IBC 2024 is in the books, and VITAC would like to thank everyone who took the time at this year’s show to meet with our team, learn about our AI-driven captioning, subtitling, and localization solutions, or just stop to say “hello.”
We had a great time on the show floor speaking with members of the production and broadcast industry, sharing information about our products, and learning about the newest innovations in media, entertainment, and technology.
Attracting attendees and exhibitors from more than 170 countries and showcasing the latest in cutting-edge technology, IBC always is a great way to catch up on the newest M&E trends and offerings. There was genuine excitement around new products, new delivery methods, and new technologies, including lots of talk about AI, localization, new production and workflow management solutions, broadcast delivery options, and the upcoming European Accessibility Act.
Read below for a few of our show observations, takeaways, and highlights, including a few photos from our ice breaker mixer!
The (Continued) Buzz Around Artificial Intelligence
AI remains one of the most talked about technologies across the media and entertainment industry, with companies of all sizes integrating AI and generative AI into their everyday operations, helping people across all departments work more efficiently and successfully.
Many at IBC 2024 pointed to AI’s role in boosting content discoverability and actionability, workflows, and audience engagement as key perks of the technology.
“We see so many use cases in our daily lives already, but AI is going to be a real game changer in terms of how it touches every piece of content in every journey that it takes,” said Prime Focus Technology’s Harshabardhan Nayak during an IBC panel discussion.
And as sports move into the streaming realm – NFL on Amazon Prime, MLB on Apple TV, the Premier League on Peacock – many point to AI’s ability to solve a number of challenges for broadcasters, including getting content to customer faster and in a more personalized fashion. AI, they say, can review viewer data and make more personalized content available to fans, catering more directly to audience preferences.
Underscoring this buzz around AI was a new addition to IBC show floor, the AI Tech Zone. Curated by the European Broadcasting Union, the AI Tech Zone featured hands-on AI demonstrations and discussions on AI advances in several areas, including media accessibility, storage, regulation, and policy developments.
Among the discussions in the AI Tech Zone was the technology’s true value now that the hype over AI has begun to quiet. Companies are looking for ways AI and generative AI can be thoughtfully applied to their operations and workflows and, from a media and broadcasting perspective, how to capitalize on AI’s promise and potential for automation, improved efficiencies, enhanced content, and better viewer experiences.
Powered by the latest in AI technology, VITAC, a Verbit company, helps broadcasters, cable networks, and streaming platforms of all sizes turn spoken audio and video into accessible and actionable text.
Designed for media customers, our proprietary AI-powered offering – Captivate™ – is the most reliable and accurate captioning solution on the market today, understanding accents, languages, and speech patterns better than generic ASR engines. Our generative AI product suite – “Gen.V” – combines highly trained natural language processing, content generation abilities, and artificial intelligence to identify the most important elements of a transcript.
Planning for the European Accessibility Act
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) sets the minimum accessibility standards for products and services across the European Union. It’s designed to replace country-specific laws and remove barriers caused by divergent accessibility standards in EU member states.
Most of the provisions of the act relate to technology and to products and services deemed most important to people with disabilities. These include access to audio-visual media services (television broadcasts and related equipment); TV equipment related to digital television services; computers and operating systems; ATMs, ticketing, and check-in machines; smartphones; telephone services and equipment; transportation services; banking services; and e-books.
As broadcast media is specifically referred to as a target of this bill, it’s important that providers make their video content accessible via captions and subtitles, audio description, and transcripts, among other media access solutions.
Though compliance rules still are being developed, legislation and accessibility standards already are in place via the EU Web Accessibility Directive, which incorporates WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the level of compliance for websites. According to the European Commission’s website, these standards – WCAG Level AA – are being updated to be the required standards for EEA.
The EAA was adopted in 2019 and transposed into national laws at the member state level in 2022. It’s scheduled to take effect on June 28, 2025.
‘Captivate and Connect’
We hosted a mixer at the RAI Beach to cap off Day 1 of IBC 2024. Our “Captivate and Connect Ice Breaker” was complete with good food, great drinks, and even better guests (not to mention some pretty cool ice sculptures)! Thanks to everyone who attended!
Diversity Discussions at the World Skills Café
The M&E and media technology industries are seeing a skills shortage and aging white male workforce. For example, across the UK’s creative industries, only a third of managerial and director roles are held by women, while more 90% of professionals in these sectors are white, according to research by the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre.
In response, IBC hosted the inaugural World Skills Café, a dedicated global forum for knowledge-sharing brought together industry representatives to work collaboratively and collectively to address issues that impact every company across the globe.
The event – which included broadcasters, streamers, OTT, vendors, studios, diversity leaders, recruiters, and education representatives – was designed to be a focal point for sharing in-depth, first-hand experiences while providing a stage for developing solutions to workplace and diversity challenges. It examined the current skills shortages and discussed which roles the skills gap is hitting and who is being underrepresented in the media technology sector.
“This idea has been in the making for seven months, and I’m really excited that we could all come together to spend a whole afternoon talking about skills, education, and diversity,” said Global Media & Entertainment Talent Manifesto’s Carrie Wootten. “We’ve done a lot of work around gender diversity over the last few years and that has changed things significantly, but we are nowhere near where we need to be.”
Discussions were compiled in a ‘live’ document and will be reviewed in 2025 to gauge progress and determine how the skills landscape shifted in the first year.
The Importance of Localized Content
In today’s global M&E market, producers and content creators need to appeal to diverse audiences, including those who speak different languages. This is especially important for the upcoming European Accessibility Act, where multi-language captioning and subtitling is required.
VITAC’s localization services – dubbing, multi-language subtitles, and translations – meet the same creative standards as your original production. We support your entire production and delivery workflow – from transcribing and translating your rushes for edits to localizing and delivering your final program. We combine the best international talent with the right technology to consistently deliver top-quality work at any volume.
The benefits of working with a single provider for all your localization needs include maintaining your production’s creative integrity throughout the process, reducing production headaches, saving time and money, and more easily satisfying network and streaming platform deliverables.
Again, thanks to everyone who stopped by to see us at IBC 2024! We enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new acquaintances and look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s show.