*This blog post first appeared on the Massive Interactive blog. Massive was acquired by Deltatre in November 2018.
This week, the largest ever Massive team to attend will travel to Amsterdam for IBC 2018 – the world’s most influential entertainment & technology tradeshow – and the excitement is positively building up.
As part of our booming growth over the past year, we have welcomed new superstar talent and opened additional offices across the globe. Now, having continued to propel worldwide adoption by broadcasters, TV operators and sports media companies of Massive AXIS, our award-winning user experience management console, the team is ready to get together with top industry professionals and showcase how we’re helping our clients grow their businesses.
Team-wide murmurs around IBC have developed into full-fledged discussions on the future of video entertainment, so as part of the build-up over the next few days, we thought we’d share a list of five hot topics to expect at IBC 2018!
Android TV Operator Tier - the most popular video OS?
It may have taken a few years for all industry players to recognise its’ value, but Google’s Android TV Operator Tier is starting to gain some momentum.
We expect the buzz to continue at IBC around the Android TV feature set and benefits, including: faster time-to-market, effectively outsourcing to Google for time and cost-effective evolution to IP-based video architecture, next-gen STB software to move between linear and OTT services, the open ecosystem third-party applications-based approach, and new and exciting voice-driven technologies.
The Massive team is excited to showcase our Android TV success stories at the show, as part of a conversation on the value of personalised video experiences and how Operator Tier provides newfound functionalities around customisation of the UI and control over the user experience.
We’ve been saying it for years – to be more competitive and drive their bottom line, operators need the ability to deliver premium and targeted user experiences. With Android TV, coupled with a UX management console like AXIS, they can quickly and easily do so.
Industry appreciation for diversity & inclusion
“You have to make conscious decisions to make inclusion happen. It rarely happens by osmosis.” Monique Ellis, Chief Operating Officer, Massive.
Massive takes diversity and inclusion very seriously. Since opening our doors in Sydney over two decades ago, we have been passionate and active in implementing and advocating for impactful D&I initiatives in our industry.
We recently published ‘Active Inclusion: The Massive Guide to Diversity,’ if you’d like to read about our unique approach to D&I across our offices.
The Massive team firmly believes that it is time for D&I concepts to become a hot topic in the broadcast and media space, and we hope and expect IBC 2018 to be a place for meaningful conversations on how all industry players can ensure that they are doing their bit for D&I.
The future of OTT sports broadcast
The sports OTT band-wagon has set-off; sports media companies are distributing live and on-demand content to a global audience through IP-based vehicles like never before. Revolutionary OTT sports services like DAZN are shifting the status quo, not only in their acquisition of top-tier global sports rights but by adopting a pure-play OTT approach. So far, it seems to be working, and here at Massive, we are proud to help power the service as it continues its international expansion.
We expect that IBC 2018 will be grounds for more exchange on new technologies to further enhance sports video experiences. We are excited to see and be a part of new movement in delivering genuine targeted UX for sports fans, real-time data, UHD sports services, immersive experiences, and technological and business model strategies for bringing sports content to more audiences worldwide
Book a meeting with one of our product team at the show to learn more about how AXIS can be used to power targeted sports UX in real-time.
How 5G will change the OTT game
The reality of 5G may be a few years away but theorising about its real-world applications has become an exciting practice across nearly all technology and business sectors – and for a good reason. As lovers of video entertainment, and proponents of premium video experiences, across devices, we are excited to see how faster network speeds will not only deliver improved QoE for OTT consumers but increase the headroom for international players to expand into new markets with targeted UX.
Data, data, data
Collecting audience data and using it to inform business strategy is not new – almost since the beginning of OTT, television operators have attempted to gain a better understanding of their audience and leverage these insights to drive profitability. However, the practicalities of wielding this information cohesively at scale are still tricky. Data is often too unconstructed, too inaccessible and too complex to pull anything but high-level insights from, and tangibly acting on these insights to improve the UX can prove costly and inefficient.
But we’re starting to see a shift from forward-looking businesses who have implemented advanced user experience management systems to help make their visions a reality. Tools like AXIS can empower content schedulers, marketers and editorial staff to take control over a suite of video applications without any engineering or technical knowledge. Changes can be made and implemented in seconds rather than weeks, based on what the data is indicating in real-time. Operators can deploy different experiences to different audiences based on many attributes, including device, gender, time, data and content preferences. The age of unlocking the data dashboard is finally here.
If you’re attending IBC and would like to book a meeting with the Massive team to discuss any of the above, just click here.
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