Month: May 2025

The NAB Show 2025 – held in Las Vegas this April – was nothing short of the media tech industry’s Super Bowl, drawing over 100,000 professionals from more than 160 countries. CHESA was proud to be there as a sponsor and exhibitor, immersing our team in the latest innovations on the show floor. As a leading systems integrator, we view events like NAB as invaluable – a chance to see cutting-edge solutions in action, meet face-to-face with the partners behind the products, and brainstorm with clients about how these breakthroughs can solve real workflow challenges. “We try to walk around and talk to the people behind the products so we can see what their vision is… It’s also exciting to walk around… with our clients and see what piques their interest”. After catching our breath post-show, we’ve gathered our thoughts on the most compelling trends we saw at NAB 2025 and what they mean for the future of media workflows from CHESA’s integrator perspective.

IP Workflows Come of Age (ST 2110 & Beyond)

One clear theme was the evolution of IP-based workflows for broadcast production. It’s no longer hype – IP infrastructure is now a practical reality for studios large and small. Our partner Imagine Communications underscored this by showcasing SMPTE ST 2110 in action as the backbone of next-gen facilities. Imagine’s demonstrations in their booth (W2067) highlighted how far IP video transport has come: uncompressed signals flowing seamlessly over COTS networks, with their Selenio Network Processor (SNP) and Magellan control system simplifying the transition from SDI to IP. In fact, Imagine’s John Mailhot noted that this tried-and-tested IP combo has “made IP transformation practical for any size operation, enabling more efficient live production across the industry — even for projects incorporating HDR and UHD”. For CHESA and our clients, the takeaway is clear – IP workflows are maturing. We’re seeing broadcasters gain the flexibility to scale and reconfigure systems without the limitations of SDI routers, which means our integration strategies must ensure new systems can seamlessly route signals over IP networks. The health of the industry was on full display: standards like ST 2110 are broadly adopted, and CHESA is already leveraging that momentum to design future-proof, hybrid IP systems that protect clients’ existing investments while opening the door to cloud and UHD workflows.

Immersive & Interactive Broadcast Experiences (XR + Social Media)

Another show highlight was the rise of immersive, interactive broadcast experiences – blending augmented reality, virtual production, and even social media integration to captivate audiences in new ways. A stunning example came from Vizrt. At their booth, Vizrt (in partnership with startup blinx) demonstrated a world-first: an extended reality (XR) virtual studio where the audience could drive the content in real time via TikTok Live. In this proof-of-concept stream, viewers’ TikTok “gifts” weren’t just icons on a screen – they actually transformed the on-screen environment. For instance, a user sending a virtual “Galaxy” gift would cause the studio background to explode into a galactic 3D animation, even displaying that viewer’s name within the scene – a dynamic, real-time shoutout. This clever fusion of gaming-like interactivity with live broadcast graphics had NAB attendees buzzing. Vizrt’s team emphasized that such XR-driven engagement isn’t just gimmickry; it opens up new revenue models. With TikTok users spending in the hundreds of millions on virtual gifts, a live production that taps into that participatory energy can “drive transactions with deeply immersive entertainment opportunities… without the hard sell”. From CHESA’s perspective, this trend signals that broadcasters and content creators are keen to merge traditional production quality with interactive tech to win over younger, online-native audiences. Whether it’s integrating Unreal Engine-driven virtual sets or connecting social media APIs to on-air graphics, we anticipate more projects where CHESA will be asked to connect these technologies. The goal will be to create seamless workflows that allow our clients to deliver immersive storytelling – where viewers don’t just watch, but actually influence the story in real time.

AI-Powered Workflows: Smarter Captioning, Metadata & Creativity

If one trend permeated every hall at NAB 2025, it was the influence of artificial intelligence on media workflows. From automating rote tasks to augmenting creative decisions, AI-driven tools are rapidly becoming mainstream in our industry. A prime example came from Telestream: they unveiled new AI-powered automation for captions, subtitles, metadata tagging, and even content summaries in their Vantage platform. This means a video file ingested into a workflow can have high-quality speech-to-text captions generated almost instantly, multilingual subtitles prepared, descriptive metadata auto-populated, and short synopsis content drafted – all via AI. It’s a game-changer for efficiency: think of compliance captioning, localization, and content indexing being done in a fraction of the time, with less manual effort. Our integration partner SNS (Studio Network Solutions) offered a complementary peek at AI’s role in creative asset management. At SNS’s booth, they set up an on-premises “AI Playground” – a hands-on demo where attendees could explore AI’s power in media management. We tried out tools that let you search a massive media library by describing a scene, or automatically identify duplicate images and even pinpoint specific moments in video by their content. For example, an editor could query, “find all clips where the CEO appears on stage at CES,” and an AI engine would sift the archives to find those shots – no manual tagging needed. SNS’s approach here is to show how AI can enrich metadata in situ and trigger complex workflows behind the scenes. In fact, their upcoming integration with Ortana’s Cubix orchestration platform will let users kick off automated tasks (like file moves or cloud backups) just by setting a tag in the SNS ShareBrowser MAM – essentially using AI and orchestration to connect storage, MAM, and cloud services intelligently. “These new integrations highlight our commitment to providing users with flexible tools that enhance collaboration and drive efficiency,” said SNS co-founder Eric Newbauer, underscoring that the end goal is an end-to-end workflow where mundane tasks are handled by smart systems and creative people can focus on higher-value work.

