The Cluster Audiovisual de Catalunya, which Ebantic is a partner, he asked me to do a story about the last IBC. Once it has already been published in the association newsletter, I would like to share it on the Blog, in case someone would be interested.

This is, to my mind, the formula "secret" of the IBC which will be held in Amsterdam from 9 to 13 September:

Are the three words that were in the mouth of all the participants of the fair, because, make no mistake, people are not going to the IBC only to see stands, but one of the main objectives is to make networking to discuss trends and share the headaches that tend to be common to the entire industry.

The IPerización (thanks Emili Planas by the word) is the concept of fashion. All were asked by the production or playout IP. Is this the end of the video cables and SDI signals? How to from now on as it will only be necessary to wire the installation with CAT6 and connect the camera to any decision of structured we have available?. Well, it seems that the general opinion is that, for much that has vendors selling the End-to-End IP, the theme will not be immediate but will surely come. I still remember the first time that, being a sound technician, I spoke of the embedded audio... I thought that we had gone mad.

The CLOUD is the another word of fashion. Manufacturers migrating business to the CLOUD. We already have continuities in the cloud (www.inetsat.com), Transcoders in a model of pay-per-use (https://cloud.telestream.net/index-new). What you don't have CAPEX to make investments? Don't worry, in the cloud, you'll find everything you need and for a small monthly payment. Services versus investment, OPEX versus CAPEX. This is what we call Digital Transformation, that is to say, new business models based on the Internet, the CLOUD, and especially the fee-for-service. By the way, check out my post on Digital Transformation.

And the 4K UHD was omnipresent. Every day there are more manufacturers that launch products with this technology. The Early Adopters, that is to say, the more daring of the sector, begin to make the first experiments in production/playout, and it seems that it is here where it makes more sense to the IPerización. And also at low cost!. Blackmagic is expanding its catalog to 4K price, as always, competitive and suitable for any budget. Do not produce it in 4K? It will be because you don't want...

Finally, IBC is also a good opportunity to see the analysis that makes Devoncroft on the sector. Among other data, are the trends of 2016, made from a worldwide survey carried out in January. The result of this year is as follows:

1. Cross-platform delivery of content (broadcast, web, mobile)
2. IP networking and content delivery
3. 4K / UHD
4. Workflows based on files
5. CLOUD / Virtualitzación
6. Video On Demand

So I would just like to note that the first point, cross-platform delivery, it takes from 2011 in the first position. 5 years ago the sector (in the world) thinks that this is the most important point, and on the basis of which to make technology investments, and surely it is the truth. New business models go through the VOD, SVOD and all these acronyms that are so fashionable. And to be efficient in these new models, it is necessary to have the appropriate technology. The road, which before was only the tv linear, is now split into many more avenues of distribution that must be met, and to achieve this you may need to add to the equation, initial management and automation, both of the processes such as the metadata.