EDITORIAL
DEPARTMENT
Getting the best
out of IBC is
a challenge
It may be holiday time, but IBC is fast approaching. For many, this is a very busy few weeks. Having once worked for vendors, I know all the prepara- tion that goes into the show. It opens 9 September
whether your booth is ready or not, so it’s late nights for
the booth crew.
The press doesn’t get off lightly either. We are fully
booked with press conferences from Thursday, getting the
skinny on all the product releases, as well as sales success
stories. It can prove to be information overload, as we pick
out the stories we think will interest you, the reader.
This year, we are adding editorial video coverage on the
Broadcast Engineering Video Network, much as we did at
NAB earlier in the year. It is good to be covering the video
industry through the medium of video, to add to our Web
and print publishing. I’m learning about multiformat
content creation for real!
This year could prove to be a big one for information
gathering at IBC. Buyers are looking for products in new
areas to support OTT delivery of content to connected
TVs, tablets and smart phones.
The cozy days of going to see your favored hardware
vendors to see their new products have become more complex. Who are the new vendors in the connected world of
delivery to multiple devices?
With well over 1000 exhibitors, finding those new players requires some serious planning. How do you sort the
wheat from the chaff? Many of the new companies will
not succeed. How do you identify the winners to source
the software apps and infrastructure that will deliver new
services to your viewers?
Obviously, I would say the trade press can help, but just
as broadcasters are competing with upstarts in the content delivery business, we also compete with all manner of
personal blogs and websites. Where do you source trusted
information? Do you believe the sales guy or the opinionated blogger?
Peer recommendation has always been a trusted source
of information. If you find a product that looks interesting, the first thing is to visit a reference site to see it in action. However, this can be difficult, as many broadcasters
do not want their competitors to see how they are using
new products in their workflow; commercial confidentiality now reigns. This has gotten to be more so as products
become smarter and more software-based.
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broadcastengineeringworld.com | September 2011
As we have all found, searching the Internet for good information can be challenging. It is a minefield of illiterate
blogs and forums with uninformed answers. At Broadcast
Engineering, we go to a lot of trouble to endeavor to inform our readers. I would like to hear if you think we are
helping to open up a path through the changing landscape
of media delivery. Please e-mail me with your thoughts.
These are testing times. Viewers are demanding more
from broadcasters, but revenues from the viewers via subscriptions or advertising are not keeping pace with the increasing demands for TV everywhere.
It’s all there at IBC, but this year, more than ever, it takes
careful planning and research before the show to make
sure that your time is not wasted. It would be good to attend IBC three times: once to attend the conference papers, once to see existing suppliers and once just to wander
around looking for the innovative — that company with
a 3m x 3m shell scheme that becomes tomorrow’s giant.
Unfortunately, we can’t attend three times, so it is all a
compromise — too much to pack into six days!
DAVID AUSTERBERRY, EDITOR
Send comments to: editor@broadcastengineeringworld.com
