After careful deliberation, the judges have decided on their shortlist for the 2009 IBC Innovation Awards.

In these difficult times, the judges were impressed with the remarkable range of nominations. They reflect the creativity of our industry as well as the drive to deliver better content more cost-effectively. Nominations came in from around the world — and one even from the bottom of the ocean! “Because of their special nature, the IBC Innovation Awards have firmly established themselves as ‘the ones to win’,” said chair of the judges, Michael Lumley. “The international judging panel have had the demanding job of coming up with a shortlist from an excellent range of quality entries. We have selected the most outstanding submissions, displaying innovative applications of technology.” The awards are in three categories: for most innovative projects in content creation, content management and content delivery. You can learn a little more about each finalist by clicking on the links below — however, to find out who wins you will have to join us at the IBC Awards Ceremony on Sunday, September 13th. The finalists are:

Creation

• Expert TV, a new commercial channel in Moscow bringing the first HD newsroom into existence in that country
• Oceanocam HD underwater camera, from Brest, France
• ESPN, who used EA Sports' special build of Madden NFL 09 to recreate actual game plays in the studio for "augmented reality".

Delivery

• Arab States Broadcasting Union for the MENOS project, with suppliers Newtec and Arabsat
• TV Barrandov working with HaiVision Network video for HD content delivery and suppliers HaiVision Network Video, MediaStream and Mattes
• Virgin Media for their deployment of on-demand TV advertising, with suppliers SeaChange International, On Demand Group

Content Management

• Mediaset Group for seamless repurposing of video content in new media channels
• Yleisradio Oy in Finland for their Metro project, media management for TV, radio, and online services
• Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) for NumProd, which migrated broadcast ops to a tapeless workflow, using supplies Dalet, EVS with Orad, Avid, MediaGenix, Fairlight, Front Porch, FAB