Streaming security, consumer engagement, and consumer cybersecurity were top of mind in NAGRAVISION’s IBC 2024 showcase, as highlighted by Tim Pearson in our latest blog.
Reflecting on this year’s IBC, the annual jamboree of the media & entertainment industry, it’s clear to see that despite challenging headwinds, our industry is focused and looking at the opportunities that lie ahead. On the NAGRAVISION stand, this year under the theme of “Unlocking New Opportunities”, it was fantastic to have a full stand for the duration of the show with engaging conversations across all three of our showcase zones – The Future of Streaming Security, The Future of Consumer Engagement and The Future of Consumer Cybersecurity.
But what were the key takeaways from this year’s show? And crucially, did we manage to film our cycling video without crashing? Let’s unpack IBC 2024.
First up, with 45,000 visitors, this year’s IBC attracted just 2,000 more visitors than last year yet the NAGRAVISION stand at the front of Hall 1 enjoyed a continual flow of visitors keen to engage about business transformation and how NAGRAVISION solutions could help them realize their business goals and deliver innovative, value-driven propositions to their consumers.
The Future of Streaming Security
The continued advance of content theft and service fraud across valuable content such as live sports remain a threat to revenue and consumer retention. For the first time at IBC, NAGRAVISION showed its comprehensive streaming security capabilities across device security, platform security and anti-piracy, alongside how we’re addressing future challenges to security, such as quantum. Demonstrated through a comprehensive monitoring and analytics platform that draws insight from key ecosystem areas including multi-DRM and CDN, the insights are also infused with AI-supported pirate case history. This allowed our team to show visitors how they can financially quantify the impact pirates have on their revenues.
But aside from the content distribution part of the value chain, we also showcased how our streaming security solutions are being used by the content production and post-production sectors. With content theft and IP infringement as key concerns, accelerated by distributed and remote production, we were excited to have Evercast on the NAGRAVISION stand with us to showcase how they have integrated NexGuard Forensic Watermarking to protect production dailies. This also included demonstrating their solution through an Apple Vision Pro, key when reviewing footage in the field to ensure aspects like color balance are as the Director intended.
The Future of Consumer Engagement
As operators increasingly seek solutions to deliver an immersive watch and play offering to their consumers across multiple services and apps, how to engage consumers under a single branded offering remains a key challenge for the industry to address. At the NAGRAVISION stand, we showcased our latest version of the OpenTV Video Platform, featuring advanced capabilities like audience segmentation and AI-generated rails for personalized recommendations. Additionally, we demonstrated how gamification can effectively drive engagement.
While audiences are used to gamified experiences in areas such as travel or grocery shopping where vouchers and points drive adoption of further products and services, bringing the same approach to a multi-service streaming entertainment offering provides operators with new ways in which to engage their audiences, optimize revenues and drive retention. The gamification approach was also shown as part of a new engagement model that exists at the intersection of content, banking, loyalty and connectivity which presents operators with infinite service opportunities. As NAGRAVISION collaborates with more customers looking to broaden their multi-service offerings, our innovative approach sparked many conversations. Visitors explored creative strategies to further enhance their offerings.
As operators move towards a multi-service offer, the complexity of these broader service offerings drives up contact center traffic at a time when downward cost pressure is evident. As part of our commitment to consumer engagement, NAGRAVISION showcased our autonomous generative AI solution which integrates a game-changing digital twin model to allow consumers to negotiate the package they want while reducing contact center costs and optimizing operations. Ensuring consumers have access to 24/7 support to fit in with busy consumer lifestyles is one thing, but to have a support channel that allows them to get a tangible outcome is critical in the continual focus on consumer engagement and retention.
The Future of Consumer Cybersecurity
At this year’s IBC we introduced a new theme, Consumer Cybersecurity, and focused on how NAGRAVISION is addressing consumer concerns about the increasing breadth and depth of their digital footprints.
Providing telecom operators with the ability to offer new cybersecurity services as part of a broader offering, the launch of NAGRA Scout generated significant interest. Protecting the consumer both inside and outside of the home, the additional benefit for operators is that they also have new insight into the devices and usage of home networks which can both target consumer offers and influence wider network development.
As smart devices and digital threats increase, the NAGRA Scout Solution suite delivers comprehensive cybersecurity with AI-driven service resolution for seamless issue management. It also provides telecoms operators with valuable data insights for optimizing networks, reducing costs and driving revenue growth through targeted advertising and upselling. With both foundational and comprehensive solutions for the residential and small business markets, NAGRA Scout delivers continuous protection for all the consumer’s connected devices and digital environments through an intuitive app that ensures real-time threat detection and proactive mitigation of threats for all connected devices. The AI-based troubleshooting advice enables independent issue resolution, minimizing downtime for the consumer and reducing calls to the operators’ contact center. To learn more, take a read of my colleague Rafael Rivera’s blog where he wraps up all the action on NAGRA Scout at this year’s show.
IBC 2024 – A Show with Ambition
This year’s show had purpose and pace. Despite still an industry navigating headwinds, visitors to our stand were keen to engage and recognize that now is the time to make strategic decisions to secure their future and their vision. This continues to be an industry with pace and from the NAGRAVISION perspective we are looking forward to unpacking all the opportunities we discussed on the show floor as we look to the year ahead! And in case you were wondering, we survived our IBC wrap-up video without crashing our bikes into each other or anyone else!
