The Beauty of the Beast: Filming Wildlife Survival on a Changing Planet

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In Sri Lanka, a frog shares homemaking duties with a venomous tarantula. South African birds kill their nestlings to save the colony. A wasp builds a cradle for offspring she will never meet in the English countryside. While killer whales teach their young to hunt, in Kenya, an elephant matriarch and her family must share the remaining water with humans until finally the rains come.

Parenthood, produced by multiple BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Silverback Films for BBC and PBS, tells the previously untold stories behind the struggles and triumphs that animal parents must endure in order to sustain life on Earth.

Filmed over three years across 23 countries, this 5x60’ series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, showcases astonishing animal behaviours in stunning 6K Ultra High Definition using RED.

“Working with the world’s best wildlife cinematographers and nature experts, we uncovered a huge number of fascinating and untold behaviors through incredible field craft and dedication,” explains series producer Jeff Wilson. “In an uncertain world, there are lessons to be learned from our animal characters that will resonate with all of us.”

Gorillas in the jungle

The first sequence in the whole series is of a female gorilla cradling her newborn baby.

“Normally the brief is to capture the cute little baby exploring their world,” explains cinematographer Max Kölbl. “But in this case, it was about how the parents perceive parenthood, and what decisions they need to take in order to give their kids the best environment to grow up in.”

This editorial decision dictated how Kölbl would gather footage for the sequence over six weeks in the Gabon rainforest.

“The goal was to pursue a classical long-lens approach designed to immerse viewers in the emotional perspective of gorilla parenthood. That meant I had a long lens on a tripod almost all the time.”

Kölbl has considerable experience filming highly mobile primates like chimpanzees and bonobos for National Geographic, BBC and Apple TV. Tracking them in the field can require walking up to 30 km a day - with gear - but even he was surprised by the difficulty in keeping pace with this gorilla family.

“Group behaviour changes depending on its social makeup. In our case, a new female and her kids tried to enter the group so there was a lot of chaos; the gorillas were really restless and they were very protective of a vulnerable youngster.

“Because we were constantly on the move I felt rushed the entire time. Any moment where we had 30 minutes or an hour to film was pure bliss.”

Low light, rough terrain

Rainforest cinematography presents low light, extreme contrast and layers of green-on-green texture that can flatten both subject and depth. Kölbl relied on RED GEMINI largely because of its dual native ISO and relatively low power demands compared with larger cinema systems.

“RED offers a perfect ratio of image quality, ISO sensitivity, energy consumption, and lightweight design. GEMINI is really light-sensitive so if you are in these dark conditions, you can still get a crisp, clear image.”

Weight and energy consumption were critical considerations since every component from water and food to batteries and tripod had to be carried manually through swampy terrain.

Kölbl carried a second GEMINI body as insurance, selected a CN50–1000mm supplemented by a CN10 for wider coverage.

Equally, if not more important for Kölbl, is working with local Baka guides and trackers. They are essential not only for locating the gorillas, but for understanding their movement and anticipating behaviour.

“Visibility in the jungle is so restricted. Ten centimetres either side and you’ll have a big leaf or tree in front of you. By the time you’ve moved to another position, often the moment has gone.

“That’s why my main goal is to have a good connection with someone in the field who knows the place and the animals by heart. We really fuse into one so that we get the best behavior and the best perspective as a team.”

When he looks back at the sequence, he’s amazed it seems so calm and tranquil. “This was the shoot where I had the biggest contrast between how I felt while filming and the imagery I actually shot.”

Earth’s greatest spectacle

In the Brazilian Amazon, the crew visited a remote stretch of riverbank that has the largest concentration of freshwater turtles in the world.

“Every year the females come out to nest on the beach, and two months later thousands of hatchlings emerge,” says wildlife filmmaker Cristian Dimitrius. “It’s an incredible natural spectacle.”

Dimitrius has filmed the event five times for different productions—A Perfect Planet (Silverback), Supernatural: The Unseen Powers of Animals (Plimsoll), The Americas, and Parenthood (both produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit) and another Netflix project still to come. Each return trip has forced him to rethink how to tell a story he knows intimately. “The good thing about going back is you can always find a new angle,” he says. “For Parenthood, the unique part was capturing the hatchlings actually breaking out of the eggs.”

A fragile landscape

The beach where the turtles nest is not a national park or state reserve. Its protection comes from a local community association whose members patrol the area, deter poachers, and intervene when climate change threatens the hatchlings.

“The hatching depends on the rains,” Dimitrius explains. “If the rain comes too late, the babies get cooked underground. If it comes too early, the nests flood and they drown.” The team often digs up nests to save the eggs or releases hatchlings manually. “They’ve saved thousands,” he says. “It’s a constant effort.”

Dimitrius uses his own three‑camera RED package in the field: a V‑RAPTOR, GEMINI, and EPIC‑W. “I always bring three cameras,” he explains. “One stays on a long lens, usually a Canon 200–400mm or 600mm equivalent, to cover the classic scenes of the nesting.”

GEMINI is paired with specialty lenses like the Laowa probe for extreme close‑ups, and wide‑angles for wide and immersive shots close to the turtles. For wide work he uses Canon primes from 10mm to 15mm. For very small spaces he sometimes uses KOMODO-X and it is also the camera that goes underwater.

