IBC2019: OTT has arrived!
September welcomes one of the busiest calendar events for us here at Magine Pro and the entire OTT industry, IBC. The annual event has long been considered the leading go-to exhibition and conference for media, entertainment, and technology and as such, attracts industry professionals from all over the world.
This year marked our fourth year exhibiting in Content Everywhere hall 14 and was arguably one of the busiest we’ve seen. Without doubt, there were more buyers present than years previous, with a noticeable increase in production houses, smaller ISP’s and Telco’s all looking to go OTT for the first time. Not too surprising. In our post-IBC 2018 blog, we reflected on how the OTT takeover was looming, and how telcos could move into the OTT market by either vertical integration or through partnerships. Check out our reflections on last year’s event here.
This year, the impact of OTT services dominated most discussions at IBC2019. There were panel sessions dedicated to monetization models, niche content, and how streaming is driving a golden era of content creation. It certainly raised some interesting questions around how new market entrants could compete against big brands with much bigger budgets. A popular opinion being that new entrants would need to offer services tailored to niche interests and content. On the Magine Pro stand, we demoed a few of our partners who offer just that. If you missed it, check our experience page to learn more about niche services such as PassionFlix Docsville and True Royalty.
User engagement has been a nascent trend in the OTT space this year. Likely driven by SVOD user fatigue and competition, we’ve seen more content owners looking for innovative ways to monetize and engage their users. Many now want to focus on customer loyalty, engagement, and differentiation in the user experience around content. This also explains why recommendation tools (although not new) were a popular talking point at IBC2019.
We also noticed more interest and focus on analytics and business tools, as operators look to move on from just having OTT, to now successfully monetizing. There was also an uplift in SVOD and live event offerings, alongside traditional AVOD, and subscription and advertising led linear.
But, more important things you might have missed from Magine Pro were our live product demo’s on the stand, including demos of the Magine Pro Console. If you didn’t get a chance to stop by, you can find out more about our products here or download our white paper. Get in touch if you would like to learn more or try a demo.
With OTT being a hot topic at IBC2019, it’s no surprise that hall 14 will be expanding at next year’s event as organisers increase capacity for more vendors by adding hall 5. It seems the OTT takeover is no longer looming, it has arrived!
We’re heading to the SportsPro OTT Summit next month. If you’re attending and would like to meet with a member of the Magine Pro team get in touch!
Let’s introduce more girls to engineering
On March 29, we welcomed 13 girls aged between 13-19 years old, to our office in Stockholm, as we took part in “Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day” (IGEday) once more. IGEday is a yearly event in Sweden where tech companies and organizations, big and small, open up their offices for girls and non-binary to get a hands-on introduction to the life of an engineer.
IGEday is an initiative by the organization Womengineer, whose goal is to inspire future female engineers with practical learning experiences. Sweden considers itself to be one of the most equal countries in the world, but out of the 120,000 members of “The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers,” only 28% of the members were women in 2018 (from the report “Teknisk Obalans”). This is why Womengineer believe the annual event “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” is a step in the right direction for Sweden’s future.
This year almost 2,000 girls participated in IGEday and more than 120 companies took part, Magine being one of them.
Fabian Miiro, an engineer at Magine, who supported the girls during the day shares his thoughts on the experience: “My favorite moment is definitely seeing the transformation from the ones that start off being… skeptic. They mention they surely don’t know anything about programming. And then, just 15 minutes later they are the ones that say “What if…” and “Oh, let’s try…”. To see that transformation, when someone realizes that they can to do what an engineer does, that is what this is all about to me. Because everyone can be an engineer!”
During IGEday we ventured into the programming landscape and introduced the girls to design, hardware and software, programming Arduinos using a visual programming language based on scratch.
“It was fun to watch the girls challenge claims. For example, they were asked to choose any number, so they chose a number, then they were asked to choose another number, which they did. Then they were asked to choose a new number again; the reason was that the first two numbers they chose were special, so they found out that “any number” in this case meant “any number but those two numbers” – Kadri-Annagret Petersen, Tester at Magine.
Magine is very proud and happy to have been part of IGEday and we strongly believe in its purpose, and as one of our Project Coordinators at Magine, Esther Pino, said: “Anyone can be a programmer or designer, the girls proved it that day!”
Get in touch to find out more about events and career opportunities at Magine.
IBC 2018: The OTT Takeover Looms
The idea that OTT will eventually eclipse traditional delivery methods is nothing new, but after seeing some of the latest developments at IBC this year the cord cutting revolution may soon be complete! The industry is evolving rapidly and new tech developments have built new momentum. It’s certainly an exciting time to be apart of the industry and we’re eager to see what the year ahead has in store.
IBC has been considered the annual go to industry event since 1994, and is the leading exhibition and conference for media, entertainment, and technology. The event attracts professionals from around the world involved in content creation, management, and delivery. Here at Magine Pro, integral team members have been attending IBC for over 15 years and since launching Magine Pro in 2016 we’ve exhibited in hall 14.
On reflection of this year’s event, IBC 2018 gave a much better insight into the future of media streaming than we’ve seen before. In particular, how media streaming is evolving and what direction it may take in future. The Content Everywhere hall 14 was packed with vendors presenting much more commercially efficient streaming solutions. There was also an emphasis on diversifying of CDN and meta clouds – something we’ve expected for some time but they’re finally looking like real and viable alternatives.
