Two weeks ago, we wrapped up our debut NAB Show as MediaKind – and what an occasion it proved to be! Having attended as Ericsson Media Solutions last year, it was a fantastic feeling to be able to finally bring our brand to the Vegas showfloor, nine months after our launch. These are incredibly exciting times for our industry, with media and mobility converging and enabling a whole host of exciting next-generation, live and on-demand, multiscreen experiences for consumers worldwide.
The entire MediaKind community – from our business builders, sales and event marketing professionals, to our partners, customers and industry peers – played a fundamental role in helping us to demonstrate our pioneering capabilities and overall NAB Show story. In doing so, they helped to create the incredibly positive perceptions we received – and are absolutely entitled to have – from the media industry. Indeed, this was a truly great team effort.
15 MediaKind speaking engagements over five days!
This team effort was further displayed through the extensive range of topics our spokespeople covered throughout the show – we participated in no less than 15 speaking engagements over five days! This broad subject list included the role of distributed cloud technology, the evolution of the SRT protocol and outlining the attributes of IP cloud, through to leveraging media platform analytics, producing low latency live media experiences through Common Media Application Formats and enabling live 360-degree video delivery. Our CEO, Angel Ruiz, took part in the MediaKind sponsored Devoncroft Executive Summit, where he discussed the latest strategies required for success in the evolving media market.
Of course, another of our core focuses revolved around the ongoing evolution of mobility and 5G technology. The beauty of 5G technology is that it works across the entire media spectrum – from contribution, to delivery and consumption. To that end, we were the presenting sponsors of the Destination 5G Theater, and our team took part in five separate sessions, addressing subjects such as:
- How the combination of 5G and media will create and deliver new pathways for immersive experiences
- Where the future of 5G sits in the future of entertainment
- Why 5G will revolutionize the sports fan experience
Netting three prestigious honors at NAB Show 2019
However, our crowning success at NAB Show was to land a trio of prestigious industry awards!
- NAB Technology Innovation Award – enabling world’s first multi-channel 6K tiled 360-degree live stream
- IABM BaM Award – enabling world’s first multi-channel 6K tiled 360-degree live stream
- NAB Product of the Year Award in the asset management, automation and playout category – Placement & Contribution Rights Distribution Application (PRISMA)
These awards are a fantastic recognition of our progress in one of the most transformative periods in media history and a wonderful way for us to mark our inaugural NAB Show as MediaKind. Additionally, they further enhance our leading position in the industry as we look to drive even greater innovation momentum.
Double award success for our work in live 360-degree Video Delivery!
Back in December 2018, we worked together with Deutsche Telekom, Tiledmedia, Magnum Film and INVR.SPACE to deliver the world’s first 6K tiled 360-degree live sports stream of the basketball match between Telekom Baskets Bonn and EWE Baskets Oldenburg from the Telekom Dome in Bonn, Germany, to customers of Deutsche Telekom’s commercial Magenta VR service via a consumer app. Enabling this feat reinforced the potential of this immersive technology and the exciting possibilities it can bring to service providers and broadcasters worldwide. To win both the NAB Technology Innovation award and the IABM BaM award is a stunning achievement and an enormous honor for everyone involved in the project.
Our collaboration perfectly illustrates how 360-degree viewport adaptive ClearVR video can augment the traditional live broadcast consumer experience and take viewers even closer to the action on screen. We are bringing a whole new dimension to live sports viewing. As consumers push for more ways to not only watch but experience their favorite live events, this technology has the potential to reshape how we watch everything from sports and esports through to music and other commercial events. Based on some of the discussions on our show booth, we can already see there is huge demand and widespread interest in this technology!
Success at the inaugural NAB Product of the Year Awards
Embracing innovation in this industry is in meeting the evolving expectations of globally connected consumers. It was fantastic, therefore, to achieve further success in the inaugural NAB Product of the Year awards. PRISMA, our personalized, targeted advertising placement and content distribution rights application, received the top accolade in the asset management and playout category.
Through PRISMA, we are enabling both TV service providers and broadcasters with access to real-time broadcast schedule ingest from the playout automation system, and the ability to frame-accurately identify different placement opportunities such as ad breaks and ad spots or any other program boundaries. This solution opens the potential to tap into new markets and add real value to the consumer experience, offering new features that allow ads to be delivered seamlessly to the viewer.
To learn more about our award-success during the show, watch my video interview below with our CEO, Angel Ruiz, and CTO, Mark Russell.
To read the second part of Arun’s NAB Show review, click here.
