My Experience at IBC2018

International Broadcasting Convention, known as IBC, is an annual trade show, aimed at broadcasters, content creators/providers, equipment manufacturers, professional and technical associations, and other participants in the broadcasting, entertainment and technology industry.

Tagged as "The World's Most Influential Media, Entertainment & Technology Show" IBC holds every year during the month of September at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre in Amsterdam (ibc.org).

The 2018 edition attracted more than 55,000 attendees from 170 countries around the world, with more than 1,700 exhibitors. IBC is run by the industry for the industry and is supported by six leading international bodies, The International Association for Broadcast & Media Technology Suppliers (IABM); The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET); IEEE Broadcast Technology Society; The Royal Television Society (RTS); The Society of Cable Telecommunication Engineers (SCTE); and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (www.ibc.org).

Among the many themed sessions and exhibit areas, the following stood out for me.

The future zone

Featuring presentations from researchers and academic bodies developing ideas that may become the hit products five years from now. From spatial and immersive audio to the future of television in 8K, 4K HDR, and High Frame Rates, and artificial intelligence powering voice transcription and content verification, it was a fascinating voyage (IBC 2018, 2018).

Figure 1 - A spatial product demo in the future zone.

The IP Showcase 

The IP showcase an event is hosted by major technical and standards organisations within the broadcast industry — Audio Engineering Society (AES), Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), and Video Services Forum (VSF) that provides instructional, case-study presentations and an array of IP-based product demonstrations highlighting the benefits of, and momentum behind, the broadcast industry’s move to standards-based IP infrastructure for real-time professional media applications (IP Showcase, 2018).

A major part of the IP showcase apart from the product demonstrations from Industry vendors supporting IP standards and specifications is the IP Showcase Theatre, which featured educational presentations, a vital element as the industry progresses through the phases of IP adoption.

Figure 2 - Still images from some of the educational presentations at the IP Showcase Theatre

Attending these educational presentations inspired my final year project topic

According to Mark Russell, CTO & Head of Strategy for MediaKind. “The IP Showcase provides the industry with an excellent opportunity to witness the benefits of interoperable, multi-vendor solutions for real-time professional media over IP”

Figure 3 - IP product demonstrations at the IP Showcase

Product demo

Also at IBC 2018, Fraunhofer IIS and Vewd, a global "smart TV OTT software provider," showcased a Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) demo that included streaming on a set-top box with MPEG-H Audio support, as defined in the latest HbbTV 2.0.2 specification. Vewd is the first OTT software provider to enable support for MPEG-H Audio in its HbbTV browser SDK, which allows broadcasters to explore the advanced features of MPEG-H Audio in their HbbTV applications.

MPEG-H Audio is part of the ATSC 3.0 and DVB TV standards. In South Korea, terrestrial ATSC 3.0 broadcasting with MPEG-H Audio is already on air, making MPEG-H the world's first commercialized next-generation TV-audio technology. Professional broadcast equipment, including encoders and monitoring solutions, as well as decoders and consumer products such as TV sets and soundbars, have been announced and introduced with MPEG-H support (Fraunhofer IIS, 2018).


IBC2018 was my first IBC and it was thought-provoking, informative and inspirational. I look forward to attending more IBC shows to learn more about groundbreaking innovations in broadcast and content production.

Figure 4 - Pictures from IBC2018

References

Fraunhofer IIS. (2018). MPEG-H Audio. [online] Available at: https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/broadcast-streaming/mpegh.html [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].

IBC 2018. (2018). Future Zone. [online] Available at: https://show.ibc.org/features-overview/future-zone [Accessed 20 Oct. 2018].

IP Showcase. (2018). IP Showcase Returns to IBC | IP Showcase. [online] Available at: http://www.ipshowcase.org/2018/07/06/ip-showcase-returns-to-ibc-2/ [Accessed 9 Nov. 2018].