The broadcast industry has evolved rapidly from one reliant on a single form of analogue delivery – whether PAL, NTSC or SECAM – to one where a multiplicity of formats coincide. Video and audio content in 2012 has to be repurposed and standards-converted on the fly for different formats and different platforms. There are already many differing flavours of HD and, with an array of ‘future formats’ including 4k and Super Hi-Vision in the pipeline, not to mention on-going work developing a stereo 3D standard, there is plenty of potential for confusion. How will the Internet and Mobile TV cope with the increase in traffic as more and more content is delivered via their networks? 

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

Mobile Media - The Re-Emerging Market
Is Hybrid TV the New Pay-TV
Will the Same Players Shoot Again in the OTT World?
DVB: Implementation of New Broadcast Technologies: Case Studies
Next Generation Cable & Wireless Networks - Challenges & Technologies
The Emerging Spectrum Landscape for Broadcast and Mobile
Who's the Second Screen Now?
FOBTV: Toward a Global Broadcast TV Standard
SCTE: What Will 4G LTE Deliver For Europe?

There are few industries that have undergone such fundamental change over such a short period of time as cinema. Once the home of that most stable of formats, 35mm, nowadays acquisition, distribution and projection can all be done digitally, but so can piracy. And with the cost of producing an average Hollywood movie having risen from $3.1m to $82m since 1975, how do all the elements in the production and distribution chain stay profitable while protecting their intellectual property and embracing new technology? What is the state of the art cinema of 2012 and who is paying for it? How does the industry move to a fully digital pipeline? And how does it keep the public coming through it's doors as the proliferation of alternative entertainment options continues with every year?

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

Stereoscopic 3D Content and Display - Developments and Diagnoses
Hyper-Reality: High-Res Digital Cameras Transforming Filmmaking
EDCF/SMPTE Cinema Wirkshop - Strictly For Techies
Exploring 3D: The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking
Why Budget Wary Producers Should Wake Up To Stereoscopic 3D
Does Digital Imaging Hold All The ACES Over Film
Start-To-End Digital Production Tools
EDCF D-Cinema Update

It was estimated that by IBC2012, there will more than 50 million connected in-home devices in Western Europe, from smart TVs and games consoles to pay-TV set top boxes. Will traditional broadcasters and cable operators hang on to the valuable pay-TV market, or face ferocious competition from OTT suppliers and the increasing number of direct tie-ups between consumer electronics companies and content owners? How are consumers reacting to the bewildering additional choice on offer and will different regions of the world vary in their responses? Will connected devices in the living room enhance the power of social media and increasingly move outside the home through apps, smart-phones and tablets?

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

The Great Connected Television Debate: Will The Internet Be The End Of Television As We Know It?
Digital Media Connections: How Viewer Behaviour is Driving New Revenue
Search and Discovery in the Connected World: The New Curation
SPONSORED SESSION: Live Streaming of the 2012 Olympic Games to Connected Devices
The Role of Games in the Connected TV Experience
Child's Play - The Future of Next-Generation TV

The phenomenal growth of social media over recent years has been matched by a proliferation of mobile devices that take the interaction venue away from the desktop and into the living room. This has had seismic implications for the electronic entertainment industry, as audiences fragment and come together into online communities. The opportunities that direct engagement with a fan base presents are immense, but then so are the difficulties – both creative and technical – of interconnecting traditional linear content with social media platforms. IBC was the place to find out the latest developments and examine the latest case studies that show how the power of social media can be harnessed worldwide.

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

Social Media Meets TV: Second Screen, Gesture and Voice Interaction
Today's Social Mobility Is All In The Application
The New Advertising: How the Medium and the Message are Adapting to the New Digital World
Advertising Embraces Transmedia: How the Second Screen is Key to New Relationships
Creativity and Technology Forces Combine - Transcend the Barriers of Convention and Rethink What Can Be Achieved
Targeted Ads: Harnessing the Power of Interactivity
The Arab Spring: A Catalyst For Driving Broadcasting Trends For The Future?
SPONSORED SESSION: New Media Russian Forum comes to IBC

Sport is the engine of television, driving technology on the one hand and revenues and business models on the other. Always centre stage, it is assuming even more importance this year as a succession of high-profile events, from Euro 2012 to the London Olympics, push the envelope ever further. From new technology, such as the Super Hi-Vision trials at London 2012, to new business models, such as the monetisation of the second screen, sport is once more leading the way. IBC was the first place to assess the winners – and possible losers – following an incredible Summer of both sport and innovation.

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

The London 2012 Debriefing: Analysing the Summer Olympic Games
Turning Olympic Games Spectators Into Participants: Broadcast Tools & Technology Of London 2012
Brazil 2014: The Road To The Next FIFA World Cup
SPONSORED SESSION: Live Streaming of the 2012 Olympic Games to Connected Devices

What are the implications for the growth of Cloud Computing for the electronic entertainment industry? Moving infrastructure over to The Cloud promises to deliver increased flexibility to businesses struggling to keep up with the dynamically changing landscape of consumer demand, but there are issues. The history of marriage between broadcast and IT technologies is a complex one, which has had both its successes and failures, and to the broadcast mind there remain question marks over the Cloud’s security, reliability and capacity. IBC highlighted the latest developments in production and distribution that seek to reassure the doubters.

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

Where Cloud Delivers For Media
SPONSORED SESSION: Establishing the Business Case for your Cloud Strategy
Cloud101 - An IBC2012 Tutorial

As multimedia has evolved and developed, so the services that maintain it have equally moved to become transmedia; penetrating across, beyond and through the different platforms and formats. What though, are the demands on these services? Can advertising and targeting, for instance, be equally proficient as they cross the boundaries, or is there a point where they have to specialise? What are the advantages of trying to follow the path towards transmedia synergisms? Who is doing it and who is benefiting? And who are the winners and losers as consumers find themselves able to access content in any way they want? IBC will have the answers.

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

The New Advertising: How the Medium and the Message are Adapting to the New Digital World
Advertising Embraces Transmedia: How the Second Screen is Key to New Relationships
The Rise Of The Second Screen and How It Impacts Content Innovation
IP Services and Technologies - The Challenges of Multimedia on Multiscreens

One of the sea changes in the industry in recent years has been the gradual death of tape and the increasing reliance on server-based workflows, as the flexibility and – crucially – cost advantages of tapeless have become clear to all. How though to future-proof such IT-based systems so that the HD production pipelines of today are ready for the 4k and beyond of the future? And how to integrate the disparate parts of the other Hot Topics – the Cloud, social networking etc – into a coherent holistic solution that is efficient, reliable and cost-effective? 

Conference sessions that covered this topic:

How Do We Make Metadata Better Data?
Archiving and Retrieval of Video Assets - Quality Metrics and Workflow Processes
Delivering the Devices - How Live Content is Making its Way to All Your Devices
Start-To-End Digital Production Tools
Dangerously Boring - Why Production Should Pay Attention to the Details of Information Architecture