By Ali Hodjat and Eric Chang
As an industry, we’ve witnessed what feels like a decade’s worth of change condensed into a year or two, with the hype of new technologies now beginning to translate into real, tangible products. Media professionals are hungry for solutions to pressing workflow and efficiency challenges, and this year’s IBC show delivered both recognition and momentum towards these developments. We were invigorated by the hundreds of conversations held throughout the four days of the show at the Telestream booth, feeling assured that our mission and vision are aligned with the realities of our customers.
Telestream reaffirmed its leadership across workflow automation and measurement, demonstrated the power of practical AI, and celebrated industry recognition through two major awards. Just as importantly, the broader conversations across IBC validated the very themes we have been championing: hybrid cloud as reality, efficiency as a necessity, and AI as a force multiplier for workflows.
Simplifying the Portfolio, Building on Our DNA
Over the past year, Telestream has sharpened its focus around two solution pillars: Workflow Automation and Measurement – combining the capability to automate the work with tools to assure the results. This simplified structure makes it easier for customers to understand how our technology fits into their operations and how modular solutions can be flexibly combined without lock-in.
- Workflow Automation: Vantage AI and Global Ingest are helping broadcasters, studios, and live production teams automate processes, accelerate turnaround, and connect hybrid environments.
- Measurement: PRISM, SPG9000, INSPECT, ARGUS, and the IQ family of probes continue to set the standard for signal integrity, compliance, and observability across IP, HDR, and hybrid workflows.
This clarity, rooted in nearly three decades of innovation and a deep understanding of the industry’s biggest challenges, underscores our mission: to help customers simplify complexity and build the connected workflows they need with the tools they trust. Our philosophy is simple: we don’t want to build a monolith. We want to give customers Lego bricks that fit together seamlessly, with the freedom to swap or expand as they need.
Practical AI, Not Hype
AI was on every agenda at IBC, but we believe our approach stood out for its pragmatism. Rather than treating AI as a standalone product or flashy new feature, Vantage AI extends the proven workflow automation of Telestream’s flagship platform with intelligence that saves time and eliminates manual bottlenecks.
Our team demonstrated how AI enriches content at the point of ingest, for example, by automatically creating captions or generating highlight reels. For newsrooms, it means feeds are logged instantly. For post teams, it means captioning and translation can be completed without leaving the facility. And for sports, it means automated metadata can drive faster, more engaging coverage.
The message was clear: our AI is not a gimmick. It’s a force multiplier that makes workflows smarter, faster, and more efficient.
Global Ingest & the Hybrid Reality
Ingest should no longer be a technical hurdle, and with Telestream, it’s not; it’s the entry point to the entire media supply chain. Telestream’s Global Ingest solution reimagines what was once a menial task into a single intelligent pipeline by unifying live, camera card, and file-based ingest.
The ongoing transition to IP and cloud-native workflows is reshaping how ingest pipelines are designed. Strictly hardware-dependent approaches are giving way to mixed architectures that balance on-premises performance with cloud elasticity. Hybrid models allow organizations to burst into the cloud for high-volume programming, such as global sporting events, while maintaining local ingest for daily production. Customers are using the cloud strategically as a tool, not the final destination. This confirmed our belief that the future is hybrid, empowering broadcasters to expand their operations, increase processing power for more and higher-quality content, and remain agile without needing to add new hardware to their infrastructure.
Measurement for Confidence and Compliance
As workflows evolve, precision monitoring remains the foundation of trust and confidence. At IBC2025, we highlighted enhancements across our measurement portfolio:
- PRISM for advanced HDR/SDR analysis and ST 2110 monitoring and diagnostics.
- SPG9000 for facility reference and timing in complex hybrid environments.
- ARGUS for single-pane observability across OTT, satellite, and IPTV.
- INSPECT for ultra-high-density IP monitoring with seamless escalation into PRISM.
Together, these tools ensure that whether workflows are automated, cloud-based, or hybrid, content quality and compliance are never compromised.
Recognition at IBC2025
While major trade shows like IBC are most valuable for the in-person connections, it doesn’t hurt to get a little recognition for the hard work our team delivers day in and day out.
First up, Telestream customer Sky Group received the IBC Innovation Award for Content Distribution for its groundbreaking MediaMesh platform, powered in part by Telestream Qualify QC. By validating assets at ingest, Sky reduced false positives and operational overhead while processing over 10 million minutes of content annually. A big congrats to the Sky Group team!
And, Vantage AI was named a Future Best of Show Award winner by TVBEurope. This recognition highlights the platform’s ability to embed actionable AI into production environments, enabling smarter automation and enriched metadata.
These honors celebrate both Telestream’s innovation and the success of our customers who trust us to deliver rock-solid technology that they can rely on to power global media operations.
Industry Conversations: AI, Cloud, and Efficiency
Beyond the Telestream booth were several events that we look forward to every year, and once again, they delivered meaningful insights that help inform our product development and everyday decision-making.
AI is Everywhere: The Devoncroft Summit reported AI dominates project volume, but budgets remain small-scale and/or experimental. Buyers want efficiency, not hype (exactly the focus of Vantage AI). At the end of the day, we’ve hit the point where demos are impressive, but the wow-factor only goes so far, and practical deployments are of the most interest and importance.
Cloud at a Crossroads: Cloud adoption is slowing, costs are rising, and multi-cloud strategies are emerging. Telestream’s hybrid-first message (cloud as a tool, not the destination) strongly aligns here. With public cloud costs expected to rise due to AI-driven demands, we’re likely to see media organizations optimizing their on-prem/cloud/hybrid strategy for cost and resource efficiency. Which leads to…
Efficiency Above All: The future is uncertain, but there are clear drivers, with industry transformation tied to trust, monetization, and, most importantly, efficiency. Rising labor costs and profitability pressures make workflow optimization non-negotiable. Some even shared that efficiency would be prioritized over innovation.
Audience Shifts: YouTube and Connected TV (CTV) are reshaping consumption, forcing new distribution strategies, a takeaway shared at the IABM Impact Briefing. Telestream products are continually evolving to help the media industry meet these changes head-on, while also serving a broader range of creators. These cloud-native solutions are built from the ground up to enable efficiency and monetization with measurement and result-driven monitoring at their core.
Looking Ahead
IBC2025 was both a recognition of where we are and a glimpse of where we’re going. Telestream is laying the groundwork for a unified, API-first platform that will connect workflow and measurement into one scalable foundation – stay tuned for more at NAB 2026.
As we look forward, one thing is clear: Telestream isn’t just keeping pace with industry change; we’re helping shape it. From AI-powered automation to hybrid ingest and world-class measurement, we’re working with our customers to simplify complexity, ensure confidence, and prepare for what’s next.
If any of the above speaks to you, your organization, and your business’s need for transformation, reach out to us – we’d love to hear from you! https://www.telestream.net/contact/