence Viewers, which is

based on fifty interviews with

some of the world’s top TV

marketing practitioners.

Content brands operating

in today’s multichannel

multiplatform world need to

start with the audience, Bryant

argues, and they need to be

extremely clear on whom this

audience is and why they would

want to choose to watch their

content. Bryant cites Red Bee’s

rebranding of the male-skewed

digital channel UKTVG2 to

‘Dave’ as a perfect example of a

channel that was able to identify

firstly what its audience wanted

(‘a surrogate wise-cracking

mate’) and secondly what they

could provide that audience with

(‘alternative, funny, quick-witted

content provided by key talent’).

Bryant adds, “Dave has

a clear tone of voice, which

extends over social media and

experiential marketing, and it’s all

rooted in deep market insight.”

While the principle of

identifying your audience is

timeless, Bryant acknowledges

that the tools are changing

and TV brands need to make

effective use of social media.

“It’s not enough for a channel

to just post its content onto

YouTube or Facebook,” he says.

“Really smart brands understand

that social media is a different

environment and they need to

understand how people view on

this platform.”

James Corden’s Carpool

Karaoke segment on CBS’

The Late Late Show is a smart

example of this, Bryant claims.

In the segment, the host and

a celebrity guest sing along to

songs while driving around LA.

In July the segment featured

First Lady Michelle Obama in a

clip that went viral (almost 30m

views in ten days), while other

successful guest appearances

have included The Red Hot Chilli

Peppers and Adele (42m views

within five days).

Says Bryant, “Car Pool

Karaoke was created for an

online audience to attract more

young people to the main show.

You could argue that it existed

first and foremost as a marketing

tool, but it’s also content in its

own right – a masterful use of

social media.”

As a TV branding specialist,

Bryant does not belong to the

camp that thinks linear TV is

dead. “If anything TV in its new

form is stronger than ever,” he

argues, drawing on the book,

Television Is the New Television

by media commentator Michael

Wolff, which explores why after

20 years the internet has failed

to devour TV, as many predicted

it would.

“What Wolff is saying is

that for years there was hype

about digital businesses killing

TV, when what has actually

happened is that digital is

becoming TV,” says Bryant.

“Netflix, Amazon Prime and

Hulu are all now commissioning

original content, and digital

players like Vice are actually

becoming mainstream TV

channels.”

In this multiscreen,

multiplatform future, Mawer and

Bryant argue that there will be

fewer players. The sub channels

and niche channel brands, so

critical to the pay-tv years, may

give way to their parent ‘master

brands’ who will need to position

themselves even more clearly in

that top tier.

“In an online world the

simplest solution may be to

reassure viewers that Peaky

Blinders is a drama brought to

them by ‘the BBC’ rather than

BBC2,” says Bryant.

The future will be a mixed

ecology among strong linear

TV brands and newer players,

and as well as possessing a

solid business model, Bryant

argues that surviving brands will

need strong signposting, a clear

editorial voice and top quality

content.

It’s this latter ingredient,

the production of

content by professional

storytellers, that Bryant

thinks has given TV

its longevity. “When it

comes to the core of

what makes TV valuable

online, it’s the quality

drama, high quality

comedy and good kids

TV programming, which

fundamentally comes back

to good storytelling.”

Audiences and Advertising


Survival tips for the online jungle

Andy BryantManaging Director, Red Bee


Interviewed by: Ann-Marie Corvin

“Really smart brands understand that social media is a different

environment”

Going to the movies has always

been a very special, unique

entertainment experience – and

the movie industry is determined

to keep it that way. But it is

being pushed hard.

“Cinemas are often concerned

with technology in terms of what

the consumer has at home,

whether or not the technology

is better or even noticeable on

the big screen,” explains Mark

Kendall, Business Development

Manager for Digital Cinema at

NEC Display Solutions EMEA.

“On that basis, we may see

the continual development

of resolution; after all, the

Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will

be broadcast in 8K. However,

there are many other technology

developments that enhance the

cinema experience, such as

higher frame rates, high dynamic

range and, particularly for the

larger 3D screens, brightness.”

Kendall’s IBC presentation,

however, was not about

resolution; it was about laser

illumination for digital cinema

(and, increasingly, their

commercial counterparts)

projectors. ‘Critical Update:

Laser Projection – Is It Ready for

Wide Deployment?’ saw a wide-

ranging panel tackle the key

questions around the rollout of

this technology in cinemas.

For example, there was a

time when laser illumination for

projection was considered off-

the-wall at best, and dangerous

at worst, but part of Kendall’s

mission is to dispel any myths.

“It’s important to help the

industry understand the health

and safety standards for laser

are now often similar to those

of traditional lamp-based

products,” he affirms.

“New technologies such as

laser phosphor deliver lower

operational costs, saving the

exhibitor up to €2,000 per

year in lamp and power costs,

compared to a traditional Xenon-

based projector,” explains

Kendall, “while RGB laser

development means exhibitors

are able to realise higher

brightness on larger screens.”

The transition from Xenon

lamps to laser installation is not

just about costs and brightness,

however. “The new technology

also brings more flexible

installations,” he says. “You no

longer have to install a cinema

projector in a projection room,

allowing for air extraction and

lamp changing.”

Kendall was previously

European product manager for

NEC’s full range of projectors,

remarking that his current

assignment sees him engage

with a variety of cultures within

the cinema industry. “It’s an

enjoyable challenge,” he smiles.

In the very early days of

digital cinema, there were

certainly challenges. A

notable one was convincing

all the players in the industry

– especially exhibitors and

creatives – that digital cinema

was the way forward. How does

Kendall see the current state

of play?

“The majority of cinemas that

will digitise have already done

so,” he says. “Although there

are a few seasonal cinemas

that may not have digitised

due to funding. The current

business is based on new

builds or upgrades. We expect

some of the old equipment will

be replaced with new lower

operating cost equipment in the

coming years.”

Projection has long been at

the heart of the cinema industry

as the only cost-effective way of

delivering high brightness, high

quality images to a large screen.

Will it continue to reign supreme

– or are there alternatives that

could replace it?

“In the future,” responds

Kendall, “we may even see

different technology such as

LED or OLED presenting the

latest blockbusters in cinemas.”

As ever, it seems the destinies

of the cinema industry and the

broadcast industry may be

closely intertwined.


Providing illumination

Mark KendallBusiness Development Manager - Cinema, NEC

Display Solutions EMEA


Interviewed by: Ian McMurray


“We may even see technology such as LED or OLED

presenting the latest blockbusters in

cinemas”

Andy Quested wears many

vocational hats. Once an editor

on the BBC sitcom Keeping

Up Appearances, he is now the

Chair of the EBU’s Strategic

Programme for Quality Control,

as well as Chair of the ITU’s

Working Party 6C, the group

responsible for production and

exchange standards, including

HDR. He also has a day job as

the BBC’s Head of Technology

for HD and UHD. At the IBC

Conference, he was part of a

panel answering the question,

‘Is There a Business Case for

UHD?’