The EPIC‑W served as a flexible B‑cam for timelapse, gimbal work, and backup body ensuring the team never risked downtime in a location where repairs are impossible.

“RED is always the preferred choice,” he says. “It’s not mandatory, but it’s the most accepted camera in the market for natural history. It’s so versatile. We can do slow motion, timelapse, high resolution. Everything we need.”

In particular, the underwater material stands out for him. He relied on a Nauticam housing, swapping between large domes for split shots and smaller domes for macro and micro detail.

“It was the first time we really got good underwater shots of the females for the sequence, which took place in another location a few weeks before. We had the right light, and the right behavior. It finally came together.”

Life in the field

The shoot is as remote as natural history filmmaking gets. “There’s just a basic camp we helped build over the years,” Dimitrius says. “We bring camping gear, food, fuel, tools, spare parts, drones, tripods, sliders, gimbals. You must be completely self sufficient. If something breaks, there’s nowhere to replace it.”

There’s a daily early morning shoot before the sun gets too hot and another shoot on the riverbank in late afternoon. In between, the team will shoot sets arranged in their camp and data manage footage as well as cooling overheated SSDs with fans.

“I rarely need to review footage,” Dimitrius says. “I know when I’ve got the shot. But we check key material and keep a shot list pinned to the wall. It’s a 24‑hour mental process. Even when you sleep, you’re dreaming about the footage.”

His strategy for every shoot is to try to capture all the essential “classic” wildlife shots in week one. “If the weather cooperates, then we spend the second week pushing for creativity and making the sequence more cinematic.”

Dimitrius’s wife Flavia Rocha served as local producer, managing logistics through their production company, Cristian Dimitrius Productions. For the nesting and underwater scenes, Rafael Mitsuo assisted. For the hatchling scenes, macro specialist Owen Carter added a tactile dimension to the sequence, camera operator Laura Pennafort did most of the shots including drone and long lens and Aaron Sadhu served as field director.

The shot that made the sequence

What makes the shoot special, he says, is the sheer diversity of wildlife filming technique. “It’s macro, long lens, wide angle, gimbal, drone, underwater, lab work. The full arsenal. That’s what makes it unique.”

The moment that defines the sequence, however, may be the simplest: a hatchling breaking free of its egg. It was filmed in a controlled lab environment by Richard Kirby and Augusto Gomes at the research center INPA in Manaus.

“When I saw that shot, I knew that was the one,” he says. “It tells the whole story. Tiny legs pushing through the shell, the first breath of a life that will immediately fight for survival. It is magical and when I saw it on my phone, I knew that was the start of the sequence. As I said, it’s all about teamwork. Richard and Augusto did a great job, as the rest of the team. We can see every contribution of everyone on screen. Laura’s passion and dedication is imparted in every image she shot, Owen’s macro magic makes the difference, Aaron’s connections and direction made the sequence extraordinary, Flavia’s fixing made us safe and comfortable and our female and underwater shots connect the species to the environment. Teamwork is always the key.“

DROUGHT, GUNS AND FLOODS

The team were hoping to film elephants in the height of the wet season but when they arrived in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve in 2022 the rains had not yet come. East Africa was in the grip of a historic drought and the consequences for both wildlife and people became clear.

“We’d planned to film a piece about how experienced female elephants guide tiny calves across dangerous rivers,” explains cinematographer Sophie Darlington, ASC, who has worked on landmark series for Netflix, National Geographic and the BBC, including Dynasties I and II, Our Planet I and II, The Hunt, Planet Earth II and Life Story.

“The rains had failed and the land was parched. In addition to that, the first herd we followed was blocked by thousands of cattle and armed herders.”

She says, “No amount of maternal wisdom can help when you’re faced with livestock and people carrying machine guns. The story changed immediately.”

“It was an extraordinarily good shoot, but not the one we originally set out to capture.”

The shoot was delayed slightly in the hope for rain which did finally arrive towards the end of their three-week schedule.

“The reason elephants cross rivers is surprisingly simple: fresh pasture and family,” Darlington explains. “They’re hugely social. If it’s been raining on one side, they’ll travel. They can hear rain from far away—not just through their ears, but through their feet.”

Most elephants in Kenya aren’t hunted, though there’s human–wildlife conflict, so the team take great care around old bulls or crop‑raiders. “But because we’re in cars and using long lenses. Our standard is the CN20 50–1500mm. We give them space and have very little impact,” she says.

Building the sequence

For this day shoot, Darlington relied on HELIUM, chosen for its 16.5 stops of latitude. “That’s brilliant when filming elephants under harsh equatorial sun, where white skies and deep skin folds can easily clip or crush detail,” she says.

“We needed the ability to punch in at 120fps when elephants were being swept by currents. To feel the water dragging a calf, then quickly return to base rate (of 29.97fps, standard for BBC delivery). But with elephants, you have to be judicious with slow motion. They’re so big that over‑cranking can make them look ponderous unless there’s a strong story reason.”

The team carried two RED bodies—one in Darlington’s vehicle, one with drone operator Tobias Samuels.

“We also had a Canon CN7 as well as the CN20, so Tobias could set up wide shots while I covered long lens work at dawn or dusk.”

Having learned on film, Darlington is selective with her recording. “I’m hardwired to think carefully about when I press record, almost to my detriment,” she says. “Pre‑record [a function which caches 4-30 seconds] is a gift.”

