Recently, IBC2024 revealed the recipients of the esteemed IBC Innovation Awards, recognising the pioneering work of organisations revolutionising the media, entertainment, and technology sectors.
The awards, acknowledging collaborative endeavours in addressing real-world industry challenges, were presented at a ceremony in the RAI Amsterdam. This year, the awards combined IBC’s Innovation and Social Impact categories, celebrating industry advancements across five areas: Content Creation, Content Distribution, Content Everywhere, Social Impact, and Environment & Sustainability. Notably, sports played a significant role in driving innovation in 2024, with four of the five winners recognised for their contributions to sports coverage during major events such as the Summer Olympic Games and the UEFA European Football Championship.
Michael Crimp, IBC’s Chief Executive Officer, emphasised the importance of recognising and nurturing industry innovation, stating, “These awards play a critical role in honouring and encouraging groundbreaking work.”
The winners in the five IBC Innovation Awards categories are as follows:
- Olympic Broadcasting Services and partners for their live broadcast production involving 200 smartphones contributing video for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony and a sea-based 5G network for sailing competitions in Marseille.
- The National Hockey League, in partnership with Verizon, AWS, Zixi, Vizrt, Net Insight, and Evertz, for their 5G and Edge compute framework for live broadcast assembly, control, and delivery.
- LaLiga for enabling true fan interactivity for itself and its worldwide broadcast and streaming partners in collaboration with Play Anywhere and Ease Live.
- Sesame Workshop for its Watch Play Learn Distribution Hub, facilitating the preview and request of videos for children in crisis settings by government agencies and aid organisations.
- France Télévisions for pioneering a 100% glass-to-glass cloud production and private 5G network, resulting in a 300-ton reduction in CO2 emissions while broadcasting a 24/7 channel covering the Olympic Torch Relay for Paris 2024.
As a video journalist and filmmaker, Mstyslav Chernov from Ukraine received the IBC International Honour for Excellence. At the same time, Joshua Maraval, Nicolas Ramin, and Lu Zhang were presented with the Best Technical Paper Award for their paper on Advancements in Radiance Field Techniques for Volumetric Video Generation: A Technical Overview.
These awards serve as a testament to the collaborative efforts and groundbreaking innovations driving the media and entertainment industry forward.
