IBC 2025 in Amsterdam brought together more than 43,000 participants and 1,300 exhibitors from 170 countries. Over 600 speakers participated in panel discussions across extended theatre halls during the four-day event. For the Future Tech theme, organizers set up a dedicated hall featuring a stage for presentations.
Key themes, such as artificial intelligence, Ad Tech, content provenance and copyright, ultra-low latency in OTT, private 5G networks, cloud-native production, and sustainability shaped the journey of exhibition visitors.
Proof of authenticity
The issue of disinformation and deepfakes has been in focus for several years and is becoming even more pressing with the advancement of AI.
In 2021, the C2PA standard was introduced to protect against disinformation. Its embedded metadata allows tracing the entire content creation chain and helps ensure authenticity. Adobe, Microsoft, BBC, Intel, and hundreds of other organizations worldwide have supported the coalition.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) and AI Act, effective in the EU since last year, require labeling of AI-generated or AI-processed content and place responsibility for combating fakes and disinformation also on media platforms. Legislation such as the AI Labeling Act and White House initiatives on content authentication in the US are already being adopted by major players Meta, Google, OpenAI, who declared their support for C2PA.
Currently, active efforts are underway to find solutions that will preserve metadata integrity (e.g., C2PA) throughout the entire content journey - from creation to final viewer delivery.
AI in practice
Advertising remains the key revenue driver for FAST, hybrid OTT, and Connected TV. Artificial intelligence underpins viewer behavior analytics, auction management, and new interactive advertising formats.
Ready-made solutions for dynamic ad insertion (DAI) and programmatic advertising, capable of interacting with millions of simultaneous connections, are significantly boosting ad revenue. Today’s Ad Tech providers must leverage audience data analytics to remain competitive. The combination of advanced advertising and digital content authentication is becoming the new trust standard for media platforms.
As part of the Accelerator Programme, participants also showcased AI-assistant systems that integrate into production workflows, helping operators, directors, and other crew members handle routine tasks faster and more accurately. By executing voice commands, assistants overlay captions, correct text errors, check scripts, manage microphones and equalizers, switch presets, position equipment, monitor processes, issue alerts on potential risks, and coordinate team tasks.
AI agents can work with hardware and software from multiple vendors, taking on repetitive tasks. Still, humans remain at the center of key decision-making.
Private 5G in live production and ultra-low latency streaming
The Conquering the Air project demonstrated how 5G technology can expand the boundaries of live production while simplifying and reducing operational costs. Private 5G and drones enable filming across dimensions, angles, and environments, including hard-to-reach locations. Both captured and delivered content retain high technical quality and deliver a new, sometimes unique, level of viewer experience.
Delivering live TV over the internet with the same minimal latency, stability, and channel-switching speed as traditional broadcasting was the ambitious goal of the Ultra-Low Latency Live Streaming at Scale project. Currently, “on board” are CDN and multicast ABR, HLS / DASH, plus the Elecard Boro module for stream quality monitoring. Last year, glass-to-glass latency was reduced to 1.8 seconds for four clients. However, challenges remain with quality degradation at scale for millions of users, device and network stability, cross-device synchronization, and more. Developed under the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, the project is in its second year. Despite progress, it is still far from finalization, but it highlights yet another trend in M&E.
Conclusions
This year’s IBC exhibition spanned 14 halls. Many had their own thematic theatre halls for presentations and discussions. Naturally, we couldn’t attend everything, though we wanted to. And yes, organizers and media will later release their white papers, where more insights will be available.
The main takeaway from panel discussions, exhibition halls, networking with colleagues and visitors at our booth: despite the rise of AI and the shift from concepts to real-world applications, humans remain at the center of every process, making key decisions, demonstrating genuine creativity, and delivering breakthrough business solutions.
We confirmed that we are moving in line with the global media and entertainment mainstream, where new challenges emerge almost daily. The path of innovation is demanding, but it motivates us to keep improving and to turn each achievement into practical value for our clients.