She shoots with the editor in mind: close‑ups, linking shots, mother‑calf interactions and herd dynamics but she avoids overshooting. “Elephants were only at the river for limited periods, usually in terrible light. We didn’t have endless opportunities.”

Rushes were backed up to dual drives and she reviewed footage daily on a SmallHD monitor. When filming, she prefers the viewfinder. “I’m strongly left‑eyed and a bit of a framing fascist. A monitor changes how I frame.”

She operates zoom control with her right hand while pulling focus manually. “Despite autofocus advances, we still focus by hand. That will change soon, but for now, being in tune with the rig matters. I love using focus emotionally—throwing focus between characters in the frame at the right moment.”

Fieldcraft

Working with Samuels required constant communication between vehicles, facilitated by producer Nancy Lane. “There were several river crossings, so Tobias would send the drone up to see where the elephants were heading.”

They also had to be cautious: elephants don’t love drones, which can remind them of bees, and the presence of armed herders added another layer of risk. “We were extremely careful not to be intrusive. Our job is to record faithfully, but as beautifully and creatively as possible.”

Accessory‑wise Darlington packs lens tissues, a scrim or camouflage netting and KipperTie NDs as well as her beloved Swarovski 8x32 EL binoculars, bought with her first paycheck. “In our line of work, they’re crucial.”

Matriarchal intelligence

One extraordinary moment stayed with her: a mother edging her calf into the river, the current threatening to sweep the youngster away.

“Part of you wants to film the drama of a calf being swept away and rescued,” she admits. “But your heart is in your mouth. When she chose not to cross, it summed up her matriarchal intelligence perfectly.”

The team later travelled to Reteti, a community‑run elephant sanctuary where keepers effectively become surrogate mothers for calves orphaned by poaching or drought. “In the end, we got a much stronger story,” Darlington says.

Two shots from the sequence stand out for her: a mother passing through frame as she tilts down to reveal the calf, and the matriarch powering through the shot. “I remember thinking, That’s the frame. That’s going to tell the story.”

Last year, Darlington became the first dedicated natural history cinematographer invited to the ASC. “Being a member of the Society has given me powers I didn’t have before, and I’m determined to use them for good. I want to open doors for mentoring opportunities and help increase diversity. Given the state of the planet right now, that could not be more important.”

BTS Wimbledon: ESPN gears up for record breaking year

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ESPN is the biggest international broadcaster for Wimbledon for which it is paying around $95m annually for exclusive rights in the U.S until 2035 (from 2024).  It’s a vital partner to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) which own the Championship and which manages host broadcast internally under Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS).

“Wimbledon is one of the tentpole events on ESPN each year and is a cornerstone of our tennis portfolio,” John Suchenski, ESPN Senior Director, Programming & Acquisitions tells IBC365. “It represents excellence, tradition, and elite competition, values that align perfectly with our brand and the first-class coverage we strive to provide to fans in the U.S.”

To augment WBS’ coverage ESPN has a huge outside broadcast operation in SW19.

Jarrett Baker, ESPN’s Sr Manager, Remote Operations explains: “We do most of the production work live in Wimbledon with hundreds of pieces of equipment that were installed over the week before the main draw begins. We have about 300 people on site working in two full control rooms, a REMI PCR for international use, a large graphics room with five viz engines, replay space for 25 operators, and nine offices that overlook Court 18.”

ESPN is deploying more than 30 unilateral cameras. This includes four coverage cameras on both Centre Court and No. 1 Court along with two cabled handhelds and two RF handhelds roaming the grounds.

Baker says, “It’s a privilege to show off the immaculate grounds and world-class competition with so many bespoke positions.”

Its production also uses about 100 ISO feeds from WBS and there are nearly 500 inputs to the onsite router.

Highlights and magazine style programming are produced both on-site and in the U.S. Linda Schulz, Vice President, Production ESPN, explains, “We have production teams work in shifts to help with time change and the lengthy broadcast windows. The U.S. team focuses on highlights that have been requested by announcers and producers at the end of days’ play to be turned around for coverage in the AM in the UK. The U.S. team also handles our creative and long form creative content. Our team in the UK handles our quick turn analysis packages.”

This year ESPN added an announce (commentator) position at No. 3 Court and an upgraded commentator booth at Court 2.

“At this point we have Commentator booths in five different locations, allowing for a more in-depth presentation as we go from match to match,” Schulz says. “A tremendously exciting new coverage opportunity is additional ‘whisper’ positions, or more commonly known as courtside analysis positions. We now will frequently have reporters or analysts in the stands at Courts 1, 2, 3 and even Centre Court. This access is completely new this year.”

It also made scenic adjustments in Studio 3 to improve the look of virtual graphics. Additionally, ESPN has expanded its virtual graphics package. Last year it was primarily kept to in studio use and one live, static camera, with a handful of templates for content.

“This year we will have much more expansive content and storytelling presentations, as well as alternate camera options,” Schulz says.

Last year’s ratings for the women’s and men’s finals were ESPN’s best in six years, helped by the Jannik Sinner v Carlos Alcaraz battle to which 4 million people tuned in. The whole two weeks of Championship 2025 was ranked the fourth-best Wimbledon broadcast in ESPN’s history averaging 721,000 total viewers—6% higher than 2024—across more than 250 hours of coverage watched on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2.

