I like Broadcast Asia – it’s small enough to walk around in a couple of hours, yet all the main brands and an impressive number of international countries are represented. No-one is expecting “a big theme” or “a big announcement” in the way that is expected at NAB and IBC. In fact the general air of the show seems to be “practical solutions for real problems”.

It’s refreshing to see a broad range of different customers appearing on the Dalet booth for demos. At AmberFin, the average customer who wants a demo is tech-savvy and has a variety of delivery specifications that they need to make yesterday because there is an urgent rush to install a transcode farm. The MAM customers seem to range from operators to journalists to engineers, in fact a whole cross section of interesting users. I am continually impressed by the ability of the Dalet Galaxy platform to offer a single user experience to this wide range of end-users. Not only does it give a feeling of uniformity to the product, it also seems to allow the broad range of end-users to feel as though they are working the same way as part of a team. An important take-away in this crazy world.

The show floor is populated with the usual array of microwave dishes, audio mixing consoles, tripods, cameras and utility bags. Increasingly, all the other booths have a mix of laptops and servers connected to GUIs with grey backgrounds. Broadcast Asia has gone IT with a minimum of fuss, but a maximum of problem solving. In addition to the main software tools, like those from Dalet and AmberFin, there are specialist subtitling, scheduling and studio tools that cater for stations big and small. We really have entered the world where anything you can think of can be created in software on a standard platform with a minimum of specialist hardware around the outside. Surprisingly, there isn’t much video on IP or 4k on display. Both of these “big ticket” items from the last 24 months seem to be taking longer than predicted to reach around the globe and gain real traction. It seems that technology never explodes quite as quickly as popular predictions would have you believe.

If you’re at Broadcast Asia then come along and I’ll tell you all about how industrialization principals can help you save money and increase profitability. If you’re not at the show, then look out for the same topics appearing here as a series of blog posts between now and IBC.