On the content creation side, AI is also stepping up to tackle one of the industry’s perennial challenges: making content accessible to broader audiences. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping example we saw was AI-Media’s debut of LEXI Voice, an AI-powered live translation solution. Imagine broadcasting a live event in English and, virtually in real time, offering viewers alternate audio tracks in Spanish, French, Mandarin, or over 100 languages – without an army of human interpreters. AI-Media’s LEXI Voice does exactly this: it listens to the program audio and generates natural-sounding synthetic voice-overs in multiple languages with only ~8 seconds of latency. The system impressed many broadcasters at NAB by showing that a single-language feed can be transformed into a multi-language experience on the fly. “Customers are telling us LEXI Voice delivers exactly what they need – accuracy, scale, and simplicity, at a disruptive price,” shared James Ward, AI-Media’s Chief Sales Officer. For global media companies and even event producers, this AI-driven approach could break language barriers and dramatically cut the cost of multi-language live content (AI-Media estimates up to 90% cost reduction versus traditional methods) while maintaining broadcast-grade quality. For CHESA, which often helps clients integrate captioning and translation workflows, these AI advancements are exciting. We foresee incorporating more AI services – whether it’s auto-captioning for compliance, cognitive metadata tagging for asset management, or AI voice translation for live streams – as modular components in the solutions we design. The key will be ensuring these AI tools hook seamlessly into our clients’ existing systems (MAMs, DAMs, playout, etc.), so that captions, metadata, and even creative rough-cuts flow automatically, saving time and enabling content teams to do more with less.

Cloud, Streaming & Remote Production Breakthroughs

NAB 2025 also reinforced how much cloud and remote production technologies have advanced. Over the past few years, necessity (and yes, the pandemic) proved that quality live production can be done from almost anywhere – and the new gear and services on display cemented that remote and cloud-based workflows are here to stay. For instance, our partner Wowza showcased updates that make deploying streaming infrastructure in the cloud or hybrid environments easier than ever. Their streaming platform can now be spun up in whatever configuration a client needs – on-premises, in private cloud, or as a service – while still delivering the low-latency, scalable performance broadcasters expect. This kind of flexibility is crucial for CHESA’s clients who demand reliability for live events but also want the agility and global reach of cloud distribution. We witnessed demos of Wowza’s software dynamically adapting video workflows across protocols (from WebRTC to LL-HLS) to ensure viewers get a smooth experience on any device. The message was clear: cloud-native streaming has matured to the point where even high-profile, mission-critical streams can be managed with confidence in virtualized environments.

On the live contribution and production side, LiveU made a strong showing with its latest remote production ecosystem. LiveU has been a pioneer of cellular bonding (letting broadcasters go live from anywhere via combined 4G/5G networks), but this year they took it up a notch. They unveiled an expanded IP-video EcoSystem that is remarkably modular and software-driven. “The EcoSystem is a powerful set of modular components that can be deployed and redeployed in a variety of workflows to answer every type of live production challenge,” explained LiveU’s COO Gideon Gilboa. In practice, this means a production team can spin up a configuration for a multi-camera sports shoot in the field, then re-tool the same LiveU gear and cloud services the next day for a totally different scenario (say, a hybrid cloud/ground news broadcast) without needing entirely separate kits. One highlight was LiveU Studio, a cloud-native vision mixer and production suite that enables a single operator to produce a fully switched, multi-source live show from a web browser – complete with graphics, replays, and branded layouts. Another headline innovation was LiveU’s new bonded transmission mode with ultra-low delay: we’re talking mere milliseconds of latency from camera to cloud. Seeing this in action was impressive – it means remote cameras can truly be in sync with on-site production, opening the door to more REMI (remote integration) workflows where a director in a central control room can cut live between feeds coming from practically anywhere, with no noticeable delay. CHESA recognizes that this level of refinement in remote production tech is a boon for our clients: it reduces the cost and logistical burden of on-site production (fewer trucks and crew traveling) while maintaining broadcast quality and responsiveness. We’ve already been integrating solutions like LiveU for clients who need mobile, nimble production setups, and at NAB we saw that those solutions now offer even greater reliability, video quality (e.g. 4K over 5G), and cloud management capabilities.