The out-of-retirement story of 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and her sister Venus are a key editorial focus for the US broadcaster. ESPN plans to document both player journey’s from start to finish and wrap that coverage with virtual graphics, features and reports throughout all ESPN platforms.

“Beyond that, we love the opportunity of stories on both sides,” Schultz says. “Each of the last nine Wimbledon’s have featured a different ladies’ champion, the longest streak in tournament history. And on the Gentlemen’s side, Novak Djokovic is seeking his 25th all-time major singles title, which would break the tie with Margaret Court for most Gentlemen’s or Ladies’. But he has to get through the defending Champions Jannik Sinner and without Carlos Alcaraz, the door is cracked open for a spoiler to both Djokovic and Sinner.”

SIGNALS: A New Way to Experience Wimbledon

For decades, watching Wimbledon has meant following the TV broadcast but this format increasingly feels out of place in a world where fans demand interaction and new technology enables them to experience it.

SIGNALS is the BBC’s attempt to do something about that. It’s a new interactive layer built by BBC R&D and available during Centre Court matches at this Championships.

“Wimbledon has always been a shared national moment, watched and debated in real time but audience expectations have changed,” explains Laura Harrison, Principal product manager at BBC R&D. “People want to interact and feel part of what’s happening on court,”

Running as an internet‑delivered layer alongside the live broadcast, rather than as a second screen, SIGNALS blends real‑time participation with live match data. Among other things it enables viewers to answer quizzes at key moments then instantly seeing how others across the UK respond.

“You’re not just watching a match unfold, you’re seeing the collective read of it evolve in real time,” she says.

The official live ball‑tracking data is also being used to surface match insights displayed through on‑screen overlays. For example, a continuously updating ‘dominance graph’ shows who is in control and how momentum shifts. A ‘winners view’ highlights which shots are working and ‘Serve Performance’ cards and animated serve‑speed overlays bring clarity to these shots.

“Tennis produces a huge amount of data, but much of it has traditionally been out of reach during live play,” she adds. For fans, SIGNALS turns that data into “clear stories that make matches easier to follow and more engaging.”

This also  creates a real-time feedback loop, which BBC R&D say helps broadcasters understand audience behaviour in real time and therefore to shape editorial decisions as matches unfold.

BBC R&D thinking also extends into current affairs, reality and entertainment shows. Ideas include scoring a routine on Strictly at the exact moment the judges lift their paddles; choosing which route contestants should take in Race Across the World or responding live to discussion points on Question Time creating a live snapshot of the national mood.

Wimbledon is the first public outing for the prototype. BBC R&D suggest it’s a glimpse of how television might reclaim attention “not by competing with everything else in the room, but by bringing the interactions back to the TV screen itself.”

Stakeholders in UK DTT switch-off fight over timelines

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The saga of the UK’s switchover to an all-broadband TV future moved up a notch with the publication of a government paper Watch this Space: A new strategic direction for UK media that offers twin-tracks to an inevitable transition.

A fast-tracked scheme to switch off the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) network favoured by public service broadcasters (PSBs) including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 would be complete by 2034. A decade long extension to ensure universal access to PSB content is guaranteed is, not surprisingly, favoured by transmission provider Arqiva whose current contract for DTT provision expires in 2034.

Financial ratings agency S&P subsequently said of Arqiva, “A potential 2034 shutdown represents a downside scenario to our rating. Furthermore, Arqiva continues to face structural headwinds as the accelerating shift toward IPTV threatens its long-term earnings.”

The PSB argument for 2034

Essentially this boils down to cost. Cash-strapped PSBs

A Future TV Taskforce, which comprises UK PSBs and Everyone TV (a free TV platform run by the PSBs that supports IPTV (Freely) PTV),  terrestrial (Freeview) and satellite (Freesat) delivery welcomed the proposals as recognising the consumer-led shift towards internet‑delivered television.

Jonathan Thompson, chair of the Future TV Taskforce and CEO of Everyone TV, said, “As part of a wider move towards a fully inclusive digital society in the mid-2030s, we support a carefully managed transition in which no one is left behind.”

They provided figures that the number of UK homes without broadband was 1.2 million at the end of 2025 and that this would drop to 220,000 by 2034.

Maintaining a nationwide DTT infrastructure to service this minority is considered by the BBC to be “inappropriate for the corporation and licence fee payers” and would threaten cuts in content.

Media regulator Ofcom said as such in its review of public service media last year: “Within the next few years delivering TV universally on DTT will go from being a significant benefit to the PSBs, to a substantial obligation they will need to finance. This would mean more investment being diverted into distribution, rather than commissioning content that benefits all audiences and the creative industries.”

Commercial PSBs make a similar point in the paper, warning that “any additional investment in distribution reduces the funds available for investment in UK content.”

In addition, they say that 97% of households would have nothing more to pay if DTT was replaced with IPTV today. Since 95% already pay for broadband and 56% of non-internet users already pay for a landline telephone and these lines will be replaced by IP-delivered lines in the next two years.

The case for 2044

Incumbent tech provider Arqiva played on fears that a poorly managed transition “would be consumer sensitive, reinforcing the case to consider a more cautious, hybrid approach rather than a simple ‘runway’ to IPTV.”

