Broadcast technicians have been warned of the need to adopt more of the 'process-driven' mindset of the IT industry if they are to manage the convergence of production technologies effectively.

In a panel discussion at the Broadcast Live and Video Forum conference, IABM chief executive Roger Crumpton said that broadcasters who had proved their strengths in content production and engineering had to "step up to the management game".

"Broadcasting has become a complex business which is one of the most exciting management changes," he said. "But what we have to deliver between now and 2012 is scary and the business management has to become really good. We need to recognise that we're running a business."

Crumpton said a common failing on projects was that managers put too much focus on the immediate problem rather than the processes needed to implement a solution and the long-term outcome.

He added that budgets for training and consultancy were often forecast too low and failed to account for the inevitable "lull in productivity" as changes started to take place.

Paul Glasgow, general manager of Avid UK and EMEA, which recently launched a consultancy arm, said broadcasters and IT still often worked in silos.

"Just expressing the requirements of the project gets very difficult because the expected outcomes and very difficult," he said. "The changes are huge and we should not underestimate it."

He said he was encouraged by the collaborative approach of broadcasters and IT in Irish broadcaster RTE's two-year project to transfer from tape to digital.

Keith Nicholas, founder of consultancy KNA, added that with more and more standard IT products being used as the basis of broadcast platforms, the role of broadcast engineer would inevitably be phased out.

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