Avid Shares Their Broadcast Vision at the DPP Summit

Many of Europe’s leading broadcasters and technology companies gathered to discuss major challenges facing the industry—and Avid was there to share their vision at the DPP European Broadcaster Summit in guiding the future direction.

The Summit brought together more than fifty organizations in Cologne, Germany, over two days for a series of in-depth panels and workshops where five key topics were addressed:

• The technology drivers of transformation
• Vendor ecosystems, product modularity, integrations, and customization
• Media technology procurement and engagement
• Broadcaster communications and business alignment
• Sentiment analysis on the state of the European media technology market

Attending for Avid were Arne Berven, Director of Broadcast Strategy, and CEO of Wolftech, an Avid brand, and Régis André, Senior Director of Product Management. Both played an active role in the various panels and discussions, including being interviewed as part of a podcast session for the DPP. You can listen to that session here: https://podcast.thedpp.com/45

“We all know there is a need to do more with less, but also to be more efficient and reduce costs, André said. “I think there are still a lot of conversations that need to happen within the community at large to make sure we are all going in the same direction.”

The fact that the event brings together both broadcasters and vendors is important. The discussions reflect both sets of views, sometimes not necessarily in accord with each other, even though there is acknowledgement of the benefits which clarity in strategic direction can bring.

The DPP report itself calls out “the tension between the desire for transformative change and the practical challenges of legacy systems, budgetary constraints and organizational resistance.”

“There is so much pressure in the industry to work more efficiently and this can’t wait anymore,” Bervan explained. “It is not just technology, it is also a change process that needs to happen, so it is not just to switch in and switch out some equipment, it is also to get all of your human resources within the organization on the same path going forward.

Also under the microscope was the desire for seamless integration between products from different vendors with a need for modularity, something vendors feel they are providing, but broadcasters fear they are not.

Avid recently acquired Wolftech News and is working to deliver innovative new workflows with MediaCentral for the most compelling story-centric newsroom solution on the market. This was demonstrated following the conference at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The report concluded that some issues exist due to a lack of two-way communication, and that “Broadcasters are acutely aware of why and how they can improve communication of their strategic priorities, while vendors emphasized the value of understanding the underlying problems that media companies are trying to solve.”

“Underlying a lot of this was the cost and I think the business models are at a tipping point between on-prem, the cloud, consumption models,” André said. “Vendors are looking for how best to price products in this new world and broadcasters are struggling to address the issues between capex and opex and I think there is still a lot of work here.”

The overall sentiment from the event was positive, coupled with a shared desire for collaboration and innovation between both broadcasters and vendors—and this is definitely something Avid would agree with and looks forward to continuing to deliver in the years to come.