IBC
The convergence of AV with traditional broadcast explains why more visitors and exhibitors at the ISE show are spanning both worlds.
The worlds of ProAV and media and entertainment have definitively overlapped, at least in technology terms, in a message underlined at the AV industry event ISE. The overlap is being called ‘AV Broadcast’ and it is growing twice as fast as traditional media tech (at 2.9% CAGR versus 1.8% between now and 2027), according to research released at the show in a telling collaboration with the International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers (IABM).
The technology market for Broadcast AV is worth about $26
billion of which over $14 billion is media tech products sold to pro AV buyers.
Going the other way, some $5bn of the Broadcast AV market are Pro AV products
commonly used for Media and Entertainment.
“What we're seeing is the blending of a lot of media technology and pro AV use cases and the emergence of a lot of new technology buyers,” explained Tom Morrod of Caretta Research which carried out the report for the IABM. “These buyers are not traditional media and entertainment companies, but really live in a new space.”
The Broadcast AV audience includes YouTube creators starting to build professional studios and even run production and post-production teams. It includes sports clubs, leagues and eSports who
are streaming and curating videos as part of a broader fan experience.
Universities, schools and museums are
increasingly incorporating video into how they make teaching materials and
exhibits accessible both
in-person and remotely. Many
corporate and enterprises are
running high-quality video productions for town halls, investor relations,
internal and external
conferences and consumer marketing which might end up on YouTube.
“Much of that
content might not strictly be coming from a 'broadcaster', streamer or pay TV
operator, but in many ways the same general process and requirements is
used to make and deliver video,” Morrod said.
Many vendors have
already bridged the gap.
Adobe
offers the same package of
tools in its Creative Cloud suite for professional and consumer users. From the AV spectrum, an example is vMix,
maker of a software vision mixer, now being used in the broadcast AV space.
“Pro AV vendors are
providing tools that are more than capable for a lot of applications where
high-quality video is made and delivered,” outlined Morrod. “At the same time media tech vendors have
made their tools more accessible by migrating products to the cloud and
changing business models to SaaS. It all means you can pick and choose your
technology that bit more freely between what was once pro AV kit and what was
once media tech kit.”
The backdrop to
this is that media tech vendors have been selling around 15% of their products
to non-M&E buyers for years now. At the same time, products from Pro AV or the fringes of media tech have been bought by broadcasters and production companies.
“Pro AV buyers are already doing professional-grade
production, and media tech vendors already have non-media customers,” noted
Morrod. “Ultimately, it's about serving the need for high
quality video production and delivery, which will come from whatever vendors
and products are best suited for that need.”
It’s why companies like Ross Video are enhancing their
presence at ISE. “ISE is an invaluable
platform for companies to unveil solutions that effectively bridge the gap
between traditional broadcasting and emerging AV applications,” Oscar Juste,
SVP of Global Sales, Ross Video told IBC365.
Aside from applications involving video in studios, stages,
and stadia, Juste points to the global rise of “surfaces for engagement,” (mainly
LED) as an opportunity for Ross to provide “immersive video experience
solutions in applications extending beyond the confines of live events and
broadcast environments.
“This growth is fueled by tech advancements, changing
consumer behaviours, and an increasing understanding among corporates of the
powerful impact that advanced broadcast production technologies can have on
their communications strategy,” he said.
Addressing the term 'AV Broadcasting' Juste said it had
varied interpretations. Some view it as technology tailored for dynamic live
video productions but not every brand using audio and video tech beyond its
core business is automatically a broadcaster.
He said, “A large corporation orchestrating dynamic shows
with remote and on-site participants might use a mix of 'AV' and 'broadcast
products.' However, they might not label themselves as 'AV Broadcasters,'
preferring terms like 'live events' or 'live streams' for the events they are
producing.”
He said, “The use of 'AV broadcasting' and the
classification of brands as broadcasters hinge on nuanced perspectives,
industry context, and how audiovisual technologies are applied in diverse
business scenarios.”
Film director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy flew in from London
where she is prepping the next feature instalment of Star Wars to
deliver the show’s opening keynote. Her message, about how technology can be
used to speak truth to power and to shape narratives in impactful ways, seemed
a strong one but it was delivered to a sparsely populated audience in the main
ISE 400+ conference arena. That may be because, despite the marketing rhetoric,
the idea of ISE as a content creation and production show doesn’t yet resonate
with the bulk of its attendees.
