Seven talking points from the World AI Film Festival in Cannes

Screen Daily

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The second World AI Film Festival (WAIFF) showcased films, shorts, advertising and micro-series created using at least three generative AI tools, including one for image creation.

It took place from April 21-22 in Cannes. 

A jury led by French filmmaker Agnès Jaoui and festival president Gong Li handed the best film prize to 12-minute short Costa Verde, a personal story about childhood from French writer-director Léo Cannone, produced by the UK’s New Forest Films. 

Screen rounds up seven key talking points from the festival.

AI tools are evolving fast 

“Last year’s best films wouldn’t make the official selection of 54 films this year,” said WAIFF artistic director Julien Raout of the quality of this year’s titles. “The tools have evolved faster than any technology we’ve ever seen in video creation.” 

Last year’s inaugural edition attracted 1,500 submissions from 80 countries. This year, the numbers exploded to over 7,000 submissions, of which 1,300 were from South Korea.

However, films from US creators were thin on the ground. “Hollywood studios are scared,” suggested WAIFF founder Marco Fandi. “They should embrace AI and help the evolution.”

An edition of WAIFF is launching in Los Angeles in October.

Established filmmakers are turning to AI

Veteran French filmmaker Claude Lelouch talked about embarking on his 52nd feature using AI. “My last films didn’t do very well. Since I’m struggling to find money, I’m turning to AI,” he admitted. “AI is a camera that gives you images even before you’ve filmed anything. It will change cinema.”

Actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz explained he had paused pre-production on his animated feature God Of War to build AI tools superior, in his view, to CGI.

“A project that might have cost $50-60m is now closer to $25m using AI,” he said. “But it is not just about cost. AI is also generating ideas. It becomes part of the creative dialogue.”

The key challenge was not image generation, he said, but control. “If I ask a character to move left, will it move left consistently? Can I actually make a full film this way? To do that, we need to build tools on top of existing models – layers, APIs, systems that allow us to control outputs precisely for filmmaking purposes.”

AI fears need to be faced

French filmmaker Jaoui said she felt “terrorised by AI and all the fantasies it represents,” which is partly why she accepted the invitation to sit on this year’s WAIFF jury.

“Whether we like it or not, AI exists and we might as well go and see what it is exactly, rather than being overwhelmed by our fears and rumours,” Jaoui said.

“To be an actor is unique in the way we are exposing our soul, and from what I have seen so far, there is no emotion in AI,” said actor and festival juror Elsa Zylberstein. “AI might work for action, VFX and period films, but not the human dramas that I care most about.”

Yet Generative AI is advancing at pace. The AI‑generated characters in last year’s entries “looked wooden,” according to Raout. “Now you can feel emotion with micro‑expressions, proper lip‑sync and believable faces.”

Actors and craftspeople working in production design and cinematography will have to adapt, insisted Kassovitz.

“That’s how it’s always worked. When bluescreen came in, it changed sets. When digital cameras replaced film, it changed workflows. Every technological shift forces parts of the industry to evolve.

“Younger generations won’t necessarily care whether something is AI-generated or not,” he claimed. “Unless it’s explicitly labelled, they may not even be able to tell the difference.”

New copyright model is needed

While evangelising the use of AI as “augmented imagination”, musician Jean-Michel Jarre, the festival’s ambassador, called for copyright regulation and artist remuneration.

“Human creation is the foundation of generative AI. At some point, we must stop being treated merely as data suppliers and instead be treated as business partners,” he said. 

The need to establish rules for AI is urgent, he added. “We need to bring together cinema, music, books, video games, literature, journalism and reach global agreements. I don’t believe we can apply traditional copyright philosophy anymore, simply because most algorithms can no longer identify the exact origin of their sources. It will be difficult to demand traditional copyright remuneration. We need a new model.”

Launching a ‘Netflix of AI’

WAIFF insists its primary purpose is to surface new creators. Landi cited this year’s standout film Beginning, winner of the Emotion award, by Jordanian filmmaker Ibraheem Diab as an example of the unexpected voices emerging through AI‑enabled production. 

“We received 86 films from Iran,” he added. “We want to provide a window for these new talents to show their creativity.”

WAIFF is developing its own online distribution platform which could launch in the next few months. “We want to launch a ‘Netflix for AI films’,” Raout revealed. “We already have at least 500 very strong films, far beyond the official selection, and we want to showcase them to audiences and be a place where creators can monetise their work and maintain control of their IP.”

As to whether audiences want AI content, Raout was in no doubt. “Young people are bored with low‑effort AI fakes. They want real creators using AI as a tool to tell meaningful stories. They want new voices with new ideas, not the same stories recycled by big production companies.”

Feature-length fiction AI films are coming soon 

In 2025, WAIFF allowed submissions for films to be as short as one minute. This year, it raised the bar to 10 minutes for shorts while entries into the long-form category had to be at least 25 minutes long. 

The winner of the long-form category was Napoléon III, Le Prix De L’Audace, a docu-series produced by Federation Studios, directed by Edouard Jacques, already broadcast on Canal+ and TV5 Quebec. 