“The business case is what

the business wants it to be,”

says Quested in reply. “Unlike

the change from SD to HD,

this time UHD and HD will go

forward together. We will see an

improvement in HD, with better

colour, and we’ll eventually

have three resolutions existing

side-by-side within the same

services. We’re not going to be

constrained in the same way as

we were with channels having

a single frame rate and a single

resolution, and when we move

to IP services we really won’t

care! You don’t need to have

everything at one standard rate

unless you have a traditional

linear service. The technology

is getting good enough that we

could do different frame sizes,

frame rates and colorimetry on

programmes just like we used

to change between widescreen

and 4:3.”

What is the BBC’s stance on

UHD?

For programmes that take a

long time from commission

to TX, such as natural history

or big dramas, we are already

producing in UHD. But it is our

partners that primarily fund this

next generation output. BBC

Worldwide has been absolutely

clear that UHD, even with better

colour, is not good enough

for future-proofing its assets.

Therefore it will not commission

anything that is not also

HDR. Resolution, colour and

dynamic range are all absolute

musts. We’re making these

programmes now.

What flavour of HDR?

All BBC UHD programmes will

have HDR, and the HDR will be

hybrid log-gamma (HLG).

So, can we expect to see a

UHD service from the BBC?

Are we going to rush out and

launch a UHD channel? 90 per

cent no. I cannot say it’s 100 per

cent because things change. In

my opinion there are better ways

of delivering it. We know iPlayer

can do UHD and we know

that bandwidth to the home is

going up. I think that it is a far

more efficient way of changing

a standard. If you put a UHD

channel up you are expected to

fill it. If you put an OTT service

with UHD as an option to the

same display that you would be

watching it on anyway, you’ve

got an as-needed service and

the potential for catch-up.

Some people say that

resolution doesn’t matter. You

disagree. Why?

Resolution is really important,

and not just because of screen

size. Those people who say

you don’t need it in the home

are blinkering themselves from

the rest of the industry. Viewing

distance matters. Digital display

advertising is another important

consideration. There are shop

screens, bus stop adverts, and

escalator displays. Advertisers

want the resolution. They want

to show off their products. They

aren’t going to be happy with

something that’s fuzzy.

But resolution is just part of

the UHD package?

Yes – resolution is only a quarter

of the story. The colourimetry

within UHD is amazing and the

dynamic range immediately

takes UHD from a gasp to

a wow. Having higher frame

rates is part of the package

too, although I am not a fan of

frame rate being an engineering

decision. Frame rate is just

another storytelling tool.

Even for live sport?

Again pitch-side advertisers

might have a point of view.

As soon as the camera pans

– which is most of the time

in football coverage – those

electronic perimeter

advertising hoardings turn to

mush. You cannot read them at

50fps. When you see them at

100fps you can. Unfortunately

we cannot yet display

100fps easily.



Together in perfect harmony

“We’ll eventually have three resolutions

existing side-by-side within the same

services”

Andy QuestedHead of Technology BBC HD and UHD, BBC

Design and Engineering



Claudia Vaccarone has spent

more than 20 years in the

broadcasting and satellite

industry. In her position as

Head of Market Research

and Customer Experience

for Eutelsat she provided key

findings concerning the growth

of the UHD market during her

IBC conference session ‘Is There

a Business Case for UHD?’

What’s the consumer demand

for UHD?

According to GFK, 5.2 million

UHD screens were sold at the

end of 2015 in Europe and the

MENA region. You get a total of

6.6 million when you add the 1.4

million already sold in 2014. The

projected figure for 2018 is 24.4

million. As consumers renew

their TV screens, we expect

a significant portion to opt

for future-proof UHD models,

which become more affordable

each year. Market analyst NSR

predicts over 1000 commercial

UHD channels by 2025, of which

745 will be delivered via satellite.

Eutelsat carrried out research

in Russia, Turkey, France, Italy,

Germany, Poland and the UK,

highlighting the appetite for

immersive experiences and

improved images that UHD

delivered. Further research

in partnership with Digital TV

Europe showed that 76 per

cent of the broadcasting chain

is actively working towards the

development of UHD. We are

pretty confident we will see this

new format steadily take hold.

Where does the company

stand on bandwidth

allocation?

UHD requires large transmission

capacity that some terrestrial

systems will be unable

to provide everywhere or

immediately. For sports events in

particular, guaranteeing high and

stable quality for live streaming

will prove challenging when

multiple users are connected.

This positions satellite right

from the start as a premium

infrastructure. It will be critical to

dimension bandwidth to deliver

on the four key benefits of the

new format: higher resolution,

higher frame rate, more colours

and more contrast. Immersive

audio will follow. We expect 25

Mbit/s to be the benchmark

using HEVC compression.

Channels using HDR will

need up to 10 per cent more

bandwidth.

And on technology trials,

notably regarding HDR?

We were the first to kick off a

demo channel, called Eutelsat

4K1, and launched from our

flagship HOTBIRD position in

2013. Encoded in HEVC and

broadcast at 50fps, the channel

is also replicated on the Eutelsat

7B covering Africa. An additional

demo channel is broadcast

specifically for French viewers

in our FRANSAT free-to-view

platform. UHD compatible sets

can receive this first general

public channel at no cost. The

channel currently broadcasts 4K

content, and in a second phase

will transmit live events.

We expect live sport to be

an early draw for consumers,

and have demonstrated

our UHD capabilities in that

demanding environment. We

have transmitted live tennis

matches during the Roland-

Garros tournament together with

the French Tennis Federation

and France Télévisions. We also

teamed with RAI to broadcast

live seven Euro2016 matches

to Tivusat homes in Italy. This

initiative was managed from our

Paris-Rambouillet teleport which

is now equipped for playout and

live HEVC encoding in UHD.

We launched a demo

HDR Channel from our

flagship HOTBIRD satellite

neighbourhood at this year’s

IBC, showing content from

The Explorers Network and

the 4Ever-2 consortium.

Considering the array of options

for standardising UHD, a set of

industry-accepted parameters

has taken shape fairly quickly.

The basic toolbox is now in

place. Some decisions still

need to be taken to stabilise

standards for HDR. We expect

these to be resolved shortly.

Any commercial examples?

Several of our pay-TV customers

are developing their UHD offers

via linear channels. They include

Russia’s Tricolor TV, with the

launch of a commercial UHD

package in July 2016. OSN, a

pay-TV operator in the Middle

East and North Africa, also

announced plans to initiate UHD

broadcasts from Eutelsat’s main

video neighbourhood serving the

region, 7/8° West.


