IBC made a welcome return to Amsterdam following a two-year absence, and we caught up with our CEO and co-founder, Stefan Lederer, to discuss how he found the show, the big trends he saw and what comes next!
How was IBC 2022 for you?
Busy! Which is how you want IBC to be! We had great conversations with prospects, customers and partners throughout the show. NAB was the first significant industry tradeshow; conversations focused on industry trends and catching up, which was important. At IBC, everything focused on driving opportunities and projects forward. This was our best IBC to date. We had lots of quality meetings, a great buzz around the brand and the best-designed stand in Hall 5!
The last IBC Show was in 2019; how has the video streaming industry changed since then?
Innovation in video streaming technologies has accelerated in the last two years at a remarkable rate, which was evident at IBC. Back in 2019, the video streaming companies at IBC were in Hall 14, essentially a tent connected to the RAI, but this year we were in Hall 5, one of the biggest halls at the show. It’s proof that video streaming has grown exponentially and become ingrained in our day-to-day lives.
What big trends do you see at IBC this year?
There was a big focus on codecs, including AV1, AV2 and VVC, as demand for high-quality streams at lower bitrates continues to grow. Also, technologies to optimize the encoding and streaming experience, like per-title and per-scene, became a big trend. I also noticed many innovations around digital rights management, which is incredibly important because there’s still room for improvement in content protection for video streaming.
One of the biggest trends I think this year was live. It seems there is an enormous appetite for cloud-native workflows, event-based streaming for sports, news, and events, reliable ingest using SRT and Zixi, efficient scaling and operations, and of course, highest quality and low end-to-end delay.
When speaking about Live, FAST was a big topic at IBC. FAST services are an interesting blend of linear television with the speed and agility of video streaming technologies which are already hugely popular in the US. I expect we will see FAST services take off in other markets over the next 12 months, bringing an exciting change to linear television. However, I also think this could be hype and result in way more FAST channels available than customers can consume, eventually resulting in a quick saturation of the market. I am interested in seeing how FAST plays out.
Which stands did you visit during the show?
I thought the MediaKind stand was really cool, especially with its F1 Grand Prix simulator, which was a fun game and a great way to get people on the stand. I also saw a lot of startups with impressive innovations throughout the show.
What’s the plan post-IBC?
I slept as soon as I got home, but now I feel refreshed and ready to return to work! Lots of work goes into an event like IBC, and the work doesn’t finish when the event ends, but I am excited about the conversations we had with the great companies we met at the show. Stay tuned!