Even the traditionally hardware-bound pieces of broadcast are joining the cloud/remote revolution. Companies like Riedel – known for studio intercoms and signal distribution – showed off IP-based solutions that make communications and infrastructure more decentralized. Riedel’s new StageLink family of smart edge devices, for example, lets you connect cameras, mics, intercom panels, and other gear to a standard network and route audio/video signals over IP with minimal setup. In plain terms, it virtualizes a lot of what used to require dedicated audio cabling and matrices. We see this as “smart infrastructure” that eliminates traditional barriers: an engineer can extend a production’s I/O simply by adding another StageLink node to the network, rather than pulling a bunch of copper cables. For remote productions, this means field units can tie back into the home base over ordinary internet connections, yet with the robustness and low latency of an on-site system. Riedel also previewed a Virtual SmartPanel app that puts an intercom panel on a laptop or mobile device. Imagine a producer at home with an iPad, talking in real time to camera operators and engineers across the world as if they were on the same local intercom – that’s now reality. For CHESA, whose projects often involve tying together communication systems and control rooms, these developments from LiveU, Wowza, Riedel and others mean we can architect workflows that are truly location-agnostic. Whether our client is a sports league wanting to centralize their control room, or a corporate media team trying to produce events from home offices, the technology is in place to make remote and cloud production feel just as responsive and secure as traditional setups.

Smart Infrastructure & Workflow Orchestration

The final theme we noted is a bit more behind-the-scenes but critically important: the growth of smart infrastructure and orchestration tools to manage all this complexity. As integrators, we know that deploying one shiny new product isn’t enough – the real value comes from how you connect systems together and automate their interaction. At NAB 2025, many vendors echoed this, introducing solutions that orchestrate workflows across disparate systems. We’ve already touched on Riedel’s IP-based infrastructure making physical connections smarter, and SNS’s integration platform leveraging AI and tags to automate tasks. To expand on the SNS example: they announced a native integration with Ortana’s Cubix workflow orchestration software that takes automation to the next level. With SNS’s EVO storage plus Cubix, a media operation can do things like: automatically move or duplicate files between on-prem storage, LTO archives, and cloud tiers, triggered by policies or even a simple user action in the MAM; or enrich assets with AI-generated metadata in place (send files to an AI service for tagging as they land in storage); or spin up entire processing jobs through a single metadata tag. In a demo, SNS showed how setting a “Ready for Archive” tag on a clip could kick off a cascade: the file gets transcoded to a preservation format, sent to cloud object storage (with a backup to a Storj distributed cloud for good measure), and the MAM is updated – all without manual intervention. This kind of event-driven orchestration is incredibly powerful. It means our clients can save time and reduce errors by letting the system handle repetitive workflow steps according to rules we help them define. CHESA has long championed this approach (we often deploy orchestration engines alongside storage and MAM solutions), and it was validating to see so many partners focusing on it at NAB.

“Smart” infrastructure also refers to hardware getting more integrated smarts. We saw this in Riedel’s new Smart Audio Mixing Engine (SAME) – essentially a software-based audio engine that can live on COTS servers and apply a suite of audio processing (EQ, leveling, mixing, channel routing) across an IP network. Instead of separate audio consoles or DSP hardware, the mixing can be orchestrated in software and scaled easily by adding server nodes. This aligns with the general trend of moving functionality to software that’s orchestrated centrally. For CHESA’s clients, it means future facilities will be more flexible and scalable. Need more processing? Spin up another virtual instance. Reconfigure signal paths? Use a software controller that knows all the endpoints. The days of fixed-function gear are fading, replaced by what you might call an ecosystem of services that can be mixed-and-matched. Our job as an integrator is to design that ecosystem so that it’s reliable and user-friendly despite the complexity under the hood. The good news from NAB 2025 is that our partners are providing great tools to do this – from unified management dashboards to open APIs that let us hook systems together. We came away confident that the industry is embracing interoperability and orchestration, which are key to building solutions that adapt as our clients’ needs evolve.

Conclusion: From Show Floor to Real-World Workflows

After an exciting week at NAB 2025, the CHESA team is returning home with fresh insights and inspiration. We want to extend our thanks to our key technology partners – Imagine Communications, Vizrt, Telestream, SNS, Wowza, LiveU, Ai-Media, and Riedel – for sharing their innovations and visions with us at the show. Each of these companies contributed to a clearer picture of where media technology is headed, from IP and cloud convergence to AI-assisted creativity and immersive viewer experiences. For CHESA, these advancements aren’t just flashy demos; they’re the building blocks we’ll use to solve our clients’ complex workflow puzzles. Our role as an integrator is ultimately about connecting the right technologies in the right way – turning a collection of products into a seamless, tailored workflow that empowers content creators. NAB Show 2025 reinforced that we have an incredible toolbox to work with, and it affirmed CHESA’s commitment to staying at the forefront of media tech. We’re excited to take what we absorbed at NAB and translate it into real-world solutions for our clients, helping them create, manage, and deliver content more efficiently and imaginatively than ever. In the fast-evolving world of media workflows, CHESA stands ready to guide our clients through the innovation – from big picture strategy down to every last system integration detail – just as we have for over twenty years. Here’s to the future of media, and see you at NAB 2026!