Stellar growth for UHD

Claudia VaccaroneHead of Market Research and Customer Experience, EutelsatRegion: France

Interviewed by: Catherine Wright

“This positions satellite right from the start as a premium infrastructure”


Dr Fares Lubbadeh is Director

General at Jordan-based

SpaceTech TV Engineering,

and is also a member of IBC’s

Council. Offering an insight into

the state of broadcasting in the

MENA region, he reveals that

there are now some 1230 TV

channels on air, with the most

popular genres being sport

(61 channels), news (also 61

channels), religious (55 channels)

and drama (48 channels).

HDTV is also growing, up

9 per cent on 2015 with 212

channels on air, although most

of these are supplied by the

pay-TV operators. Dr Lubbadeh

cautions that Ultra-HD’s progress

will depend on those pay-TV

players, notably sport from beIN

Network which transmitted

seven games from this past

summer’s UEFA European

championships. Movie-based

channels are in the offing.

“The MENA region is

dominated by satellite, with

some 50 million homes

tuning in,” he explains. “DTT

distribution is modest, although

IPTV is growing faster than the

global average and is mainly

concentrated in the Gulf states

of the UAE and Qatar.

“MENA is one of the fastest

growing online markets in the

world. MENA’s share of [global]

internet use has quadrupled

in the past 15 years, but there

is a difference between the

internet penetration for the

GCC countries, at the levels of

developed countries, and other

parts of the Arab world still

lagging behind.

“OTT services are getting

more active in the GCC

countries with the emergence

of pure play OTT providers. The

recent entry of international

players in the region, such

as Netflix and Starz Play, will

benefit consumers through

more non-linear programming

at lower prices,” adds

Lubbadeh.

But there remain problems

with deliberate broadcaster

piracy, and where unscrupulous

channels retransmit signals

that they have no rights to. A

recent case involved Iran’s IRIB

broadcasting some of the July

2016 UEFA football games.

The Dubai-based Anti-Piracy

Coalition was formed early in

2014, and it’s making progress,

says Dr Lubbadeh. “Actions

against illegitimate satellite

channels include ‘shut downs’,

termination of contracts and

ceasing of advertisement

support,” he explains. “Since

the coalition started, around 47

satellite pirated channels were

switched off, but more than

60 channels are still regularly

infringing copyright.”

Dr Lubbadeh says that

channel piracy affects not only

international series and movies,

but also Arabic content, thus

causing major damage to the

media production sector in the

MENA countries. “This results in

losses of hundreds of millions

of dollars each year and

threatens the

growth of

the media

sector.”

However he is extremely

optimistic about the MENA

media scene, saying that pay-TV

is – at long last – getting

off the ground, and is

expected to grow its

subscriber base by

some 6 per cent

annually. The two

major players (OSN

and beIN Media)

dominate the sector

with some 65 per

cent of pay-TV subs

and 70 per cent of

revenues.

“TV ad-revenues have

remained relatively flat

during the last five years

in spite of the increase of

the number of TV channels,”

concludes Dr Lubbadeh.

“A dramatic increase in the

production and popularity of

talent, reality, talk and game

shows locally produced in the

Arab world is being observed.

Due to their Pan-Arab nature,

these entertainment

channels are helping

drive advertising

revenues.”

Leaders’ Summit


Buoyant MENA broadcasting scene

Dr Fares LubbadehDirector General, SpaceTech TV Engineering

Region: Jordan


“MENA is one of the fastest growing online markets in the world”

With Hollywood studios facing

a static-to-declining box offi ce,

and broadcasters, cable and

satellite service providers in

a battle for survival against

internet up-starts, could virtual

reality offer a way out of the

impasse?

“VR is either going to be a

major new business model,

or it’s going to be an extra on

a Blu-ray disc, paid for out of

marketing and PR budgets, but

not adding to the bottom line,”

believes Jim Chabin, president,

The Advanced Imaging

Society/The VR Society.

“Which one of those turns

out to be reality will make all

the difference in the world.

There is a very strong sense in

Hollywood and beyond that VR

and AR could develop into the

next monetisation model. If so,

it will be a job-creating industry

and a signifi cant source of

new revenue. But if it’s just a

gimmick, then it won’t go far

beyond a few hobbyists and

teenagers.”

Chabin, taking part in a

special ‘Fireside Chat Q&A’ at

IBC, has seen technology come

and go before. He has served

as president of The Academy

of Television Arts and Sciences,

and president of Promax/BDA.

He co-founded the Advanced

Imaging Society in 2009 on

behalf of the major studios

to educate and recognise

professionals in the 3D movie

industry. While 3D is still a

signifi cant revenue stream for

Hollywood and particularly

in China, 3D TV stalled in the

home.

“To have a virtual experience

you need to be in a 3D space,

so what’s fascinating is that I’m

hearing as much discussion

about 3D as much as I am VR,”

he says. “VR hasn’t replaced

3D. 3D is now wearing a

different mask and is seen as a

facilitator for creating a virtual

experience.”

He observes that there is

a similar amount of hysteria

around VR as there was for 3D,

but believes VR to be different.

“For a start, we don’t need to

put 3D screens into people’s

homes – since everyone’s

cellphone can be the basis for

3D viewing.

“There’s a perfect storm of a

new generation of consumers

wanting media to be mobile

and shorter and quicker and

more powerful than before. VR

content is shorter, it is mobile

and the experience is more

powerful. We’ve got creative

people with a vested interest

in making this happen. People

at Marvel, or Sky or BBC are

going to blow us away with

amazing content.

“I don’t worry about

the creative energy of this

community. I do worry about

how quick we can get this

content created so that as

these devices come out

there is enough to view that

is of quality. We need to

create experiences that are

interoperable on any device.”

There are other issues,

aside from fi nessing video

stitching and how to use sound

and direction. “We need to

understand what consumer

attitudes are to headsets

and whether parents will put

headsets on their children.”

He stresses, “This is not 4K.

This is not a brighter picture

or a curved screen. This is a

fundamental change in the way

we all consume media.”

IBC Future Reality Theatre

Can VR satisfy the next media generation?

Jim ChabinPresident, The Advanced Imaging Society/The VR SocietyRegion: USA


“This is a fundamental change in the way we all consume media”


Audiences and Advertising


Fabrice MollierDeputy General Manager, Marketing and Strategy Innovation, TF1 PublicitéRegion: France

Interviewed by: Catherine Wright

For most of his career Fabrice Mollier

has been at the heart of France’s largest

private TV group’s marketing drive. The

path to his current role as Deputy General

Manager of Marketing and Strategy

Innovation for TF1 Publicité began back

in 1994, when he joined TF1 in the home

shopping sector. His personal milestones

include being CEO of TF1 Games from

2002 to 2006, then from 2006 onwards

marketing and research director of TF1,

before becoming chairman of the group’s

new thematic channels, including HD1,

which he launched in 2012.

