Looking back at 2024: the industry trends that stood out

From AI to IP, the cloud to virtual production, key industry executives take a look back at some of the biggest trends that impacted the media and entertainment industry in 2024

By Jenny Priestley

Published: December 23, 2024

From AI to IP, the cloud to virtual production, key industry executives take a look back at some of the biggest trends that impacted the media and entertainment industry in 2024

target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> From AI to IP, the cloud to virtual production, key industry executives take a look back at some of the biggest trends that impacted the media and entertainment industry in 2024

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As we draw to the end 2024, TVBEurope asked key industry stakeholders to share their thoughts on the big industry trends that have stood out after the last 12 months and their impact on the media and entertainment industry.

Paul Turner, director of product management, AJA Video Systems Familiar themes, SMPTE ST 2110 and HDR, drove many conversations in the M&E industry in 2024 as the technologies and talent behind these rapidly evolving pipelines advanced. SMPTE ST 2110 video emerged into the limelight, with the cost of network switches dropping and the pool of available IT video engineers growing steadily. More broadcast and production teams felt confident tapping into the IP protocol to transport uncompressed video over IP across select parts of the production chain. Experimentation primarily took place in sandbox environments, with many facilities opting for a hybrid SDI/SMPTE ST 2110 approach. A significant development, this spike in adoption speaks volumes about the growing industry demand for improved operational and cost efficiency when transporting video across facilities.

SMPTE ST 2110 is changing the game for M&E professionals because of the massive volume of uncompressed video it allows them to get across a single 25 GigE SMPTE ST 2110 cable; you can transport a couple of 4K/UltraHD or a significant number of HD signals. Its bi-directional nature is also convenient in that you can send signals back and forth between multiple destinations, all while decreasing rack space and reducing power consumption.

Colour consistency is crucial from content creation through consumption, making discussion around colour management hard to escape this past year. What became apparent is that professionals need to give more consideration to colour pipelines in pre-production. For the industry to fully capitalise on the benefits of HDR, it must be the first consideration instead of an afterthought, and many professionals have begun to recognise this. To this end, we saw more facilities and professionals dig deeper into colour management and conversion tools and educate themselves, which we anticipate we'll see more of in 2025.

Stuart Ashton, director, Blackmagic Design One of the key trends in 2024 has been the growing acceptance and integration of the cloud into workflows, with lots of testing and proofing throughout the media and entertainment industry. While budgets tighten, quality expectations remain higher than ever. Productions are under pressure to do more with less. Technology like Blackmagic Cloud is stepping into speed collaboration - allowing disparate teams to work effectively in real-time rather than relying on slower media transfer or back-and-forth workflows between post-teams or facilities.

At the same time, IP adoption is on the rise. A significant driver is the move to remote-based and decentralised workflows as the industry looks to implement more sustainable practices while achieving cost savings and efficiencies. The shift from SDI to ID, aided by standards like SMPTE 2110, is gradually transforming how content is handled in broadcast and live production. Although there are still challenges related to cost and network infrastructure, IP is gaining momentum.

These trends are leading to a more efficient and connected production environment. The shift to cloud-based workflows is flattening the traditional linear structure of post-production, making processes like editing, grading, and visual effects more collaborative. Different creative roles can work simultaneously, while production teams can start colour grading or refining visual effects before picture lock, resulting in better creative outcomes and more adaptable workflows.

There is also increased awareness of how IP can address the challenges of traditional infrastructure in live and broadcast settings. By making media transport more flexible, IP offers the scalability that modern productions need. IP-based workflows also enable more flexible and remote production setups by decoupling media transport from traditional cabling. While SDI has been the de facto standard for years, the move to IP, despite some initial concerns about cost and complexity, offers the scalability and flexibility that modern productions need.

Andy Waters, head of studios, dock10 One of the big trends we've seen emerge during 2024 is the industry's deepening interest in AI. As this new technology starts to really impact our wider lives, we've seen organisations from across the industry exploring how they can use AI to improve efficiencies. There's certainly a lot of excitement and expectation for this new technology.

A more tangible trend has been the entertainment sector adopting virtual studios. The industry has seen how successful virtual studio productions are for sports broadcasting, where they are now well established, and this has inspired more and more production companies to explore how they can translate that success into the entertainment sector. This year we've seen a lot of interest from production companies inquiring about

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