“We received some feature‑length submissions, but not many,” said Raout. “Next year, we’ll have full AI fiction features over an hour long.”

A technological tipping point may already have been breached. “For the first time, I cannot tell whether a shot was filmed or generated,” said Gilles Guerraz, CEO at AI training agency Nextrend. “The technology is here. But without artistic intention, AI alone won’t create meaningful work.”

Cannes provocation or cooperation?

The festival shifted location from Nice to Cannes just a few weeks ahead of the 79th Cannes Film Festival. 

While WAIFF entries must include use of Generative AI, the Cannes Film Festival has outlawed the technology as a principal authoring tool. Nonetheless, AI is permitted for technical processes such as sound restoration, provided its use is acknowledged. Meanwhile, the Marché du Film’s Cannes Next program includes an ‘AI for Talent’ summit. 

The lines are blurring. “One day, there will no need for a separate AI film festival,” said WAIFF’s Landi. “One day it will all just be film.”

The next steps for solar PV

IEC ETech

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Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy has already reached a point where it is economically competitive and globally scalable. What is its likely evolution in years to come? And what new standards are on the cards?

Solar PV accounts for almost 80% of the increase in the world’s renewable capacity and its low cost and broad social acceptance will contribute to a doubling of capacity over the next five years, according to the IEA. In 2025, new global solar installations reached 606 Gigawatt (GW)and solar alone accounted for more than twice 2020’s entire renewables installations.

Despite policy headwinds in the US where federal subsidies for renewables have been rolled back, the IEA predicts the global amount of installed renewable power will more than double to 4 600 GW by 2030 with solar PV accounting for the lion’s share.

For this reason, analysts at McKinsey judge solar PV “to be the success story of the energy transition”. They cite the continued decline in costs and relative easy installation of solar PV panels, which have spurred adoption of enterprise scale, commercial and residential use alike.

“Modules still account for roughly 30 to 40% of utility-scale system costs, so reducing their price has had a major impact,” says Dr Tony Sample, the Chair of IEC TC 82, the technical committee which produces standards for PV systems “Now we’re reaching a point where labour and financing costs are becoming the most important variables.”

Low module prices drive growth

The rapid scale-up of production in Southeast Asia has driven module prices down dramatically. China’s solar market alone grew by 30%, adding another 329 GW of capacity by the end of 2024, over half of new global capacity that year. “Solar PV is a unique technology,” says Sample. “It’s completely scalable. You can go from powering a digital watch, to off-grid lighting in remote areas, all the way through to multi-megawatt utility-scale power stations.”

That scalability and a consistent reduction in manufacturing costs has underpinned what he describes as a “phenomenal” expansion. Solar PV is now, in many cases, the cheapest form of electricity generation at utility scale—a position it had already reached even before recent volatility in fossil fuel markets. Last year marked a milestone: globally, new renewable capacity met the entire increase in electricity demand. “It’s the first time we didn’t need to add fossil fuels just to meet demand growth,” Sample notes. “That’s a big turning point.”

If cost has driven adoption, standards have played an equally critical enabling role. IEC TC 82 oversees one of the largest work programmes in the organization, with around 93 active projects. Many of these are adapting existing frameworks for measurement, performance, and reliability to emerging technologies and applications.

Tech for improved solar cells

One of the problems with silicon modules, which are used in most PV panels, is their relatively low energy efficiency. However, the technology has improved and energy efficiency gains have been made over the years, notably with the manufacturing of bigger cells and even bifacial modules. One of the most closely watched developments is perovskite solar cells which, pundits claim, offer significant improvements in power conversion efficiency. However, some challenges must still be overcome. “The problem with perovskites is that they are metastable,” Sample explains. “Their performance changes depending on exposure to light and dark conditions. That makes standardized measurement difficult.”

This has always been a point of tension in the solar PV industry. Manufacturers aim to maximize performance claims within tolerance limits, while users may find that the actual output is slightly lower in real-world conditions. With perovskites, the problem is magnified by their fluctuating performance.

“Ultimately, customers want to know how much power a system will produce,” Sample says.  “So, we must define a standard stabilization method-essentially deciding when and how to measure performance so results are both repeatable and representative of actual operation. We’ve addressed similar issues before with other thin-film technologies like cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), which also exhibit metastability.”

What IEC Standards?

The IEC has multiple work items addressing both performance measurement and reliability of single junction perovskite and tandem (or multi-junction) perovskite. A project is at committee draft stage and may advance this year, though Sample is quick to point out that IEC is expected to facilitate trade, not research. “Until you have a commercial product, we shouldn’t really be working on the standard,” he says. “But we try to push the boundaries.”

To bridge that gap, the IEC recently published a technical report, IEC 60904-14, summarizing existing approaches and is now working to adapt its IEC 60904 series for perovskite measurement.

Other technology performance increases are being developed for conventional crystalline silicon. There has been a move from traditional p-type to n-type doping of silicon in PV cells, as manufacturers look for higher efficiency. According to Sample, this has led to some issues of ultraviolet degradation occurring in the field. IEC TC 82 is developing a UV-ID test to calibrate the risk of performance loss in some of these technologies.

