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No Oktoberrest for Cinegy!

For the past 184 years to the present day, Munich is the place to be in early October for Oktoberfest, the world’s largest beer festival. It is so popular that it is replicated – on far smaller scales – around the world.

And that draws something of an analogy to Cinegy and its participation – not just in Oktoberfest (which it enjoys with gusto) – but in its dedication to participating in smaller regional shows and events in the broadcast industry.

If you think of IBC as the broadcast industry’s “Septemberfest” at which Cinegy has maintained a large and consistent presence, there are a great many post-IBC shows and events throughout October that are equally important in their respective markets. Cinegy attends those, too, not only to support their valued partners, but to stay as close as possible to its global and regional Cinegy users.

And staying close is more important than ever as markets continue to fragment and specialise. It’s a cliché that it’s far more difficult to steer an oil tanker away from the rocks than a speedboat. The big iron broadcast hardware of yesterday simply cannot respond to the diversity and speed required today, and that’s what been borne out time and again by what Cinegy representatives are hearing from their regional partners and customers, which you can only find out by being there.

Just off the heels of IBC 2017, Cinegy participated in at least a half-dozen regional shows and events around the world, and the results were interesting – and valuable.

For example, Cinegy had great success at October’s Broadcast India Show in Mumbai with its partner NCS Techno Systems. Although Cinegy Business Development Manager, Richard Collins, remarked that attendance and, therefore, leads seemed slightly less robust in terms of numbers than previous years, there was a significant increase in quite serious “real” interest, specifically for Cinegy News, which is a hot topic in India.

Collins said, “There’s no doubt that what was of real interest at Broadcast India was news – national, regional, and local, which in India covers a vast amount of territory. If you consider that within India 22 major languages and more than 700 regional dialects are spoken, catering for their diverse news interests is hugely difficult with traditional broadcast hardware and infrastructure. However, in a software-only world, Cinegy News in particular was seen as the most elegant, efficient and economical way to quickly spin up, down, or establish long-term all-around news channels for whatever a broadcaster requires.”

Later in October Cinegy also attended CAPER 2017 in Buenos Aries, with its regional partner Tivit. According to Collins, there the focus was not so such on news, but very heavily on MAM or, more accurately, multicam capture and single workflow scenarios, which are perfect fits for the capabilities of Cinegy Archive and Cinegy Desktop and Cinegy Cinegy Air PRO.

Also in October, Cinegy was also present at its partner ETAS’s annual post-IBC event in Vienna, primarily to discuss IP-based workflows as well as what all the other delegates at the event had seen of interest at IBC.

And speaking of IBC, Lewis Kirkaldie Cinegy’s ‎Head of Product Management, participated in a Royal Television Society roundtable review of IBC in October, where he said, in part, “In my view, there were no major revelations at IBC, at least nothing that really surprised me. However, what I did come away with is very important. “My sense is that people are really beginning to understand and, increasingly, accept that everything in the broadcast world is changing – rapidly. Only two or three years ago, anyone I tried to talk to about the future being in IP would respond with a fairly patronising ‘Yes, yes dear boy (you’re another wacky one, aren’t you?)’. Now, the message that I and many others have been evangelising for years is being received with real understanding and acceptance, which is refreshing, and I believe almost certainly pivotal for our industry. The watershed moment is real, and rapidly approaching.”

 

Which brings us back to speedboats.

Cinegy Sales Executive Tanya Zolotuskaya was also racing around during October, participating in Cinegy partner StudioTech’s annual conference in Poland; NatExpo in Moscow, and the annual conference of DNK Corporation, Cinegy regional partner in Russia and post-Soviet countries.

Zolotuskaya said, “At these shows – in addition to more specific interests – the topic of IP-based workflows, 4K, and in some cases even 8K cropped up in the interest agenda. Put very simply, people are looking to do more – much more – with less. Not necessarily less power – quite the opposite – but to be more diverse and agile in their ability to produce multiplatform deliverables that are only set to increase rapidly in the near and long term. Software-based production workflows, via IP and the cloud, are increasingly being accepted as the only viable means of keeping up with the demand. Of course, that’s what we’ve been saying for decades, so we are well-placed to help drive the industry forward in those areas, and that’s a key component of being close to our partners and customers to hear first-hand their observations, requirements, and prospective solutions.”

So, after hoisting a quick Oktoberfest stein (or two) in early October, the Cinegy speedboat was right back crossing IP-based oceans, streams, and fiords to guide and assist partners and customers as they navigate together the open water future of broadcast for the balance of 2017 far beyond.

It might also include a festive flagon along the way.