5 Years of Sundog at IBC

It's hard to believe that Sundog Media Toolkit is only a couple of months away from being 6 years old and with it our 5th IBC is this week in Amsterdam. In those 5 years we've seen huge change in the industry, and it doesn't show signs of slowing down. Here's what's happened since we first rocked up to Amsterdam as a two man band in 2014...

Automation makes the difference

Back in 2003 we first started working in Digital Cinema, the industry was just starting to get to grips with packaged media as a master format. When we established Sundog in 2013, the format had exploded and we would regularly see two hundred plus versions of a movie for global theatrical release. Meanwhile the industry was also grappling with hundreds and potentially thousands of downstream versions of their media. We started Sundog with one key aim - automate the package media process at scale. To ensure that when 250 digital cinema versions became 500, we were ready for it.

In 2019 the movie industry has surpassed that count already, some movies generating over 600 versions for theatrical release. Sundog is delivering on our original goal, automating the creation of hundreds and even thousands of playlists every month. IMF offers that promise and more for the broadcast industry, and at IBC we'll be talking about how you can take both DCP and IMF to the next level with the Sundog engine.

Cloud goes beyond the hype

Back in 2014, there was certainly a lot of buzz around cloud, but the reality of practical implementation was viewed somewhat differently to the hype. However cloud for most industries, including media, has gone from future state, to state of the art. At IBC this year, cloud in of itself shouldn't be the selling point, it's a fundamental technology platform upon which solutions are built. The opportunity (and selling point) is to take advantage of this platform in a meaningful and productive way. Everyone has their own challenges, but we believe that because fundamentally cloud offers the opportunity to move away from owned infrastructure to a virtual equivalent, it should also offer the opportunity to move away from disparate storage of data.

In a cloud environment, content owners can have full centralised storage and control of their own data. This requires applications to come to the content, and this is how the Sundog engine has worked from day one. Building on this, and new for 2019, the cloud native Sundog engine is now available in both Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. The principle of bringing the process to the data will become more and more prevalent over the coming years, so expect to see much more on this from industry bodies and suppliers at IBC 2019.

A.I. is everywhere!

If cloud was the buzz in 2014, A.I. will certainly be on everybody's lips at IBC 2019. At Sundog we believe leveraging machine and deep learning will be one of the most important factors in next generation workflows. There are now many tools on the market using A.I. especially in the content analytics and image recognition space. At Sundog we have focused on some of the challenges that cause bottlenecks and unnecessary delays in versioning workflows.

We were recently asked by a major studio to help them automate their rotoscoping for dubbing security. We took a fully manual process and built deep learning to help automate that process. That tool is called DubSafe and is now available to all in the Sundog platform. We're also participating in an Innovate UK funded project to look at A.I. in the creative process for high dynamic range content. Why not come and talk to us at the show and find out about the exciting areas we're streamlining with A.I.

Supporting the next generation of talent

At Sundog we are constantly striving to be the change we want to see across the industry. At the heart of this we believe is diversity and inclusion. We have been working with IBC's D&I group during the year to help drive diversity and inclusion across the show. From the exhibition to the conference, we want to showcase truly diverse talent and make everyone feel welcome. IBC is the industry's shop window, and it's really important in attracting the next generation of industry superstars that we set out our aspirations at shows like IBC, and demonstrate real commitment to change.

As part of our commitment, we are supporting the Rise Women In Broadcast initiative, and our very own Tanya Rai is on this year's mentoring program. We're also extremely proud to be sponsoring the Technical Operations category at this year's Rise Awards which will be held at IBC on Saturday of the show. The awards are already fully booked so if you can't be there - do please look them up and support their excellent work!

Sundog Beach Bar looks to the future

We have sponsored the beach bar at IBC for the last 4 years and in our 5th year we are looking to make a difference here too. We have worked with IBC to supply reusable cups for the Sundog Beach Bar and reduce the use of single use plastics. Plastic pollution and in particular ocean plastics are something we feel strongly about at Sundog. We hope you will join us in supporting this initiative by reusing your cups at the Sundog Beach Bar and take them home afterwards, helping us keep cups out of landfill, off beaches and ultimately out of the ocean.

Of course that's a very serious message, and the Sundog Beach Bar is all about relaxing, seeing old friends and having fun. So to keep it light (and yes, a bit practical) we're providing pens at the bar to customise your cup and keep track of which one is yours! We're also giving away some much sought after Sundog hoodies at the end of each day at the Beach Bar for the best Sundog Beach Bar Twitter/Instagram posts to @SundogMT #ibc2019 - why not show off your cup artwork to be in with a chance!

Enjoy the show!

We hope you'll enjoy what's set to be another great IBC! Please visit us at Pod P20 to talk about work that flows, and join us at the Beach bar for some R & R during the show. See you in Amsterdam!