IBC Accelerators: Discover groundbreaking POCs and innovative solutions to real-world problems at IBC2025

Two projects will kick off the programme on the Future Tech Stage in Hall 14 on Friday 12 September: A Framework for Generative AI and Ecoflow II. 

A Framework for Generative AI aims to build a unified generative-AI platform for broadcasting that will let producers input data, prompts and assets to rapidly generate scripts, highlights, short-form promos, TV ads and other content – making the production pipeline faster and more flexible while keeping humans firmly in the loop. 

The project is supported by Champions VRT, RAI, YLE, Globo, EBU, Channel 4, University of Kent and ITV, and Participants AMD/HP, Animatix, Google, Studio Deussen, Pluxbox and Yaaramarchiano. 

The framework will cover a wide range of use cases that focus on every stage of production, from pre-production and scripting through to editing, and even address dynamic marketing needs.  

Building on the exploratory work of last year’s Ecoflow I project, Ecoflow II supports efforts across the media industry to better understand and reduce the environmental impact of digital content distribution. This highly collaborative project involves Champions BBC, IET, ITV, EBU, BT Media & Broadcast, Channel 4, Bouygues Telecom and Greening of Streaming alongside Participants Humans Not Robots, Accedo, Bitmovin and Quanteec. 

The project aims to establish standardised methods for measuring streaming's energy consumption and identify energy-saving opportunities throughout the technology supply chain. Its goal is to create a transparent data framework to measure energy use across the media distribution chain, alongside developing scenario-based models to explore how different configurations impact energy use. 

On Saturday, the results of the Multi-Vendor Software Live Media Exchange and  

Master Control Cloud projects will be revealed. Multi-Vendor Software Live Media Exchange explores a new approach to live media exchange, leveraging high-speed interconnect technologies originally developed for high-performance computing and now widely used in cloud data centres. Champions BBC, EBU and VSF are working alongside Participants Techex and Appear on this project. 

Through hands-on experimentation with emerging solutions, this initiative will help to define future specifications for live media exchange. It will also explore potential testing environments, such as the CAPA test cluster, to validate real-world performance.  

The Master Control Cloud project aims to build a proof-of-concept system that reimagines the traditional broadcast master control room as a scalable, cloud-native service.  

"We’re increasingly working with live signals which start and end in the cloud, and we’re seeing many of our contribution systems and partners wanting to hand off to us on the internet," says Tom Everest, Head of Architecture and Supply Chain for Broadcast and End-User Technology at the BBC. "About a year ago, we started an internal project to build a better solution, where we could keep those signals entirely in the cloud and only bring them back on-premises if we needed them on-premises. The accelerator gives us a push in that direction – what we want to show is that we can integrate with and orchestrate tools from many vendors to undertake the typical tasks of an MCR for the cloud.” 

Three projects will be presented on Sunday, including a special Incubator project, Changing the Game Again, on the Showcase Theatre in Hall 8. Following on from the success of the 2024 AI Media Production Labs project, the Incubator will deliver a working PoC test bed that will aim to develop personalised highlight reels and real-time sports data tailored to each fan based on their preferences and interactions.  

Champions for this year are IET, University of Kent, Verizon Business, British Forces Broadcasting Service and Channel 4, while Participants are Xansr Media, Tesla Technologies & Software, Spectral Compute, Monks, AMD/HP and Chyron. 

The first Accelerator project of the day to take to the Future Tech Stage will be Conquering the Air(waves): Private 5G from Land to Sea to Sky. This will explore the deployment of private 5G network cells on drones to enhance live broadcast production by providing wireless connectivity for video, audio, and sensor data.  

The project focuses on developing and testing novel network architectures, including the potential for ‘mobile’ mobile networks and innovative backhaul solutions. It will also assess the feasibility of using drone-based 5G to supplement and improve existing production workflows, supporting high-quality, low-latency video and audio streaming in challenging environments.  

Champions BBC, RAI, EBU, Globo, RTE, Adapt Media, France Televisions and QTV, and Participants Haivision, Neutral Wireless, Open Broadcast Systems, Strathclyde University, Shure, Eutelsat and D&B Solutions are sharing their expertise for this project. 

The final project being demonstrated on Sunday will be AI Assistance Agents in Live Production. 

As broadcasters transition towards increasingly automated workflows, they confront a paradox: sophisticated back-end systems often force operators into complex, manual interactions that slow down production and increase the risk of errors. This project will aim to address these issues by building and validating a network of AI-driven assistants capable of handling real-time production tasks traditionally performed by human operators. This includes an orchestrator agent, NRCS agent, automator agents, error-checking agent, graphics agents and video agents. 

Champions for this project are ITN, BBC and Channel 4, while Cuez, Amira Labs, Highfield-AI, Monks, Cuepilot, Shure, EVS, Moments Lab and Google are Participants. 

The Accelerator Programme will finish on Monday 15 September with the Stamping Your Content (C2PA Provenance) team taking to the stage in the morning, followed by Ultra-Low Latency Live Streaming at Scale in the afternoon. 

Stamping Your Content (C2PA Provenance) aims to provide open-source tools to enable media organisations and media consumers to verify the authenticity of content of all types. It follows on from last year’s IBC Accelerator project Designing Your Weapons in the Fight Against Disinformation initiative, which mapped the landscape of digital misinformation and gathered industry players together to discuss the issue and outline the solution. 

This year the team has set out to make practical progress in tackling the issue, specifically aiming to build an open-source plug-in tool that inserts C2PA metadata into content at the time of publishing, establishing a chain of custody that can be linked to media organisations and reporters, authenticating footage and stills as being genuine. 

Champions for 2025 are the BBC, Yle, RTE, ITV, IET, ITN, EBU, AP, ASBU, Channel 4 and IPTC, alongside Participants CastLabs, Videntifier, Media Cluster Norway, Open Origins and Sony. 

Finally, Ultra-Low Latency Live Streaming at Scale builds on the foundation of the previous Scalable Ultra-Low Latency Streaming for Premium Sports accelerator. 

It aims to demonstrate that ultra-low latency streaming can be successfully deployed at scale using standard HTTP streaming technologies (DASH and HLS) and existing content delivery infrastructure.  

A central focus is designing, testing, and demonstrating an open, non-proprietary architecture capable of supporting ultra-low latency streaming for millions of users. By leveraging currently deployed infrastructure, this approach will provide media organisations and service providers with a scalable solution to transition from traditional broadcasting to internet-based TV delivery without compromising performance.  

Champions BT Media & Broadcast, RTE, SVTA, Globo, BBC, YLE, Channel 4 and Bouygues Telecom, and Participants Elecard, Google, Ateme, Yospace and Qualabs are collaborating on achieving this. 

The eight Accelerator projects will be presented on the free-to-attend Future Tech Stage in Hall 14 throughout IBC2025. To find out more and to register, click here.