There also appeared to be more solutions that can efficiently handle ingestion of large-scale broadcasts. Both AWS and Google showcased new products for this. The actual transition of legacy TV distribution is finally about to take place, or so it seems.
AWS, in particular, demonstrated new services that address the bottleneck issues for live streaming, namely how to ingest traditionally aired linear broadcasts in an optimized and more efficient way. And since it’s AWS, these services are already fully integrated into their ecosystem, allowing their existing partners to take advantage of them in existing deployments. For Magine Pro, it means we’re able to offer more efficient ingest services to our clients through the Magine Platform AWS environment.
Google and AWS are certainly eating their way into the IBC halls as both had much larger booths than in previous years. A sign of what’s to come no doubt and where the most interesting development will take place; the transition to the cloud – next years outspoken mantra.
Facebook was also present in the Content Everywhere hall this year but didn’t have as big a presence as we anticipated. They surprisingly seemed like a much smaller video tech entrant compared to the likes of Google and Amazon – now the video and media behemoths of IBC.
We found the speaking and panel session agenda at the Content Hub was particularly well balanced this year though with engaging topics and debates regarding the state of the industry and its future. Our Head of Commercial Operations, Fredrik Engdahl also took part in one of the sessions, ‘Telco TV: The Convergence of Broadcast and Telecoms’. If you missed it, you can catch up here.
We also showcased our branded OTT solutions and services for live, linear TV and VOD content on our stand in hall 14 . If you didn’t get a chance to stop by, you can find out more about our products here or download our latest white paper. Get in touch if you would like to learn more or try a demo.
We’ll be heading to Cannes for MIPCOM this month. If you’re attending and would like to meet with a member of the Magine Pro team, get in touch!
As for IBC, we’ll see you next year!
Meet Magine Pro at IBC 2018
IBC 2018 is next week in Amsterdam, so there’s no better time to map out your schedule for the event!
IBC is the world’s most influential media, entertainment, and technology show. Its peer-reviewed technology conference remains the place to launch the most important new thinking and is matched with a comprehensive exhibition which brings together close to 1,600 exhibitors, each showcasing the state of the art in technology.
If you’re attending IBC and would like to showcase your content on a proof-of-concept OTT service at your meetings, get in touch! Our Pioneer OTT solution is the perfect solution and is so quick and easy to set up, no tech experts are needed! You can tailor the service to your brand and include up to 100 hours of VOD content or one linear SD channel. Find out more here.
This year, we’ll be exhibiting in Hall 14, stand C25. Come grab a coffee and meet the Magine Pro team. You can find out more about our OTT solutions and services and see a live demo of the Magine Pro Console, our web-based management tool that enables you to independently curate and manage your own OTT services. You can also find out more about our experience and pick up a copy of our latest white paper on the stand. Book a meeting with the team today!
And make sure you don’t miss Fredrik Engdahl, Head of Commercial Operations at Magine Pro, take part in the ‘Telco TV: the convergence of broadcast and telecoms’ panel session at the IBC Content Hub. Add Monday 17th, 3:30pm to your calendar now!
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You can book a meeting with the Magine Pro team at IBC here and find out more about our proven OTT solutions and services.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day at Magine
Last month we had the privilege of taking part in Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day. A yearly event in Sweden where tech companies open their offices for girls aged between 13-19 years to get a hands-on introduction to engineering.
The event is organized by Womengineer, whose goal it is to have equal numbers of men and women graduate as engineers by 2030. IGEDay is one step towards accomplishing it as the day aims to inspire future female engineers with practical learning experiences. Magine is extremely proud to be part of the journey, and this year we welcomed 20 girls who selected us to be their host company.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day at Magine
“The IGEDay has been the most unexpected awesome day that I’ve had. The nerves I started the day with turned pretty fast into excitement and it was amazing to walk the girls through solving the challenges.” – Camelia Smeria, engineer at Magine
During IGEDay we ventured into the programming landscape and introduced the girls to hardware and software, programming arduinos using a visual programming language based on scratch. We also explored the importance of project management and put it into practice by designing and creating demo OTT services.
Ivett Backlund, an engineer at Magine who supported the girls during the day shares her thoughts on the experience, “It was exciting to see how fast our visitors got the technical concepts like agile, user-centric design and product ownership and it was fascinating seeing them create solutions to the services they use every day.”
Get in touch to find out more about events and career opportunities at Magine.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering: Sign Up Now!
This year Magine Pro is taking part in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day on March 23rd 2018. It’s an important event in our calendar and gives young girls the opportunity to get hands-on experience in the workplace and learn more about this fascinating career option. We’re inviting girls between the ages of 12-19 to sign up now on the IGE website, please don’t miss this fantastic opportunity!
At Magine, we are proud to employ a diverse mix of highly-skilled engineers and feel it’s important to help to encourage younger generations, and in particular girls, into the field. We will be partnering with Womengineer to host Introduce a Girl to Engineering in our head office in Stockholm.
If you’re a girl between 12-19 and interested in signing up, or know someone that fits the criteria, spread the word! Sign up now on the IGE website by March 2nd 2018.