The joint RTS and IABM UK Council event, chaired by the veteran yet evergreen Dick Hobbs, featured a cross-section of industry luminaries. This spanned a vendor/service provider (Mike Knowles from Ericsson), consultants (Bruce Devlin from Mr MXF and Russell Grute from Broadcast Innovation) a customer (Keith Nicholas, ex BBC, MTV and Disney) and an industry body (John Ive from the IABM).

Item 1 on the agenda: the usual creative accounting gripes around NAB’s attendance figures. At least NAB had the grace for the first time I can remember to show a fall in numbers, albeit only 107 people, from 103,119 in 2015 to 103,012 this year – double and treble registrations not withstanding of course! A trivial point maybe but it does lead to a bigger question around the value of these big trade shows to both vendors and customers. But more of that later…

Now to the meatier stuff. The biggest takeaway, aside from that served up at the Heart Attack Grill in Vegas, seemed to be the disparity between what vendors wanted to sell and what customers wanted to buy. This was reinforced with some solid stats at the annual Devoncroft state of the industry session at NAB.

For the vendors, it was all about the acronyms and buzzwords – cloud, SDN, VR, UHD, 4K, HDR – and of course IP, which was everywhere. To paraphrase, the panellists broadly agreed that HDR is the new UHD. That VR is interesting but gimmicky. That IP is not a wholesale replacement for SDI anytime soon. But, as a stepping stone it is gaining traction with new cross-vendor standards bodies such as AIMS.

Contrast this with what the customers wanted. Top of their wish lists were ‘greater efficiencies, better ROI, reduced TCO, more interoperability, better network and viewer analytics, and content monetisation’. They want to know about the pain points in their networks and the data behind their customers’ viewing habits. Granted, rather less sexy than VR or UHD. But a clear indication of the commercial pressures facing broadcasters and content owners these days, especially with the inexorable charge of the Netflix’s and Amazon’s of this world.

But one thing vendors, customers and panellists did agree on is that quality content, whether it’s House of Cards on Netflix delivered to a smartphone or the BBC’s Night Manager viewed on a 4K screen, is still the lynchpin to our industry. We just need to get that content to the right places and the right people at the right time, in the format they want it. As Bruce Devlin rightly pointed out, “television is now the content, not the distribution channel.”

Our esteemed chair Dick went one step further and actually said it out loud. “Content is king.” Still. It’s good to know in an industry facing huge changes and challenges that some things never change. I guess we’ll all continue to moan about the cost and value of NAB but will still turn up there in our droves next year for the annual pilgrimage!

Written by By Rob Ettridge, partner at Red Lorry Yellow Lorry