New demands are driving tech advances

Alongside materials, new applications are also driving change. Floating solar installations have already been deployed at scale, including in the UK, often in the absence of dedicated standards (which is typical for emerging technologies). In the early stages, developers relied on existing guidelines, sometimes extending test conditions, to approximate real-world stresses. “Now, we’re developing standards specifically for floating PV systems, covering both system design and component-level testing,” Sample says. “The challenges are considerable.”

Floating arrays operate in marine environments, which means they are exposed to high humidity with constant motion introducing mechanical stresses not seen in fixed or even solar PV tracking systems. Cable management becomes critical, as poorly designed systems risk submersion or water ingress. 

Higher voltage DC and hybrid systems

The industry is also exploring a shift from 1500 Volts (V) to 2000 V direct current (DC) systems and potentially 3000 V in utility-scale installations. Higher DC voltages reduce resistive losses in cables, potentially improving overall energy efficiency. However, such a shift requires a comprehensive overhaul of standards across modules, connectors, inverters, and grid integration. This long-term endeavour is only just beginning.

Hybrid energy systems are another growing focus, particularly in off-grid regions, which is the focus of another IEC TC 82 working group. These systems combine solar with other generation sources such as diesel, wind, or micro-hydro, alongside battery storage.

The challenge is that demands evolve rapidly. Sample explains: “When communities gain access to electricity, usage increases—from lighting and phone charging to refrigeration and entertainment. Standards must account for these dynamic loads, as well as system reliability and user behaviour, such as bypassing battery protections, which can damage systems.”

Meeting the recycling challenge

With solar panels having a 25-year lifespan, as soon as 2030, there could be 8 million tonnes of decommissioned solar panels worldwide. By 2050, end-of-life PV waste is expected to reach 78 million tonnes, posing a major environmental challenge without effective recycling.

In Europe, there are established schemes like PV Cycle, where manufacturers contribute to recycling costs upfront. However, most recycling today is based on weight. “That means it’s easy to meet targets by recycling aluminium frames, cables, and glass,” Sample says. “The difficult part is the module itself.” Solar panels are designed for durability (sealed, layered structures that resist environmental degradation). Separating those layers to recover high-value materials like silicon and silver is technically possible, but rarely economical.

Most current processes rely on mechanical crushing, producing materials that are reused in lower-value applications such as road aggregate or insulation. “You can meet a 95% recycling target by weight without recovering the most valuable materials,” he notes.

Scale is another barrier. While large volumes of panels are reaching end-of-life, they are geographically dispersed. Specialized recycling facilities are limited, and transport costs further complicate the economics.  The IEC is working on a publicly available specification for the reuse of PV modules and the circular economy IEC PAS 63525 ED1. The IEC is also working on a new standard, IEC 63395, for the systematic, sustainable management of e-waste. One of the standard’s objectives is to restrict operators who do not comply with the  requirements.

Where certification helps

Ensuring that manufacturers meet the requirements established in the standards mentioned above is what the IEC Conformity Assessment Systems have been established for. IECEE, the IEC System of Conformity Assessment (CA) Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components, addresses 23 different product categories, including solar PV parts and modules. Its certificates ensure that solar panels meet the performance and safety levels specified by standards. They are widely used in the solar PV export industry.

Through its IEC Quality Assessment System (IECQ), IEC operates an international ecodesign certification scheme for incorporating impact on the environment in product design, in accordance with the international standard for ecodesign IEC 62430.  This is also a tool that can be used to reduce e-waste.

Solar PV is already a critical element in the transition to sustainable energy generation. IEC work aims to ensure that the entire PV lifecycle, from development to deployment and ultimately to end of life, is also sustainable.

 

World AI Film Festival: “There is no emotion in AI”

IBC

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The World AI Film Festival fielded new and established storytelling voices but the jury is out on whether AI can capture the human spirit of cinema

To some people, even celebrating the role of AI in content creation is a tone-deaf and artless enterprise, but filmmakers participating in the World AI Film Festival (WAIFF) were proud of being at the forefront of a creative revolution.

“We used to say ‘before and after Christ’. Now we’ll say ‘before and after AI’,” veteran French director Claude LeLouch said at the event’s second edition in Cannes.

The festival took place in the same Palais venue which just a few weeks from now will host the Cannes Film Festival. While Cannes has outlawed the technology as a principal authoring tool, WAIFF competition entries must include use of at least three generative AI tools (including one for image creation).

“What we are witnessing here is the equivalent of the Lumière brothers’ The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat,” said musician Jean-Michel Jarre, acting as festival ambassador. “Cannes Film Festival began modestly 79 years ago. WAIFF will take far less time to become a major global reference.”

Entries were overwhelmingly short, typically 10 minutes long, in categories that ranged from advertising to fantasy and ‘emotion’. However, average duration has ticked up considerably on a year ago when films of one minute were permitted with predictions that feature length work will be submitted next year.

As it was, the winner of the ‘feature’ (long-form) award was a 4 x 52 minute docu-series Napoléon III, Le prix de l’audace, already aired on Canal+ and TV5 Quebec.

