IBC 2026 Preview: Remote production shifts from proving itself to scaling smoothly

Remote production has matured into a core operational model. At IBC 2026, running Sept. 11-14 in Amsterdam, coverage of the topic is expected to examine connectivity, contribution, resource sharing and distributed production architectures supporting increasingly complex live productions.

“Remote production is now the standard operational model, making edge reliability over unpredictable public internet the primary challenge. To keep contribution feeds stable, engineering teams use multi-network bonding alongside packet-level error correction and retransmission to handle network drops. For decentralized crews, keeping latency low and multi-channel audio in tight sync remains the real benchmark of a successful live broadcast, which can be achieved by locking all incoming feeds to a common network clock for frame-accurate camera switching,” said Peder Boberg, product owner at Intinor.

Sergio Ammirata, chief scientist at SipRadius, said that reliability challenge has grown alongside the scope of what remote productions now involve.

“Remote production has matured, but it has also become more bandwidth-hungry and operationally complex. Hybrid productions now involve more contribution feeds, return paths, monitoring points and timing dependencies, often running across networks the production team does not control. The priority should be architectures that adapt to changing network conditions, use redundant paths intelligently and keep locations synchronized without adding unnecessary engineering overhead,” Ammirata said.

More than moving video between two points

Several executives cautioned that treating remote production as simply relocating a feed misses where the real complexity sits.

“Remote production has become a normal part of the industry, but there is still a tendency to treat it as little more than sending video between two locations. In practice, the encoders, decoders, network, timing and control all have to work together, and a fault can be much harder to trace when the system is spread across several sites. I think the point of working remotely should be to put people and equipment where they make most sense, not simply move the same workflow somewhere else and assume it will be more efficient,” said Alistair Horne, director at Hornets Tech.

That same gap shows up in how teams share resources once multiple sites are connected, according to Duncan Beattie, senior market development manager for enterprise at Tuxera.

“Remote production is now an established way of working, but sharing resources across locations still creates challenges. It is one thing to connect several sites. It is another to give all of them fast, reliable access to the same assets at the same time. That is often where the workflow begins to slow down. As distributed production develops, more attention needs to be paid to how data moves between locations and how it is accessed once it gets there,” Beattie said.

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The economics of smaller crews and more events

Francesco Scartozzi, vice president of sales and business development at Matrox Video, said remote production is reshaping the cost and scale of live coverage as broadcasters are asked to produce more events with less.

“Remote production is redefining the economics and scalability of live production as broadcasters are asked to produce more events with smaller crews, tighter budgets, and faster turnaround times. We’ve seen production companies reduce setup times, increase the number of simultaneous productions they can support in a day, and lower operational costs by adopting a remote production workflow. As these workflows mature, the focus is shifting from proving remote production works to making it easier to scale, manage, and repeat across every production,” Scartozzi said.

That shift is also changing where production happens geographically, according to Andy Bellamy, EMEA technical director at AJA Video Systems.

“With remote production now a core operational model, more projects typically produced in major production hubs like London, Hollywood, and Vancouver are moving into surrounding areas. As the workflows behind remote production continue to evolve, low-latency video streaming and synchronous transport remain a core focus. To this end, we expect many IBC attendees will be heading to the show in search of hybrid solutions that support both a range of IP video formats, codecs, and protocols and baseband infrastructure,” Bellamy said.

From remote access to distributed architecture

Ivy Li, marketing director at Telycam, said remote production has moved beyond simply accessing equipment from afar into a genuinely distributed production architecture.

“Remote and distributed production have evolved beyond remote access into a true production architecture, where cameras, operators, processing resources and teams can be located across multiple sites instead of being centralized in a single facility. IP-based technologies such as NDI, SRT, VISCA over IP and FreeD connect these distributed resources into a unified production environment. This enables organizations to share expertise and infrastructure across multiple projects, increasing scalability and efficiency without being limited by physical location,” Li said.

Jordan Thomas, marketing manager at QuickLink, said that shift is reflected in what buyers now prioritize when evaluating new systems.

“Remote production is no longer being viewed as an alternative way of working. For many broadcasters, it has become part of everyday operations. The focus has shifted from proving that distributed production works to building workflows that are flexible, resilient and able to connect people, systems and locations without adding unnecessary complexity. As buyers evaluate new technologies, ease of integration and long-term adaptability are becoming just as important as individual features,” Thomas said.