The IBC Innovation Awards 2014 already have finalists

Channel 4, BT, BBC, Télévision Francophone de l'Ontario and Sky in the United Kingdom, Arabia and Germany United Kingdom, among the finalists.

IBC has made public the list of nominees for its annual awards for projects of maximum technological innovation. With these awards, IBC recognizes those projects that demonstrate a real collaboration between the broadcaster and its technological partners in order to solve a real creative, technical or commercial problem with style, elegance and of course, with innovation.

After receiving numerous applications, the organization has selected a total of ten projects corresponding to three categories: content creation, management and distribution.

The IBC Innovation Awards will be presented coinciding with the fair in Amsterdam on Sunday, September 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the RAI Center in the Dutch capital.

Content creation

• Horse Tracker

Channel 4 in the UK provides extensive coverage of horse racing. For the most important race on the calendar, the Grand National, he developed the Horse Tracker application together with Civolution, Monterosa and TurfTrax. With small data transmitters in the saddle pads of each horse and 80 receivers throughout the racecourse, it has been possible to create a second screen application that aligns horse positions, distances and speeds with the live television broadcast. The iOS application was used by more than 100,000 people during the Grand National broadcast.

• Radio production on iPad

In November 2013, Cumulus Radio provided facilities for more than 20 radio stations to cover the American Music Awards in Los Angeles. Each of them needs a booth with capacity for four people, with four microphones and four headphones, controlled by a mixing console connected to a mass of cables. So they got to work and in collaboration with Axia Audio, Broadcast Software International and Telos they designed a remote audio control network through which each radio station could control its own production on a mini iPad.

• Monday Night Football

On air since 1992, Monday Night Football on Sky Sports has become the most influential sports program in the UK. More than that, it has been the launching pad for a number of innovative on-screen technologies. For the 2013/4 season, it debuted a giant screen with virtual sets on the set. To achieve this compelling new immersive look, Sky Sports worked with two technology partners that are typically competitors: ChyronHego and Vizrt.

Content management

• Workflows based on PPD files

In August 2013, the British BT in the United Kingdom launched three sports television channels, from a new production center located in the 2012 Olympic Park. BT Sport fully opted for a file-based workflow, becoming the first broadcaster fully compatible with the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) file format, also known as the AMWA AS-11 standard.

To manage file ingestion, reformatting and delivery to multiple platforms, integrator Timeline Television chose Dalet technology. As well as transcoding, the Dalet system also provides broadcast-quality archiving and control. The result is seamless file sharing using an open standard.

• Content for digital and social media

Télévision Francophone de l’Ontario, a broadcaster promoted by the provincial government of Ontario (Canada), has implemented a spectacular platform to generate brilliant, attractive and engaging content across multiple platforms, using modern content production and management techniques. The new technology platform was designed with Curator technology from IPV, Adobe, Applied Electronics, EMC Isilon, Oracle and Signiant. It allows content to be accessible on the most appropriate device, from an HD multi-camera studio to an iPhone. The goal is always to get content online, and on air, as quickly as possible. In the year since the project was implemented, TFO has increased its production by 40%, while reducing personnel costs by 50%.

• SkyNet

The construction of Sky News Arabia's broadcast center won a top spot at the IBC Innovation Awards in 2012. Now, with almost two dozen offices across the Middle East, the broadcaster has realized that with some relatively modest additions to the technology, it could create a disaster recovery network through its own data centre, SkyNet. Working with technology partners such as Blackmagic, Haivision, Nervión, Vizrt and Zixi, it has designed a platform accessible and controllable from any of the offices through the public Internet.

Content Delivery

• Tweets in real time on television

A market study of digital television in India, Airtel, showed that its audience is very interested in reading what celebrities and sports stars are tweeting about popular television shows when their favorite shows are broadcast. So Airtel got to work introducing tweets as an optional overlay on the TV screen.

The challenge was that this project had to work on top of existing decoders, so there was no option for a return path. It had to be as easy to use as any other STB function, via the existing controller, without interfering with any other functionality, such as channel change speed. Along with its technology partner BrizzTV Media Labs, Airtel launched this real-time Twitter on six of its channels.

• Media Factory

Considered globally the most successful online service, BBC iPlayer now delivers content to more than seven million users a day on any device.

The transcoding challenges are enormous, but because they are peaky they are perfectly suited to a cloud solution. When, in 2013, BBC Future Media asked to create a new “content factory” to meet the huge demand for iPlayer, it worked with Amazon Web Services, as well as Atos, Codeshop, Elemental and Omnia, to create a powerful, flexible and secure cloud system for transcoding that would ensure that audiences could access more content, better quality, faster and more reliably.

• Snap

Sky Deutschland at the end of 2013 launched its Snap online service where it presents much of its library of movies, series and children's programs for viewing on the web, iPad and iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and smart TVs. It runs as a standalone OTT product, available without a set-top box or long-term subscription.

To address the technical challenges, Sky Deutschland counted on the collaboration of Accedo, Atos, Capgemini, Coeno, Contone, CreateCtrl, Deloitte, Fincons, HP, ID Media, Namestorm, NTT Data, SHS Viveon, Cielo Italia, TDS, Wirecard and Weeks.

• NBA League Pass

Basketball fans at Turner Sports wanted to watch the game of their choice, with their local commentators not those from the conventional national broadcast. Thanks to the NBA League Pass IP service, it allows viewers to access personalized content on any platform with more than thirty personalized games per night. Adobe, Akamai, DNF Controls, Elemental, FreeWheel Media and Harmonic have participated in the project.