Mollier admits that the days when TF1

dominated the French TV industry are

gone, but he thinks that the opportunities

to market his company’s brand are also

greater than ever before.

“The way people watch TV has totally

changed: they can access content

anywhere, anytime and on multiple

devices,” he says. “There are numerous

ways of reaching them. An important step

is the improved quality of smartphone

networks. With 5G, you can access

premium quality content, which is a big

plus for us and our advertisers.”

As he mentioned during the IBC

Conference session, ‘New Developments

in TV and Video Advertising Technology’,

in a country with 60 million smartphones,

the ways of reshaping advertising content

are limitless.

“You can start a campaign on TV and

continue it on other screens, in shorter or

longer form, or in a game format on our

website MYTF1, you name it,” he says.

Mollier claims that TF1 has always been

at the forefront when it comes to adopting

innovative ways of marketing. “We were

one of the first to use programmatic

advertising in France, with a two pronged

approach,” he explains. “For banner

advertising, we partnered with a number

of companies, press groups for instance,

and pooled our unsold ads.

“We chose a different path for video

advertising because we were reticent to

pool our content with other companies’

and cheapen our image, so to speak. So

we created our own SSP [supply side

platform], called One Exchange, which we

are the first in France to have launched

on IPTV. We initially commercialised

it two years ago, on PCs, tablets and

smartphones.”

The aim is to reach the 20 million

French individuals who watch catch-up

TV on an IPTV set-top box. According to

Mollier, 300 of the group’s top advertisers

now use the IPTV tool, which was

launched last year.

And what about metadata? He admits

that a universal audience measurement

tool, which could be used in a

standardised way from screen to screen,

does not exist yet, but TF1 has been

working on its own way of assessing

data. In order to better target and provide

efficiency metrics to its customers, it

launched ‘One Data’ last year.

In addition to the TF1 audience figures

provided by Médiametrie, the group

uses a consumer panel built by Kantar

Worldpanel covering 20,000 homes,

where people scan the produce they buy.

This enables TF1 to track people’s real

purchases according to the programmes

they watch. “We ran a trial with Narta

deodorant and the results were very

conclusive: sales increased by 6 per

cent,” he concludes.

Another technology he is clearly

enthusiastic about is virtual reality and the

possibilities it opens up for advertisers.

“It’s an extraordinary new tool which

can really boost people’s level of

emotion,” he says. “We are studying ways

of getting our audience more involved

with programmes like The Voice, for

example. The future belongs to those who

will provide advertisers with engagement,

not just impressions.”

“The future belongs to those who will provide advertisers with engagement,

not just impressions”

Access all areas advertising

During the IBC Conference

session ‘The Global Landscape

for Broadcast TV Systems’,

held in association with FOBTV

(Future of Broadcast Television),

Dr Rich Chernock was perfectly

cast as the reviewer of the

perils and opportunities facing

television.

His chairmanship of the

ATSC technology group on

ATSC 3.0 (TG3) and his role at

Triveni Digital as Chief Scientific

Officer, as well as his support of

FOBTV, enabled him to paint an

interesting future landscape.

“Broadcasting is facing

difficult times around the world

– with spectrum availability

issues in many geographies and

increasing competition from

alternate delivery mechanisms,”

he says. “It is clear that

broadcasters cannot remain

complacent. They need to

evolve the services and delivery

technologies that they offer

viewers.”

This is one of the driving

forces for the emerging ‘next

generation’ systems. How does

Chernock judge the certainties

of IP?

“While I do believe that IP

delivery of TV is the future – we

have adopted IP transport as

the core of ATSC 3.0 – there

are different meanings of IP

delivery,” he says. “Broadcasting

still remains the most efficient

mechanism to distribute the

same content to a large number

of people.

“However, multicast does not

work over the internet, although

it may work within managed

networks. This leaves unicast

delivery for internet delivered

content. Unicast delivery over

IP (OTT or IPTV) is excellent

at taking different content

to different people, so it is

suitable for VOD or Netflix-type

streaming. Unicast delivery of

the same content to numerous

viewers can have significant

scaling issues – especially with

regard to the cost of delivery.”

On the question of whether

Europeans should take closer

notice of ATSC 3.0, Chernock

gives an affirmative.

“While it is the newest

next-gen broadcast system

to emerge, broadcasting is

evolving around the world. While

we haven’t created a single

broadcasting system for the

world, as these systems evolve

they are becoming increasingly

similar, and we are moving

towards a common goal.

“Many broadcasters in the

US are looking at ATSC 3.0

to allow them to provide new

types of services. The business

models and infrastructures for

broadcasting differ in different

countries, but I believe that we

can all learn from each other,”

he adds.

On the issue of metadata

coming of age and value,

Chernock observes, “metadata

has always been one of those

‘hidden in the background’

things. Since the transition to

digital, it has been an essential

element to make TV work. As

one simple example, without

signalling metadata, a receiver

would not know which streams

to decode in unison to provide

the video and audio of a TV

programme.

“So, the metadata for

signalling and announcement

is a core part of making linear

TV work, and will continue to

be that into the future,” he says.

“However, television has evolved

past the simple linear model to

much richer services involving

interactivity, creation of services

composed of components

delivered in real time over

broadcast, pulled in real time

from broadband and even

pushed in advance.

“Metadata is the key to

making all of this work together.

Management of all of this

metadata throughout the

content lifetime – and into the

actual broadcast – is essential

and becoming increasingly

complex, which might explain

the growth,” he continues.

Another topical question is if

broadcasting needs new tactics

for attracting young talent into a

changing industry.

“The average age of

practicing broadcast engineers

seems to be continually

increasing – at least in the US,”

says Chernock. “Broadcasting

doesn’t seem to have the same

appeal as alternative engineering

careers, such as networking,

software development, or

communications related

to the internet. It is also a

difficult subject to learn. With

the new capabilities of the

next generation systems,

broadcasting will regain public

attention, which will help to

attract new people.”

His participation in the IBC

Conference and visit to the

IBC Exhibition has reassured

Chernock – certainly it seems his

concerns are being addressed.

“While at NAB this year, I saw

a lot of evidence for renewed

excitement and potential for

the broadcast industry. I saw

the same at IBC, with the more

global emphasis I wanted.”

Advances In Technology

Evolution of the broadcast landscape

Dr Rich ChernockChief Scientific Officer, Triveni Digital

Region: United States


“It is clear that broadcasters cannot remain complacent”


Some of the best ideas come

to us when we’re away from the

office but few arrive with as much

drama and clarity as Alexandre

Jenny’s epiphany on an Alpine

peak.

