FEATURE IBC 2012
MULTISCREEN TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT IBC
One of the overriding themes of this year’s trade show will be how broadcasters are adapting to the growth in second-screen activity. Adrian Pennington reports on the technology to look out for
augers well for a further increase in numbers this year. There’s an additional fourteenth hall to help accommodate 1,330 exhibitors, no major absentees and around 100 vendors making their show debut. “Despite the fi nancial pressures of the
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eurozone, exhibitors are showing a lot of con- fi dence in IBC,” suggests the trade show’s chief executive Mike Crimp. More confi dence than in the overall market, which, according to Peter White, director general of the Inter- national Association of Broadcasting Manu- facturers (IABM), “has defi nitely cooled”. The tech trade body’s latest market fi ndings report sales growth dropping year on year. Its ‘confi dence ratio’, which asks respondents whether they think the market will show an increase or decline from the current position, rose to a high of 14 in May 2011 but plum- meted to just 3.5 in May this year. One of the overriding themes of IBC will be how broadcasters of all stripes are adapt- ing to multi-screen, an area where consumers have a decisive role. IBC has been at pains to address this in recent years, opening a Connected World section dedicated to mobile and IPTV tech in 2010, and last year wooing chief execs with a behind- closed-doors summit aimed at strategising investment in con- nected content and devices. This year, it is giving a platform to rapper
Will.i.am (right), also Intel’s director of creative innovation, to talk about the role of technology in the crea- tive process. Meanwhile, Samsung promises to shed some light on how far it is prepared to go to muscle in on
18 | Broadcast TECH | September/October
ast year, a record 55,000 visitors passed through IBC’s doors and everything
broadcast content delivery. Already the world’s largest producer of LCD screens and smartphones, the South Korean powerhouse is represented at IBC by David Eun, executive vice-president, global media. Also speaking at IBC is Samsung content services director Dan Saunders, who says: “It is in the interests of TV manufacturers to ensure business models with content providers are sustain able.”
Meeting the brands A further sign of the convergence between traditional broadcast and the new control viewers are exerting is the presence of a number of brand advertisers. “We’ve built relationships with upwards of 40 million people a day through social media to become a media owner in our own right,” says Uni- lever global communications director Geoff Seeley, who is at IBC to build relationships with content producers and distributors. IBM will be sharing the stage with Miles
Young, chief executive of ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, to talk about what brands want from producers in order to tell stories across different platforms, while Andreas Gall, chief technology offi cer of Red Bull Media House, the production wing of the drinks brand, is also present to talk up the importance of metadata. “In the past, brands were
part of the advertising; in future, they will be part of the content business,” says Gall. Red Bull is trialling the capture of biomet- ric, GPS and telemetric data from HD mini-
cams strapped to athletes competing in extreme sports like X-Fighters.
“Producers should be taking as much care
over metadata as they do with their audio-vis- ual business,” says Gall. “Metadata embedded with content is becoming exceptionally impor- tant to all media, from apps and games to TV.” On that note, the Digital Production Part- nership recently unveiled its new metadata application after tests at ITV, C4 and the BBC. It’s a downloadable set of around 70 fi elds into which producers enter editorial and technical data as part of new fi le-based programme delivery. BBC head of sport Barbara Slater will pro-
vide a behind-the-scenes look at the London 2012 Olympics, but we’ll also get to look for- ward in a session on the next major global sporting event on the calendar: the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Director of Fifa’s TV division Niclas Ericson promises to reveal the technical and logistical challenges in producing Brazil
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
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