SMPTE METexpo 2025 Conference Program presents insights from broadcast professionals and experts working across the APAC region, ready to share experiences, research and case studies.
The SMPTE METexpo 2025 Conference Program will run from 29 to 31 July at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. This year, the program has a special difference compared to those in years past – it’s available to all registered visitors free of charge. The schedule is densely packed with speakers addressing major topics affecting the broadcast industry today, locally in APAC and around the world. Below are some highlights of what you can expect. See the full program here, with speakers, their bios and more information, on the METexpo website.
Artificial Intelligence
METexpo gets started on Tuesday morning, 29 July, with a topic likely to be at the front of every attendee’s mind – artificial intelligence. Following the show’s Keynote Address on the convergence of IT and Broadcast, speakers tackle the growing influence of AI innovations on sports delivery and newsrooms, and from production to post. SVG considers How Live Sports Can Flourish with AI and Other Innovations, and a panel will discuss Every Fan, Every Language: AI-Powered Commentary, Captions & Transcripts for Live Sport.
They will talk through both the practical applications of AI/ML in live and post-production in AI & Machine Learning in Production, as well as the need for modern journalism to balance the opportunities and the ethical challenges when integrating AI techniques, in Keeping AI in Check – Safeguarding Journalism in the Age of Automation.
Live Sports
Before and after the lunchtime break on Tuesday are further discussions on sports, including a panel on The Live Sports Production Revolution: Scaling Content, Cutting Costs, and Shaping the Future, including pressure to produce more, and more varied, sports content at lower cost, remote and distributed production models, and the use of software-defined systems.
Afterwards, a talk on the use of IP video in live sports Transforming LIVE Sports Production with IP-Video: Cost-efficiency Meets Operational Agility will also cover not only the ability to control costs but also to scale delivery using on-site, remote and cloud workflows. Sports producers will also be interested in a session on Wednesday, 30 July, Optimising Remote Production: Reducing Bandwidth Without Compromising Quality, about ways to optimise remote production, now used widely for sports events, by reducing bandwidth requirements.
Film and TV Production
A number of sessions on film and TV production are scheduled, starting on Tuesday with Grass Valley’s Klaus Weber. In his talk Cinematic Aesthetics in Live Production: The Role of an Optimized S35 CMOS Sensor, he will discuss the growing interest in cinematic looks for live productions, and the value of optimising a high-resolution S35 CMOS imager for live environments.
Post Production Then and Now on Wednesday is a presentation on the evolution of post production from a time when workflows were based on a single tool to now, when post studios have transformed into dynamic environments employing dozens of new tools. Just after is a session from VFX studios, VFX Pipelines in Episodic TV – Behind the Scenes of High-End Visual Storytelling, describing the critical role visual effects now play in episodic television, and how VFX pipelines are developed for the fast-paced TV environment.
Two Panel Presentations on Wednesday morning will also interest producers. The Australian Cinematographers Society’s panel features three award winning cinematographers who will share stories from their careers working across varied genres, and discuss their on-set processes. A panel from the Australian Screen Sound Guild also follows, giving their members’ perspectives on the development of sound technology.
The ever-present issue of Media Security will be explored on Tuesday in a talk showing attendees the options now available to contain threats like piracy and hacking, using tools such as encryption, access controls, DRM and user education. Wednesday’s session, War Stories from the Media Cybersecurity Front, focusses on OTT service providers, presenting APAC case studies highlighting vulnerabilities associated with consumer confidentiality, content integrity and how APIs are implemented for availability.
Wednesday turns attention to local themes with a panel drawing on insights from the region’s M&E industry. Where Next for Media and Entertainment Technology in OCEANIA considers how viewers will consume, producers create and distributors deliver their content in three years’ time. Speakers will include Carolyn Constantine ACS, NSW President of ACS and sound designer Nigel Christensen ASSG.
Later on Wednesday, a group from PasifikaTV presenting on PasifikaTV - Connecting the Pacific will describe their challenges in working across an extremely large, diverse geographical and cultural environment, and the technological systems that help them connect the region.
Software Defined Workflows
Tuesday will bring a panel discussion titled Software Defined Media Processing and Workflow, a key topic because it involves letting go of fixed broadcast hardware investments in favour of software systems to gain agility, scalability and efficiency. This panel considers recent changes, including the upcoming EBU MXL standard that defines multivendor interoperability.
Then on Wednesday, Unleashing Multi-vendor Software Workflows for live video: EBU Dynamic Media Facility, a talk on multi-vendor software workflows for live, will look into interoperability, containerised media functions and the idea of a high-performance Media Exchange Layer that supports asynchronous workflows.
Hear from Damian McNamara, Senior Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services, on Wednesday, about how live streaming operators can better control their viewers’ Quality of Experience. In Streaming Media Quality-Aware Resiliency, he will explain how an integration between CloudFront and AWS Media Services makes it possible to build a highly resilient live streaming solution for live productions, while maintaining a competitive QoE.
Education and Opportunity
Thursday 31 July will be a special day focussing on leadership, opportunity and education for people interested in working in broadcast. It will be a chance to see how SMPTE can help visitors build a resilient career and contribute to shaping the future of entertainment. There will be an Educational Panel Discussion discussing emerging trends like virtual production, AI and immersive learning, and the important role of vocational training.
If you would like to attend these or any of the other sessions coming up at METexpo, register here and visit the Conference Program schedule online. consec.eventsair.com/metexpo
