Exhibitors ecstatic: IBC2024 bursting at its seams as record visitors seek AI’s real-world applications & monetization opportunities

By Shirish Nadkarni

“In a year marked by major events such as the Olympics and national elections, there was an extremely positive buzz at IBC2024. This year’s show addressed soaring interest in trends such as AI’s leap from theory to real-world applications, how the industry is fighting disinformation in news, and the need to foster talent and diversity across media, entertainment and technology,” said Michael Crimp, IBC CEO.

“We had 150 new exhibitors this year, even as the amount of exhibition space reached 46,000 square meters, exceeding the previous year’s total of 44,500 sqm.

“The number of visitors also exceeded last year’s total by over 2,000; and we had a really massive crowd on the second day, Saturday, that almost put a big strain on our services and facilities.”

Indeed,the broadcast industry is once again up and running. Nearly four years after the world had to be locked down to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre hummed with interest and excitement, reflective of the fact that all stakeholders in the industry were looking at both the present and future of broadcasting with anticipation and hope.

IBC2024 witnessed a virtual melee at the sprawling RAI Amsterdam RAI convention centre during the exhibition and conference from September 13 – 16, recording an astounding 45,085 visitors from 170 countries tramping the 14 exhibition halls (yes, a 14th hall had to be commissioned at the last minute to showcase the multifarious aspects of AI) and interacting with over 1,350 exhibitors.

Notable themes that took centre stage at IBC2024 included sustainability, 5G, cloud, esports, immersive experiences, over-the-top (OTT) and streaming, adtech, metaverse, edge computing, and connected technologies.

Many of these were addressed in the three-day IBC Conference, relocated to the auditorium complex at the RAI, as well as in the various show floor theatres and by many of the exhibitors themselves on their stands.

“At IBC2024, we saw a number of different trends,” said Stan Moote, Chief Technology Officer of International Trade Association for Broadcast & Media Technology (IABM), the international trade association that supports and represents the broadcast and media technology industry.

“For one, people are really focused now on how to make money. It is all about efficiency – and AI is turning into that aspect. People have taken on machine learning (ML), and tried to understand how they can engage their customers and keep them with their services.

“We are also seeing the additional amount of money they can bring in, so it is all about advertising.”

Technology-wise, Moote felt the AI aspect was different from people just using ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), an AI chatbot that can understand and respond to human language, and other similar tools. 

“They are using AI to improve their workflow, and where that fits within the different processes,” said Moote. “They are also making an effort to bring in the next generation – they are trying to get the younger kids to watch the big screen. Earlier, we had the first screen, and then the second screen. Now they are starting to merge them all together into the same screen.

“We will also see something interesting with the Apple Vision programming on board. At the moment, the price makes it prohibitive. But it is starting to use more surfaces, and we will see the price come down, and users will have a more interactive experience.”

It has been noticed that, as far as cloud services go, people are moving into hybrid situations, where they use more cloud services when they want external scalability, or if they have a burst of energy happening. So, from the technology point of view, edge computing is still very important. 

“We are also seeing how people are moving back and forth between in-house and out-house services,” said Moote. “One reason for this is cost; but they also want to retain greater control. Security is a huge concern. People have focused on security to keep their content secure, but they need to keep the whole architecture secure.

“I am going to bring up one more point – sustainability. We really should not focus on carbon footprint, because that is different in each country; we should really focus on how much power we are using, and how much we can save. And that is going to really change how things work with the environment.”

A number of IBC2024’s defining themes were also areas of focus for the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, which this year included another IBC first – the AI Media Production Lab, exploring a series of projects in which some of the industry’s most inventive innovators collaborated on specific AI concepts.

The new AI Tech Zone, powered by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featured organisations sharing examples of practical applications ranging from automated video editing and music-audio separation to content provenance tracking and fast and secure cloud storage. A stage devoted to the topic of AI featured speakers who shared insights into how the technology will impact the future, and how it is already transforming media in areas such as discoverability, news verification, and creating immersive experiences.

Another new feature at IBC 2024 was the audio-visual buyers’ event on the eve of the show. Working with the AV User Group, media technology companies were able to actively engage with major AV purchasers such as AstraZeneca, Bank of America, Barclays, Direct Line Group, KPMG, Schroders, UBS and WPP.

From the point of view of the exhibitors, IBC2024 proved a richly rewarding experience, with quality visitors, both existing and prospective customers, crowding their booths, both by prior appointment and last-minute speculative interest.

“This exhibition has been exceptional,” said Francois Guilleautot, Director of Cloud Solutions at Ateme, a company that won three Emmy awards in 2020 for video processing and compression.

“We have had the best attendance ever; we have had thousands of people coming to the booth for lots of amazing meetings, and customers showing more interest than ever. We are more than happy with how we have done at IBC this year.”

Maria Malinkowitsch (better known as ‘Mascha’), Director – Product Management, at Verimatrix, echoed Guilleautot’s sentiments. “It has been a great show, worth every dollar we invested in putting up a large and lively booth,” she said, enthusiastically. 

“We featured a live pirate, who was actually a qualified engineer, who explained to visitors how pirates hack applications, steal content, and redistribute it, employing free tools which are readily available on the Net

“And then he was explaining our Verimatrix solution, which takes just five minutes to apply!”

IBC director Steve Connolly was ecstatic about the response of exhibitors to the new features added by the IBC management to grow its scope and reach. “The feedback we got was incredibly positive,” he said, “with many seeing IBC evolving as an increasingly important incubator of media tech innovation, as well as maintaining our status as an essential networking destination and source of intelligence on new industry trends and developments.”