TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2023 NAB Show?
MO GOYAL: The driving conversation at the 2023 NAB Show will be about content monetization. The industry continues to face challenges regarding consumers’ viewing habits. We’ve moved in a significant way from just linear television to multiple subscription services and free ad-support television (FAST) channels. But delivering these additional services can be costly.
The first shift has happened as media companies have consolidated facilities with IP. This has allowed them to pool resources more efficiently and create more content. Additionally, the adaptation of the cloud has enabled media companies to scale and address the content delivery to multiple platforms.
The next challenge is audience engagement. Media companies will need to provide innovative solutions to engage the audience to keep them longer on their platforms, and returning to it. This can be done by using AR, VR or other technology to enhance the audience experience. For instance, we have our Ease Live platform that provides interactive overlays that has allowed our customers to add live game stats, watch parties and free-to-play games to engage the audience during a game.
TVT: What will be your most important product news?
GOYAL: This is a hard question. We have a wide range of products that can fit the bill. I’ll narrow it down to a couple. First, we’re excited to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Studer Audio. We acquired the legendary brand in 2021 and have been diligently working on updating the core to support ST 2110 and integrate the Vista product line with MAGNUM-OS and VUE. This year will see the relaunch of the Studer brand under Evertz, to compete in the audio mixing console market.
Next, the continual development of our BRAVO Studio to help content creators produce more unique live content for their various platforms. For the NAB Show, we’ll showcase further integration with Studer for enhanced audio, intro the “Highlight Factory” where clips and stories are automatically created using AI technology, and publishing to Ease Live where users can pick their own highlights.
TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
GOYAL: In the case of BRAVO Studio, Studer and Ease Live it’s the integration from the edge device back to the production. The data we collect from user engagement (using Ease Live) can be fed back to the production team to create more personalized content for the end customer. In this case, BRAVO Studio uses the received metadata to curate specific highlights or clips and push back to the user via Ease Live interactive overlays. Essentially this gives users a unique collection of content based on their interactions.
TVT: NAB Show is celebrating its centennial this year. How many NAB Shows have you been to and do you have any particular standout memories of past shows?
GOYAL: Personally, this will be my 17th NAB. I still find it hard to believe that it’s been 17 years. The memories vary from our booth designs to the people that I’ve worked with, to the customers themselves. But, over the 17 years, the highlight was building our own data center in the middle of our booth and essentially assembling a broadcast facility using all IP. The entire booth demonstrations depended on this core working 100% and remaining up and running throughout the show. The power, the cooling and code updates were all challenges we had to meet because the NAB Show will always go on, with or without us. So, the push to get the full IP system running in time for the show was the most stressful, fulfilling and memorable NAB Show experiences I’ve had over the 17 years.
