MovieLabs identifies 5 key trends impacting media creation

According to MovieLabs at IBC2022, there are various key stumbling blocks when it comes to efficient media creation. 

1. There is a growing and urgent need for “scaled high-quality global content production.”
2. Today’s distribution models are “no longer a one-size-fits-all as release windows are evolving.”
3. Modern productions are becoming far more complex and outgrowing existing workflows and processes.
4. Since the pandemic, teams are increasingly dispersed and ‘remote collaboration has become the new normal.”
5. Technology is evolving at a breakneck pace and the “vendor landscape is changing.”

What does the future of content creation look like?

Prior to IBC2019, MovieLabs, the technology joint venture of the major Hollywood Studios, released ‘The Evolution of Content Creation’, a white paper that created broad industry impact, recognition and alignment around the foundational principles of how the industry would migrate production workflows to the Cloud. 

Those principles (listed below) are split into three broad categories - A New Cloud Foundation, Security & Access, and Software-defined Workflows:

1. All assets will go straight to the cloud
2. Applications will come to the media
3. Distribution will be a publish function.
4. Archives are deep cloud libraries controlled by access, storage, and economic policies
5. Preservation will include future edit ability for archived assets
6. Every project individual will be uniquely identifiable
7. New cloud-native security systems will protect assets and workflows beyond facilities
8. We’ll have a universal way to find and link media assets across clouds
9. Workflows are dynamically assembled from building blocks that use common interfaces and workflow patterns
10. Workflows will be designed around real-time iteration

The MovieLabs 2030 Vision

Now known as the “2030 Vision”, MovieLabs has since issued additional white papers, architectures, specifications and thought leadership on content security, software defined workflows, cloud interoperability and the gaps that need to be filled in order to realise this ‘vision’ and overcome those key trends impacting media creation.

At IBC2022, MovieLabs will reveal that there has been real progress as teams, vendors and partners move from “principles to practice.” Featured case studies already include ‘NBC Universal local “Next Gen Newsroom’, submitted by Accenture; ‘Studio in the cloud - from Capture to Finishing’, submitted by Amazon Web Services; and ‘Cross department synchronization on Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, submitted by ProductionPro.

“This first set of case studies is just the beginning,” says Richard Berger, CEO of MovieLabs, “and we look forward to highlighting additional case studies in the future as organisations across the industry make progress implementing the MovieLabs 2030 Vision.”

For more show news, including product launches and interviews with key exhibitors, check out our IBC2022 Highlights page.