IBC2015 has five well-designed Themes for conference delegates, each to showcase that the show is not just a technical event, important though technology has to be for broadcasters.
But this year’s IBC conference is not just content rich but contains a dynamic portfolio of panels each filled with networking – and knowledge improving — opportunities.
Whether in ‘Taking the Pulse’ of broadcasting’s health, or ‘Reinventing Broadcasting’, the ‘Digital First’ disrupters, ‘Preparing for the Future’ and the final analysis (‘It’s a Wrap’) the IBC Conference team has created temptations for everyone.
Typical is the business stream devoted to ‘Advertising Meets Big Data’ (Thursday, Room E102 13:30-15:00) which examines TV advertising’s future, or Friday’s ‘Breaking the Bundle:
The End of TV as we know it?’ (Room E102, 14:00-15:30) and will discuss whether the HBO Now, or Apple’s expected online TV service will prove to be a genuine alternative to ‘traditional’ pay-TV bundles.
Over the years IBC has spent more than a few hours discussing Media Asset Management (MAM) and the topic remains valid, except that now it tends to be ‘Media Logistics’ and ‘Supply Chain’ management.
The session (Room E102, 11:30-13:00) will address the challenges and solutions to achieving interoperable, efficient workflows and business practices.
Similarly, the so-called Future Consumer is never far from IBC’s list of topics. A panel on Saturday (E102, 13:30-15:00) returns to the subject and will focus on the ‘Content Everywhere, Always On’ consumer, and ask whether we really know what consumers want? Are the current trends an indicator of the future or might the outcome be even more radical? A pair of back-to-back sessions on Friday in the Forum look at ‘Wearable Wearables’ (16:00-16:45) and is followed (16:45-17:45) by a fascinating Strategic Insight into how wearable technology could transform audience engagement (and produced by Akamai’s John Dillon).
However, it also seems that consumers are buying into so-called 4K and Ultra HD despite the lack of content. IBC firmly addresses the dilemma with a series of panels which look at UHD.
One Saturday session (Emerald Room, 11:30-13:00) assumes a world where UHD is the norm and considers the vast practicalities of designing production equipment and practices which will create, process and store these huge images – and with Japanese updates on their 8K planning.
