New experiences: Evertz on why 2024 will be the year of experimentation

By Mo Goyal, Evertz senior director international business development, live media solutions.

2024 will be an interesting year, and how people experience it will depend on where they are geographically.

In Europe, we have two big sporting events coming up – UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany, shortly followed by the Paris Olympics. In both cases this will be the first real ‘return to normal’ since the pandemic, but I think the changes our industry adopted during the pandemic will still be relevant in terms of how productions are handled.

For example, I think there will be fewer fixed technical elements such as OB trucks. Instead, more of the production will go through centralised data centres that are built for the event using off-the-shelf components. This will give broadcasters more flexibility for production with the ability to have a larger number of the production team working remotely.

Bigger productions

Both events, the Olympics and the Euros, will be much bigger productions in terms of cameras and the different technologies used. We are likely to see more IP and 4K in the mix, and lessons we’ve learned in previous years about how to run successful remote productions will come to the fore. Broadcasters will use these new technologies to produce high-quality shows with smaller teams physically at events. How they deliver content to the end user will also be fascinating because more cameras and camera angles means broadcasters will have more content to play with.

The fact that there are now tools available to enable remote production will be a key driver. These tools, combined with better network connectivity, mean that more high-quality signals from venues can be brought back to a broadcaster’s local facility without the need for large numbers of people on the ground. This not only saves the broadcaster money in travel costs, but it also helps reduce carbon footprints, which is another industry goal.

Innovations like the cloud are increasingly being leveraged because broadcasters have realised that these technologies allow them to tackle many elements of a production from anywhere. They may not be moving entire productions to the cloud, but they will be using remote technology to do more from their home location (in another country), with a production team dispersed geographically across the country.

Changing landscape

In North America, the challenges facing the regional sports networks, which hold the local rights to baseball, basketball and hockey, are changing the landscape for sports production. As leagues look for new partnerships and distribution of its games, some are considering bringing production in-house with new cloud-based production tools. The use of production tools in the cloud with operators accessing it from anywhere will continue to be a path teams and league will evaluate. This can be a significant change in the industry if any of the leagues choose this path.

Machine learning (ML) and AI are tools are already being tried in production, and in 2024 we will see more of it. ML and AI will be opportunities for making production more efficient in terms of workflow but will also enable the production to curate more. The use of natural language could give production teams many more options by recommending packages or elements to take to air.

In 2024, engaging audiences in new ways will become increasingly important to retain viewers. This past year has been a tough one in terms of macroeconomics. Almost every household is exercising financial restraint on how they spend their money. The challenge is to keep subscribers and audiences engaged and provide more value for their dollar.

Sports rightsholders will look to enhance the fan experience with more content available on various platforms, whether it’s access to individual player cameras or interactive overlays for live game and players stats. This also opens a window into creating unique opportunities and experiences for fans by personalising what they see and offering information that is unique to them. This impacts how content is originally produced.

Overall in 2024 we will see continued evolution in how we make and distribute content. Remote productions will increase from any location with a network connection (wired or 5G). This creates an opportunity for more content for the audience to consume. Production teams will look to balance existing infrastructure, cloud-based tools and multiple platforms with cost and sustainability.

Whether it is the Paris Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Euros or any other major tournament, 2024 is going to be the year of experimentation and seeing how much more we can do with processing, remote working, AI and machine learning.