IAMT names its Impact Awards 2026 winners at IBC

Amsterdam, 12 September 2026 – IAMT, the International Association of MediaTech, has announced the winners of the IAMT Impact Awards 2026, presented at a ceremony in the IAMT Member Hub at IBC 2026, RAI Amsterdam.

Ten awards were presented across product, project, publishing, leadership and membership categories, judged by an independent panel of industry experts drawn from across the MediaTech community. Entry numbers reached a record this year, and several judges added shortlisted companies to their own IBC schedules in order to see the work in person.

The ceremony was hosted by Purminder Gandhu, Consultant at Kaurwave, with awards presented by IAMT CEO Saleha Williams and members of the IAMT leadership team.

The winners

Best Start-up Member Award: Flomenco

Recognizing emerging businesses already shaping the MediaTech landscape. Flomenco gives content producers a single source for multi-platform distribution, automatically formatting for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and X. The technical judges singled out its AI quality control check with human review, covering frame-by-frame analysis, audio level verification, brand compliance and format validation.

Transformational Project Award: Riedel Communications, for Cinematic Live at Scale: ARRI ALEXA 35 Live and Riedel DIVA+ at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

The judges described the project as a bold move where the temptation would have been to play it safe, praising a product suite that linked origination, media flows, control, comms and data into a single smooth operation, and proved how teams could solve real world production blockers at speed. Deploying it on the most demanding entertainment show anywhere, they said, was a remarkable achievement.

Most Supportive Member Award: Metadat-AI

Recognizing the member organization that has given outstanding support to IAMT and the wider membership across the year, through events, trade shows, research contributions and community participation. The award was collected by Damon Neale.

Best Journal Article Award: SNS, for “What Video Editors Need When Everything Is Changing Around Them”

The judges said the article won easily on relevance and personalization, using meaningful statistics to deliver relatable insight into the changes ahead, and making the future feel less daunting rather than more.

MediaTech Leader Award: Kenna Hilburn, Chief Product Officer, Avid

Honoring a leader at the forefront of innovation and disruption in MediaTech. The judges highlighted the rare skill of identifying what customers really want and translating it for senior management and product teams, and a perspective that spans both creators and technology providers.

Global Alliance Partner Award: Geir Børdalen, Head of Technology Portfolio, NRK

Recognizing outstanding contribution by an IAMT Global Alliance Partner, the group of MediaTech end users whose insight and experience shape IAMT’s research and industry conversations.

Best Creation & Management Award: Grabyo, for Grabyo Live: Next Generation Cloud Production

The judges called it a prime example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, bringing the key elements of a modern production workflow into a consistent, intuitive interface and cutting both operational and start-up costs.

Best Delivery & Experience Award: Synamedia, for GO Shorts

Repurposing content for different platforms is not new, the judges noted, but doing it cost-effectively has eluded many rights and content holders. GO Shorts was praised as an excellent way to leverage existing long-form content for a generation of viewers who consume by swiping.

Best Operations & Lifecycle Award: Amazon Web Services (AWS), for Agentic Intelligent Operations

The judges said the solution showed how powerful agentic intelligence can be in an increasingly complex delivery pipeline, and pointed to it as the way forward for workflow automation where a dashboard cannot fix the problem and human operators hit the limits of parallel processing. The proactive QC drew particular praise.

Best Products, Services & Monetization Award: Canon, for the CINE-SERVO 40-1200mm lens

The judges called it an amazing achievement to deliver a product of this performance in the same footprint as its predecessor, and noted how well it ties in with virtual production.

Shortlists

Also shortlisted across the categories were deliver.media, Qvest Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group (Transformational Project); Blue Lucy and MASV (Best Journal Article); Laurent Masia of NETGEAR, Miroslav Jeras of Pebble and Vijay Sajja of Evergent (MediaTech Leader); Adobe, Magewell and Ross Video (Creation & Management); Accedo and EasyTools (Delivery & Experience); Blue Lucy, Globecast and Xperity (Operations & Lifecycle); and Media Distillery, Venera Technologies and Wowza Media Systems (Products, Services & Monetization).

What’s next

The IAMT Annual Conference & Awards 2026, “Leading the Next Era of Media Technology”, takes place 1-2 December 2026 at the Richmond Hill Hotel, London, in partnership with AVIXA. Registration is open at theiamt.org/richmond.

ENDS

 

About IAMT

IAMT (formerly IABM) connects, supports, and informs over 450 Media-Tech member companies world-wide, including technology innovators, service providers, buyers, and end users across the broadcast, streaming, enterprise, and emerging media sectors. As the industry continues to evolve beyond traditional broadcast boundaries, IAMT equips its members with the market access, intelligence, and influence needed to thrive in a rapidly changing landscape. Through the delivery of actionable business insights, the facilitation of meaningful connections and opportunities, and by serving as a global platform for innovation and thought leadership, IAMT empowers organizations to make smarter decisions, expand into new markets, and drive measurable business impact across the global MediaTech ecosystem. For more information, visit theiamt.org.

 

Media contact

Paul Young, Head of Marketing, IAMT

paul.young@theiamt.org

Notes to editors

• The IAMT Impact Awards 2026 were presented on Saturday 12 September 2026 in the IAMT Member Hub, Diamond Lounge, Entrance G, Hall 3, RAI Amsterdam.
• Awards were presented by Saleha Williams (CEO), Lucinda Meek (Chief Finance & Operations Officer), Stan Moote (CTO), Stuart Ray (Head of Skills & Development), Ana-Claire Bernardes (Global Head of Member Engagement & Growth), Michelle Kelly (Head of Member Engagement & Growth, North America) and Chris Evans (Senior Principal Analyst).
• All entries are judged by an independent panel of industry experts.
• Photography from the ceremony is available on request.