“Fictional AI features aren’t quite ready yet, but hybrid documentaries with interviews and AI‑generated historical reconstructions are very strong,” said WAIFF Artistic Director, Julien Raout. “Next year we’ll have full AI fiction features over an hour long.”

Searching for soul

Jury members were looking for originality in judging the 54 official competition entries (selected from 7000 submissions).

“Whether AI is used or not the most important thing to me is story,” said Nam Na-young, the South Korean editor of Squid Game. “Then I look for details in the scene, such as lighting and I also look for the editing; how one scene goes to the next, how it links and changes the story.”

She said entries were “not as diverse in terms of genre” as she expected. “Narrative wise they aren’t very strong. The more experimental ones are stronger.”

French actor Elsa Zylberstein, another festival juror, was searching for “soul” in AI generated work and found this wanting. “To be an actor is unique in the way you are exposing your soul and from what I have seen so far there is no emotion in AI.”

Academy Award winning documentarian Ruby Yang thought that the more original stories were being made as animations rather than hybrid films that augment live action with AI.

“I can spot something that's used a piece of IP from somewhere else in live action easier than I can in animation,” she said. “I see slower paced stories with more humanity coming from Europe and faster paced science fiction and action films from Asia.”

By definition, all the films in competition were hybrid in the sense that they are made by humans using AI. There were fewer examples of work which blended camera originated live action with AI‑generated visuals “because it is easier and cheaper to use full AI,” Raout said.

One of them, RendAI-vous, directed by Marius Doicov, won the Best Youth Film. Another film from Brazil featured actors transformed into wolf‑like creatures, something that used to be extremely expensive with VFX, now achievable with AI.

The Best Film of the overall competition was awarded to Costa Verde, a 12-minute personal story about his Corsican childhood from writer-director Léo Cannone produced by the UK’s New Forest Films.

“Just because we can do something doesn’t mean that we should,” noted Elena Lyubarskaya, founder of Berlin-based AI producer The Difference Machine. “Before AI we had physical constraints like not being able to shoot a scene at night, or being denied access to a location, or simply lack of budget. Solving these problems is where all the best ideas came from.

“Now I can generate an octopus running around a city but it’s just slop if there’s no story. I think we will have to learn to artificially put constraints on ourselves.”

Director Mathieu Kassovitz echoed this sentiment. “The only limit is my taste,” he said. “I feed the machine with my inspiration, and I must get back something that feels like what I’d get from a human team.

“Right now AI is like a wild horse in a stable. We don’t know how to tame it yet, but we can see it’s an exceptional beast.”

AI exists, for good or ill, so let’s explore it

Established filmmakers like Kassovitz were keen to push AI into sacrosanct areas of performance, cinematography and production design.

Claude Lelouch talked about embarking on his 52^nd feature using AI.

“My last films didn’t do very well. Since I’m struggling to find money, I’m turning to AI,” he candidly admitted.

He has been learning to use it for six months. “I asked myself how is it possible that the greatest filmmakers in the world are being overtaken? They’re being overtaken in the sense that soon there will be financial limits — or even limits of imagination. AI is a camera that gives you images even before you’ve filmed anything. It will change cinema.”

Director and screenwriter Nathalie Marsac described a sequence in her upcoming English-language feature A Beautiful Journey involving tiger sharks and a mermaid—initially planned as a shoot in the Bahamas.

“A year ago, VFX studios told me those scenes would cost hundreds of thousands of Euros. We were facing weather constraints… there was too much uncertainty. Suddenly, with AI I can make something that wasn’t possible before.”

Actor, writer and director Agnès Jaoui, whose L'Objet du délit is set to be premiered at Cannes Film Festival, said she felt “terrorised by AI, and all the fantasies it represents,” which is partly why she accepted the invitation to sit as President of the WAIFF Jury.

“Whether we like it or not, AI exists and we might as well go and see what it is exactly, rather than being overwhelmed by our fears and rumours,” Jaoui said.

She may still be in two minds having seen the results. While directors can ostensibly auteur their vision to screen solely using AI on a fraction of conventional budgets, actors and below the line crafts may feel a chill.

Zylberstein insisted that actors would be protected. “Only an actor like Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks or Gena Rowlands can evoke genuine emotion. AI cannot copy this.”

LeLouch, who is also the festival’s honorary president, expressed reservations believing AI would never “replace the tears or the smile of actors, or their eyes. Because truth, for me, exists in the eyes. That’s why I love cinema.”

Yet the tech is advancing at pace. The AI‑generated characters in last year’s entries “looked wooden,” according to Raout. “Now you can feel emotion with micro‑expressions, proper lip‑sync and believable faces.”

“There’s no comparison (year on year). The tools have evolved faster than any technology we’ve ever seen in video creation. Last year’s best films wouldn’t make the official selection of films this year.”

Filmmakers take copyright into their own hands

Caution about infringing copyright was front of mind for many filmmakers present.

Japanese producer Taiki Sakurai said, “Many videos on YouTube are violating copyright but there’s also a grey zone which is widening as people get more and more forgiving about what is illegal.”

