In the last IBC, and as it is a trend consolidated, HALL 14 continues to grow year after year at the fair in Amsterdam. This pavilion, half empty in its early editions, it has become full of visitors, interested and attracted to these ‘other’ sector companies that have nothing to do with the traditional view of the business.

This pavilion is made up of related companies mostly in services around the OTT. Streaming, encoding, players and new services based on innovation as the ‘machine learning’, the ‘big data’ or virtual reality. Are companies referred to as Google, Facebook, or RedHat, or startups, dimension modest, which start their career.

Traditionally, manufacturers of our industry have been companies with a focus on our vertical, monoproducto or offering an end-to-end. That is to say, if you wanted to mount a tv had no choice but to go to these companies because they had the know-how on the one hand and technology on the other. This not only happened on the Broadcast, but we have examples in any sector. Not everyone could publish a newspaper, you needed to make a very high investment in technology, or the same thing with the music: master and ironing a vinyl was not exactly cheap, and not everyone knew.

But the barrier to entry for real was the know-how. Or so we thought. A few days ago, eating with a colleague in the industry (and to which I dedicate this post), we commented that it was common to use a mantra that gave us a certain superiority against potential intruders that they wanted to get in our business: precision frame-by-frame, time code, Frame rate, vertical interval, formats, codecs... Our terminology was enough to topple the possible competitor to our potential customer: but, if you do not know or what is a code of time... will You dare to buy it?

These mantras have been repeated in all sectors until one after the other has been falling. It is true that knowledge is important, but sometimes it also becomes an inertia, a layer of pollution that obscures the view of the transformations of the business until it is too late, and without realizing it, we go up to the kitchen.

The startups that are being born in our industry do not have the know-how. They are formed by developers, analysts, mathematicians. As you create an application to get the buy-to-house, to order a taxi from your mobile phone, or a continuity in the cloud so that you can mount a television channel in one weekand all of this using IT platform OpenSource. When the consultants we talk about the Cloud, we have prepared a battery of responses (our mantra): the files weigh so much, managing the direct is impossible, the delay you may have when operating in the rundown, the security, but How will work in the cloud, a business that needs dedicated servers video, arrays of switching in the vertical interval, distributors, embebedores, desembebedores, automation systems with frame-accurate monitors, audio, multi-screens, monitors of grade one....? Are we crazy? (...) But when you not paying attention, comes a company that is not of the sector, that has no bias purchased, and I mounted a continuity in the Cloud. And in a service model, with no investment in infrastructure. And scalable, which can accommodate hundreds of clients without having to install each time the platform. And it works. And it is then when we ask the key question: whatwhy not occurred to me to me? Because this requires another way of thinking, get out of your comfort zone (expression very worn but that perfectly defines the situation), take the risk, don't believe in mantras, doubt any idea preset.

It has happened in many sectors. The Transformation is unstoppable. The convergence IT, new ways of understanding the business are changing the rules of the game. What seemed impossible you will find it one day at a website, placed in Google Adwords, and prices, which were unthinkable in our sector.

A few weeks ago, in Bit Experience, ended the conference with FOX about continuities in Cloud reflecting on this topic. A member of the public corrected me: this is not a reflection, it is a reality. It is true, as we have it here. The digital natives are beginning to create businesses that work with another logic, another way of seeing the world. And there are no barriers that prevent this.

But all is not lost. As I said a few paragraphs above, the knowhow, the experience remains important, and it is our greatest value. Digital immigrants can assist you in this transformation, our knowledge is very valuable to the success of the projects that are going to change the business of television. But make no mistake, we also will.

Adapting the appointment of Jean Cocteau: They did it because they didn't know it was impossible.