“I was hiking in the mountains

and reached the top and

started to take pictures,” the

French software engineer and

entrepreneur describes. “When

you get to the peak it is such an

overwhelming and beautiful view

that a photograph never does it

justice. You want the panorama

of the big picture. You want the

full 360-degrees to experience

again.”

This was in 2000 and four

years later Jenny had a solution.

Together with Lionel Laissus

he started Kolor to market

Autopano, the software he’d

devised to automatically stitch

together a series of still images.

A decade later and Kolor

was known as a world leader in

panoramic imagery solutions,

including video stitching. In 2015,

the company was acquired by

GoPro.

“Being part of GoPro means

we have access to a lot of

internal information about the

[GoPro Hero] cameras so that we

could better tune our software to

its hardware,” says Jenny.

Previously, Kolor and Intel

collaborated on YouTube’s first

interactive VR video, which was

filmed using GoPro cameras.

Jenny is a self-confessed

geek who began programming

computers on the first basic PCs

as a child. As well as being a

mining engineer and graduate in

material physics, he spent several

years with Lyon-based video

games developer Infogrames,

owner of Atari. Still a passionate

photographer, and member of the

Georges Mélies Photo Club, he

is now driven to help 360-video

developers overcome three main

challenges, as he told the Rising

Stars session, ‘Virtual Reality: The

New Reality’.

“The first is parallax, the

disparity caused with marrying

different views from the different

lenses of any multi-camera 360-

rig,” he says.

A second challenge is editing

the footage. This, says Jenny, is

less of a technical hurdle than

an editorial one. “The grammar

of storytelling in 360-degrees,

including when and where to cut,

is still being worked through.”

Then there’s the live streaming

and social sharing of content.

In particular, Jenny feels that

developments need to focus on

making the VR environment more

interactive. “Pokemon Go is a

great example of gamification

overlaid on live video as

augmented reality,” he says. “The

question is how we can bring an

interactive layer to full VR.”

The current market for VR is

primarily driven by brands. “A lot

of money is being invested by

advertisers in VR but there is no

real platform for monetising 360-

video content yet. We will extend

the GoPro Awards to VR, so that

people can earn money from

producing cool content.”

Does he feel that his ambition

of capturing special moments like

the panoramic mountain vista has

been achieved?

“I think we are going beyond

this. VR is enabling all of us to

discover and experience so many

fabulous new locations. This is

the last step before teleportation

– I can be present without having

to travel there. And if I view VR

of a mountain summit I can feel

vertigo. We are that close.”

Rising Stars


Summit of achievement

Alexandre JennySenior Director of Immersive Media Solutions, GoPro

Region: France


“VR is enabling all of us to discover and experience so many fabulous

new locations. This is the last step before teleportation”

David Atkins, Technical Director

and Founder of Suitcase TV, was

the sole vendor representative

to speak on the ‘New Era, New

Skills in Broadcast and Media’

session on generating a new

talent influx that understands

both IT and media.

Atkins is passionate about this

subject. “This is a very complex

area, and it has been [of interest]

to Suitcase for many years,” he

says. “Every summer we have

sought out students, typically in

their second year, and offered

them three-month contracts

at sensible wages to work on

real product. It gives them an

opportunity to find out how the

workplace ticks, and what skills

they are not learning on their

degree course.”

This has been quite beneficial,

but the driver has not been

just to employ people. “The

best thing to do is increase the

stock of good graduates who

know something,” says Atkins.

“My frustration is that very

few people do this, so we end

up with talent coming out of

universities that frankly hasn’t

got a clue about what the real

world is like.”

The UK now has a degree

apprenticeship scheme aimed

mainly at big companies, but

Atkins worries that a lack of

awareness amongst the SME

community may see benefits

missed. Suitcase has made

good ground with its local

university and has taken on

four students this year. Should

the industry work closer with

academia?

“Yes – and we need

[academia] to be more focused

on the requirements of industry,”

said Atkins. “[Also] the SME

sector cannot sit there and

complain they cannot deal

with people without two years’

experience, if they [themselves]

will not provide two years of

experience. You want students

to be up and running when they

leave education.

“We need a forum that is

cross-industry, that is not tied to

a single body, because that will

just get parochial.”

How does the new IT skills

issue impact on engineering?

“The maintenance skills

are radically different and our

experience so far is that the skills

don’t exist in the IT sector for

network switching management,

nor in the broadcast sector,

because the technologies being

used are not widely used in data

centres.”

Manufacturers must engineer

systems that resemble what

engineers are used to, he

proposes. Tools have to offer

self-discovery, be able to self-

configure, and have to adapt to

environments.

“Past transitions – SD to

HD being one – have been

successful because the model

wasn’t broken at transition. We

did not break broadcasting,”

he adds. “IP is a revolution, but

operationally it needs to be a

progression, otherwise it will fail.

“Some of the players have

been trying to avoid the

revolution by replacing their

SDI cable with standards like

SMPTE 2022-6, because in

principle they can just stick a

converter on their box at both

ends, and make a much more

expensive SDI cable. That does

not give you a roadmap to new

and efficient methods of working

in the future. It locks you into

where you were.”

Based on his time at the

show, Atkins believes IBC

has come much closer to

the craft of content creation.

“People who create content

have far more say over how it

is going to be produced,” he

says. “Artists have become

very adept at using computer-

based technology, which

means they are more able to

communicate what they want

from the engineering side. It is

a closer working relationship.

Ultimately, broadcasting is about

broadcasting, and not actually

about IP and IT.”


Engineering the IP future

David AtkinsTechnical Director, Suitcase TV




“IP is a revolution; but operationally it needs to be a progression,

otherwise it will fail”

Curt Behlmer and his team are

responsible for advancing the

possibilities of cinema sight

and sound, ensuring that Dolby

technologies, including Dolby

Atmos and Dolby Vision, fit into

the industry’s content workflows.

A 30-year veteran of the motion

picture industry, Behlmer has

held senior executive positions

with Warner Bros., Soundelux

Entertainment Group, Digital

Cinema Ventures, Ryder Sound

Services and Lionsgate Films.

Before joining Dolby he was

the chief technology officer

for entertainment services at

Technicolor. At IBC he appeared

on the panel ‘High Dynamic

Range and Wide Colour Gamut:

The Art and Science.’

What does high dynamic

range (HDR) bring to the

filmmaking process?

HDR brings the ability to show

more details in the shadows

and have additional brightness.

From a creative standpoint we

have found that filmmakers

are particularly excited about

the improved black levels.

