Opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games among finalists of the IBC Innovation Awards
The team behind last week’s broadcast of the Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony are among the finalists for this year’s IBC Innovation Awards, which recognize collaborative initiatives in media, entertainment and technology.
The awards will be presented on September 15 at the RAI Amsterdam during the annual IBC Convention and will be presented in five categories: Content Creation, Content Distribution, Content Everywhere, Social Impact and Environment & Sustainability.
Nominees in these categories include Olympic Broadcasting Services, the NFL, NHL, LaLiga, Disney/Pixar, France Télévisions and NBCUniversal.
“This year’s entries once again demonstrated the global reach and appeal of the IBC Innovation Awards, with the highest quality projects coming from six continents,” said jury chairman Fergal Ringrose. “Meanwhile, audiences’ ever-evolving delivery methods and consumption patterns require content producers around the world to dynamically innovate to remain relevant and competitive in the modern media and entertainment technology ecosystem.”
The list of finalists follows:
Content creation:
- The National Football League, ESPN, Disney/Pixar and Beyond Sports for creating the first fully animated, real-time NFL alternate broadcast in the Toy Story universe.
- Olympic Broadcasting Services and partners to produce live broadcasts with more than 200 smartphones contributing video for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony and a sea-based 5G network for sailing competitions in Marseille.
- Aim to collaborate with Vislink and FocalPoint VR to develop a virtual reality over wireless RF solution for the inaugural season of Aspire’s Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL).
Content distribution:
- Claro for creating a new approach to pay TV in Brazil, integrating streaming channels and applications and providing consumers with entertainment with a complete pay TV offering.
- NBCUniversal Operations and Technology for its groundbreaking project to transform the way its TV channels are delivered to consumers worldwide.
- The National Hockey League in partnership with Verizon, AWS, Zixi, Vizrt and Evertz, to produce a 5G and Edge computing framework for assembly, control and delivery of live broadcasts.
Content everywhere:
- LaLiga for collaborating with Play Anywhere and Ease Live to enable true fan interactivity for itself and its global broadcast and streaming partners.
- Red Bull Media House to bring together real-time GPS tracking, data management and advanced visualization to transform the viewing experience through live broadcasts, web widgets and mobile AR app.
- Franceinfo (France Télévisions) for collaborating with PimpMyCompany to aggregate text/audio/video/photo messages from different platforms and broadcast them live on air.
Social impact:
- Disney Star and Star Sports for partnering with India Signing Hands to bring cricket to nearly 67 million hearing impaired and 34 million visually impaired fans watching IPL 2024.
- CultureQ for a new technology platform developed by indigenous technology company Kiwa Digital that enables indigenous peoples worldwide to revitalize their language and culture on a large scale, while maintaining sovereignty.
- Sesame Workshop for its Watch Play Learn Distribution Hub that allows government agencies and relief organizations to view and request videos for children in crisis.
Environment & Sustainability:
- French television to reduce CO2 emissions by 300 tons through pioneering 100% glass-to-glass cloud manufacturing and a private 5G network.
- GreeningofStreaming to address growing industry concerns about the energy impact of the streaming sector, with international reach and more than 30 member organizations.
- Anton/Bauer for Salt-E Dog, which harnesses the power of sodium chemistry to enable sustainable television production practices.
