This is the third in a series of articles about the findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands. With more than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participating, the 2010 version of the BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.
NAB 2010 is less than a week away, and as the industry prepares to gather in Las Vegas for its biggest event of the year, the question on the minds of many is what technologies are in demand by customers around the world.
In previous posts I have discussed the most important technology trends in the broadcast industry and examined where money is being spent in the broadcast industry in terms of major projects planned for the year.
These industry trends and major projects drive technology purchasing in the broadcast industry, and that’s the focus of this article — the products that are being evaluated for purchase this year by broadcast professionals.
As part of our 2010 global market study we wanted to help our readers understand what broadcast professionals around the world are shopping for this year. We presented technology buyers with a list of relevant product categories, and asked them to indicate which product type they are currently evaluating for purchase.
The results, which are shown in the table below, demonstrate a broad range of industry demand.
What broadcast technology products / services are you currently evaluating for purchase? 
These responses show that production technology such as editing, ENG cameras, along with test & measurement and key audio products will be in demand around the world as broadcast professionals upgrade their facilities to HDTV operations, which was ranked #1 in terms of planned projects for the year (link to article).
The transition to file-based / tapeless workflows will be facilitated by purchases of production servers along with transcoding products, which facilitate multi-format interoperability in the file-based domain.
The new studios, OB vans and channels that are being planned will drive evaluation of a wide variety of equipment including multiviewers, servers, signal processing, routing switchers and storage.
A significant number of respondents indicated that they are currently evaluating products that increase operational efficiency and streamline working practices. These include library / storage management, automation and workflow / asset management.
Video transport and transmission gear should also see strong demand as customers around the world seek to use improve compression efficiency, connect operations by IP links, and increase the number of channels delivered to consumers.
Keep in mind when reading this information that this table presents the responses of all global participants in the 2010 BBS, regardless of organization type, size or location; and shows the number of respondents that are evaluating products without regard to size of project or value of purchase. Granular analysis of these results, including breakdown of data by geographic region, customer type and customer size, is available as part of the full 2010 BBS Global Market Report from Devoncroft Partners.
Published by Devoncroft Partners, the annual Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) is the largest and most comprehensive studies of broadcast industry trends and technology vendor brands. The BBS provides insight into market trends, technology budgets, plant, equipment upgrade plans, and the perceptions of leading broadcast industry vendor brands by a wide variety of broadcast professionals across the world. It also delivers vendor brand ranking “league tables” in a variety of product categories; all of which can be segmented by geography and customer type. More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS project. Information about the 2010 BBS can be found at www.devoncroft.com