When people think about HDR,

particularly in the context of

TV, they think about increased

brightness. And while that is

also true for the cinema, there

is a lot more interest in being

able to show detail and contrast.

Filmmakers are applying this

technology for leveraging the

representation of space as black,

rather than grey. The space

fields in the recent Star Wars and

Star Trek movies look a lot more

impressive and real when you’re

not seeing them represented as

grey. In The Revenant, where

there are a lot of night scenes

in the forest, the filmmakers

were able to show the depth

and detail that you cannot really

get from any other projection

system.

How does wide colour gamut

(WCG) help?

Filmmakers can use WCG as

a storytelling tool to create a

different look. The animated

movie Inside Out was a great

example of the director using

the expanded colour gamut

to differentiate some of the

scenes. WCG is also relevant

in live action where having

that additional colour volume

gives you more saturation and

extends some colours. It makes

the movie a more immersive

experience.

Do production workflows need

to change to accommodate

HDR and WCG?

What we saw with sound was

that the majority of movies

were being mixed in 5.1 or

7.1 and then an Atmos mix

[when filmmakers chose to

use the Dolbv surround sound

technology] was created

afterwards. That has now

changed. The majority of people

are pre-dubbing in Atmos and

then creating their 5.1 and 7.1

mixes from that. With vision

technology, although we’re only

a year into it, several studios

are starting to create the Dolby

Vision version first too. The nice

thing about doing it this way is

that it makes it easier to keep

the creative intent baked in,

and then deliver it all the way

downstream, even to mobile.

Does the viewer see a benefit?

HDR is a treat for the eyes

because things look much more

normal. You no longer have to

sub-consciously compensate for

the lack of contrast or the lack

of brightness. HDR feels more

immersive and, depending on

what tools the creative people

choose to use, it can go beyond

what any other medium can do

today.

Is HDR here to stay?

Our belief is that it is. The

audience reaction has been

very positive. The commitment

that we’re getting from cinema

exhibitors to partner with us

proves that this isn’t just a

science project. The fact that

consumers can get HDR in the

cinema, and at home, means

they are starting to become

more aware of the value of it and

are really enjoying HDR.



Black is the new black

Curt BehlmerSenior Vice President, Content Solutions and

Industry Relations, Dolby Laboratories

Region: USA


“HDR is a treat for the eyes because things look much more normal”

Brexit is causing consternation

among the major media companies

that are established in London and

are relying on Ofcom licenses to

support their EU-wide activities.

This is the scenario according to

entertainment and media lawyer

Ingrid Silver, who took on the

challenging topic of European

regulations at the IBC Leaders’

Summit session, ‘The Regulation

Panel: Brexit and Digital Single

Market’.

A Partner at Dentons law firm,

Silver has had a front row seat for the

rapid evolution of the entertainment

industry and its practices. She

advised on the first-ever webcast

of Big Brother in the UK back in the

year 2000, and had had a hand in

the launch of mobile and online TV

projects around the world.

The aftershock of Brexit is likely to

keep the media and entertainment

industries on their toes for the

next few years, according to

Silver, because everything from

a legislative point of view is so

intertwined.

“The Audiovisual Media

Services Directive (AVMSD)

allows a broadcaster established

in a particular member state

of the EU to comply with the

regulatory regime of that

jurisdiction, and to broadcast

from there to the entirety of

the EU,” she says. “If and when

Brexit happens, those broadcasters

potentially lose that ‘passport’.”

Silver also highlights that the

European Regulatory Framework,

contains content quota obligations

that state that a linear broadcast

must contain a minimum of 50 per

cent European content. With the EU

pushing ahead with its plans for a

digital single market (DSM), a new

20 per cent quota for on-demand

services is likely to be added to the

existing linear quota.

“That’s quite beneficial if you’re

a production or media company

producing content in the UK. The

good news is that by relying on

its membership of the Council of

Europe, an organisation comprising

47 member states including the EU

member states, the UK should still

be able to access these quotas for

linear services, if not for on-demand

services.”

If and when Article 50 is triggered,

spelling a two-year countdown

to the exit of the UK from the EU,

companies based in the UK could

find themselves caught in the grey

zone.

“In a situation where the

regulation of the portability of online

content across member states

comes into force in 2017 through

the DSM for example, the UK must

still comply with this during the

transition period,” says Silver.

“Currently, the UK is obliged to

implement and apply these EU

laws, in the knowledge that it may

not be bound by them later on

when Brexit takes effect. What will

happen to existing EU legislation

and case law, [known as] the ‘acquis

communautaire’? This potentially

impacts rights, contracts and

licences across the value chain.”

However, Brexit is also

presenting opportunities that can’t

be ignored, according to Silver.

“The UK government could have

more freedom to fund the media,

production and creative sectors, as

it won’t be bound by the European

state aid regime,” she says. “The

UK has strong historic, cultural and

language ties with a wide range of

markets outside the EU, including

North America, Australasia, large

parts of Africa, and the Middle

East. The UK creative sector is well

placed to recalibrate and exploit

these ties.”

For now however, knee-jerk

reactions must be avoided, she

warns. “It’s a time for people to

build a clear understanding of what

aspects of their businesses could

be affected, and to plan accordingly.

Ultimately, the impact of Brexit may

be very limited. In the immediate

term, businesses should review their

terms and conditions to make sure

they are DSM and Brexit-proof.”

Leaders’ Summit

A legal eye view of Brexit


“The UK has strong historic, cultural and language ties with a wide range of markets outside the EU”

Ingrid SilverPartner, Dentons



The Middle East and North

Africa have always been a focal

point for international news, but

it’s only been recently that news

outlets in the region have grown

into major global players with an

international reach.

Nart Bouran, who participated

in the IBC2016 Leaders’ Summit,

has been there from the

beginning. In 2012, he helped

Sky News Arabia get off the

ground and has been at the

centre of the growing MENA

broadcast industry.

“I was employee number

three at the company, after

the HR director and a driver. It

was a great, great challenge,

but a lot of fun. It was a very

exciting time.

“With Sky News Arabia

we were always aware that

whatever we did, it had to

be something new. It had to be

different from everything else

around. Because we were new,

we were able to build it all from

the ground up with a multi-

platform mentality, so we had

an advantage over some of the

more established broadcasters

in the region.”

Broadcasting in the MENA

region presents its own set of

challenges and opportunities.

There is huge diversity among

a rapidly growing audience with

the majority of the population

below 25.

“It’s a unique area,” agrees

Bouran. “You have some of the

highest engagement of digital

and social media platforms in

the world, yet there are still a

lot of people who are not even

connected to the internet.”

In a technology-driven

business, this diversity of

audience makes the job all

the more delicate. “Media

organisations in MENA might

be testing augmented reality or

Ultra HD, yet you have a large

number of people who are still

watching TV in 4:3.

