Videos of the presentations from PTS 2022 are available to EBU Members and PTS participants on the PTS 2022 webpage.
The unenviable task of wrapping up the Production Technology Seminar 2022 fell to SWR’s Stephan Heimbecher, who chairs the EBU Strategic Programme on Production. Unenviable because of the sheer scale of the event: three days, three keynotes, 33 presentations, seven round tables, and 80 speakers, panellists and moderators (of whom 35% were women).
It was the first truly hybrid event from the EBU, produced both for the 500+ people who registered to follow the event online and for the small number of guests and speakers who were able to attend the event in person as Geneva emerged from the latest pandemic wave.
“PTS 2022 took us on a journey”, said Heimbecher. This was not just, as per the event’s tagline, from real to sustainable and virtual worlds; “we also travelled to the metaverse, to hyperreality, and beyond.”
He highlighted something that the opening keynote speaker, immersive director and storyteller Francesca Panetta had said: “The heart of innovation is the courage to explore. To innovate you have to adventure and you have to take risks.” The programme for PTS 2022 took those risks and did explore.
Quoting another speaker, WDR’s Lisa Zauner, Heimbecher reminded participants that you need an understanding of the day after tomorrow, to stay relevant tomorrow. Reflecting on the ground covered by the conference, he said “we looked into the future but tried to ground ourselves in terms of how those things can be used in today’s world.”
One of the big takeaways from the three days was that “editorial and tech people need to act together as twins – a message we heard over and over again.”
The programme covered innovation strategies, 5G for production, new audio and video technologies, AI-based content generation, IP- and cloud-based production, virtual production, games engines and much, much more. Sustainability was also ever-present, with a check-in at the end of each of the three days to assess the potential impact of the different topics and technologies on environmental issues.