GALSNGEAR Review: Changing Workflows, Changing Perspectives

The return of the trade show circuit has been a welcomed refresh for many in our industry. From MWC to NAB to IBC, our Qwilt team has been relishing the opportunity to get diverse thinkers back together in-person to discuss the innovations driving us forward and how we can work collectively to improve content experiences for all. And joining a #GALSNGEAR panel session during the IBC Changemakers program to talk about the strides being taken to build a more inclusive industry was the icing on my cake of recent inspiring collab.

In the session exploring creativity in content workflows, I took the stage alongside #GALSNGEAR’s Amy DeLouise, NVIDIA’s Sepi Motamedi, Immersionn’s Alexandra Hussenot, and postPerspective’s Randi Altman. The discussion was framed around the intrinsic link between diversity, creativity, and technology innovation. Despite us all working in different technology niches of the entertainment industry, the group’s commitment to driving creative thinking forward was palpable and contagious.

Driving creativity through technology innovation

The panel provided a unique perspective on how technology innovations enhance creative processes across the entire content chain and the industry-wide challenges affecting everyone – from production to packaging to distribution. One unanimous point that echoed across the panel was that content is getting bigger and bigger, which poses new challenges and opportunities for all in the content delivery ecosystem.

While media technologists have traditionally focused on delivering content to fill the relatively small confines of a single screen, like a smartphone or tablet, the internet experiences of tomorrow will fill all the dimensions surrounding us. And these new experiences – in the form of AR/VR and applications such as the metaverse – not only require a much larger, multi-dimensional format, but will be progressively more dependent on lower latency and faultless quality delivered to consumers in order to achieve and sustain a truly immersive state.

It’s a challenge that Qwilt embraces head-on. We’ve reached a new frontier for content delivery, enabling content providers to leverage our global network capacity to deliver content to end users at the true edge of the service provider network. We harness the power of open caching to enable content service providers to have more granular control over the deployment and operation of the CDN. This close integration between publishers and internet service providers is the best way to ensure consumers get the content experience they want – whether online shopping on their phone or streaming a VR concert in the metaverse.

Empowering the future digital experience

When Randi asked the panel what media companies today look for in a technology solution, there were no disagreements: flexibility and scalability. From Amy’s work behind the camera producing original content, to Alexandra’s drive towards building 3D universes, media companies of all types need solutions that enable them to scale at new levels. Today’s internet infrastructure wasn’t designed to stream live events at scale, grant uninterrupted access to the metaverse, or enable gamers to connect from locations worldwide and play in simulated universes.

At Qwilt, we’re working hard to embrace what’s possible from the service provider carrier edge, and using that knowledge, to power new and exciting digital experiences for all. By deeply embedding edge nodes in the service provider’s last-mile network, consumers receive the best viewing experience. Meanwhile, service and content providers reap the rewards of a satisfied customer base through reduced churn and significant data processing and content delivery efficiencies. What’s most unique about our take is the mutually beneficial model we’ve established. This new approach to the carrier edge means the industry can concentrate on delivering innovation and disruption within an operating model that works for all.

The future is collaborative

Tech companies increasingly recognize that having teams with diverse backgrounds and thinking is an essential driving factor behind transformational growth. Creative thinkers are the changemakers of our time, and at Qwilt, we’ve long championed creative thinking to help build more inclusive models for content delivery. Our efforts range from running an annual global hackathon event to overcome unique technology challenges, to inviting regular guest speakers into our offices to help open our imaginations to new ideas. The opportunities are limitless for media companies looking to tackle creative and industry-wide challenges, and there’s a direct impact on technology innovation and business growth for those that get it right.

If you missed this IBC 2022 panel, you can watch the entire session on-demand here.