French artist Anne Horel, whose work ‘La Tisseuse d’Ombres’ won the Press Film Award, trains AI tools on her own digital work, partly to avoid infringement, partly to create something unique.

“Some filmmakers are creating their own servers to build their own IP,” reported Academy Award winning documentarian and juror Ruby Yang. “Even though this is more expensive it means they avoid the potential trouble with open source models.”

Lyubarskaya worried that being fully transparent about the prompts in her work would expose her own IP.

“There must be a tool we can develop where you can show your workflow to clients that will verify that no Spider-Man or any other IP has been touched without revealing your own creative ingredients.”

WAIFF grows internationally

The festival format is licensed to partners in Korea, Japan, Brazil and China which held local events this year.  Those will be repeated in the year ahead joined by one in Istanbul in November with new locations planned for India, Vietnam, Canada (Vancouver) and Argentina.

“The best five AI films from each country automatically enters the official competition in Cannes so partner countries have a greater chance of winning awards,” he explained.

Films from US creators were, however, thin on the ground with no noticeable Hollywood presence at the festival. “Hollywood studios are scared,” said WAIFF founder Marco Landi. “They haven’t understood that going against this wave is dangerous. They should embrace AI and help the evolution.”

He drew parallels with Kodak’s failure to adapt to digital photography and Nokia’s collapse in the smartphone era; “If you resist, you disappear.”

An edition of WAIFF launching in Los Angeles this October could change that.

When WAIFF returns next April it will include a new competition category for gaming, VR, and AR “exploring how AI is used in immersive technologies,” Raout said.

Launching a ‘Netflix of AI’

Organisers are also planning to launch an online distribution platform for AI-generated content, dubbed a ‘Netflix for AI films’.

It could partner in the venture with SHAIKE, a Marseille-based production agency that already operates an AI content streaming platform boasting 1000+ titles.

“The goal is for creators to upload their films to our platform, participate in festivals through our network, and receive support from promotion, festival exposure and media coverage,” confirmed SHAIKE founder Jeremy Angelier. “After the festival run, we become a distribution channel, providing continued visibility and access to audiences.”

There’s a growing feeling that AI filmmakers should be renumerated for their work. AI filmmaking is not necessarily cheap with creators buying tokens from AI model makers.

“Platforms should contribute financially,” Raout said. “Right now, creators pay the platforms to make films, while the platforms make huge profits. Our sponsors (AI editing tool Capcut and GenAI model MiniMax) support visibility for creators, but we want money to flow back to filmmakers. Our future ‘AI Netflix’ could help monetise their work, but platforms should also pay into the ecosystem.”

As to whether audiences want AI content, Raout was in no doubt. “Young people are bored with low‑effort AI fakes. They want real creators using AI as a tool to tell meaningful stories. They want new voices with new ideas, not the same stories recycled by big production companies.”

DFB taps Deltatre to launch DTC streamer DFB.TV+

Streaming Media

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The German Football Association (DFB) has partnered with Deltatre to launch DFB.TV+, a new direct‑to‑consumer streaming service that consolidates a wide range of German football content previously scattered across multiple platforms. The service, built on Deltatre’s end‑to‑end OTT product Vesper, is scheduled to go live on 22 May, forming a central pillar of the DFB’s first 24/7 pay‑TV channel, DFB.TV.

 

Deltatre’s Vesper platform, a core component of last year’s acquisition of Endeavor Streaming, provides the backbone of the new service, handling live and on‑demand content ingest, metadata and business‑rule management, multi‑device applications and payment and monetisation models (subscription, PPV, team passes) as well as integration with the DFB’s single sign‑on system.

 

“The SSO integration is central to the federation’s long‑term strategy,” Deltatre’s Chief Revenue Officer, Peter Bellamy said. “By unifying user identity across digital touchpoints, the DFB aims to build richer fan profiles and tailor offers—whether discounted match tickets, merchandise bundles, or targeted video recommendations—based on individual behaviour.”

 

He added that the DFB was particularly focused on using the platform to deepen its understanding of domestic and international audiences, and to support both direct and indirect revenue streams.

 

Alongside standard DRM and VPN‑mitigation tools, Deltatre is deploying Spear, a CDN‑level anti‑piracy product designed to detect and shut down illegal streams in real time. The company plans to highlight Spear more publicly later this year.

 

The rollout marks the DFB’s most ambitious digital initiative to date—and one timed to build traction in the run up to this summer’s FIFA World Cup. By the end of May, Deltatre will have taken the project from contract signing to launch in under two months, a timeline Bellamy describes as a key differentiator in the company’s pitch.

 

“With over 35 million football fans in Germany, this collaboration reinforces direct‑to‑consumer as a core pillar of any modern rights and distribution strategy,” Bellamy said. “Our major differentiator is our ability to deliver high‑quality deployments at speed. We can get a full service live in two months because the platform is so heavily productised. If you’re building bespoke components from scratch, you simply can’t hit those timelines.”

 

The new platform brings together content from across the DFB’s rights portfolio, including:

men’s and women’s senior national teams, Youth national teams, the Frauen‑Bundesliga and

Lower‑league competitions plus domestic cup finals DFB‑Pokal and a growing slate of original programming.

