Conecta Digital debates disruptive technologies with great possibilities in production

The first day of Connect Digital, which takes place in Madrid on November 5 and 6, has provided a portfolio of solutions, opportunities and approaches that will help define the present and future of production and post-production.

After a interesting opening starring Technological Radar, Connect Digital has delved into disruptive technologies for audiovisual production with the presentation Innovation: new frontiers in audiovisual creation, in which four companies have presented projects with great application possibilities in all types of audiovisual productions. Edgar Sanjuan, founder and CEO of Emogg, has shown its solution to measure the live audience experience based on emotional indicators. Compatible with any capture solution, such as cameras PTZ arranged on the Conecta Digital stage, the system allows reading and collecting live data to measure the emotional experience of the audience. Production companies like Gestmusic o Snail They have already put it to the test in different pilots that anticipate different opportunities for creating audience participation formats or for evaluating their future programs.

Diego Rodriguez (founder and CEO) and Miguel Luengo (manager) have introduced Digital Welcome Pack (Spain), a web-managed solution with powerful security tools whose aim is to simplify and facilitate access to technicians in the audiovisual field to “the entire project information“It is a mobile application that allows you to upload all types of information and have it updated and personalized for each technician,” explains Luengo of this tool structured based on projects, locations and different articles that replaces the classic production PDFs.

For its part, Raul Maqueda, director of photogrammetry at Peris Digital, has revealed its progress in achieving digital copies for global productions. With these systems, production companies can have “digital doubles and extras” that can be used in the audiovisual post-production phase, but also in video game projects. In fact, the company has revealed that it is working on a project with a budget of more than 200 million dollars. Currently, its main capture system, located in Algete (Madrid) is made up of 144 cameras Alfa-7C of Sony equipped with different lenses, although the company has a portable kit that can be moved to filming.

The universe of virtual production has taken the stage hand in hand with From Ireland in its broadest expression: capture in LED volumes, chroma, extended reality motion capture, facial capture, photogrammetry, programming for integration of interactivity... "It is more than a tool, it is a redefinition of production processes (...) Now we can create experiences that perfectly combine physical and virtual reality," he said. Angel Urbina, founding partner. As an example, some of its most relevant projects: Mapi (RTVE), whose virtual production systems and real-time rendering engines allowed the instant creation of more than 5,400 hours of AR content; Camino de Santiago, a 360º video production for virtual reality glasses; the creation of virtual scenarios on a green wall for a self-produced contest, or a future virtual reality experience called Skyjet VR that will allow the user to fly over the landscapes of the Iberian Peninsula.

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The technical and ethical impact of AI in production

Banijay Iberia, LaLiga Studios y Telefónica Tech Brand Stories have participated in an interesting conversation moderated by Kike Lozano (GECA) in which the different applications of AI in each company have been shared. There is a clear conclusion: it is already part of the entire production chain and it increasingly becomes an essential tool for each process.

Felipe Jimenez, director of digital strategy at Banijay, has highlighted how AI is “saving workdays or usage time” at a global level to optimize processes: “Changing from rundown to script, a process that does not add value, is suddenly done in seconds,” he commented. It happens in a similar way in Telefónica, as told by the head of TBS Ignacio Fernandez: "It applies throughout the company: not only in production, but also in management. It has been applied with respect, due to its regulatory environment and its evolution." Hello Bonifacino, CEO of LaLiga Studios, adds: "When you create something that does not exist, the best way to show it is with an image. Using AI we have been able to present projects, television programs or documentaries. With very little text, you can sell an idea."

Aligned in thinking, strategies and approaches, all The agents at the round table have shared impressions: AI comes to save processes that did not add value to professionals; It should be used in favor of professionals with a human approach, and will favor the creation of different jobs, although some will become extinct as a “natural evolution” of the market, in the words of Fernández. However, is not without problems, especially in relation to its regulation, authorship and ethics: "It is a very delicate issue. We have our lists of tools that we are testing, and we recommend using models that have been trained ethically," says Jiménez, still aware of the "fuzzy lines" that it implies. “If a human being does not intervene, there are no rights; if a machine does it, there are no rights,” says Fernández, in favor of “self-regulation” by the sector based on collective criteria.

