26
MANAGEMENT
September 2016
IABM celebrates 40th anniversary with
growing Asian presence
APB asks Peter Bruce, director of the IABM APAC, for an update on
IABM’s activities in Asia two years after an APAC office was set up in
Singapore.
Dennis Breckenridge, managing director of systems integrator
Advanced Broadcast Solutions Asia, who was elected chair of the
IABM APAC Regional Council in June this year, also shares with APB
some of the initiatives that the IABM will be putting in place in the
region.
Peter, the IABM has made many
changes over the past two years.
Can you explain the progress of
the IABM and the changes that
have taken place?
Peter Bruce: Yes, the IABM is now
40 years old and looking forward
to a further 40 years. The decision
from the IABM Members’ Board
was to establish regional offices
to cater for the different needs of
members worldwide. Thus, with
the guidance of the IABM’s chief
executive, Peter White, the IABM
has set up regional councils and
established more resources outside
of the UK headquarters, making
IABM truly global.
Following on from setting up
a North American office, the APAC
office was established in Singapore two years ago. We have also
added representatives and offices
in Japan, the UK, Dubai for the Middle East and Frankfurt for Europe.
Remember that the IABM is a notfor-profit trade association and it
relies on its member companies to
lead activities.
opened up training in APAC. As a
result, our APAC membership has
grown significantly.
What has been the effect of
these changes?
Bruce: As a result of establishing
the APAC office, we have been
able to roll out many more regionally focused activities and events,
including a series of regional
members’ meetings. We’ve also
extended the amount of support
at events such as exhibitions and
❝The biggest growth
Where has this growth been
most significant and how do you
see the future?
Bruce: The biggest growth comes
from China and it was an excellent sign that Huawei joined as a
Platinum member. Membership is
widely spread across the region,
ranging from Japanese conglomerates such as Sony and Hitachi to
software solution companies such
as Amagi in India and regional
systems integrators.
Another important job for us
is supporting more than 200 local offices of member companies
headquartered outside of the area.
Dennis, congratulations on your
election. How did this come
about?
Dennis Breckenridge: I was delighted last year when I heard that
the IABM was setting up an APAC
Council, and volunteered to join.
comes from China and
it was an excellent sign
that Huawei joined as a
Platinum member.❞
— Peter Bruce, Director,
IABM APAC
The APAC Regional Council held an
election during BroadcastAsia2016,
at which I was appointed to the
Chair.
With the support of Peter
Bruce, we have brought together
a tremendous range of industry
expertise and regional experience
that we can put at the service of
IABM members in the region to
really help move things forward
for everyone.
Why does APAC need its own
regional council?
Breckenridge: The point is that,
while some interests can be represented centrally — standards,
training, industry intelligence and
so on — there are very real differences in regional markets around
the world that require their own
individual solutions. Indeed, even
within a region, there can be
notable differences in approach
required — something I learnt very
quickly while setting up Advanced
Broadcast Solutions.
Many companies in the West
assume that what works there
must work in APAC too, and this is
simply not always the case. While
broadcasters in the West are mainly
consolidating, Asian countries are
rolling out huge infrastructures
and supporting very large channel counts in comparison. Also, as
the sophistication of many Asian
countries grows and their economies and consumer trends evolve,
Dennis Breckenridge (left), managing director of systems integrator Advanced
Broadcast Solutions Asia, and the new chair of the IABM APAC Regional Council,
and Peter Bruce, director of the IABM APAC, are looking to expand the IABM’s
presence across Asia.
❝No longer are Asian
broadcasters just
turnaround operations,
but rather, they are
becoming content and
distribution centres.❞
— Dennis Breckenridge,
Managing Director,
Advanced Broadcast
Solutions Asia;
Chair, IABM APAC Regional
Council
I believe we are now seeing innovation coming uniquely to Asia in
products and services.
We are also seeing true local
isation and the development of
large amounts of country- and
language-specific content. No
longer are Asian broadcasters just
turnaround operations, but rather,
they are becoming content and
distribution centres.
What plans do you have for the
APAC Council and members in
the region?
Breckenridge: Over the coming
months, I want to accelerate the
growth of APAC regional events
and select topics to address specific
APAC industry gaps, hence benefiting participating members. I will
also actively support membership
growth in APAC to help achieve
better representation for the region in IABM overall.
I will be pushing to develop
better Asian-focused statistics for
reports such as the IABM Industry
Trends Survey Report. Also, there
is a plethora of exhibitions and
conferences in the region, and
IABM will play an increasingly important role in guiding members
to the most suitable events to
market their products and services
successfully.
Training is another area where
IABM can help the industry in the
APAC region. I will be working to
help extend the range of online
courses from our extensive training
portfolio that can bring the necessary knowledge into the region
quickly and effectively.
All in all, I’m excited and energised by the possibilities that a
strong IABM APAC Regional Council can open up for members in the
region, and am looking forward to
implementing as much as I can as
quickly as possible.
The Guardian tells video stories with Media Shuttle
For global news organisation The Guardian,
using video as a storytelling medium is a
common practice.
The problem with video, said Matt Whiting, head of applications at Guardian News
& Media, is the “massive” size of video files
sourced all over the world.
He elaborated: “We need to get them
back to our base in London as soon as
possible in order to put them through our
publishing systems, and a lot of steps that
go into the workflow before publishing,
such as checking with legal, sub-editing,
adding graphics, titles, credits and so on.”
Realising that increasing file sizes of
higher-resolution content and an expanding global reach is an inevitability, Whiting
and his team launched the “Multi-Media
IT Transformation Project” a few years ago.
The initiative included replacing old
technology, including The Guardian’s prior
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) system, because
it could no longer meet the company’s creative and technical needs.
Last year, the company chose to start
using Signiant’s Media Shuttle file-sharin g
solution for its video file movement, from
getting footage from the field and moving
it between satellite offices to delivering
finals for broadcast and sharing rushes with
syndication partners.
Whiting and his team found that although Media Shuttle’s backend was “far
more sophisticated” than FTP, deployment
of the system went without any hitches,
and Media Shuttle is now allowing The
Guardian to see “big changes” in their
workflow.
There have been two real differences
from the previous FTP system, revealed
Whiting. “One, Media Shuttle is just a lot
quicker — it makes maximum use of any
available bandwidth,” he explained. “But
the other, which is probably even more
important for us, is that it’s an uninterrupted
transfer.”
Media Shuttle will also allow The
Guardian to prepare for the future, which
is essentially in video, Whiting suggested.
“Certainly, we’ll be doing more and more
video. Our journalists are increasingly going
to take videos with lightweight cameras or
their iPhones. And each of them will have
access to Media Shuttle in order to get
footage and still images to us, and then to
review edits,” he concluded.