The “blog from the show floor” has become something of a tradition now, but as this was my last IBC with Dalet, I’ve had more time off the booth than usual to get a real sense of what the focus of the show has been.

Collaboration – that’s certainly been a theme everywhere I’ve been, whether that’s the more obvious exhibits such as the IP interoperability zone – a combined effort by AMWA, AIMS, SMPTE and VSF – or less formal interactions to bring together things like training for the industry. This notion of cooperation despite of competition – “coopetition” as I like to call it – is one of the elements that make this industry such an inspiring place to work.

Reflecting the key Dalet messages from the show – unifying news seemed especially to be a topic that resonated with customers and even competitors all around the exhibition – the changing behaviours in consumption of news requires a proportional response in the way we produce it.

Similarly, changing behaviours in the consumption of long-form and programmatic content requires a “re-imagining” of the business and infrastructure that delivers that content. As one industry colleague commented to me, many vendors and providers are still too focused on the evolving technology rather than considering the changes to the wider enterprise and emerging business horizons.

Of course, IBC isn’t just about the exhibition – or indeed the conference. As a gathering of industry colleagues from around the globe, IBC hosts a number of events and meetings, such as the IMF user-group meeting on Monday afternoon. There seemed little more apt place to announce the second of the Dalet cloud-based apps – the new xN IMF Maker – a simple tool that allows anyone to easily point at source video/audio files and metadata and create IMF-compliant bundles. Available now in both the Amazon Marketplace and Microsoft Azure store, the xN IMF Maker brings the ability to create IMF files to whole market – without the need for expensive specialist hardware or software.

Freed from the meetings that have previously kept me tethered, I covered more than 15km each day walking the aisles and corridors of the RAI, and in the end I am left with one domineering thought.  The industry is on the cusp of something big – something that will change the way manufactures and vendors sell, integrators deploy and media organisations use. When that something will kick in remains to be seen – but it’s going to be big, it’s going to be fun, and Dalet is going to be ready.