My Top 5 Takeaways from IBC2018

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I came away from IBC2018 with a host of helpful takeaways, but these five made the top of my list:

# 1 – Heineken does, in fact, taste better in Amsterdam

Between our awesome partner event last Thursday, touring the Heineken Experience, attending various technology and channel partner parties throughout the week, Quantum’s party on Monday, and just general networking around Dam Square – I drank more delicious Heineken the week of IBC than I have my entire life.

# 2 – The street signs in Amsterdam are more like “suggestions” for bikers

I love biking, so I biked every single day in Amsterdam – it was probably my favorite aspect about the city.  What a great way to commute to and from a trade show. (If only Vegas was this bike-friendly…sigh)

After riding with the locals for almost a full week, everywhere, it’s obvious that red lights, one way signs and “don’t park your bike here” signs are largely ignored. But everyone seems happy and I didn’t witness a single collision.

# 3 – Great validation from end users, channel partners and technology partners that there is nothing like StorNext

For studios, broadcasters and post-production companies I spoke with, it’s clear that multiple streams of 4K content are the new norm, and being able to create and collaborate faster is key to survival. With production budgets under pressure, the ability to do more in less time is key to our customers’ success.  We’re proud and humbled that so many users, MAMs, PAMs and more consider Quantum storage a key part of their workflow.

That said – we know we have lots of work to do. And we’re on it!

# 4 – There’s a real opportunity for Quantum to automate media archives and help our customers monetize that content in new ways

What I mean by “build out” is that many studios, broadcasters and post houses I spoke with use a tape-based workflow for their media archive. This means they use LTO tape (awesome!) but the actual archive itself is in the form of tapes on a shelf, and each tape represents, perhaps, one completed project.

While that workflow works great for these houses, it isn’t future proof and certainly doesn’t lend itself to making that content metadata searchable – for example, to search and then re-use that content to generate business via new channels and new platforms.

Quantum’s portfolio of products and our expertise is uniquely suited to help customers go from a “manual” tape-based archive to a searchable “online” archive that is AI-ready.

# 5 – There are opportunities for us to expand to other areas of the workflow, and other workflows

I spoke to many producers that expressed how challenging on-set storage is becoming, especially with multiple 4K cameras running continuously, now that it’s not uncommon for dailies to quick run into the multiple Terabyte range. This makes offload and other requirements challenging for DITs, and something that, today, requires a host of manual steps.

We’ve got some ideas of how we could help, so we’ll be exploring this as I get back from IBC. If you are interested in products for this area – hit us up![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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