The Production Technology Seminar, 28-30 January, opens with an impressive line-up of keynote presentations this year – including two that will be taking a look at future challenges for public service media offerings, and the role new technologies will play in meeting them. PTS is one of the EBU’s flagship annual technology conferences and surveys developments of strategic importance to media organizations. Registration for PTS is open, and seats are selling fast.
Focus on the end-user, and the rising challenge of deep fakes
“In order to fulfil our public service mission in the future, PSM need to develop technology that enable us to customize our offering for each individual user, while still being able to address and unite the whole population”, says Heidrun Reisæter, Technical Director at NRK.
The Norwegian broadcaster has built strong connections with the world of tech start-ups to surface innovative products and solutions. In her keynote on day 1 of PTS, Reisæter will be talking the audience through how the Norwegian broadcaster aims to square the circle of personalization in a public service environment, and the technologies it is deploying on its channels and platforms to achieve this.
Tom Van de Weghe, AI strategist and visiting research fellow at Stanford University, will be looking at what is shaping up to become a high-tech struggle between those seeking to report the truth, and those seeking to undermine it. “Deep fakes will be one of the key challenges for quality media and their audiences”, say Van de Weghe, “so having, and using, the technical means to detect fakes will key for media organizations to build and maintain the trust of their audiences.” As a long-term foreign correspondent for Belgian public service broadcaster VRT, Van de Weghe has reported on cyber policy issues from around the world.
Technology Demos and networking at PTS
The Production Technolog Seminar also gives visitors a chance to view, and talk to the minds behind, 15 technology demonstrations. Exhibits include AI-based solutions that enable productivity gains in production as well as new service offerings, best practice for approaches to automatic deep fake detection, HDR production developed by EBU Members, Next Generation Audio (NGA), and much more.
An evening social event is also part of the conference.