IABM Annual and BaM Awards winners revealed

The awards ceremony, which took place on the second day of the trade association’s online BaM Live! event, combined the Annual Awards with the two Bam Awards ceremonies which usually take place at both IBC and NAB.  

Chair of the BaM Award judges, IABM chief technology officer Stan Moote, said: “Considering how difficult 2020 has been, it was really fantastic to see so many great innovations from the over 120 entries submitted. The judges had to dig really deep to choose the eventual winners.” 
The judging was carried out by a panel of more than 40 non-affiliated, expert judges, each with specialist expertise in one or more of the awards categories. 
The Annual Award winners were chosen from an initial 50 entries across five categories: Andrew Jones Young Person of the Year; Technology Leader of the Year; Broadcast/Media Company of the Year; Most Successful Virtual Event; and Most Creative Digital Campaign. 

The BaM Awards winners:

Create 

Wavemaker Creative – Crew in a Box 
“Great response to the present situation of COVID. Crew in a Box is a product for our time and might change the way talking heads are shot in the future. A very well implemented solution to remote presentation and interaction, especially since it has control and communications with a remote production team.” 

Produce 

disguise – disguise xR 
“demonstrates a very innovative development in the current coronavirus climate and enables more complex and effective remote production. Is leading the way in virtual and augmented reality with real world solutions. On the bleeding edge of a revolution in how content is created and produced.”  

Manage 

Meta Data Systems – Meta x WarnerMedia Localization Platform 
“A clear example of a real-world problem solved effectively by the correct use of technology. 

Meta Data Systems shows a very broad practical tool to speed up a global production system around a large-scale catalog for Warner. The impact of a system like this is immense – and impressive.”  

Publish 

Limelight Networks – Limelight Networks EdgeFunctions 
“Provides a very dynamic and perhaps ground-breaking product that empowers content owners and developers to unleash their imagination via responsive and rapid serverless architecture on the network edge for the first time, freed from the data center. Huge potential.” 

Monetize 

Vubiquity – Amdocs Media’s MarketONE 
“Ranks top due to the D2C and CSP integration which is most needed for digital consumers. A comprehensive solution to easily monetize content to a wide audience. The connection to help OTTs move from cloud only isolated locations to real networks will greatly accelerate the opportunity for OTTs to be seen as equal to more traditional channels.” 

Consume 

Deltatre – mtribes 
“Enables media operators to better define strategy and validate investment into a streaming service. 

It is the first product that brings together audience segmentation, UX configuration, user insights, and feature testing under one holistic console for non-technical teams. It is a genuine innovation in response to a defined and growing challenge faced by our customers and the wider industry.” 

Connect 

NEP Group – BSI’s Mini Tx UHD 
“This is a huge enabler for both sports and reality TV due to the places it can be utilized, particularly when worn on the body and will unlock new camera angles and views connecting consumers to the content they are watching in more compelling ways. Provides a solution to low latency efficient UHD links for wireless cameras in an increasingly important area of live production.” 

Store 

EditShare – EFSv: Seamless Proxy Editing 
“Provides the pathway to a hybrid on-prem in the cloud model of media production. It takes the benefits of both and removes trade-offs in an either-or scenario and will unlock powerful global workflows. Connecting creatives anywhere with the content they need at an optimal price.” 

Support 

Telestream – GLIM Remote Media Player 
“A low latency universal player is the holy grail when working remotely. A highly relevant and effective application for use in today’s remote post production environment. Offers a real breakthrough for supporting remote workflows.” 

Project or collaboration 

Nextologies & PSSI Global Services – SpaceX Launch & Splashdown Shows 
“A complex system and operation, using to the limits the latest in a wide range of technologies that are available today. An innovative solution delivered efficiently and in a very short time during Covid-19 restrictions.” 

The IABM Annual Awards winners: 

Andrew Jones Young Person of the Year 
This award is named in honor of IABM friend and colleague Andrew Jones who we sadly lost in 2019. Andrew was IABM’s Head of Training and played a vital part in the development of our educational initiatives and fostering the next generation of talented people for our industry. The award recognizes someone new to the industry (under 25 years old) for their hard work, diligence and potential. The 2020 winner is: 

Aditya Panikker 
From his nomination: “Aditya joined Digigram in 2018 as a product and digital marketing intern, while simultaneously pursuing his Master’s degree. Over the last two years, he has donned many hats within Digigram, starting out by laying down the structure of Digigram’s social media presence, followed by working as a junior product manager and then finally taking over the responsibility to expand Digigram’s business in Eastern Europe, Middle-East and Africa last year. In a year, he has enabled the company to extend its presence within these regions by mobilizing and training a strong network of partners and distributors. 
“Despite moving to France as a 21-year-old who did not speak the language or have any connections in the country, he was still able to find a place for himself through sheer passion for learning new skills and building new relationships. This tenacity to work against the odds, his ability to learn from everyone around him and his willingness to self-correct, convinced us to put our trust on him to handle such a multi-cultural region and we are glad we did. This is also the same reason behind nominating him for this award.” 

“Aditya, within a year of taking over his new role, has reconnected Digigram with our contacts in the MEA region and established a very close relationship with them. Our partners in the region are now actively promoting and supporting Digigram more than they ever have before. In addition to engaging with our existing contacts, he has actively found new partners in different regions and motivated them to be enthusiastic about our brand and solutions. With extensive and elaborate product training, our partners are now confident in taking our solutions to markets beyond broadcast. 
“He has incorporated the ‘think local, act global’ principle into his operations in the region and it has been showing great results so far. Apart from setting business targets and executing joint-prospection plans, he focuses a lot on building mutual trust and ensuring that Digigram’s brand is represented in the right manner: as a progressive, future-forward and approachable organization.” 

