This article first appeared online with Digital Studio Middle East.

What are you looking forward to the most at IBC 2022?

Cloud-based operations and the functionality and services that are now emerging through virtualisation and the entire spectrum of software solutions supporting our sector. This is the most exciting and transformative opportunity we have ever seen in our industry.

The opportunities we are seeing for totally new operating models and Smart Working initiatives means we can revolutionise every part of the industry. Not just our technical solutions but the cloud allows for an end-to-end redesign of our service platforms, technology and operations, our people and skills management, and critically, a commercial re-engineering and revamp of our customer-facing offerings and how businesses are being structured.

It’s easy to talk about but Three Media is at IBC2022 promoting both our consultancy and technology division. We’ve lots of experience in helping companies define cloud migration and operating strategies as well as being able to offer Three Media’s XEN:Pipeline product suite, a digital supply chain management platform.

Share with us what you anticipate to be the significant trends at the prestigious confab?

Industry trends, the analysis we are seeing and our own customers are telling us that to all intents, there is not a single business not investing in, or at least planning for, a cloud-based and virtualised position in their operations. Where Three Media has real interest is in how companies are managing this transition, the cultural change and support needed to make this happen and how best to define a virtualisation strategy and then manage that change.

We see that there are a great number of terrific solutions which are developing at lightning speed. The change is now ongoing and is the underlying driver for how we must all evolve and keep evolving our businesses or we’ll be out of date very quickly. How products and services bring together both the full potential of the technology as well as realise the commercial and operating improvements is very exciting.

The trend we strongly advocate is the need for a total view on an end goal and how to most sensibly achieve that. We also ensure that it is done at your pace. Whether it is our consultancy services or XEN:Pipeline supply chain solution, these are independent and stand-alone products and services that at their simplest, provide ideas and a demonstration of what can be achieved.

The challenge is to resolve what to retain or outsource, what are commodity services versus what are key value generating customer offerings and how to abstract them from the cloud in an optimised and effective manner.

What will the brand showcasing at IBC this year?

Three Media has been in business for over 20 years as is a technology services and consulting company. This is our first time exhibiting at IBC and we are featuring both our consulting and product offerings.

Three Media is promoting its consultancy services and the experience we have in supporting clients define their next generation operating models and how they may best exploit the value generating areas of their businesses in a fully IP enabled and virtualised world. This is not just for the big turnkey initiatives but small and large operations and how it can be done at the right pace and in a form that best works for you. We’ll be providing some insight into the benefits of Smart Working and our approach and philosophy to making the change.

XEN:Pipeline is our technology product. A cloud-based, digital supply chain management suite. It supports cloud operations and the new ways of operating in a virtualised world. It is a product suite that is informed and directed to promote what we define as Smart Working. This is Three Media investing in all that we talk about to our clients.

We are excited by the enormity of what can be achieved through metadata driven workflows. We have new content transfer solutions and when these things are paired with what we are doing in AI and ML and workflow management then you have a solution that operates above, but still in close cooperation with, your current and emerging technology stacks.

Any particularly memorable moments from the previous editions of IBC?

The last few years have meant we have all had to be patient. As we now emerge from our COVID induced hiatus, it’ll be evident how much the industry has developed from what we last saw in in 2019. This year is Three Media’s first year exhibiting at IBC, such is our commitment to what we are seeing being achieved in the cloud and the opportunities this is creating.

If there is a take-away this year, from previous editions of IBC, it will be our appreciation of what the early adopters in cloud-based operations and production can achieve. How the blue-sky thinking is more real than not and how these next generation ideas are now a reality. The promise from years past of what was possible in a virtualised world is now very real.

What could the event mean for the industry?

I am sure we will see the emergence of outcome and business defined solutions platforms rather than technology led products that have been more typical of a traditional hardware led world. We are strong advocates of the premise that ‘software always wins’, it always has and always will. It means that niche and tailored customer solutions and optimal operating models are now never easier to realise and critically, easy to evolve and adapt.