IABM unveils 2019 award winners at International Business Conference
IABM has announced the winners of its annual awards at the IABM Annual International Business Conference, which took place in London on 4 and 5 December 2019.
The awards recognise outstanding achievement in 2019 in key areas of the broadcast and media technology industry: the fostering of young talent; technological achievement; technology leadership; broadcaster/media company innovation; and creative collaboration between technology vendors and end-users.
In addition, a new award was presented this year – the BaM Shining Star. A final award – Honorary Membership of IABM — was made to an individual who has played a major role in the development of the industry over the course of their career.
IABM Young Person of the Year
Alex Quince
Alex joined dB Broadcast in June 2018 having graduated from the University of Salford with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Media Technology. Alex made an immediate impact at dB with his work on the company’s project for Discovery.
IABM Peter Wayne Golden BaM Award for Design and Innovation
All the 20 winners of the IABM’s NAB Show and IBC BaM Awards are automatically shortlisted for the top broadcast and media technology prize – the Peter Wayne Golden BaM Award for Design and Innovation. The judges put their heads together again to pick the overall winner – the brightest star in the 2019 broadcast and media technology firmament:
EVS – Overcam
The EVS Overcam is an AI-driven system that enables the autonomous control of robotic cameras in live sports environments, providing more viewing angles at a fraction of the cost and with guaranteed broadcast quality.
IABM 2019 Creative Collaboration Award
The World’s Largest IP Remote/At-home Production
A collaboration between Sveriges Television, Grass Valley, Net Insight, Arista and Clear-Com. As the host broadcaster for the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, held in Åre, Sweden in February 2019, Sweden’s national public broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) had the opportunity to push the boundaries of live production. SVT wanted to be more ambitious than ever, deploying more cameras and delivering more angles and live replays for a rich, captivating viewing experience.
SVT’s goal of retaining most of the production team and functions such as camera matching, coloring and shading at its home studio, made ultra-low latency even more critical. The decision was made to employ an end-to-end open standards-based IP remote production infrastructure – but the challenge was delivering on the sheer scale needed.
IABM Technology Leader 2019
The Technology Leader Award recognises a person who is at the forefront of disruption and innovation within the broadcast and media industry who, through inspired leadership, has helped to deliver ground-breaking technology and business benefits. This year’s winner is:
Manfred Reitmeier
Manfred Reitmeier joined Rohde & Schwarz as a development engineer in 1989. He enjoyed much success in his roles as director of R&D software, senior director of R&D transmitter systems and senior director of product management transmitter systems.
IABM 2019 Broadcaster/Media Company
The Broadcaster/Media Company Award recognises and rewards broadcasters or media companies that have demonstrated throughout the year that they are at the forefront of creating and distributing ground-breaking content through innovation across the content chain.
Noa
Noa is changing the way people engage with quality journalism. It provides spoken-word versions of articles from publishers such as The New York Times, Financial Times, The Telegraph and Harvard Business Review. Noa has a novel approach: each audio article is grouped into a topic-specific playlist which allows people to listen from A-to-Z on any subject, in minutes. This is a learning-based approach to news consumption that can be heavily gamified and scaled.
BaM Shining Star
This new award recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the industry over an extended period of time in any field of endeavor, but who typically goes ‘under the radar’ in terms of personal recognition. This year’s winner is:
Sadie Groom
Sadie Groom set up Bubble Agency in 1999 to provide PR, Marketing and Events support to broadcast and media technology companies. 20 years on, Bubble Agency is widely recognized as one of the leading agencies in the industry, working with both established and new companies to enhance their presence in the market. Sadie remains the driving force of the Bubbles’ success – working closely with clients on strategy, messaging and campaigns.
IABM Honorary Membership
Naomi Climer CBE
After joining the BBC as an engineer more than 30 years ago, Naomi Climer rapidly moved into leadership roles, first setting up two new local radio stations, then taking up the post of controller technology at BBC News. This was followed by a 13-year career at Sony Professional Services Europe, culminating in the role of vice president professional services with P&L responsibility for $1bn of products, services and solutions.
In 2012 Climer took up the role of president, Sony Media Cloud Services to incubate and build Sony’s cloud business for the global B2B environment. In 2015, Naomi was appointed president of the IET, then took up the chair of the UK government’s DCMS Future Communications Group, followed by a stint as governor of the National Film and Television School. Today she holds several non-executive director, chair and trustee positions – including chairing the IBC Council. In the Queen’s 2018 Birthday Honours, Naomi was awarded a CBE for services to the engineering profession.