Lozano, delving into the ethics surrounding the application of the IA In the production processes, he presented to the speakers the role of the consumer in relation to the content created with this type of techniques. Should they be notified of the process? In algorithm and preference processes, should they be aware of the way in which they are recommended? Bonifacino considers it a future debate, while Jiménez is committed to regulation, giving, for example, the misinformation that could arise around tragedies such as the Valencia floods with images generated by AI. Given this, Fernández considers that there are “lines” and it is “our responsibility to define how to add value.”

Briefly focusing on the field of content and its nearest strategic future, LaLiga Studios has advocated for adaptation, recognizing its objective of bring your broadcasts closer to the world of video games being aware that new generations, on many occasions, do not watch the games in their entirety. On the part of Telefónica, Fernández sets the challenge not on the creation of content, but on the communication, motivation, notoriety and impact necessary to ensure that the final audience consumes the content: “The campaigns have become very complicated, and the operators themselves ask about the impact that a work can have, not about the quality: they take that for granted.” Finally, Felipe Jimenez Banijay anticipates a stake of content creators in the generation of fiction thanks to new technological tools, which will change the media landscape to a certain extent.

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Disruptive financing: are NFTs still alive?

Connect Digital also wanted to open a window to alternative financing modalities in the audiovisual sector through a conference that presented the success story of Quiet, a feature film Miguel Faus financed via NFTs. Jordi Carbonell, CEO and producer of Without blinking, has moderated a conversation in which they have also participated Francisco Javier Ponce, managing director of SET (Spanish Society for Technological Transformation) and Jonas Sala, co-founder of Verkami.

Verkami, as a project exhibition window and platform for crowdfunding, has been exposed to the audience, conveying its founding pillars. However, the tokenization soon took the axis of the conversation: “After finishing the short film financed with Verkami, we studied ways to finance the feature film version of Quiet. I found nothing but closed doors through traditional financing channels,” says Faus, who found a way out “by chance” in NFTs, “a democratizing solution for the Internet; a future that I wanted to be part of.” Buried created its own crowdfunding platform via NFT and managed to raise 700.000 euros to finance the film, which was released in cinemas and was subsequently purchased via Netflix. For his next project, the director would opt for a sales union of NFT and financing at risk, something that he recognizes is currently “virtually impossible” due to regulatory obstacles.

Ponce, as a representative of SETT and in line with the debate on film financing, has advanced two new roads that the State will promote to provide direct financing to entities seeking to start their film projects. The total volume of funds will be 1.7 billion that will be structured around two processes: becoming part of the capital of companies that they are going to produce, always accompanied by a private investor, and a second financing plan via loan at a subsidized interest rate lower than the market, which implies that production must adapt to certain conditions proposed by the state. Both proposals have raised a energetic debate between Ponce and Carbonell in which the capacity of this aid to respond to the challenges of independent production has been assessed.

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Tools and strategies for digital dissemination

The seal Conecta Woman It has also been present on the first day of Conecta Digital through a conversation between three different profiles united by the content: Cecilia Mangisch, digital innovation manager de Mediaset Spain; Victoria Cazalla, strategic partner manager TV & Films de YouTube, y Alessia di Giacomo, platforms & channels director de RTVE, moderated by journalist Irene Jiménez (Audiovisual451).

Di Giacomo has transferred the latest news from RTVE Play, recently recognized as the most prominent platform among Spanish broadcasters after a fruitful journey of three years duration. “RTVE Play "It was the hidden gem in RTVE and it lacked notoriety: therefore, we have started conversations with the most relevant agents in the segment so that the user could easily find the application." Beyond this work together with manufacturers and operating systems, the platform has improved your experience user to continue consolidating its role in the Spanish audiovisual sector, just as it has promoted FAST channels destined for some of its most successful formats, given the resurgence of passive consumption in the viewer. Likewise, Di Giacomo has announced that RTVE's commercial area is beginning to work on integrating different advertising options into the public broadcaster's digital platform.

YouTube, one of the main competitors for both broadcasters and video-on-demand platforms, has been represented by Cazalla, who has valued the reach of 35 million viewers in Spain alone. “YouTube helps you bring traffic to your environments,” claimed the representative of the Alphabet company, who has also focused on the content monetization through the YouTube Partners program and the need to continue strengthening ties with the industry.

From Mediaset, precisely one of the broadcasters most reluctant to share their content via YouTube, Mangisch has presented its recently created department, which aims to facilitate the emerging technological tools to the different departments of the company. “Technology is often much more advanced than we really think, and luckily our area has the opportunity to explore all the advances related to it.” In this regard, and as an example, Mangish advances that the company has tested with “fascinating” results the AI applied to series dubbing. Now, it will be time to study the viability of its entry into production.