 

The launch includes two complementary products: DFB.TV – a 24/7 linear channel featuring archive content, highlights, and original programming. It will also be distributed through partners such as Vodafone’s GigaTV platform and DAZN. DFB.TV+ is the premium OTT service offering live matches, full replays, and the complete on‑demand library.

 

The DFB emphasises that neither product competes with existing broadcast partnerships; rights‑holder relationships remain protected.

 

Much of this material was previously fragmented or unavailable. Some content like the lower leagues has never been centralised before.

 

“We’ve seen with the English Football League that there is real fandom and monetisation potential in those lower tiers,” Bellamy said. “Some rights will be newly utilised, and others have been pulled back from third‑party platforms to sit within the new service.”

 

The DFB sees consolidation as a way to strengthen fan engagement and build a more complete picture of audience behaviour.

 

“We are proud that so much content previously not available or scattered across different platforms is now being consolidated, making it easier to discover, access, and enjoy,” said Dr. Holger Blask, DFB General Secretary and Chairman of the Management Board in a release.

 

DFB.TV+ will initially be available in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with international expansion planned in later phases.

 

Deltatre has “invested heavily” in Vesper and is now fully integrated into the company alongside other products and services including Axis, a modular platform for major broadcasters; digital publishing platform Forge and a data, graphics, VAR, and officiating business.

 

The company is also preparing to launch a hybrid digital‑and‑OTT solution combining editorial, ticketing, social features, gamification, AVOD, and SVOD into a single ecosystem.

 

Product aside, Deltatre also develops strategy for clients “helping model the total addressable audience, pricing, propensity to pay, and subscription growth.” It also advises on marketing spend, market prioritisation, content proposition, and running content operations (geo‑restrictions, licensing rules, etc.).

 

Deltatre runs the Ligue 1+ DTC streamer for the top French soccer league, and is a long standing partner with UEFA on UEFA.tv, which started as a multi‑competition value‑add service and evolved into a core part of UEFA’s digital strategy.

 

“We expect a similar journey with the DFB: monetisation, flexibility, and long‑term digital ecosystem development,” Bellamy said.

 

As for whether similar conversations are underway with Germany’s top tier soccer league Bundesliga, Bellamy acknowledges there is a “path over time,” though no details were disclosed.

Regions: UAE AV market holds firm

AV Magazine

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The fallout from war has economically impacted UAE with a nosedive in tourism and disruption to ‘business as usual’. Yet no-one expects decades of investment, technological development, and foreign traffic to the region to contract for good.

The Iran conflict caught most people by surprise not least AV Magazine and our respondents who were some way down the route of replying to us before war broke out.

The fallout from the conflict has impacted UAE materially with drones and missiles on and economically with a nosedive in tourism. Yet no-one expects decades of huge inward investment, economic realignment and foreign traffic to the UAE to contract for good.

It can feel a little surreal, if not inappropriate, to be talking about the ‘wow factor’ of ProAV installations or luxury lifestyles for which the region is known when missiles are being fired just a few miles away.

That said, it is anticipated that this momentum is only temporarily hindered which is why contributors based in the region are taking a longer term view of prospects. The ProAV climate is judged resilient as the Emirates continue to evolve beyond oil-dependency.

United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) aspires to be join the top 20 academic institutions in Asia – and the top 200 globally – by 2030. To modernise its communication infrastructure and enrich the overall learning experience UAEU chose a suite of VITEC solutions for live streaming and digital signage across its 80-hectare campus.

Uncertain in the short-term
Calling the outlook for Emirati ProAV “generally positive” Mahesh Singh, regional sales manager, UAE, Christie says, “We are observing consistent demand for integrated AV systems across corporate, education, hospitality, events and retail. However, it’s important to acknowledge that ongoing political uncertainty in the region could affect business operations in general.”

“Despite the current uncertainty in the region, the ProAV climate in the UAE is extremely dynamic,” says Al Tikriti, chief product and technology officer, Disguise.
As of early 2026, the market continued to see momentum driven by increased AV-over-IP deployments, more European and U.S.-centric manufacturers and solution providers enhancing their MEA (Middle East Africa) presence, and growing expertise within the Pro AV system integrator community.

“Post-pandemic recovery, tourism rebound, and continued diversification away from oil have created steady demand for high-end integrated systems across government, corporate, hospitality, education and entertainment sectors,” reports Johnny Hickman, sales account manager, Matrox. “Looking ahead, the UAE’s long-term development strategies, smart city initiatives, control room infrastructure, corporate expansion, and major events are expected to support continued demand for AV.”

Singh identifies the UAE’s commitment to smart cities leading to increased investment in interactive displays, video walls, AV-over-IP solutions and networked control systems for public buildings and business campuses.

Furthermore, the UAE’s status as a global hub for conferences, corporate events, exhibitions and international tourism is “fuelling demand for immersive AV experiences, large LED walls and projection mapping,” he says.

Ambitious AV design
State funding may be on tap but this coupled with a willingness to go above and beyond in using AV to drive development in every sector.