“The discrepancy is very wide

between the haves and the have

nots, and it’s a big challenge,”

he adds. “You want to try new

platforms and do things in a

different way, yet you need

to also be aware that a lot of

people are still more in tune with

linear TV.”

Like all broadcasters

worldwide, Sky News Arabia is

faced with disruptive innovation

– new technologies, apps and

audience behaviours challenging

its business model and forcing

it in new directions. Knowing

which disruptive innovations to

chase, and which to let go, is

more an art than a science.

“Over the next few years,

linear TV will remain important

in the region,” Bouran predicts.

“However, we’ll be bringing in

the digital component with OTT,

smart TV apps and advanced

set top boxes, and these

technologies will allow us to

address a lot of these

disruptive challenges. How we

use OTT and smart TV will be the

thing that allows us to flex our

muscles with new technology,

without disenfranchising

viewers.”

But with news outlets able

to reach anywhere in the world

now, do broadcasters like Sky

News Arabia find themselves

having to compete against

other more established global

broadcasters?

“We’re very language

specific,” says Bouran. “That

makes it more challenging, but

it also gives you an advantage

because you’re really only

competing with people who

produce content in your own

language. Still, we do look at

other geographies to see what

they’re doing and we try to use

some of their principles and

apply them to the Arabic region.

We’re constantly learning.”

Sky News Arabia sent a large

team to IBC this year for just that

purpose.

“A forum like IBC can

open your eyes and mind to

something you haven’t thought

of, and to things that might be

applicable in your geography.

But a lot of ideas come from

looking between the lines. You

may see lots of innovations

that solve certain problems, but

you have to keep in mind your

objectives as an organisation

and see what fits your vision.”

IBC Leaders’ Summit


Sky’s the limit in MENA

Nart BouranCEO and Head of News, Sky News Arabia

Region: MENA


“A forum like IBC can open

your eyes and mind to something you haven’t thought of ”

For Sony Pictures Entertainment

CTO Spencer Stephens, it’s

an exciting time of change.

“There’s a lot that’s in flux and

we’re trying to figure out how

to do it, especially with virtual

reality,” he says. “VR is incredibly

interesting, but we don’t really

have a vocabulary for talking

about it. I think [we need to] to

define the vocabulary and find

the issues.”

Stephens leads the

Sony studio’s Technology

Development group, working

on technology innovation and

application. The group’s latest

challenge has been building the

workflow that adds HDR to the

4K UHD content the studio has

been offering since 2013.

As part of the IBC Conference

session, ‘CTO Strategic

Roadmap: The Technologists’

View’, he joined an international

panel of experts addressing the

challenges of this new era in

broadcast and media.

For instance, the exec asks

if there needs to be a ratings

system for VR content, in terms

of its potential to induce motion

sickness. “Some people are

extremely susceptible to what

we call ‘simulator sickness,’ a

term coined to describe people

who get motion sickness in

simulators, but don’t get it in real

life. To some extent, that’s also

related to haptic feedback, if

your body is moving in a manner

that’s consistent with what

you’re seeing. There’s plenty of

work to be done on that.”

With various VR viewing

devices now on the market,

Stephens points out that

additional challenges surround

VR content delivery. “We need to

find a way to deliver VR content

for the scope of devices. On one

end of the spectrum we have

Playstation VR, and at the other,

Google Cardboard apps.

“I’m not suggesting

standardisation, but from a

production point of view, we

have to keep in mind that

we have these very different

formats,” he adds. “We have

to figure out ways to deliver

the absolute best consumer

experience based upon the

available platform.”

Before his current role at

Sony Pictures Entertainment,

Stephens worked as a

technologist for Warner Bros.

and before that built and ran

the digital production group

at Walt Disney Television

Animation. Asked what change

he would expect in the coming

year, Stephens says, “With VR,

everything is moving so fast;

I would expect to see more

complete [production systems]

and possibly fewer of them.

“We may reach a point where

the huge increase in available

cameras trails off a bit. From our

point of view, it’s the complete

system that we’re interested in.

We don’t want to have to figure

out how to stitch together the

output from each individual

camera. We are seeing examples

of that becoming part of [the

systems]. It should not be a

manual process.”


Asking VR questions

Spencer Stephens

Region: USA


“We have to figure out ways to deliver the absolute best

consumer experience based upon

the available platform”


The first ever showing of a

full-length feature film (the little

known The Last Broadcast)

to be captured, delivered and

projected digitally was in 1998.

Since then, the digital cinema

industry has gone from strength

to strength, and continues to

evolve.

“Like any market, the cinema

market is moving and adapting

constantly,” believes Tom Bert,

Senior Product Manager Digital

Cinema at Barco, who was

speaking as part of the ‘EDCF

Global Update’ session. Bert

was also at IBC, he says, to help

visitors separate the fact from

the fiction when it comes to laser

projection — something that is

currently a hot topic in the digital

cinema world.

“Sometimes, this happens

organically, sometimes it’s

disruptive,” he says. “The

emerging markets – like China

and India – are a big driver for

organic growth. New concepts

like premium large formats were

a bit more unexpected. This is

all a natural response to how

the world around us evolves:

demographically, technically,

culturally. That will never

change.”

Bert started his Barco career

in the company’s research and

development organisation.

“The best thing about being a

product manager is the wide

range of things you come into

contact with: customers and

their requirements, sales and

their questions, competition and

their moves – and R&D and their

crazy ideas,” he laughs.

For Bert, laser illumination,

the topic of his conference

presentation, makes perfect

sense.

“Laser illumination is a

huge breakthrough for digital

cinema,” he says. “In 35mm

digital projection, the lamp was

the only non-digital component

in the projector. Lasers are real

electronic components that

yield massive benefits, such as

higher brightness and increased

lifetime – more than 50 times the

life of lamps. The first all-laser

multiplexes have been opened

already by Barco customers.

The day when the last lamp-

based cinema projector will be

sold is very near.”

Barco, claims Bert, has by

far the largest installed base of

cinema projectors with laser light

sources – both RGB and laser

phosphor. “We’d like to leverage

our expertise to make sure the

market understands the ins and

outs,” he says.

The digital cinema industry

is no less preoccupied with the

subject of resolution than the

broadcast industry – but Bert is

clear that it’s far from the be-all

and end-all when it comes to

image quality.

“Resolution is just one part

of the image quality puzzle,” he

explains. “Yes, deploying more

pixels was an initial focus for

digital cinema, just as it was for

digital cameras, for example. In

fact, 2K is very well accepted

– even on the largest screens –

but evolutions in the consumer

space will probably see a

migration to more 4K.