It commissioned an alternative view which projects a higher figure of about 2.9 million households by 2025 that would use still require a DTT tuner as the primary means of watching linear on the main TV.

It also claimed that DTT “offers secure, resilient distribution because Arqiva is held to service levels that do not apply to IPTV.”

This is particularly important during national events and emergencies, when IP networks may be congested or unavailable.

Arqiva proposes to switch to a hybrid Freeview service from 2034 including an upgrade from DVB-T to DVB-T2 using MPEG-4 AVC. All legacy DVB-T capacity would be retired from 2035 and replaced by three DVB-T2 multiplexes, one PSB multiplex at about 98.5% coverage and two commercial multiplexes both at about 90% coverage.

Doing so would reduce DTT transmission charges from about £231 million a year today to about £139m from 2035 or roughly £123m if the DVB-T2 refresh is funded from auctioning off some of the DTT spectrum for mobile operation.

The share of these Arqiva charges falling to the PSBs would drop accordingly from £156m today to £87m a year (or £78m with auction funding). These figures exclude broadcasters’ own distribution, coding and multiplexing costs, as well as wider implementation costs.

Yet this modelling cuts no ice with the PSBs. In the Paper they call even the £78m annual charge “unmanageably high post 2034.”

Their assessment is that the cost of maintaining a universal PSB multiplex, particularly for commercial PSBs, would exceed their ability to operate it economically while continuing to deliver PSB content to all audiences.

Over a decade the cost to maintain DTT would run close to £1 billion.

The case for better DTT

There is a group who are happy with neither approach. TV manufacturers and operating system  providers, represented by techUK-CE-S\&T describe wants the DTT infrastructure to be beefed up to DVB-T2 using HEVC and therefore pave the way for UHD channel upgrades.

They point out that other European markets are demonstrating “credible” pro-DTT pathways; upgrading DTT to support HD and UHD (France and Spain) or using DVB-I to integrate broadcast and IP services (Germany and Italy).

The upgraded platform would not support more efficient codecs but addressable advertising would be enabled in more homes, it argues (although by IP connectivity rather than by DVB-T2 itself(. A refreshed platform would also keep open the prospect of future 5G broadcast services, subject to viable use cases and device support.

What’s next?

A switch-off date will now be set, with ministers consulting on the two potential timelines.  An announcement is due by end of the year.

The government itself has hinted that it favours 2024. Media minister Ian Murray said: “We are leaning in the green paper to 2034 because there are massive benefits. The really important thing is no one is left behind and we will have a very strong strategy from government to ensure that is the case.”

However, a poll found that nearly half of respondents would oppose paying the £180 licence fee if its content were only available online.

UK to force social media to tweak algorithms in favour of PSBs

The document also contains proposals to give greater prominence and discoverability to UK PSB content on social media platforms.

The regulator said broadcasters should work “urgently” with YouTube to ensure their content was easy to find on fair commercial terms, describing this as particularly important for news and children’s programming.

The government claims the plan would make it easier for people to find trusted news sources online and could legislate to bring about the change.

The move comes as media consumption continues to shift online. According to Ofcom, social media is now the primary source of news for three-quarters of 16-24 year-olds, while more than half of UK adults use social platforms to access news.

Despite this news on the BBC and ITV are still seen as more trustworthy than other sources found online and on social media.

Rules of this kind already apply to TV. The Media Act 2024 requires connected platforms such as smart TVs and streaming sticks to give prominence to public service on-demand services, including iPlayer and ITVX.

The UK government has already announced a ban on under-16s using social media platforms from next spring.

Separately, the Green Paper suggests widening the number of key sports events that are mandatory to be made available for free on traditional TV and online. The current list of events including the soccer World Cup, the Olympics, the FA Cup, the Grand National, and Wimbledon tennis.

 

 

 

Why media networks are being rewired for the speed of light

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The elimination of OB trucks is just the start of the light revolution. For the media industry, a rewiring of the transport network from electrons to photons promises to unlock AI‑driven production, immersive formats, and globalised workflows while dramatically cutting energy consumption.

“Bandwidth demand has exploded,” says Dr. Masahisa Kawashima, IOWN Technology Director at Japanese telco NTT. “What used to be less than one gigabit per customer is now tens of gigabits for media applications, and hundreds of gigabits for AI workloads.”

Momentum is building behind photonics – laser light - as replacement for electronics. An All Photonics Network (APN) has gained the support of 170 major telcos, device and chip vendors and internet powerhouses including Nokia, Ericsson, Orange, KDDI, Intel, Nvidia, Cisco, Ciena, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft and Google under the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) Global Forum.

“UHD contribution, multi‑camera remote production, VR capture, and AI‑assisted workflows have all accelerated bandwidth demand far beyond what legacy electrical switching architectures were designed to handle,” says Kawashima, who is also Chair of the IOWN Global Forum’s Technology Working Group. “At the same time, AI workloads, particularly large‑scale model training and inference, have introduced traffic patterns that are both bursty and massive, often exceeding hundreds of gigabits per second per node. The bottleneck is the network.”

Optical transport technologies have long been used to connect routers and switches in data networks. Traditionally, these routers and switches connect electrically through a telecom carrier’s optical transport system. But bandwidth demand is reaching a point where this model is no longer efficient.

