IBC announced its shortlist of candidates for the 2023 Innovation and Social Impact Awards. The awards will be presented on Sept. 17, 2023, at the Rai Amsterdam convention center.
The IBC Innovation Awards recognize solutions addressing challenges in three areas: content creation, content distribution and content everywhere. The Social Impact Awards honor projects addressing industry diversity, inclusivity and environmental challenges.
“It is clear the global pandemic has acted as a major catalyst for innovation in the content and technology industry, with this year’s finalists demonstrating many of the transformative new paths forward,” said Fergal Ringrose, chair of the 2023 IBC Innovation Awards. All aspects of remote and sustainable operations have been accelerated, bringing an emphatic shift in emphasis from products and hardware to software and services.”
Television and video projects are well represented on the shortlists, but a few radio projects also stand out.
Among the Innovation Award for Content Creation is Hiperia, the AI-powered presenter at RTVE Radio 3 Extra. An in-house team of AI experts and programmers from the Spanish public-service broadcaster developed the criteria for Hiperia, which then created its look and voice. Hiperia develops and produces a weekly program for the Radio 3 Extra website and app.
Hiperia is up against the BBC, which was shortlisted for its pop-up private 5G network used to help cover the coronation of King Charles III; Riot Games’s Project Stryker esports broadcasting facility; Formula E for its in-car broadcasting technology; and Fox Sports for its NFL multicamera “extended reality” set.
In the Innovation Award Content Distribution category, the shortlisted projects are ITV UK’s use of AI for segmentation and QC workflows; Cellcom Israel for its livestreaming of sports with low latency; TelevisaUnivision for language-tailored live sports coverage on its ViX streaming platform; and Sky Group for its cloud-based software playback system for linear programming across Europe.
In the Innovation Award Content Everywhere category, the shortlisted projects are Sport TV App for its audience engagement; Sky Sports for its new Battle Channel and for providing full access to Formula 1 onboard cameras; Israeli public-service broadcaster KAN for its use of Sports BUFF for real-time audience engagement during the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Eurovision 2023; and TNT Sports for its cloud-based approach toward UEFA Youth League coverage.
[Look for more Radio World coverage of IBC 2023 here.]
Radio also pops up on the shortlist for the Social Impact Awards. In the Social Impact category, London-based Afghanistan Radio International was shortlisted for its work to amplify the voice of Afghan women by sharing their stories. RTVE was also shortlisted for its use of AI for local coverage of 5,000 municipal elections. Also shortlisted were BBC R&D for its Human Values project to better understand audiences, and Stellenbosch University and Intelsat for using satellite technology to expand higher education opportunities.
The shortlist for Social Impact in the Environment and Sustainability category are Iron Mountain Data Centers for its progress towards carbon-free operations; Seagate for its refurbishment and circularity programs to help reduce ewaste; 4MOD for its life-cycle assessment process to improve the environmental impacts of products and services; and “Love Island” for its partnership with eBay to promote sustainable shopping.
The Social Impact Award finalists in the Diversity and Inclusion category projects are the MAMA Youth Project, which helps motivated, under-represented young adults find sustained employment in media; the Swiss public-service broadcaster’s SWI swissinfo.ch platform for its data-driven process to evaluate the use of inclusive language across its multilingual digital newsroom; and ScreenCraft Works for its cross-border mentorship program.
The IBC Innovation Awards ceremony will also recognize the Best Technical Paper from the 2023 IBC Conference, as well as present a Special Award and the IBC International Honour for Excellence.
