John Maxwell Hobbs
As well as being a music producer and composer, John Maxwell Hobbs is CEO of music technology startup Delic, media consultant and the former Head of Technology at BBC Scotland.
Industry TrendsMoving from LTO to Cloud – the Media Business Case
The increasing volume of digital content and the need to derive additional revenue from it has resulted in a shift in perspectives around storage strategies, as John Maxwell Hobbs reports.
- Industry Trends
Dolby AC-4 vs MPEG-H: Next-Generation Audio Codecs
While the two frontrunners in the NGA codec stakes are similar in many ways, a comparison of their background and frame of reference gives some interesting insights, writes John Maxwell Hobbs.
- Industry Trends
Dolby Atmos in Broadcasting - Turning it up to 11
Dolby Atmos is a Next Generation Audio (NGA) technology that’s gaining considerable ground, especially in music, eSports and sports. John Maxwell Hobbs speaks to Anaïs Libolt, Director of Broadcast & Content in Europe for Dolby to get a snapshot of progress.
- Industry Trends
Generative AI in Broadcasting: A rising tide
These days it feels as if it’s not possible to read the news or access social media without being inundated with articles and posts about Artificial Intelligence, but just how far and how useful has AI in broadcast become, asks John Maxwell Hobbs.
- Industry Trends
IWD2023: Gender diversity in broadcast technology: forward momentum, but the pipeline needs work
In 2022, in honour of International Women’s Day, we looked at the state of gender diversity in broadcast technology. The consensus of the interviewees was that although the industry had made progress, there was more that needed to be done. One year on, we are revisiting the topic with a ...
- Industry Trends
In-depth: Behind the Scenes at RTÉ Visual Radio Studios
Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ has recently built out a range of new studio facilities. John Maxwell Hobbs gets the grand tour, and investigates some of the thinking driving visual studio design.
- Industry Trends
5G NR: The Other Side of 5G
To the general public, 5G mobile networks are mainly a better version of 4G and 3G that gives faster download speeds with lower latency. Although this is true, it’s only part of the story, as John Maxwell Hobbs reports.
- Industry Trends
Dolby Atmos: Producing with object-based audio
In a previous article (Object-based audio – immersive experiences and personalisation) we explored the possibilities that working with object-based audio affords in the areas of immersive experiences and personalisation.
- Industry Trends
Object-based audio – immersive experiences and personalisation
Object-based audio production has begun to get the attention of consumers over the past year with Dolby Atmos technology incorporated into headphones, speakers, and soundbars from a variety of vendors. Both Apple, Amazon, and Tidal also offer special Atmos-encoded spatial audio streams.
- Industry Trends
IBC Kickstarts 2022 Accelerator Programme at the IET
IBC held its first in-person event for two years last week when the IBC Accelerator Kickstart Day took place at Savoy Place, the home of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and the original home of the BBC, on 7 April.
- Industry Trends
Media tech start-ups: Incubation and growth
It’s easy to think of the media technology space as being made up of a handful of large players. But for every Sony, Avid and Grass Valley, there are independent, innovative start-ups changing the landscape.
- Industry Trends
Flexibility, scalability and complexity: Inside BBC Wales’ all-IP Central Square facility
The 15 July 2019 marked BBC Wales’ inaugural live transmission from Central Square, its new headquarters in the heart of Cardiff, by Announcer/Director Tim Cooper. Shortly after that, the first radio broadcast went out on 25 July. By September of 2020, TV news programmes including Wales Today and Newyddion had ...
- Industry Trends
Gender Diversity in Broadcast Technology: How are Vendors and Organisations Responding?
A lack of gender diversity continues to be a problem in the field of broadcast engineering. In part one of this article, we focused on the working environment for women employed by broadcasters, but what are vendors and industry organisations doing to address this imbalance?
- Industry Trends
IWD: Gender diversity in broadcast technology: More needs to be done
International Women’s Day: Technology has a reputation for being solely the domain of white men, and broadcast engineering is no exception. In fact, historically, it has had less gender diversity than other technology industries. But in this era of increasing focus on diversity, how is broadcasting doing?
- Industry Trends
Relocating ITV Post and Creative
How did ITV manage to relocate post and production departments out of its South Bank HQ on Friday and into the new one on the following Monday?
- Industry Trends
Tuning radio for South Sudan
Most stories about new broadcast facilities are all about beautiful buildings designed by ‘starchitects’ featuring soaring atriums and state-of-the-art studios and production systems. This is not one of them. This is the story of tin-roofed, mudbrick buildings with no air-conditioning, and brand new, old-fashioned analogue production kit.
- Industry Trends
Blog: Crossing the inflection point
The media industry is at an inflection point, one in which we have no clear view as to where we’ll end up, or who the winners will be.
