Attendance at IBC 2018 reached 55,884, show organizers said — down slightly from a record-breaking 57,669 reported last year. But IBC said the number of delegates to the conference portion of the event was up 14% this year, and also pointed to a diversity effort that more than doubled the proportion of women speaking at the conference, from 14% last year to 37% this year.

“The show is about engagement, engagement, engagement. The stats are up in almost all areas and re-bookings are ahead of last year,” said IBC CEO Michael Crimp in a prepared statement. “IBC is much more than a trade show. We have developed a basket of data-driven statistics, including sales leads generated on stands, conference attendance and IBC365 [website] views, and this sharing of information is pivotal to the longevity of IBC’s success and sits at the core of the organization.”

IBC 2018 was in most regards a workflow-oriented show with vendors aiming to ease well-known pressure points. There was no product news that matched last year’s reveal by Sony of the Venice cinema camera, but Blackmagic created a stir with Blackmagic Raw, a new camera codec aiming to reduce the processing requirements for raw files, making them easier to work with in post-production. Heading in the other direction, Avid introduced DNxUncompressed, a visually lossless format for 32-bit float effects and color processing.

For those still trying to figure out how to effectively monitor HDR shoots, Sony introduced the BVM-HX310 reference monitor, marketed as a less-expensive LCD alternative to its well-liked (but pricey) BVM-X300 OLED. For QC, AJA said its new HDR Image Analyzer appliance, part of its technology partnership with Colorfront, will ship later this fall.

With the new Interoperable Master Format (IMF) specification recently published by SMPTE and the Digital Production Partnership (DPP), awareness of IMF was fairly high across the show floor. DPP member companies including Dalet, EditShare, Eluvio, MTI Film, Object Matrix, Ownzones, Prime Focus, Sundog Media Toolkit and Tektronix highlighted their IMF compatibility. Signiant announced enhanced IMF awareness in its workflow, and Tedial added new features to its Hyper IMF MAM, adding automatic leader insertion, automatic localization, and new features in its IMF Markup Tool for validating and repairing of IMF packages.

In a related development, Netflix launched its Post Technology Alliance, with 15 partners certifying their products for mastering UHD, HDR/Dolby Vision, and IMF deliverables for the streaming service.