Technology Leader of the Year – sponsored by Avid 

This award recognizes a person who is at the forefront of disruption and innovation within the broadcast and media industry who, through inspired leadership, has helped to deliver ground-breaking technology and business benefits. The 2020 winner is: 

Jackie Howes, Director – Media Infrastructure Architect, Discovery 
Jackie’s nomination: “She is a fabulous employee, a huge asset to our group and the company as a whole. Jackie is directly responsible for scoping, defining and coordinating both large and small Infrastructure systems that have a direct impact on the company’s technical capabilities and profitability. Jackie’s knowledge of broadcast and production IT systems is unparalleled; she is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge of how and why things function.  
“She loves to share her knowledge and has been a guiding light to her colleagues and peers. In the past year, we’ve experienced many unforeseen changes to our daily working practices; these have affected all employees in one way or another. Jackie has worked tirelessly to make sure that all employees are able to function in their roles no matter where they are located. The ability for key operational teams to work remotely successfully was one of Jackie’s key objectives and she has made it not only possible but, in some ways, better. 

“Jackie has spent most of this year working and coordinating global internal teams and external suppliers and vendors to architect an infrastructure ecosystem that will support the technical and operational aspects of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympic Games. Jackie did this with a great sharing approach and made everyone feel they were on the same journey together. The output of this project has been very successful; Jackie not only provided a world class solution she also created a real feeling of ‘team’ and has made everyone she worked with a little wiser and understanding of the inter-department needs to make such a project function. Jackie also has an ability to communicate effectively with all of her colleagues no matter what level and has a great and respectful relationship with them all.” 

Broadcast/Media Company of the Year – sponsored by Bridge Technologies 

This award recognizes and rewards broadcasters or media companies that have demonstrated throughout the year that they are at the forefront of creating and distributing ground-breaking content through innovation across the content chain. The 2020 winner is: 
 
latakoo 

latakoo was nominated for the award by Dish Mexico. Eduardo Peniche, Commercialization Director, Dish Mexico said, “latakoo provides the fastest and easiest solution to transfer large media files from any location. latakoo is an essential tool for production and broadcasters around the world who want to enable news, sports, production and other media teams in your organization to move content live fast.”

Most Successful Virtual Event 

New for 2020 this award recognizes and rewards a significant digital campaign that has taken place during the year when physical events came to an abrupt halt. The winner is: 

Freeman & Sound and Vision Entertainment – NFL Draft 2020 
For the first time ever, the annual meeting of NFL franchises to select newly eligible players for the upcoming season was held via video conference as a result of worldwide travel restrictions. Instead of the planned spectacular live event in Las Vegas, all team selections took place virtually, with league broadcasting picks taking place from the commissioner’s basement as well as various other locations. This historic Draft was broadcast live by NFL Network and ESPN from April 23 – 25. 
Freeman, Brady Belavek of SAV and engineer Dave Ragains of Show Machine were hired to handle all production communications between the NFL, the networks and all production staff. Freeman, along with Belavek and Ragains have been providing the communications solution for the NFL Draft for over a decade, but never in a virtualized setting. 

Belavek said, “When the decision was made to virtualize the Draft broadcast, we were tasked to come up with a reliable and secure remote communications solution that would enable a large number of production staff to operate from their homes while still being able to communicate on the production intercom freely over many channels. What turned out to be one of the biggest challenges was managing ISP connections in individual’s homes and offices, not to mention the security requirements from the NFL, who were understandably concerned about cyber security threats.” 
Nominated by Clear-Com, whose Eclipse® HX digital matrix system along with LQ®-R4W8 was the chosen intercom solution to support the large network of remote Agent-IC® intercom app clients required for this broadcast. 

Most Creative Digital Campaign 

Also new for 2020, this award recognizes and rewards a significant digital campaign that has taken place during the year. The winner is: 

beIN Sports – “Love it Like the First Time” 
To retain viewers’ and subscribers’ passion for sports and football in particular, beIN MEDIA GROUP’s departments worked around the clock along with its global offices in Singapore, London, Miami, Paris, Doha and Istanbul to create the first truly integrated creative global campaign curated for viewers and subscribers across 43 countries and in 5 continents. The campaign not only showcased how the entire world was affected by the pandemic, but it also provided hope and a sense of nostalgia to sport enthusiasts from Los Angeles, USA to Lyon, France all the way to Cairo, Egypt. 

“Love it Like the First Time”, the first major international campaign by beIN SPORTS, was introduced for fans to celebrate the start of the new 2020/21 football season across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Asia-Pacific, France, Turkey and North America. 
The unifying and positive campaign celebrated a fresh start to football across the globe and included the best football leagues and competitions including the English Premier League, Spain’s LaLiga, France’s Ligue 1, Italy’s Serie A, the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Nations League, AFC Champions League, CAF Champions League and more. 

IABM Honorary membership 

IABM Honorary Membership recognizes outstanding personal contributions to the supplier side of the industry as well as to IABM itself over an extended period. This year, the award goes to: 

Graham Pitman 
“Graham’s advice and support as Vice Chair over the last nine years has been a tremendous asset to me personally and the wider IABM team,” said Peter White, CEO, IABM.  

“This honour is richly deserved not only for the unstinting contribution he has made to IABM over many years, but also in recognising his long and successful career in broadcast and media technology; Graham must be one of the best known and most respected people in the industry. I know many people around the business will be saying ‘great choice!’ on hearing this news.”