“The bar for what counts as a successful installation is genuinely high here, and that pushes the whole market forward,” says Netgear’s head of sales, Annamalai Ar. “What is changing is the nature of the ambition. We are seeing a clear shift away from purely showpiece installations toward smarter, more integrated and sustainable solutions,” he adds.

He says the market is becoming more mature in planning, technical standards and lifecycle thinking.

“Clients are asking harder questions about system management and long-term supportability, not just headline performance. For Netgear, that shift is significant: it moves the conversation from spec sheets to network architecture, which is where we do our most meaningful work.”

Walid Tabet, Vitec’s regional director, says UAE’s AV culture is fast moving, highly visual, and aspirational; “it is shifting towards integrated, immersive, AI driven experiences across all verticals. What makes it exciting is how aggressively the country uses AV as a canvas for smart city living, and a global creator economy rather than just ‘equipment in a room’.”

Hickman calls local AV “ambitious, fun, luxury-focused and experience-driven, yet always with an eye on value. [Eye-catching] installations continually push market trends forward.”
What’s exciting, he says, is the speed of execution. “Projects here don’t just adopt technology — they create environments that genuinely engage millions of international visitors every year and enhance the daily experience of people living in the country.”

Netgear continues to see strong investment across the board in a market that remains “active and genuinely competitive,” according to Ar. “The conversation has matured: clients are more focused on ROI and long-term value than on spec for spec’s sake.”

Singh judges the region’s approach to AV as “technologically progressive, increasingly localised yet deeply connected with global trends”. He elaborates: “It’s characterised by a strong infrastructure that is fostering the trend toward the use of digital and AI tools as artistic practice, with greater emphasis on regional stories and Arab cultural expression.”

Operating from October to April, Global Village Dubai functions as a hybrid of theme park, cultural fair, and shopping destination, serving tourists, and local visitors in a high-density, high-traffic environment.

Creative, strategic, and impactful
Technology in UAE is commonly treated as a foundational layer of new developments, observes Tikriti; “This helps the region to push boundaries and achieve things we’ve never seen before when it comes to next-generation experience.”

He thinks the demand for immersive and technically sophisticated environments will only accelerate. “Technology is actively being considered as part of the core infrastructure of buildings and districts from the very beginning of the planning process. What’s exciting is the freedom here to rethink fundamentals – what a museum, public space, or cultural destination can actually be.”

Assessing UAE as “an opportunity rich, innovation driven market” Karan Kathuria, director of sales & business development at Renkus-Heinz says: “The role of AV will only become more creative, strategic, and impactful.”

“AV in the UAE has evolved from a hardware-led installation market into a highly experience-driven, design-centric ecosystem tied closely to architecture, events, tourism, and national ambition,” she says. “Dreams are big and time is the only answer for them to be executed, whether these are large or medium scale.”

Dubai began its ascent in the 1990s encouraging foreigners to base themselves in a tax free climate while infrastructure was built around them. The last decade has seen the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia attempt to turn its own oil tanker of an economy. Specifically the KSA is rapidly expanding its audio-visual market as part of its national transformation strategy under Saudi Vision 2030.

Masdar City is a $22bn sustainable eco-city project in being developed to rival California’s Silicon Valley but also to incorporate all aspects of city life. This includes an emphasis on narrow shaded streets, walkways and paths. Its orientation uses the cool night winds to reduce solar gain.

Nation to nation competition

“The UAE hasn’t been overshadowed so much as refocused,” argues Kathuria. “It’s winning more project awards and doubling down on pragmatic, high impact developments that create steady, real world demand for AV, immersive tech and integrated digital experiences — a strategy that appeals strongly to project owners, investors and tech partners alike.”

Saudi Arabia’s mega projects attract global attention, but the UAE maintains its position “through stability, execution capability and international connectivity,” argues Ar. “Rather than competing on scale alone, the focus here is on quality, innovation and timely delivery — and that is a fundamentally different value proposition.

“The UAE’s advantage has always been execution maturity,” Ar says. “Predictable procurement cycles, a deep and experienced integrator community, and projects that move from specification to commissioning without the delays that characterise more nascent markets. The current regional volatility tests that reputation, and it would be dishonest to say it creates no headwinds. But clients here have enough market experience to distinguish between regional turbulence and structural risk, and our pipeline reflects that.”

A focus on business operations

Dubai and Abu Dhabi continue to grow with a focus on business operations, entertainment experiences and global event readiness. “Dubai in particular is often perceived as ‘shiny’ because of its international scale and agility, and it truly leads in terms of ease of doing business and global tech partnerships,” says Singh.

Hickman suggests that, of the Emirates, Dubai leads in volume and visibility. “Dubai leads because of tourism and events infrastructure,” he says. “Abu Dhabi focuses on cultural prestige and government projects with a very different vibe.”

Netgear completed a full network infrastructure modernisation at Global Village Dubai, for one of the region’s largest cultural and entertainment destinations: a 10G fully redundant backbone, M4350 and M4250 switching across core, distribution and access layers, and managed wireless covering the entire park. “The scale and operational intensity of that environment made it a demanding brief, and one that reflects the complexity of projects increasingly coming through across the UAE,” says Ar.