The IOWN initiative proposes to move long‑distance optical transport capabilities directly into customer premises equipment (CPE), enabling end‑to‑end photonic paths with minimal electrical conversion.

“Optical transport technology has evolved to the extent that it’s both practical and cost effective to deploy long‑distance optical systems directly at customer sites,” he says.

For decades, electrons have been the carriers of data inside devices, performing all computation and routing. But electrons come with limits: heat generation, power inefficiency, and bandwidth bottlenecks. Every time a signal switches between optical and electronic domains, latency and energy cost increase.

Photonics replaces some of these electrical pathways with optical ones, allowing data to travel at the speed of light while reducing energy consumption dramatically.

The result, according to NTT, is to reduce power consumption to one-hundredth of existing output, increase data capacity 125 times and slash network latency to a fraction of a percent of its current levels.

True virtual remote production

For broadcasters and live‑production companies, the implications are profound. Media networks are increasingly indistinguishable from data‑centre networks. Today’s live production workflows still rely heavily on outside broadcast vans, specialist crews, and on‑site infrastructure.

“OB vans are expensive, and broadcasters can only own a limited number,” Kawashima says “Skilled editing crews are another bottleneck.”

APN changes the equation, he claims. By enabling direct, high‑bandwidth optical connectivity from venues to centralised production hubs, “APN removes the need for OB vans and dramatically reduces on‑site staffing. The result is a more flexible, scalable, and financially sustainable model.”

By eliminating the buffering resulting from optical-to-electrical-to-optical conversions in current networking latency is deterministic – ideal for live cloud switching.

“In media production, from multi-camera sports coverage to immersive, free-viewpoint experiences, precise synchronisation is critical,” says ,” Katsutoshi Itoh, Chair of the Use Case Working Group at IOWN and head of Sony’s Swedish R&D lab. “Even minor latency variations can disrupt 3D reconstruction and real-time interactivity. APN means predictable, tightly controlled timing across the network.”

This shifts the bottleneck from physical logistics to network provisioning and unlocks the long‑tail of live content. “With lower production overheads, broadcasters can cover more events (local sports, niche competitions, cultural performances) that were previously uneconomical.”

Tests have been made: Sony and Japanese broadcaster TBS claimed the first successful remote production a live music event using APN. 64 audio streams from The Japan Record Awards held at Tokyo’s New National Theatre were relayed for remote production to TBS’s Akasaka studio with a roundtrip of 5 milliseconds.

Enabling AR, holography, and 6DoF video

Emerging formats such as 6DoF video, volumetric capture, holographic replay and AR overlays for live events require multi‑camera arrays and significant AI compute. These workloads generate enormous traffic between capture nodes and compute clusters.

“APN is essential for these,” says Kawashima. He points to the VAR-style Automated Balls and Strikes (ABS) challenge system introduced for MLB baseball coverage this season. It uses 12 Hawk-Eye cameras placed around the stadium that continuously track the baseball in 3D.

“AI synthesises entirely new viewpoints—angles that no single camera could capture,” he says. “This six‑degree‑of‑freedom video experience is a glimpse of what’s coming. APN provides the bandwidth and low latency needed to make them practical.”

How APN integrates with today’s networks

Crucially, APN does not require ripping out existing carrier infrastructure. Instead, it changes where the optical transceivers live.

The key component are Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) transceivers that convert electrical signals into optical signals and vice versa, using multiple wavelengths to send information through a single fibre optic cable.

Carriers already operate optical transport systems, and those remain in place. The difference is where the optical transceivers sit. Today, they are installed in the carrier’s transport equipment. In APN, the transceivers are installed directly in the customer’s routers and switches, which then connect directly to the carrier’s optical infrastructure.”

“The most efficient method,” Kawashima explains, “is to connect customer routers and switches directly to a DWDM optical network. Directly connecting customer routers and switches with optical transport transceivers is already feasible today.”

Optical transceivers themselves are currently more expensive, but Kawashima expects the market to evolve quickly. “Think of smartphones,” he says. “The components inside are extremely expensive, yet business models make them accessible. The same will happen with APN transceivers.”

Industry consensus required

The next challenge is ecosystem alignment. IOWN was preceded in 2015 by OpenROADM which similarly aims to define and promote open optical data plane specifications. Its supporters include AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, NTT and Cisco.

Other vendor and carrier‑led groups have emerged to promote their own compute and optical technologies. These include the Open Compute Project (OCP - which has Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Google on its steering committee) and the OCI MSA (Optical Compute Interconnect Multi-Source Agreement) group which intends to establish an open, interoperable optical interconnect specification for AI. It’s also backed by Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia plus Broadcom and OpenAI.

“We have a strong collaboration with the OCP,” says Kawashima. “Together we’ve launched the AI Computing Continuum, which aims to define technology standards for a computing space spanning multiple clouds and edges.

“What differentiates IOWN is that we define concrete use cases—financial data centres, remote media streaming—and then specify end‑to‑end system designs. With that foundation, we collaborate with consortia like OCP and OpenROADM.

OCI MSA launched in February and IOWN is yet to engage directly. But Kawashima believes it will appreciate IOWN’s work “because we define use cases for their optical devices and show how customers can build full end‑to‑end systems using them.”

Interoperability for APN requires standardised long‑reach coherent transceivers suitable for CPE as well as operational models for provisioning photonic paths directly to enterprise sites.