Vision, Light and Sound
As always parts of the exhibition floor resemble Times
Square with digital billboards and flashing giant-size LED screens. Lang
unveiled a 1.95mm thin super-sized display with versions suitable for indoors
and outdoors. Sony showcased its Crystal LED technology in the first outing for
its 220-inch CH series display targeting corporate meeting rooms and screening
rooms. Samsung and LG were among those presenting latest transparent screen, a
feature that allows viewers to see through the screen, creating an effect that
looks like a floating hologram. Retail and hotels are two target applications
here.
Virtual Production stages were on many booths. Sony for
instance showed how this technology can be used for a high-impact product
launch with Honda’s motorbike as the demo example. Alfalite had a Ferrari on
its stage to show off one of the principal use cases for Volume stages which is
shooting realistic reflections of ‘moving’ cars. LG demonstrated an XR studio
intended for the executives of bluechip corporations to deliver their internal
and public messages. LG provides the LED display with ARRI, Mo-sys, RED camera
and Fujifilm also involved.
Merging digital and real worlds in real-time, the local VP
studio Plató Nou was on hand to will present something genuinely immersive: a
performer dunked in a water tank with her body movements transformed into an
augmented reality environment in Unreal Engine. It looked liked something from
the set of James Cameron’s Avatar.
Indeed digital content creation like this is being taken to
another level with the maturing of digital art a theme across the conference.
Digital art
“Digital art is still not as valued as analogue art,” said
Pep Salazar, the executive director of the Barcelona based OFFF
festival. “When we go into a museum we trust what the museum tells us about
the picture frames on the wall – but there is still not so much digital art in
museums.”
One way we can give digital art value, he said, is to talk
more about the artists behind them and to avoid using cliched terminology like ‘interactive’
and ‘immersive.’
“We need to think about different triggers,” he said, “such
as sensory, memorable, multidisciplinary, transcendent and never ending. How
colours, textures and music and all the design of technology combine for a new
experience. When you go to a dance show, the theatre and even the opera
now you will see a lot of innovation by adding layers of technology. Digital
artists are taking cues from the video game industry which combines different
creative disciplines from storytellers and graphic artists to sound designers
and programmers.”
The latest discipline is AI and the debate about who (or
what) has creative ownership of AI content is a live one. Salazar is in no
doubt: “The owner of the digitally intelligent work is the human artist telling
it what to do.”
Anna Bulakh who works for Ukraine-based AI-voice developer
Respeecher said that while AI can speed up the creation of content many
questions remain unanswered.
“There is a huge market division between those who want to
adopt the tech really fast without guardrails and those who are investing in
building trust in AI.”
Respeecher honours the copyright of actors whose voices it
uses to produce AI clones and is a member of the Adobe-led Content Authenticity
Initiative. “Adding metadata to all AI generated audio means we can verify its
provenance for accountability and royalties,” she said.
Also speaking at this AVIXA sponsored panel on AI was
Jessica Cooper of creative agency Pixel Artworks. It uses AI for ideation and
for main production of projects.
“Early AI delivered an uncanny valley of colours, shapes and
forms which has become a style of its own,” she said. “AI is more than ChatGPT.
It’s a huge pool of data that we can draw on to imagine different worlds in
different ways. One of the digital media industry’s goals should be about
building trust between tech providers and consumers that will provide
protection of their personal data.”
Aside from content creation AI is also being deployed to
supercharge analytics of consumer movement and interaction within venues. It’s
one reason ISE Managing Director Mike Blackman claimed, “We are ahead of the AI
phenomenon. The AV industry is ahead of that curve.”#
ISE to expand
The show itself fielded 1400 exhibitors and was a third
bigger than 2023. A new 32000 sqm of space will be available at the Fira centre
from 2025 giving ISE “plenty of room to expand,” Blackman said.
“We’re still hungry, still ambitious and have great plans
for the next 20 years.”
An example of this is a two-day conference about the Latin
American market which show organisers have identified as a “rapidly expanding
market which is poised to generate AV growth.”
The LatAM audience constitutes 10% of ISE attendance with
Brazil, Mexico and Colombia the primary countries to watch.
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