IBC2023 reveals awards shortlists

IBC has unveiled the shortlists for this year’s prestigious Innovation and Social Impact Awards, taking place during IBC2023 in the RAI Amsterdam on 15^th-18^th September.

The IBC Innovation Awards honour collaborative efforts that lead to the development of fresh solutions that address real-world challenges, while the IBC Social Impact Awards acknowledge projects that address critical industry diversity, inclusivity and environmental challenges. The Innovation Awards will be announced in a ceremony in IBC’s Premier Lounge at 18.00 CEST on Sunday, September 17^th. The Social Impact Awards, part of the IBC2023 Changemakers Programme, will be held the same day at 17.00 CEST in The Forum.

Fergal Ringrose, Chair of the 2023 IBC Innovation Awards Jury, said: “The standard of entries has been remarkably high across the three categories – Content Creation, Content Distribution and Content Everywhere. On behalf of the Awards Jury, I would like to thank all of the projects for submitting their entry this year. It is clear that the global pandemic has acted as a major catalyst for innovation in the content and technology industry, with this year’s finalists demonstrating many of the transformative new paths forward. All aspects of remote and sustainable operations have been accelerated, bringing an emphatic shift in emphasis from products and hardware to software and services. This shift is allied to the compelling requirement for media companies to continuously anticipate and align with modern consumption habits.”

This year’s shortlist of the most prestigious projects in Content Creation includes:

• FOX Sports live multi-camera extended reality (XR) set, replacing the existing NFL on FOX set in Los Angeles
• RTVE Spain for Hiperia, its first audiovisual content created 100% by artificial intelligence
• The BBC and partners for the world’s largest pop-up 5G standalone non-public network for live broadcast contributions using shared spectrum, deployed for the Coronation of HM King Charles III
• Riot Games for its Remote Broadcast Centre, Project Stryker, powered by AWS, a groundbreaking approach to esports content production and broadcasting
• Formula E for its onboard in-car broadcasting technology with Timeline Television and Domo Broadcast Systems.

In the Content Distribution category, the finalists are:

• ITV UK for introducing AI-led automation of segmentation and QC workflows with Prime Focus Technologies
• Cellcom Israel, which joined forces with Viaccess-Orca and Broadpeak to stream live sports with super-low latency
• TelevisaUnivision, harnessing LTN live event versioning technology to deliver language-tailored live sports coverage on ViX, its streaming platform for global Spanish-speaking audiences
• Sky Group cloud-native software playout platform for the origination of linear content TV channels across European territories.

The organisations on the Content Everywhere shortlist are:

• SPORT TV APP, which captured a whole new level of audience engagement for the Portuguese sports broadcaster
• Sky Sports for the first time delivered full access to Formula 1 onboard cameras and launched new Battle Channel
• KAN, which changed the way Israel watches World Cup Qatar 2022 and Eurovision 2023 with Sport BUFF real-time interactive engagement
• TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport), which looked to the cloud to create a significant broadcasting milestone for UEFA Youth League.

The Social Impact Awards, introduced in 2019, have since emerged as an IBC mainstay and, in 2023, became part of the Changemakers programme – which focuses on initiatives aimed at making the industry more equitable, inclusive, accessible and green.

Ade Rawcliffe, Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ITV and Chair of the Social Impact Awards Jury, said: “We were blown away by the range and ambition of this year’s entries – congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered. The quality of the finalists from around the globe illustrates just how important making a social impact is to an increasing number of businesses and creative companies. It has rightly become embedded into the strategy of many companies on a level with any other KPI. As a sector, we are privileged to be in a position to help drive positive societal change, create more equitable and inclusive workplaces, and encourage sustainable behaviours.”

There are three categories in the 2023 IBC Social Impact Awards, which will also include a Special Award. The Social Impact category itself is the first, with the shortlist including:

• Afghanistan International Radio, a platform that has amplified the voices of Afghan women, sharing their stories
• RTVE, which used AI to provide local election news coverage of nearly 5,000 small Spanish municipalities
• Stellenbosch University and Intelsat, which are leveraging satellite technology to expand the reach and richness of higher education
• BBC Research & Development’s Human Values project, which provides tools to understand how content affects the wellbeing and values of the user.

The Environment and Sustainability finalists are:

• Iron Mountain Data Centers, which are on the path to using 100% locally sourced clean electricity 100% of the time to make their operations carbon free
• Seagate, which extended the life of over one million hard disk drives and solid state drives through its refurbishment and circularity programme in 2022
• 4MOD’s Life Cycle Assessment process, which integrates LCA data-driven decisions into its operations, ensuring continual improvement in the environmental impacts of products and services
• Love Island’s partnership with eBay, which inspired sustainable shopping among a huge audience.

The finalists for Diversity and Inclusion projects are:

• The MAMA Youth Project, which supports motivated and under-represented young adults into sustained employment in the Media
• SWI swissinfo.ch, which has introduced a data-driven process to evaluate the use of inclusive language in its multi-lingual digital newsroom
• ScreenCraft Works, a global community for under-represented film and TV professionals with cross-border mentorship at its heart.

The IBC Innovation Awards ceremony will also include recognition of the Best Technical Paper from the 2023 IBC Conference, as well as presentation of a Special Award. In addition, the IBC International Honour for Excellence, which goes to an individual or organisation which has made an outstanding impact over an extended period of time, will also be awarded at the ceremony. Previous winners of the International Honour for Excellence include Sir David Attenborough, movie directors Ang Lee and Peter Jackson, and the creator of Sesame Street, Joan Ganz Cooney.