The SCTE and IBC, 2004

IBC, 2004 9 - 14th September The IBC is the premier event for all professionals involved in entertainment content creation, management and delivery. The show covers all the key areas of the electronic media business including audio, cable, film, grip, internet, lighting, multimedia, production, post production, radio, satellite and transmission. The event consists of both an exhibition and conference.

The busy show floor at IBC 2004	The SCTE and IBC The show is run as a partnership and the SCTE as one of the partners is closely involved in the management of the show ensuring it offers much of interest to SCTE members. The Society's President and Vice-President serve on the board of the IBC and are closely involded in the management of the convention. The SCTE team, at IBC this year, included the President, Vice-president and National Secretary as well as CTE Deputy Editor, Graeme Young. Here's Graeme's report.

Going from Strength to Strength As the doors opened each day there was an early indication that the attendance figures were going to surpass those of the previous years since 11-09-2001. With eleven halls and over one thousand stands in the exhibition, plus a full and varied programme of conference sessions - 52 in all - there was plenty to see and do at Amsterdam's RAI Centre. With the interest in Broadband still running high the companies offering equipment, design services and software were busy, in fact the barrage of enquiries was relentless. Because IBC embraces broadcasting in the broadest sense, the range and variety of products and services on display in the halls were very comprehensive.		Scientific Atlanta attracts a crowd.

Harmonic's wide offering attracts attention.	HDTV - The Hot Topic. The hottest topic of the entire show was, however, High Definition TV. Four conference sessions were devoted to it but it made an appearance almost everywhere one went. The European Broadcasting Union announced that their HDTV strategy proposal was exclusively for one technical standard - 720p 50. (720 lines, progressive scanning, 50 fields/Sec.) This was demonstrated convincingly at the show, but aroused controversy from some quarters that were using already the 1080-line standard. In the USA, where HDTV is broadcast from over one thousand channels curently, only two of those have adopted the 720p standard, the majority use 1080 lines. Another hot topic at the show was that of DVB-H, the video service for hand-held devices. Debate was raised on who was to supply, transmit, and regulate the new service.

Many Things to See and Discuss For the rest there was a vast array of measuring and test equipment, transmitters large and small, head-ends for CATV, management systems for CATV, billing systems for CATV and Pay-TV, antennae. cable, connectors, editing and production suites, telecine, in fact all of the items that go into broadcasting regardless of the delivery platforms. In amongst the glitter, razamatazz and hype there were some very interesting broadband communication developments. With ongoing convergence of broadcast and IT systems, video over IP, the impending closure of analogue TV services around the world, the conscious need for greater security from terrorist attack, and pressure from content providers for faster broadband roll-out, the future for Cable looks good.		Motorola's two storey stand was busy throughout the show.

Tektronix offered regular presentations.	More Pictures, Further Information Larger versions of the pictures on this page, together with others of SCTE Patron Members' stands are available in the Photo Gallery. One key feature of any IBC show is the number of exhibitors who book for the following year before the show ends. This means it is possible to say that IBC 2005 will be the must do show of the year. For more details of the 2004 show and information on how to exhibit at IBC 2005 you can visit the IBC website.


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