Walking the walk and talking the talk

The song remains the same. But the beats are a little different: how Bridge wants to talk about its product line as we move into the future.

Difficult to believe that two weeks have passed already since the end of IBC2024. Of course, it’s now that the real work begins, following up on the leads generated and the connections forged.

For us, it was a remarkably successful IBC2024. Visitors from 405 companies across 97 countries, although impressive numbers for us, only represent a part of that success. We scooped the Best in Show award for the addition of the Canvas workspace to the VB440, showcased a range of collaborations, integrations, and product extensions, and celebrated 20 years championing IP in broadcast!

20 years: a time for reflection, a change in direction

Our birthday gave us opportunity think about our growth. For much of that time, our growth was singularly directed: making IP a mainstay in the market.

But now that we’ve achieved that, our efforts have changed direction slightly, pushing into new territory.

We can see that most clearly with the VB440. When we launched the VB440, what we were really saying was: now that you’ve accepted IP as a core component of compressed distribution, how about we show you what it can do in an uncompressed production environment?

Our focus – at first – was on communicating the idea that with a single appliance, production teams can have everything they need – be they a camera painter, an audio technician, a network engineer or a producer – from anywhere in the world, in real-time. There is truly no other product on the market that delivers this extensive range of production tools in a single box, and thus no other product on the market doing as much to reduce equipment expenditure, clutter, load weight and energy draw for remote and distributed production operations.

But the more functionality we integrate into the VB440, the harder it becomes for customers to believe that we can really do that much in a single product. It genuinely sounds like a ‘too good to be true’ situation. And that is an obstacle we need to overcome.

The psychology of marketing, and how to beat it

The central issue relates to the psychological biases that people hold regarding the idea of ‘maximum collective value’. People often inherently believe that something which specialises in a single function must perform that task more effectively than something which performs that function as part of a wider range of functions. Multi-function tools are automatically seen as useful in their broadness, but lacking in quality at the individual function level. And this can make them difficult to position in the market.

And this isn’t just us saying it, there has been genuine academic research on it: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318302005

In essence, it’s the belief that ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ is an unequivocal truth.

But at Bridge, we know that isn’t the case. At all. Because we truly have become masters of production, across the board.

Don’t let the market grind you down

Of course, understanding what customers want and how they act is a core part of any successful business. But if you allow it to be the governing force for your company, then you risk stifling innovation and vision in the industry. That is the unfortunate curse of being groundbreaking – people are sceptical of the unknown and unexplored.

Fortunately, we’re used to that at Bridge. Celebrating our twentieth birthday reminded us that back in the day we received more than a few sceptical looks when we described an IP-based future for broadcast. And look where we are now: as a company, and as an industry.

Changing the way we talk to change the way audiences think

And so too with the VB440: this will be our new battle front, changing the tide of opinion to prove that not only can we do more with our production probe, but – for any single function or tool – we can do it better than any individual piece of specialist equipment.

Part of this will necessitate a change in our language and the way we talk about the VB440. Rather than focusing on how broad the ability of the probe is, we want to start talking directly to individual production segments – showing each group how the VB440 caters to their production function specifically, and how it allows them to perform their job more effectively, more precisely, more quickly and more creatively than the comparable ‘specialist’ equipment on the market.

Breaking it down and joining it up

We’re also seeking to change the way our probes are viewed: not as individual products but as part of something more connected. Previously, we made quite a strong distinction between uncompressed and compressed data, treating them as two separate issues to be handled in different ways. But as networks have evolved, we don’t see any advantage to maintaining this binary distinction: compressed and uncompressed data are two sides of the same coin.

Of course, our VB330 and VB440 still maintain different functionalities according to the differing demands of production and distribution. Thus, the VB330 incorporates a range of tools that are crucial for broadcasters in delivering not only QoE excellence to audiences, but also helping them to fulfil their commercial commitments: facilitating ad-insertion monitoring and recording to provide evidence and records to stakeholders, C-Suite managers and engineers alike. Recent integrations also make it easier than ever for broadcasters to communicate network information throughout the organisation – both in emergencies and for general operational reporting/review.

But, increasingly, the two probes are converging in some areas – particularly in their monitoring of various standards (such as SRT and JPEG-XS) – so that broadcasters can treat their production and distribution as a fully joined-up operation which leverages the benefits of IP across the entire broadcast chain, end-to-end. We want to stress this idea of holistic IP broadcasting by unstressing the compressed/uncompressed binary.

Your role in helping us

Of course, to achieve this, we need our business partners on board. We’d encourage you all to think about how you’re talking about the VB440, and how much a focus on its overarching abilities might come at the expense of stressing its market-leadership in each unique area; audio, video, network engineering, and production oversight. We want on-the-ground production professionals of all types to see the VB440 as best-in-class for their specific roles, not just as a generalised tool for all.

A big part of that strategy is already coming into fruition. By highlighting partnerships and integrations at IBC2024, we evidenced the faith that specialists in individual fields view the VB440 as a crucial platform through which to achieve task-specific excellence. It highlighted the fact that not only are we developing groundbreaking tools in-house, but attracting external developers of best-in-class tools as well.

Treading the line

Of course even as we focus on the VB440 as an exceptional tool of specialisation, we still need to communicate to decision makers in charge of purchasing just how versatile the VB440 is: its role in reducing equipment expenditure, surface clutter, load weight and energy draw in OB vans and studios. We need to highlight the fact that it facilitates distributed and remote live production in a joined-up manner in a way no other product on the market is doing. In essence, we need to push the idea that the VB440 makes sense not only as a creative tool – on each and every creative level, but as a business decision too. We need to break down customer scepticism when they ask ‘how can Bridge really be this far ahead of the industry in what they’re achieving with IP?’.

The key will be to both show and tell

So if you want to talk with us more about how you’re talking about Bridge’s Technologies products, we’d urge you to reach out to your head of sales soon, so that we can make sure we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.