26 TVBEurope
www.tvbeurope.com November 2016 Panel at IBC Rising Stars
Feature
Rising stars Rising Stars is a hidden gem of a sub-conference nestling within the giant broadcast and tech conference IBC, writes Oisin Lunny, senior market development manager at OpenMarket, and host of IBC Rising Stars 2016
to keep up with it; Elisabeth stating, “Could we have imagined autonomous cars seven years ago? It’s happening now. The ability to embrace change and transformation is a key skill.” Van Meer added that it’s not all about technical prowess, “Emotional intelligence is also needed
mongst the 55,797 delegates who
A
stars was that the best way to predict the
gathered in Amsterdam last month for
future is to invent it. AJ+’s Michael Shagoury
the main event, a hand-picked selection
then delivered a condensed social media
main theatre to join the ‘Power Lunch’ sessions
of younger participants, who IBC consider to
masterclass, using their innovative and highly
where industry experts hosted smaller workshops.
be ‘Rising Stars’, were treated to two days of
effective Colin Kaepernick social news items
Amongst the table hosts were Muki Kulhan,
carefully curated sessions, tours, workshops and
as the examples. He advised the audience to
executive digital producer of ITV’s The Voice,
mentoring, for free.
capitalise on the issues that people care about.
Alex Pettitt, live broadcaster, and representatives
Next, Steve Shannon demonstrated that less is
from Avid, NBC Universal, Filmstro, IET, Adobe
brought together some of the most important
more, and how Roku’s ad experience delivered
Systems and Fullscreen.
players imaginable across a diverse range of
more revenues and a better user experience
topics, with the goal of informing, nurturing and
through superior targeting. There are over
broadcasting hardware solutions for live sports
inspiring the next generation of talent.
30,000 developers globally working on the Roku
coverage while Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys
platform, triggering what Shannon called “the
Engineering, revealed the technical wizardry
revenge of the TV”.
behind their coverage of the Red Bull Races.
Olga Kim and the team behind Rising Stars
The sessions covered topics such as AR, VR, AI, robotics, social media, editing, streaming, music, extreme filming, new tech trends and the future of entertainment. Well-known brands in the space such as Avid, Roku, NBCUniversal, RTL, Cisco, Ericsson, AJ+, GoPro, BBC, HBO, Intel and Google shared the stage with innovators
Next, Danny Melger covered innovative
Television School then outlined what courses their Oscar and Bafta-winning alumni had taken, and advised how to follow in their footsteps. The conclusion of the speakers was that “without the right tech, you can’t get the story out there”, regardless of whether you are filming in space, in
The Edit, Mo-Sys, MUBI, The Foundry and Infinite The concept of each session was to help
The rising stars then took a break from the
John Maxwell Hobbs from the National Film and
‘I have a feeling this will prove to have been a pivotal, career-changing event in many of the delegates’ lives’
and startups such as Brandwidth, Filmstro, Inside Wisdom Studios.
to bring companies to the next level.”
Finally, Eric Black, CTO of NBC Sports Group Digital, spoke about the huge logistics involved
a football stadium, or on a film set. Virtual Reality is a hot topic in the
young professionals and entrepreneurs to
in covering the Rio Olympic Games, the largest
entertainment business, with the VR market
develop essential skills and knowledge that
digital event in history. This involved capturing 2.7
forecast to top $70 billion by 2020, according
will help them get ahead in the competitive
billion minutes of digital Olympics content over 17
to TrendForce. Rising Stars brought together
electronic media and entertainment industry. The
days. Asked how does he manage such massive
several of the leading lights to talk about “Virtual
delegates are able to see and handle the latest
scale events Eric’s answer was “coffee!”
Reality: the new reality” next. Jonathan Starck
technology, learn how the industry is developing,
The next panel discussion addressed the need
from The Foundry spoke about new VR use cases:
and also network with those who can really help
for ‘New Skills for the Robot-Dominated Future’,
VR tourism, projects such as UNICEF’s VR tours
raise their profile and advance their career.
with Elisabetta Romano, vice president and
of a refugee camp and the New York Times
Day one kicked off with a hilarious but
head of TV and media at Ericsson, leading a
series The Displaced. Alexandre Jenny from
informative session from Dean Johnson, head
fascinating discussion with Alexander McWilliam
GoPro then spoke about how their affordable
of innovation at Brandwidth. Johnson somehow
(MUBI), Dave Ward (Cisco Systems), Geoffrey
technology is democratising VR production,
managed to cram in AR, VR, AI, hearables,
van Meer (RTL) and Laura Williams Argilla (Adobe
and predicted that Netflix and Amazon Prime
Chewbacca Mom and flying fish into his opening
Systems). The panel agreed that technology is
would drive VR growth. Finally, Michael Ford from
industry overview. His sage advice to the rising
moving so fast it’s a vital career differentiator
Infinite Wisdom warned not to dismiss VR as a