2 minute read
We are pleased to announce RedShark will be once again be presenting our Best in Show Awards at IBC2023 in Amsterdam for the first time since 2019.
This is important to us and I’d like to take a moment to explain exactly why. We started our awards programme back in 2015 with a simple mission to award only the best products and services we saw at IBC that year. We went on to do the same thing at NAB every year too until Covid came along in 2020 - and we started to wonder if trade shows would ever exist again.
This seems obvious right? Good product = award. However, that is not always so. Our motivation for doing our own awards came after we realised just how rigged the awards game can be. Many (not all) of the awards you see companies “win” are provided only after they have paid $500+ to be “considered” for an award. This is obviously messed up and goes against everything we stand for here.
The class of '19: some of the winners of the RedShark IBC2019 Best in Show awards; Dave Shapton presenting, second from right.
How we did it wrong before
However we, dear readers, are not immune from making mistakes. We made a couple of errors ourselves along the way. First of all we originally used to provide awards for various, predefined categories such as “Best Editing Tool”, "Best Cinema Camera” “Best Entry Level Camera”, “Best Lens” etc etc. This was a dreadful strategy for two reasons. Firstly, it meant we could only provide a single winner per category, but it also meant we had to find a winner even if no new products were announced in that category. Also, from a pounds and pence perspective getting the award manufacturers (we wanted them to look cool/ well made enough enough for winners to be proud of so they cost a fair bit) to create 12 different designs as opposed to a single “Best in Show” was a dumb decision that our accountant still reminds me of. Weekly.
Secondly, we also tried too hard to get a wider, industry perspective on winners. At our first show with awards we had a “committee of industry experts”. These were all friends of RedShark and still are; they had a varied background and offered and continue to offer our industry a huge amount of insight and input. For us at the show that year? Hmmm, not so much. Like all of you that attend shows you get distracted, dragged along to happy hours/ parties, impromptu meetings with old friends/ colleagues, taken in by something super shiny, new and cool, or just oversleep and lose phone signal in the Faraday Cage that is the RAI, Amsterdam.
After that we brought it exclusively in house.
How are we doing it this year?
First of all brevity is key. We are selecting six winners in total and there are no predetermined categories or entry requirements. Definitely no pay to play! Advertisers have the same crack of the whip as anyone else. RedShark Editor, Andy Stout, has the final decision on award winners. At the show we have a full team of Steve, Maari, Jesse, Omar, Dave Shapton, and myself. Dave, as RedShark co-founder and the brains behind the first rounds of awards, will be the main point of contact for awards at the show, so he is the guy you need to impress with demos etc.
So, PRs/ marketing/ founders reading this - hit us up in advance but be succinct and consider what RedShark readers want to hear about. End to end satellite connectivity for OB Trucks ain't gonna move the needle here, no matter how cool it is. Email address is editor@redsharknews.com - and if you can add IBC Awards in the subject line that will help things mightily at this end.
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