Al Jazeera, RTÉ and BBC among innovators showcasing media-telco convergence

Three advanced proof of concepts Catalyst projects will be unveiled at the IBC Show with artificial intelligence, 5G for virtual reality and mobile news gathering top of the agenda.   

IBC’s collaboration with the TM Forum will showcase the second phase of its Media-Telecom Catalyst Innovation projects in Amsterdam in September.

The Catalyst projects have been developed to fast-track innovation directly to the media and technology ecosystem, reflecting the pace of convergence in the broadcasting, entertainment, telecoms and technology sectors.

Catalysts are proof-of-concept projects developed collaboratively, with the projects bringing together large and small companies to create innovate solutions to common industry challenges.

Aimed at driving open innovation between the media, technology and telecoms sectors; the projects address some of today’s most complex business and technology challenges, including 5G, data management, virtual and augmented reality, edge computing, AI and the automation of business processes for regulatory compliance.

Al Jazeera head of cloud, data analytics and AI Grant Totten said: ““Al Jazeera has been delighted by the Media-Telco Catalyst approach, working collaboratively alongside colleagues from RTÉ, BBC, BT and Associated Press and with world-class vendor partners to address some pressing collective challenges on our digital transformation journey.

“Across two key projects we have utilised state-of-the-art AI and intelligent compression techniques to make significant advances; enhancing live mobile reporting capabilities for journalists and their news teams and exploiting AI to automate the processes of monitoring and measurement of on-air content, for regulatory and editorial standards compliance.

“With some very ambitious goals, we have been able to short circuit the typical in-house cycle for R&D considerably, as well as extend the scope of our original goals by some way. We are all very excited to be showcasing these projects at IBC2019 in September.”

The TM Forum is the industry association driving digital business transformation, it has over 850 member companies that generate $2 trillion in revenue and serve five billion customers across 180 countries.

• Read more: TM Forum showcases telco collaboration with key verticals

IBC media and telecoms advisor Mark Smith added: “As the boundaries between the telecoms and media industries become more and more blurred, the need for collaboration and partnerships at speed across the media-telecom value chain becomes ever more relevant and vital for enhancing audience experiences, optimising production capabilities and driving new revenue streams for broadcasters and digital service providers.

“At IBC2019, we look forward to showcasing some of the very impressive and ambitious projects that have been in development since just Q1 this year, demonstrating what can be achieved in a collaborative cross-organisation and sector approach.”

BBC R&D has been exploring how to create and deliver new kinds of content to its audiences.

BBC R&D section head for immersive and interactive content Graham Thomas said: “The Smart Tourism project has shown us how 5G can enable delivery of visually-rich VR/AR content to users, taking advantage of features such as mobile edge computing. We’re very much looking forward to showcasing the project to IBC’s media & entertainment community this September.”