70 HAPPENING IBC Review
FEED GOES TO AMSTERDAM Virtualisation and microservices were key themes at last month’s IBC show in Amsterdam – and it was FEED’s IBC debut!
icroservices” was one of the buzzwords we heard most often at IBC2018 – especially cloud- based microservices. Cloud seems to be trusted enough that services residing in the cloud are now a viable option for content creators and distributors. This year’s IBC conference even featured a special panel on microservices (called “A Special Panel on Microservices”), moderated by Stan Moote of the IABM. The general trend has been that businesses are becoming reluctant to invest in long-term solutions – especially if they’re hardware solutions. Technology is evolving and changing too fast for a CFO to spend five (or six) figures on a solution
that may not be properly supported in five years. Much better to adopt SaaS (software as a service) solutions when possible. These can be updated regularly in accordance with the evolving technology ecosystem and are flexible enough to be customisable or integrated through APIs into existing systems. A microservice architecture allows for a more finely tuned menu of tools. These can be more easily updated, configured and “hot swapped” with other services. Microservices don’t need to be hosted in the cloud, they can live wherever your software lives – but you can bet with tools like AWS Media Services getting more traction there will be increasing demand and an increasingly wide range of offerings. AI COMES OUT OF ITS SHELL AI was talked about everywhere you went at the show, of course. There was a lot of
anticipation about what machine learning could bring the industry. AI supercharging was promised for a diverse range of things – dynamic encoding, audience engagement, facial recognition, anti-piracy, content cataloguing, and even content creation. The truth, though, was that very few of those solutions were in evidence. Machine learning in the media production and distribution space is just kicking off this year, but the growth of its capabilities will be rapid. Look for IBC2019 to really start delivering on a host of practical AI solutions. In a few years the question won’t be, “Does your product use machine learning?” it will be, “What kind of machine learning does your product use?” DIVERSITY DECISION This year IBC made a big effort at gender diversity, at least in terms of including women as guests on conference panels.
DIVERSITY OF TALENT This year IBC made promising moves towards increased inclusivity, with more women speakers
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