“Once interoperability standards are established, the cost impact will be modest,” he says.

2030 APN roadmap

IOWN’s 2030 roadmap is ambitious: a global computing and communications fabric built on photonics, low‑latency architectures, and distributed AI. Parts of this vision are already commercially deployed.

NTT launched its first APN services in Japan two to three years ago, initially offering 100 Gbps connectivity in limited regions. Coverage and performance have been expanding ever since. Higher throughput, with per‑customer links scaling to 100G, 400G, and beyond is envisaged.

“The basic concept is already in service,” he says. “We continue to upgrade, but the foundation is real.”

Emerging architectures such as co-packaged optics (CPO) bring optical data transceivers directly next to compute chips, cutting power and latency by shortening conversion distances.

Nvidia is building CPO networking switches to scale AI for industrial use. Other developers are lining up to incorporate optical semiconductors, switchers and interconnects including Twinstar Technologies, Delta Electronics, and Corning Incorporated.

Beyond this, technologies like optical interposers and fully all-optical computing systems, where photons handle processing without conversion, are rapidly progressing.

One of the most urgent use cases is sovereign AI infrastructure. Nations are racing to build regional AI clouds to maintain competitiveness, but high‑performance compute is only half the story. “You must also connect customer locations to these AI systems with enough bandwidth,” Kawashima says.

Financial services are another early adopter. As banks transform into digital‑platform‑driven businesses, ultra‑low‑latency, high‑bandwidth connectivity becomes essential. Photonics offers both.

Photonics and the Quantum future

Looking further ahead, photonics will be essential for quantum computing. Quantum systems will be centralised in specialised data centres, not distributed to every enterprise. The challenge will be moving enormous matrix‑based datasets in and out of those facilities.

“High‑bandwidth, low‑latency connectivity will be critical,” Kawashima says. “APN is well suited to that requirement.

Oriole Networks, which spun out of UCL in 2023, set out to build the highest-performing AI network imaginable, “pushing toward theoretical limits” with photonics as a key enabler.

“It is a massively performant AI network based on incredibly efficient photonics,” says CEO James Regan of his company’s PRISM platform which boasts a 50 Exabit per second throughput.

The Netherlands is another photonics hotspot. Eindhoven-based Photon Bridge’s laser‑on‑silicon approach “redefines photonic integration to make light scalable, manufacturable, and infrastructure-ready.​”

“Photonics is the physical foundation of the next digital economy,” says Mark Rushworth,  founder and CEO of UK start up Finchetto which is working on an optical packet switch. “AI, quantum computing, and cloud networking all depend on the ability to move and process data faster, cooler, and smarter. In the ongoing race to optimisation, light wins every time.”

 

Sheffield Documentary Festival: “We need to be more weird”

IBC

Funding remains a puzzle but the documentary and fact-ent genres are thriving at Sheffield Documentary Festival.

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Sheffield DocFest is one of the world’s most influential markets for documentary projects and this year’s edition proved the breadth health of the genre despite funding issues.

With Netflix and other premium streamers prioritising celebrity led promos and traditional broadcaster funding squeezed financially and politically, especially in the US where investigative and diversity programming is being shelved, YouTube has emerged as a saviour of sorts.

One question that repeatedly cropped up at the event in Sheffield (June 10-13) is what happens to truth when we rely on platforms built for engagement?

YouTube’s growing force as doc platform

 Julian Carrington, Executive Director of the Documentary Organisation of Canada, said,  “Commissioning models are changing, public institutions are under pressure, audiences are fragmenting,” he said. “At the same time, broadcasters are making YouTube a much more significant pillar of their strategy. That raises questions about discoverability, sustainability, rights and public‑service media.”

For some producers, YouTube has become a core creative and commercial engine. Josh Reynolds, executive producer at UK studio Zandland, said the platform is “in our DNA,” with the company now averaging 10 million monthly impressions and over half a million deep‑watch views. “We know what our audience wants because the data is instantaneous,” he said. “Speed is the biggest opportunity. If we have a strong idea, we can act immediately.”

Docs were Channel 4’s most successful genre on YouTube in the last year. In 2025 it recorded 22.6 billion minutes viewed, “which sounds like ridiculously big number, but it is, and that's because we're prioritising long-form content,” explained Alex Morris, Managing Director of Channel 4’s social-first division, 4Studio (speaking at  Creative Cities Convention last month).

The broadcaster is now building communities around docs on social platforms Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. In January, its launch month, C4’s docs Facebook page garnered 69 million views and 144,000 followers.

“There seems to be real audience demand coalescing around that factual content slightly on the spicier, edgier side of things,” he added.

Reynolds described YouTube as the foundation of a circular development strategy. “Everything we make on YouTube has to have a second life — something we can pitch to the BBC, Netflix, Amazon or Hulu,” he said. “It’s where we build community. That’s where our future is.”

But others warned that the shift to YouTube is being driven less by opportunity and more by crisis. Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director of Women Make Movies, said the US public‑broadcasting landscape has been destabilised by government cuts. “Right now, it’s a response to an emergency,” she said. “PBS is turning to YouTube and asking for worldwide rights. That wipes out filmmakers’ ability to earn revenue elsewhere.”

