Post by European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

Our Network Technology Seminar 2026 started today, and one early headline is: "The pace of change in media production technology is increasing". The first morning made one thing clear: The economics of media production facilities are being rewritten. Software runs on general-purpose kit now. The cloud, elsewhere or on premise, can do a lot of heavy lifting. The pace of change matters almost as much in itself. Hans Hoffmann pointed out that past transitions took ten years each. MXL (and DMF, keep an eye out for both of those things...) took eighteen months. Planning cycles are no longer what they used to be. Part of the job of NTS is to help move these new technologies along, so they can be installed at scale, under real and varied conditions, and be used on a Monday morning. "If it doesn't work for real", Antonio Arcidiacono said, "there is no scope of this." The morning's speakers then put flesh on those bones. Andreas Hilmer from Lawo on buying commodity hardware and ideas for software licensing. Richard Waghorn on how RTÉ is getting it done with the budget they have, not the budget they wish they had. And Adde Granberg proposed a simple equation as a mental model for investment value, consisting of impact, reach, reusability, and speed, divided by cost. More to come!