IBC has announced that its most prestigious honour, the International Honour for Excellence (IHFE), will be presented to Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) in recognition of its decades of innovation in live sports production and its far-reaching impact on the global broadcast industry.
IBC has also announced the winners of its Best Technical Paper award, recognising research aimed at reducing interaction barriers for older viewers of internet-delivered television.
IBC2026 will bring together the global media, entertainment and technology community at RAI Amsterdam from 11 to 14 September. The event will welcome professionals from more than 170 countries to collaborate, exchange knowledge and explore the technologies, ideas and opportunities shaping the future of media and entertainment.
IHFE recognises OBS’s impact on live sports production and broadcasting
For decades, OBS has set the benchmark for innovation in live sports production, pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible. Through pioneering advances in ultra-high-definition production, immersive audio, remote production workflows, artificial intelligence, cloud technologies and next-generation storytelling, OBS has transformed the way audiences around the world experience the Olympic Games.
Beyond its technical achievements, OBS has played a fundamental role in raising standards across the broadcast sector. Innovations developed to meet the specific demands of the Olympic Games have frequently become catalysts for industry-wide adoption, influencing broadcasters, technology partners, manufacturers and production teams across every genre of live television.
We are honoured to receive this award and thank IBC for this recognition. This distinction pays tribute to the passion, expertise and dedication of everyone at Olympic Broadcasting Services, whose work enables us to bring the Olympic Games to audiences around the world. It recognises the team’s commitment to innovation, excellence and service to the Olympic Movement as we continually seek new ways to enhance the coverage and audience experience of the Games. We are proud to receive this award from IBC, whose role in bringing together the international broadcast community is so highly regarded, said Yiannis Exarchos, Chief Executive Officer of OBS.
OBS has previously received multiple awards from the broadcast and sports industries. At IBC, these honours include the IBC2024 Innovation Award in the Content Creation category, presented to OBS and its technology partners for the live production of the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, which used more than 200 smartphones to contribute video and a sea-based 5G network for the Olympic sailing competitions held in Marseille.
Best Technical Paper award recognises age-informed design for internet-delivered television
Emma Maier, Jodie Pearton, Anna Stewart, Arina Mnatsakanyan and Jonathan Freeman, from i2 media research, will receive the prestigious IBC2026 Best Technical Paper award for their work entitled Measuring and reducing interaction barriers in internet-delivered TV systems through age-informed human factors design.
The paper explores how to make internet-delivered television easier to use for older viewers, enabling them to access everyday services with confidence. Using observational testing with adults aged between 65 and 89 at the i2 media research laboratory at Goldsmiths, University of London, it identifies how certain design barriers—including a lack of hierarchy, layered menus, unclear feedback and unfamiliar terminology—can make everyday tasks more difficult than expected. It then demonstrates how a simple, optional, age-informed overlay interface can reduce these barriers and support a more confident and independent viewing experience.
Among the many excellent papers presented at this year’s IBC Technical Conference, this paper on making television easier to use for older viewers presents a well-conceived and well-executed scientific study. It is highly relevant to the current debate on how to move towards greater internet delivery of content while maintaining the public service objectives of universal coverage and access. We can also look forward to a wide variety of high-quality papers from the broadcast industry and academia, including organisations such as the BBC, United Kingdom; NHK, Japan; RAI, Italy; and RTÉ, Ireland, said Andrew Dumbreck, Chair of the IBC2026 Technical Papers Committee.
The IBC2026 Technical Papers Programme brings together the technical media and broadcast community to consider the direction technology should take within the industry. It features original research into solutions for real-world problems faced by the international broadcast and digital media sectors. This year, its scope has been expanded to include papers dedicated to technical policy alongside traditional technical papers, with sessions focused on AI production, coding, trust and provenance, XR and multiview, the future of television distribution, developments in dynamic media facilities and AI indexing.
