Shame on Microsoft! This is what happens when a company doesn't understand the social impact and value of its own technologies. Just as a reminder, in 2017 Skype was the recipient of a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for its Skype TX broadcast integration platform - used by literally everyone and now replaced by... Zoom. The professional broadcast version of Skype was embraced globally because also individual users were familiar with the app and its uses, and literally anyone could Skype a radio or TV station to contribute live. There were even backpacks optimized for ENG reporting from the field, using... Skype.
The 2017 Emmy specifically recognized Skype's contribution to integrating consumer video conferencing into broadcast production environments, enabling seamless professional use by major broadcasters such as BBC, CNN, ESPN, and Al Jazeera. In all the major broadcast networks, Skype was widely adopted, making it a key tool for live interviews and remote guest appearances.
Now, it's Zoom's time to receive the honor of replacing a technology that was simply voluntarily removed from the market by its owners. As the Television Academy announcement says, "Zoom for Broadcast has redefined remote media contribution, enabling broadcasters, production teams, and content creators to integrate high-quality video and audio streams from remote participants anywhere in the world into professional live productions with minimal latency and maximum reliability."
"We’re proud to help democratize storytelling by putting broadcast-grade contribution tools into the hands of everyone," says Brendan Ittelson, chief ecosystem officer at Zoom. "Zoom for Broadcast has transformed how stories are told on television, making it possible to feature experts, commentators, and audiences live from anywhere, without the cost and complexity of traditional remote broadcasting."
Before Skype - and now Zoom - high-quality remote contribution required satellite trucks, fiber networks, or complex studio setups. Zoom for Broadcast today provides professional-grade video contribution on consumer hardware, enabling producers to bring in diverse voices and remote talent more easily than ever before. Zoom for Broadcast's technology is now the bridge between videoconferencing and live production infrastructure that delivers remote participant streams at professional quality, empowering producers to create multi-participant content at scale with lower cost and complexity than traditional remote contribution techniques.
Zoom's key and unique capabilities include the ability to deliver video and audio feeds from Zoom's products over industry-standard protocols including SDI, NDI, and Dante for broadcast integrations. There are even seamless, direct integrations into trusted production tools and software video switchers from across the industry. The low-latency cloud infrastructure used by Zoom provides stability and quality while reducing complexity for broadcast systems.
Zoom for Broadcast has been adopted by major television networks and production companies worldwide and is even supported by technology vendors including Vizrt, vMix, Ecamm Live, QuickLink, and Wirecast, who have also embedded Zoom's SDKs into their remote contribution offerings, further solidifying Zoom's role in the industry.
Since Microsoft started pretending that Skype didn't exist and incredibly didn't do anything about it during the pandemic— the biggest opportunity for the company to leverage its global reach and hundreds of millions of users— Zoom has gradually replaced Skype in some of the most significant moments. And that includes obviously most live productions of the last five years, from political conventions and global sporting events to impactful cultural moments.
Recipients of this award include Andy Carluccio, head of client innovation; Jonathan Kokotajlo, technical program manager; Eyal Hadida, engineering manager; and Brendan Ittelson, chief ecosystem officer at Zoom.
www.zoom.com
