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CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF BROADCASTING
Ed Almond, Chief Executive and Secretary of the IET, tells Monica Heck how the association is meeting its aim of engineering a better world by celebrating past achievements and planning for what’s next
2025 marks the centenary of the fi rst TV broadcast, with the fi rst successful transmission of a recognisable grey-scale image by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird taking place on 2 October 1925. That is why this autumn, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is hosting an event to commemorate this pivotal moment and to allow people to celebrate an achievement that forever changed the broadcast world.
“On 2 October 2025 at the Savoy Place home of the IET, we will host our John Logie Baird Lecture working with the RTS, with a number of presenters including a guest appearance from Iain Logie Baird, grandson of John, which is exciting,” says Ed Almond, Chief Executive and Secretary of the IET, Europe’s largest engineering membership body with 157,000 members, either chartered engineers or registered engineering technicians. This milestone is also being celebrated at IBC2025. In the new Future Tech hub in Hall 14, a number of exhibits are focusing on 100 years of TV. “It’s not only a focus on the fi rst 100 years of TV, but also a look forward to the next 100,” he explains. “Around a quarter of our waking hours globally are spent absorbing TV and video content, so our mission is to engineer a better world, and make sure that the time dedicated to this content supports the needs of society and works for people.
ACCELERATING CHANGE “We want to accelerate the technology and see it applied for good, which is why the IET is involved with government on policy in this area,” he adds. “We were involved with the UK’s Online Safety Act, for example, which is legislation to protect children and vulnerable adults online.” Almond also highlights the importance of the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme – a collaborative event that brings together buyers (Champions) and sellers (Participants) to fast- track solutions that address real-world industry challenges, with fi nal proofs of concept being showcased in Hall 14 – to IET members from the broadcast and media industry who also work closely with the research community. “The IET is working as a Champion for three of the eight selected projects for 2025,” he says.
Ed Almond, Chief Executive and Secretary of the IET
“One particularly interesting project focuses on how to credential content and is titled ‘Stamping your Content (C2PA Provenance)’. It was proposed by the BBC, ITN and Media Cluster Norway. In a world of fake news and AI, it’s about making sure that organisations and users can verify the source of what they are seeing. This is looking at an open-source standardised solution that allows content creators to credential their content and end users to verify where it comes from.”
“There has never been a more important time to be an engineer, when we look at the challenges facing the world”
Members of the IET Media Technical Network
are also producing fi ve sessions as part of the IBC Owner Programme, which delivers free sessions covering a vast range of topics, from the latest industry standards and strategies for business transformation, to defi ning future networks and building new sustainable broadcast infrastructures. The fi ve IET Owner sessions are facilitating talks around the topic of the global impact and importance of TV.
“We don’t have a stand here at the show, but the IET fi ngerprints are on almost everything else,” says Almond. “Visitors can meet members of the IET Technical Network at the IBC Owner Pavilion in Hall 8, or around the Accelerator stands. We are also involved in today’s IBC Talent Programme: some of our members are talking about the role of professional engineering institutions in careers to help the IET bring more young people into the industry.” He concludes: “If people are pursuing a
professional career in the sector, a membership body like the IET provides them with a home for life, it’s more than attending a show once a year, it’s developing a professional network, a skillset and potentially being qualifi ed as a chartered engineer. There has never been a more important time to be an engineer, when we look at the challenges facing the world. We think about sustainability and climate change, but also how society can be most effectively supported and enriched by digital technologies.”
Ed Almond is Chief Executive and Secretary of the IET. Visit the organisation throughout the show at the Owner Pavilion in Hall 8.
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