“Other contributions to image

quality come from contrast,

uniformity and frame rate. Of

those, probably the biggest

gains are a function of frame

rate and contrast. Things like

120fps and high dynamic range

are being evaluated both by

content creators and technology

providers.

“The special thing about

cinema is that a technology only

makes sense if it serves the

creative intent of the director,”

he concludes. “Setting new

boundaries only make sense if

the content needs to explore

those boundaries.”



Illuminating the future of cinema

Tom BertSenior Product Manager Digital Cinema, Barco

Region: Belgium

Interviewed by: Ian McMurray

“The day when the last lamp-based cinema projector

will be sold is very near”

Peter Kerckhoff straddles the

two worlds of telecoms and

media in his role as VP of

content at Deutsche Telekom,

and is very much at home in

both sectors as they increasingly

converge. “I essentially have a

hybrid role,” observes Kerckhoff.

“I have always crossed the

borders between media and

telcos; that’s where I currently

move. I feel very familiar with the

needs and growth paths of both

industries.”

Before joining Deutsche

Telekom in 2002, he developed

a thorough understanding of the

media world through his role as

Project Manager for Digital TV

and Co-lead for Business TV

at the Luxembourg-based RTL

Group. As he made clear to the

IBC Conference audience, he

has been able to bring those

experiences to the German

telco, where he is now in charge

of various content and media-

related growth businesses.

Today he heads the strategic

management of more than 350

content and media partnerships

at Deutsche Telekom, which

in turn has become a leading

aggregator of content services.

“We try to deal with the best

content partners available,” says

Kerckhoff, adding that Deutsche

Telekom is not yet a content

producer itself, and it currently

has no plans to become

one. At least, not

yet.

“I would say we have no fixed

plans but I can see the point of

time when we have to make a

decision on that,” he admits,

noting that such a decision

would have to be made in

the next one to two years.

“It’s not about copying

Netflix, for example,” he

adds. The emphasis would

be placed on finding a

product or service that

is suitable for a particular

region or market.

The challenge for now

is to identify those content

partners that have the best

chance of success. That is

certainly not something that

is always easy to predict,

and ultimately Deutsche

Telekom believes that there

will only be room for a few

very large players in future.

For now, the German telco

welcomes everyone, claims

Kerckhoff. “[However] we

need to have a slice of the

cake,” he adds, referring to the

ongoing discussion about how

content providers and telecoms

operators should manage

and share the cost of content

distribution.

Deutsche Telekom also keeps

an eye on the value

chains of the

top 10

Platform Futures

Bridge between telecoms and media


to 20 telcos and cable operators

globally, in order to track their

content strategies, and how

they will mesh those with their

communications business.

Kerckhoff says the German

telco might not necessarily follow

the path of Liberty Global, which

has invested more money in

TV and film production, but he

certainly does not want to rule

out anything at this time.

The VP reveals he was

learning more at IBC about the

perspectives of international

telcos, finding out whether they

have already become a hybrid

telco and media business, or if

they are moving in that direction.

“How will they analyse and

manage the convergence of

media and telecoms? There is

no golden route to follow,” says

Kerckhoff. “I hope to learn from

others.”

Peter KerckhoffVP Content, Deutsche Telekom

Region: Germany

Interviewed by: Anne Morris

“There is no golden route

to follow”

Gidon Katz, the MD of Now

TV, spoke at the IBC Leaders’

Summit, in a session that

covered the many flavours of

OTT. Titled ‘Online Platforms

Evolve, Becoming (Closer to)

TV’, it begged the question,

‘What’s the USP, now?’ Katz

was teamed on the panel with

the heads of MUBI, Aspera,

and Amazon Europe, so what

did he get out of the session?

“The overall message was

that OTT is just a distribution

mechanism, a way of enabling

a different segment of

customers to access content in

different ways,” he says. “The

technological innovation is

triggering marketing innovation,

and that marketing freedom is

about targeting discrete groups

of consumers with propositions

that mean most to them.

“What Now TV is doing is

targeting the ‘pay lite’ audience

or the Freeview audience,

introducing them to pay-TV

content without the barriers

of a contract and installation,

and without the pricing barriers

that have traditionally blocked

people from getting pay-TV,”

he adds. “Sky and Now TV are

leveraging OTT as a way to

grow a market.”

Now TV is a sub set of an

extraordinary content library,

so does not get involved in

commissioning original content.

“Scripted drama is really the

vogue,” said Katz. “We have

access to incredible scripted

drama from The Walking Dead

to Westworld, to Game of

Thrones, so we believe we

punch our weight.”

Now TV has good

connections to the independent

sector via UK TV and C4. How

does it sit against Netflix?

“If they are marketing Jessica

Jones essentially as a zero

barrier entry point, and I am

marketing Game of Thrones,

we are both ploughing the

same furrow,” says Katz. “But

the difference between us and

Netflix, and us and Amazon,

is that they are targeting the

whole UK market for Sky and

Virgin customers, and we are

targeting the Freeview market.”

Looking to the segmentation

of the OTT market, does this

suggest the competitors Katz

knows at the high end will be

the same ones in five years

time?

“There will be strong

competitors, both from studio-

owned, direct-to-consumer

initiatives, like Disney Life, and

rival aggregation services.

There will also be lots and lots

of niche content offerings,” he

says. “OTT reduces the barrier

to entry, so there will be lots

more competition.”

How does big data feature in

the Katz plan?

“It is absolutely vital to us,”

he reveals. “It is critical to get

customers their content as

quickly as possible, so our

goal is to have segmented

and eventually personalised

screens. As a result we have

spent millions on what we are

calling a data lake.”

OTT does have problems, he

admits. “The big challenge for

all services is retention. If you

have a no contract proposition,

you do not retain customers as

long as you do if you have a

12-month contract. You need

to have the data that enables

you to target all your

different communication

channels.”

When it comes to new

technology, Now TV

serves a mainstream

audience – not early

technology adopters

– so Katz has specific

demands.

“I am particularly

interested

in encoding

technologies that

enable me to deliver

better picture quality

and lower bit rates,” he

explains. “Buffering is one of

the things holding OTT back.

We have a huge amount of

data that shows that buffering

and pictures that crash or

freeze are directly linked to

retention issues. Looking at

things that manage the CDM

network, improve encoding

and improve the bit rate

adaption are vital, so too are

hierarchical tools, ‘decisioning

technologies’ that sit on our big

data archive.

“The pace of change has

accelerated enormously,”

he adds. “I think the artist

and the engineer have to

get closer and closer. The

power of small groups of

entrepreneurs and people

highly motivated to change the

world is clearly increasing, and

those people need that mix of

creative people and

technologists.”

Leaders’ Summit


Sending TV over the top

“The pace of change has accelerated enormously”

Gidon KatzManaging Director, Now TV (Sky)



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