IBC 2025 Preview: Industry leaders call for collaboration on standards and interoperability

As the media industry prepares for IBC 2025 in Amsterdam this September, a clear message is emerging from technology vendors and industry leaders: the challenges facing broadcasting and media require collaborative solutions that transcend individual company boundaries.

Multiple industry executives emphasize to NCS that IBC’s value extends far beyond product demonstrations, serving as an essential venue for the face-to-face conversations needed to align the industry around open standards and collaborative frameworks.

Standards initiatives take center stage

The push for interoperability standards is emerging as a major theme heading into IBC 2025, with several vendors highlighting initiatives designed to break down vendor lock-in and enable more flexible system architectures.

The Media Exchange Layer initiative is drawing particular attention as a potential solution to integration challenges in virtualized environments. “As a contributor to the budding Media Exchange Layer initiative, Lawo is especially keen to learn how this approach is received by broadcasters who start feeling the pinch,” said Chris Scheck, head of marketing content at Lawo.

“The promise of MXL is that users will be able to avoid vendor lock-in on generic servers where processing apps from different vendors not only run side by side, but also exchange data via a so-called shared memory layer, to avoid latency issues,” said Scheck.

Pebble’s CTO Miroslav Jeras emphasized the broader significance of such standards initiatives.

“There has been a brake on the adoption of wider software infrastructures and the adoption of the cloud: the lack of open standards for interoperability,” said Jeras. “Initiatives like MXL should enable system architects to build multi-vendor platforms in virtualized environments without the need for bespoke integration work.”

IP adoption requires industry alignment

The transition to IP-based workflows continues to be a defining trend, but vendors stress that successful adoption requires industry-wide coordination rather than fragmented approaches.

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“In the next five years, I believe that we will see the full embrace of IP in the broadcast and Pro AV worlds,” said John Henkel, product marketing director at Netgear AV. “I think we will see a mix of standards and protocols being adopted, depending on applications, from ST 2110 and IPMX to NDI and Dante.”

Ian Wagdin, VP tech and innovation at Appear, positioned IBC as a pivotal moment for aligning around IP-based solutions.

“IBC2025 promises to be a pivotal moment for aligning around a more open, software-centric broadcast future,” said Wagdin. “As an industry, the priority should be on integration over isolation: developing vendor-agnostic solutions, embracing open standards, and designing for observability, orchestration, and security from the ground up.”

Face-to-face conversations drive progress

Industry leaders consistently emphasize that IBC’s in-person format provides unique value for advancing collaborative initiatives that cannot be replicated through virtual interactions.

“The conversations the industry needs to prioritise is how to cost-effectively unlock efficient, agile and sustainable workflows whilst delivering premium content at scale,” said Sid Stanley, managing director at Calrec. “These conversations are more productive when we meet with customers face-to-face. IBC gives us the opportunity to listen, explore and to understand what our customers need to be successful.”

The networking aspect extends beyond customer relationships to vendor partnerships.

“Being able to meet with our existing partners and build new relationships is key for us — we have nearly 500 manufacturing partners now, many of whom use our switches and access points themselves, and more than 100 who will be at IBC,” Henkel noted.

Interoperability certification programs needed

Several vendors called for formal certification programs similar to those that helped establish early IP adoption standards, suggesting the industry needs structured approaches to ensure compatibility between systems from different manufacturers.

“As an industry, we have to push for interoperability certification programs, like the ones we saw in the early days of on-prem IP adoption,” said Jeras. “We will all benefit when broadcasters can freely choose the best option for each function — whether it’s automation, graphics, or encoding — and know that all of them will work seamlessly together through agreed standards like MXL, rather than being locked into one supplier.”

The significance extends beyond cost reduction to operational speed. “The significance is not just in the reduction in cost, but in the speed to deliver systems without compromising on quality or functionality,” Jeras added.

Industry transformation requires collective action

Multiple vendors stressed that the scale of transformation facing the media industry cannot be addressed by individual companies working in isolation, requiring coordinated industry-wide responses.

“I am looking forward to having open conversations with customers and other vendors about how we need to evolve as an industry,” said Aaron Kroger, director of product marketing and communications at Dalet. “We are seeing big shifts in consumption trends, increased economic pressure, and a constant stream of new innovations, which all lead to the need for rapid change which is not the historic norm for this industry.”

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The urgency of collective action is driven by changing audience expectations. “Our consumers are outpacing us as an industry and we need to come together as a whole as discuss how we will address this,” Kroger said.

Industry observers emphasize the important role that organizations like IBC and major broadcasters play in convening stakeholders around standards initiatives.

“Widely adopted standards and working practices benefit everyone: users and vendors alike,” said Jeras. “Independent bodies like IBC, and the major broadcasters who attend, have a responsibility to bring everyone to the table to push forward on initiatives like MXL, helping everyone meet their business’s ambitions technically, creatively and commercially.”

“In this environment, we should be discussing how excellence in leadership is vital for our industry to not only successfully navigate change but set a path for a sustainable future,” said Chris Evans, head of knowledge and insight at IABM.

Vendor-agnostic solutions gain momentum

The push for interoperability is being driven partly by customer demands for more flexible technology choices that avoid long-term vendor dependencies.

“Platformization of operations: vendors exposing orchestration, connectors, usage analytics and support as a unified service layer,” said Noëlle Prat, sales and marketing director at BCE. “This enables faster launches, measurable cost control, and avoids lock-in through open, API-first approaches.”

While standards discussions are important, vendors emphasize that IBC conversations should focus on practical implementation rather than theoretical frameworks.

“We’re most excited about showcasing how these tools are being used in the real world at the heart of scalable, sustainable operations,” said Wagdin. “These are the conversations that will shape the next phase of global media innovation.”

The emphasis on practical application extends to demonstrating working solutions rather than concept presentations. Several vendors indicated they would be showing functional implementations of interoperability standards rather than roadmap presentations.

The current economic climate is adding urgency to collaborative initiatives, as companies seek to reduce costs through shared standards and interoperable systems.

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“The value of IBC is in bringing the media industry from around the world together, making it the right place for important conversations,” said Jeras. “Everyone agrees that the top priority is to drive economies to maintain commercial viability in the industry: the conversations at IBC will be how we achieve this goal.”

As IBC 2025 approaches, the event is being positioned not just as a showcase for individual company innovations, but as a crucial forum for industry-wide problem solving.