Zimmerman cited two Women Make Movies titles licensed to US public service broadcaster  ITVS that later appeared on YouTube without the filmmakers’ involvement. “One film even had its title changed,” she said. “There was no revenue, no access to audience data, and no control over how the work was presented.”

She warned that while YouTube can deliver large audiences, it risks undermining the ecosystem that sustains independent documentary. “Festivals build careers. Awards build careers. Rights matter,” she said. “If everything moves to YouTube without safeguards, we risk losing the structures that allow filmmakers to make their next film.”

Behind the scenes on 70Up.

Asif Kapadia likened being asked to direct 70UP to “taking on The Godfather Part 4 with all the original cast”.

He is stepping into the role held for decades by the late Michael Apted and guiding the landmark documentary series to its final chapter. “It is one of the most influential factual franchises in television history,” he said. “My challenge was to make something that didn’t mess it up but also to make it feel like we were closing a circle.”

The Up series began in 1964, when Granada Television set out to film a group of seven‑year‑olds from sharply contrasting backgrounds across Britain, never intending to revisit them again. But the filmmakers returned to the children at 14, establishing a  seven‑year cycle.

Series producer Claire Lewis has been involved in the project for 47 years. She explained that it was built around the Jesuit maxim ‘Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man’.”

“It evolved into a unique social document,” she said. “A study of who we become, and why.”

They were joined on stage by Jo Clinton Davis, Controller of Factual, ITV, Mike Blair (Creative Director, Multistory Media) and two cast members (Sue Fitzgerald and Bruce Balden).

For the final chapter, Kapadia pushed deeper into the archive than before, digitising and syncing original 16mm rushes to uncover unseen material. He retained the franchise’s signature absence of score, adding music only to the opening sequence to help new audiences understand the scale and emotional sweep of the project.

“Young people who’ve seen that opening (which shows cast members at different ages of their life) say they’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “They thought it was done by AI.”

He believes the Up films remain a profound study of parenting, environment and the nature‑versus‑nurture debate. “The first seven years of a child’s life are the most important,” he said. “Two children can grow up in the same home and be completely different. It’s the most human thing I’ve ever worked on.”

Katie Price: “I let them film everything”

There’s a strange parallel between Up and a new Sky documentary charting the trials and tribulations of Katie Price, the first episode of which was premiered in Sheffield. From a working class background her highs and lows have been lived out almost daily in front of our eyes for four decades.

“The media has always shown her through the lens of tabloids, reality TV or social media each with its own agenda,” said series producer Phelan Glen. “What fascinated me was her combination of resilience and vulnerability. I wanted to understand where that fortitude comes from.”

Katie Price: Nothing to Hide charts the emergence of Price’s alter ego ‘Jordan’ on Page 3 of The Sun in 1996, her marriages, motherhood and multi-million pound contracts to cosmetic surgery and bankruptcy.  Originally commissioned as three parts, the series expanded to four to accommodate the material.

“When we first assembled it, we realised there was too much story,” said director Paddy Wivell. “We had to make tough choices and prioritised stories where we had access, contributors, and emotional depth.”

Price herself said she had only seen the first two episodes and that the production team refused to tell her who had contributed or what they had said.

 “When they asked if there were any areas I didn’t want them to go, I said no. They could talk to anyone,” she said.

“I’ve put a lot of trust in this team. When I saw the scene with Gareth [Gates], I was shocked. There are revelations about what we both thought 25 years ago and Paddy kept it all from me until I watched it.”

The production made more than 100 initial approaches to contributors with the biggest challenge persuading those people who had been burned by past media coverage.

“Gareth’s’ relationship with Katie Price had been heavily sensationalised,” executive producer Arron Fellows said. “We went back and forth for seven months. But once he understood that we were being honest not salacious, he agreed.”

Sky Documentaries’ head of commissioning Hayley Reynolds said the series also charts how attitudes to women, class and fame have shifted over three decades. “Katie has always been at the intersection of classism and sexism. She was a trailblazer in monetising her life long before social media made it normal.”

Price admitted that some filming days were “overwhelming” and that reliving certain moments was hard.

“But that’s what makes a good documentary,” she added. “I’m not polished. I’m not manufactured. I let them film everything.”

The need for weird

Andrea Arnold, the director of Red Road, Fish Tank and American Honey urged first time filmmakers to be more weird.

“If a film is only 50% on Rotten Tomatoes I’m more likely to watch that than one at 90% because it means some people really didn’t like it and that interests me,” she said on stage giving a retrospective of her career.

“We need to be more weird don’t we? What seems to be happening is that [filmmakers] are meant to fit an algorithm, into a box. I think filmmaking should be as unique and original and as weird as you can be. That’s what I love. Someone’s unique perspective.”

Arnold described herself as a visual filmmaker and that the conception of projects like Cow or Wuthering Heights begin with an image.

“I never set out thinking, ‘I’m going to write a film about X’. It usually starts with an image that I can’t shake. With Fish Tank, it was an image of a girl peeing on the carpet in a living room — really hard, like she meant it.

That image forces questions. I start writing to answer them. ‘Whose living room is that? Why is she doing that? Thow the story grows.”

She is not beholden to her scripts, preferring to work spontaneously with what happens on set.

“The script is a beginning. Then you have the people, the place, the day. I love being open to what’s happening right in front of me. If the sun doesn’t show up, or something unexpected happens, that becomes part of the film. There’s always a bit of chaos.”