The round table has also included interesting reflections around issues as broad as the balance between the catalog and novelty; the need to promote content discovery; the linear capture capacity versus video on demand; facilitating the discovery of formats on a platform; rights management; the importance of personalizing experiences, or the opportunities for personalized advertising via HbbTV.

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Tools and technologies at the service of television

The Television Academy has organized the last presentation of the day. Moderated by Víctor García Martín, member of the board of directors of the TV Academy and general director of Unicorn Content, has had the presence of Mayte Hidalgo, director of the AI ​​center of excellence at Mediapro Group; Patricia Escalona, social media manager Antena 3 News, y Veronica Buide, president of MIA (Women in the Animation Industry), executive producer and lawyer specialized in intellectual property, audiovisual law and new technologies. Each of the speakers have shared how they are using the technology to optimize editorial and commercial processes in the area broadcast.

Hidalgo began his speech by talking about his new platform prediction, a solution built on algorithms and with an experimentation philosophy created to allow different chains predict viewers' preferences from a program, day or fifteen-minute point of view. "Not only do you identify patterns of behavior, but you increasingly know more about the attributes. If in a late night "You are able to catalog the category of guests, it will offer you information that feeds back and makes these analyzes increasingly richer," said the head of Grup Mediapro. Likewise, asked about the next technological trends for 2025, Hidalgo highlighted the consolidation of generative AI for video.

As social media manager from Antena 3 Noticias, Patricia Escalona has highlighted the difficulty in managing misinformation that arises in the field of social networks; especially around major news events, such as the recent floods in Valencia. To address this problem, Escalona and his team are committed to a “360 focus” which brings together a digital editorial work, the use of AI-based verification tools, the experience of the team of journalists and the citizen participation to detect and deny as quickly as possible the hoaxes.

In his speech, Veronica Buide has addressed the arrival of the generative AI to the creative and technological industries of animation. “There has been a lot of fear, but in reality we must integrate artificial intelligence as a tool that will help us not only in the technical part, but also in the authorial and artistic part,” he says, echoing the growing fear in the industry of job losses. Reflecting on the creation of animated series, Buide has also defended a cross platform approach to address the different areas of consumption of children and youth viewers, and has anticipated a future marked by the approach to increasingly less utopian animation in quasi-real time.

Pitch section – Startups

One of the pillars of Conecta Digital, inherited from its mother edition Conecta Fiction, is its commitment to pitch, giving the microphone to emerging companies to make their proposal known to the industry. After receiving dozens of proposals, the event's jury selected four companies to share their initiatives with the industry: Avian, Stik, Hulahoop Media and Hechicer-IA.

David Comesaña, CEO of Avian, has exposed the keys to a platform that emphasizes “emotional connection" to bring audiovisual products to success. Faced with an audiovisual market in "crisis and oversaturated", the company presents services such as "intelligent script optimization" through an exclusive method based on AI that "decomposes" them to "objectively" reveal strengths and weaknesses, and improve their narrative. Its proposal is also adapted to TV programs to "ensure their success" in real time, or predictive audience analysis.

Mikel Egidazu, co-founder and CEO of Contact, puts the focus on consumers with a proposal that allows mixing artificial intelligence and image recognition to scan any product and connect with it. To do this, the company transforms each consumer object (such as a can of Coca-Cola) into a “social network,” giving users the possibility of post content y generating a feed in the process around each object. Among the objects exemplified by Egidazu, indexed by the brands themselves or by consumers, records by relevant artists or video game covers stand out.

Horshoop medicia, a technological platform for the “democratization” of film financing, proposes a system so that inverters and microinverters can receive return when supporting audiovisual productions. The initiative, presented by its CGO, David Guerrero, aims to convert cinematographic products into investment assets for both professional agents and the general public, offering a financing alternative to traditional channels and eliminating traditional access barriers to the film industry. Holahoop has already financed projects such as Paid in full, a format co-produced by the BBC and CBC or The Bail, thriller starring Juana Acosta and Julián Roman.

The pitch session ended with the intervention of Sorcery, a company that has created a generative AI tool that allows general editable 3D content in real time by combining prompts and Unreal Engine. With editing capabilities shots, position, focus or camera speed, the system will have different levels of fees progressively allowing the customization of productions and allowing the integration of real actors or environments.