However, as Ar points out, it would be a mistake to treat the UAE as synonymous with Dubai alone. “Beyond the two main centres, other emirates are steadily developing commercial and mixed-use projects, each at their own pace and with their own priorities. The result is a genuinely balanced national landscape rather than a single-city story.

There are seven Emirates
Hickman elaborates, “Sharjah is more focused on education and smart-community developments, and the northern emirates on eco-tourism and hospitality. Economically, Dubai and Abu Dhabi account for the majority of projects, yet the smaller emirates benefit from spillover investment and targeted incentives. AV trends follow the same pattern: flashy, high-profile in Dubai; institutional and immersive in Abu Dhabi.”

There are a number of hugely exciting projects on the horizon that have technology and visual experience sitting at the heart. Billed as “an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world” Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be “authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati” when it opens sometime between 2030-33. Immersive destinations and experiences creator Miral, based in Abu Dhabi is helping design the resort on Yas Island.

Echoing the scale of the 20,000-capacity Sphere in Las Vegas, Sphere Abu Dhabi promises to “re-define entertainment in the region” if and when construction begins. The country even plans a Harry Potter theme park from Warner Bros.

Twenty years after its announcement, the world’s largest Guggenheim is still waiting its official launch party. Frank Gehry, now 96 years old, and the original architect of Bilbao’s iconic art museum, has described this project as his “late masterpiece.”

Projects of scale
Abu Dhabi’s government want to overtake Paris and London as the art capital of the world and has commissioned Zaha Hadid to design a new Performing Arts Centre, located alongside a version of the Louvre and the Guggenheim in the Saadiyat Cultural District. Also there is the Zayed National Museum, architected by Foster + Partners with five lightweight steel wings, which opened its doors in December.

“Such plans will make meaningful additions to the UAE’s arts and culture scene, while much-publicised developments such as Disneyland and Sphere will secure the UAE’s spot on the world map when it comes to pioneering next-generation immersive entertainment,” says Tikriti.

“Immersive experiences at museums and cultural destinations as one of the most exciting sectors right now. There’s a strong desire to tell national and regional stories through contemporary immersive techniques, combining cutting-edge technology with deep cultural narratives to connect with younger, digital-native audiences.”

Sports business
The live events and sports technology vertical deserves particular attention in the UAE context. The region has committed not just to hosting world-class events but to using them as platforms for genuine technological innovation. The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (ADRL) is a case in point. The debut event at Yas Marina drew over 600,000 online viewers and required a network infrastructure from Netgear capable of supporting real-time AI decision-making across multiple autonomous vehicles simultaneously. “Here, the AV network is not a support system for the event but integral to it,” says Ar.

Despite the cancelling of Grand Prix in neighbouring Bahrain and Saudi Tabet notes “substantial investment directed toward the sports industry across the region, including football, e-gaming, and multi-sport arenas.”

A recent disguise highlight was powering the Phygital Games of the Future in Abu Dhabi, created and delivered by bright! Studios. “The event fused esports with physical sports in a live event that was broadcast to millions of fans across the globe, filled with jaw-dropping visual moments,” Tikriti says. “Disguise has further plans for expansion in the region which we will be sharing more on very soon.”

Other projects supported by Disguise in the region over the years include projection mapping at the Burj Khalifa, Al Wasl Dome and the One&Only One Za’abeel hotel, to immersive digital experiences at Dubai Airport.

Infrastructure and residential build out
The 900km-long Etihad Rail passenger network development expects to launch its first services this year across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and beyond. This is the region’s first cross border rail network connecting 11 cities and towns across the seven emirates. There are also major airport expansions (such as at Al Maktoum International in Dubai).

Marsa Al Arab is a seafront resort being built on two artificial islands near the Burj Al Arab, focusing on tourism and luxury living, with plans for hotel and entertainment facilities. Masdar City is a $22 billion sustainable eco-city project in Abu Dhabi near the international airport. Debuting next spring, Wynn Al Marjan Island is being developed into a “opulent and entertaining beachside destination” in the port city Ras Al Khaimah (capital of RAK).

While the Burj Khalifa remains Dubai’s most recognised symbol, the Creek Tower Dubai due to open this year is intended to be a landmark on par with the Eiffel Tower. Designed to surpass the Burj Khalifa in both height and symbolism, the tower is part of the Dubai Creek Harbour Tower development of luxury living and shopping, one part of which was hit by an Iranian drone.

“These are all expected to support continued AV investment in transport, entertainment and smart-city environments,” Hickman says. On a smaller scale he notes the need for increased security control rooms with higher levels of IP decode/encode “as is the need for corporate clients to transmit video at low bandwidths at high quality to reduce networking costs whilst increasing national and international collaboration.”

Overall, the UAE’s successful diversification of economic development, cultivated organically over five decades across various sectors, has helped reduce its dependence on oil.

“This strategic shift positions the UAE favourably,” Singh says. “Consequently, the UAE is not under immediate economic threat from any neighbouring GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, particularly given its consistent announcement and execution of diverse projects. Its well-established and multifaceted economy offers a robust foundation for growth going forward.”