What's next in the content production market

Industry analysts are confident that although the industry plateaued in the wake of Covid, content production will remain a profitable enterprise. Increased demand for content, and thus content production, is driving investments in audio, video, textual and graphical markets.

According to the AVIXA 2022 Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA), the content production and streaming solution area is set to generate $9.3 billion in 2023 for the EMEA region, an increase of 5.8% over 2022. The long-term outlook is for it to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.4% from 2022 to 2027.

On the visual side, great leaps in extended reality (XR) are being delivered by advances in rendering using game engines, and more powerful GPUs and media servers from companies such as disguise. Virtual sets are becoming almost indistinguishable from the real world. Virtual production, where CG environments are rendered in real time on specially designed LED screens, from brands such as Absen or Alfalite, as a ‘live’ backdrop for actors or performers to interact with, is moving out of Hollywood and into traditional AV realms.

Next-generation audio has also moved into the mainstream, and as more consumers experience immersive audio at home, so this technology has to be applied or enhanced in installations, experiential advertising and events, both live and virtual.

Cameras are constantly improving in terms of resolution and dynamic range, but also versatility. PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras from companies such as Panasonic or PTZOptics are of higher quality, and more responsive, with auto tracking and other smart functions becoming the norm.

Monitor technology has evolved, with panels developed for higher quality video content production with the ability to handle a wider gamut of colours, high-frame-rate footage, and better viewing angles.

Remote production of content took off during Covid, and now companies such as Creative Technology and NEP produce complete home studio kits to stream from anywhere.

Underpinning much of this is streaming, the quality of which has to be rock solid. High-speed codecs are being developed capable of carrying 1080p 50/60 fps over the internet with technology such as Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) ensuring reliability. Meanwhile, cloud processing and edge computing are moving the heavy lifting of data crunching to where it can be best handled.