#IBC2022 Trends and Takeaways

This September, our CEO, James Hakesley, and Creative Director, Roy Kimani, spent 3 days at the RAI, Amsterdam, for IBC’s first live and face-to-face show in almost three years.

Sitting at the global crossroads of the media, entertainment and technology industries, IBC2022 reunited 37,000 attendees from across 170 countries, over 250 world-class speakers, and more than 1,000 exhibitors showcasing innovation and cutting edge technology.

At the forefront of industry, and with this year’s show centred on the theme ‘What’s next? Designing the future together’, the return of IBC2022 as an in-person event promised packed halls and bustling network events - and it certainly delivered!

With headline speakers featuring the likes of Walt Disney’s Markus Gross, and a packed agenda of thought leadership presentations, panels, masterclasses, demos and more, IBC2022 served up plenty of food for thought.

For a business like CUBE™, working across video, animation and immersive content, our standout trends from IBC2022 included:

• Virtual Production
• C2C (Camera to Cloud)
• 'Network' business models

One of the many highlights was Nonny de la Peña’s keynote, exploring the topic ‘What’s Next: How immersive tech will create new narratives and transform entertainment’.

Immersive journalism pioneer, hailed as “The Godmother of Virtual Reality”, de la Peña’s open session discussed the great advances being made in AI, AR, virtual production and the metaverse.

As awareness of virtual production grows amongst the commercial world, Directors, DOP’s, VFX Artists and Production Designers look set to be the driving force behind virtual production adoption.

We explored how virtual production tools are now maturing, from specialty use cases to practical implementation across production, while ‘entry-level’ costs for both hardware and software remain fairly high.

IBC2022 provided a fantastic opportunity for us to network with industry connections within this fast-growing space, from leading tech partners Aoto, Absen and Brompton Technology, to Roe and ARRI.

Next, we explored Camera to Cloud (C2C), which could represent the biggest change in video production since the shifts from film to tape, and from tape to digital filmmaking.

C2C is a workflow that enables filmmakers to export original footage into a post-production environment as soon as it is recorded.

Rushes can be reviewed, edited or otherwise manipulated, and fed back to the set in minutes, saving time, and therefore money, and enhancing creative decision making.

We connected with high performance video production solution manufacturers, Teradek, and discovered ATOMOS’ new and award-winning devices, including their sim powered accessory, which has already been used by thousands of productions to share footage directly from set with remote team members.

Both solutions offer seamless C2C to Frame.io, the cloud based video review and collaboration software chosen by over 1.5 million video pros worldwide, including CUBE™, and recently acquired by Adobe.

We love how these innovative solutions allow content producers (like us!), to accelerate their workflow, collaborate in real-time and support remote team members, no matter the location, budget or camera.

One of the many stand-out, emerging trends was the future of the ‘network' business model.

As creative businesses grow more collaborative, they are also becoming more specialised. As a result, the next economy can expect to see a rise in networks of ‘unbundled’ companies cooperating across the value chains.

Highlighting the importance of nurturing relationships with key suppliers, brands can reap huge rewards from adopting this network business model - Think exclusive access to new releases, latest technology and industry insider knowledge.

We can look to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the cathedral builders of the Renaissance for examples of successful creative collaboration between specialists.

How successful a brand becomes in its field is largely determined by its community - It takes a village to build a brand!