Despite some pessimistic predictions, IBC2009 exceeded expectations, delivering a final attendance of 45,547, just seven percent down on the 2008 figure. Taking exhibitors out of the calculation, visitor numbers were even more impressive, falling by less than five percent.
"Judging the success of an event like IBC purely on numbers does not do justice to the whole experience," emphasised Michael Crimp, chief operating officer of IBC. "IBC is about the quality of the interactions, and that is where we delivered once again, through a conference illuminated by some remarkable keynote speakers and an exhibition where virtually all of the world's leading manufacturers met virtually all of the world's key decision makers."Our main aim is not to be a trade show but to be an experience," he continued. "One of the ways in which we do that is through the content we provide which puts the technology on the exhibition floor into context. We knew that in 2009 our constituents needed to invest in knowledge to enable them to compete in the new media landscape as well as the new economic climate, and this is what we provided."IBC added value to the experience of its visitors in ways as diverse as keynote addresses from Marty Pompadur and Rory Sutherland; movie screenings in stereoscopic 3D; a unique opportunity to study both the ASC and the BSC digital camera tests and question the experts behind them; and the chance to let off steam in virtual motor races in the Games Arena.Visitor reaction to IBC 2009 was uniformly positive. Ma Ju, president of ABS SARFT in China said: "Many international giants come to IBC, bringing with them the most advanced technologies and the ideas that will guide industry development forward. IBC is a barometer for international broadcasting development."David Hill, chairman and CEO at Fox Sports established IBC's place in the industry: "IBC is the most important media technology meeting in the world," he commented. Dieter Engel, senior vice president of Deutsche Telekom, agreed, saying: "IBC is the most important show for me – more important than CES or NAB. This year it has been even more relevant than last year. All the vendors who are important to me are here."In conclusion, IBC's Michael Crimp underlined the importance of IBC being run by the industry for the industry, and the way that meant the event could move quickly to respond to changing requirements. "We are all about sustainability, for us, for our exhibitors and our visitors," he said. "We build an event that is right for the mood of the market, and create a buzz around it to ensure that the right audience attends."I believe we have exceeded expectations in 2009, and I look forward to welcoming everyone to IBC when it returns to Amsterdam in September 2010."
Keeping a straight face: the making of unwigged & unplugged
A highlight of this year's conference programme at IBC 2009 was the master class session conducted by Jim Gabour, the producer and director of the new Spinal Tap film, Unwigged & Unplugged.
Spinal Tap, the acclaimed spoof documentary of a rock band on tour, is such a popular cult movie that it may come as a surprise to know that it was first released 25 years ago. To mark the anniversary the band got back together to tour.
The 25th anniversary movie stars the original Spinal Tap cast and it captures the last gigs of the band's recent three-month tour.
Like the original Spinal Tap movie, Unwigged & Unplugged is a documentary focusing on the onstage and offstage life of the band. It was shot at a real concert in Milwaukee, the last gig of the band's recent three month tour.
Gabour discussed the challenges of complementing a cult classic and was joined live on stage by comic personality and actor Harry Shearer, who played bassist Derek Smalls in the original film.
Shearer is now perhaps best known for voicing a stable of characters for The Simpsons, including Mr. Burns and Smithers, and producing a weekly one-hour satirical sandbox, 'Le Show', on radio stations worldwide.
Unwigged & Unplugged features songs from the original soundtrack This Is Spinal Tap (1984), the studio album Break Like The Wind (1992), and A Mighty Wind (2003) along with some special surprises and rarities thrown in.
Gabour shot the music with eight high definition cameras – all the theatre would allow – and finished the film and audio remix at Crawford Communications in Atlanta, while the band was on the UK leg of its tour.
Unwigged & Unplugged is not about funny costumes and characters, but rather three long time friends and collaborators who make each laugh and love nothing better than to find some excuse to get together and play music. The trio commented,
"With this being the 25th Anniversary of the film This is Spinal Tap, we thought this would be a fun and at the same time, a little challenging, as we have never performed as ourselves. Think of the evening as three old friends jamming in your living room. As opposed to OUR living rooms; we won't be home," said Shearer.
IBC Innovation Awards 2009 Winners
"Because of their special nature, the IBC Innovation Awards have firmly established themselves as 'the ones to win'," said chair of the judges Michael Lumley. "The international judging panel had the demanding job of coming up with a shortlist from an excellent range of quality entries. We selected the most outstanding submissions, displaying innovative applications of technology."
The judging panel was made up of leading editors and journalists from around the world. They were impressed with the remarkable range of nominations, which reflected the creativity of the industry and the drive to deliver content more cost effectively. The winners were announced at the IBC Awards Ceremony. Divided into three categories for most innovative projects in content creation, content management and content delivery, the awards are highly sought after and well respected.
The 2009 Judges' Award went to the Arab States Broadcasting Union for its MENOS project – multimedia exchange network over satellite. Michael Lumley, chairman of the judging panel, said: "What impressed us about this entry most was the way that the partners worked together to harness the technology in a project to move the business forward. It is an innovative solution to a real, practical, commercial requirement which will make the ASBU and its broadcaster members more effective."
Accepting the award, Dr Riyadh Najm said: "We are very proud of MENOS as one of our most innovative and challenging projects, and we are really appreciative to IBC and to the international community to recognise it. I would like to thank all those who have worked very hard from ASBU to make this regional and Arab project achieve this recognition in the international arena. Thank you very much, and thanks once again to IBC."
The winners the 2009 IBC Innovation Awards were:
Creation
ESPN Virtual Playbook
Project: Virtual Playbook
End user: ESPN
Supplier: EA Sports
Sports specialist broadcaster ESPN is constantly looking for new ways to engage audiences and explain the intricacies of the game. For its NFL coverage it worked with game developer EA Sports on a special build of Madden NFL 09 for the XBox XDK which means it can recreate real game plays on the studio floor. The studio cameras link into the game software to achieve what ESPN calls "augmented reality".
Management
RTBF
Project: NumProd; migrating RTBF's broadcast operations to a tapeless workflow
End user: Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF)
Supplier: Dalet, EVS with Orad, Avid, MediaGenix, Fairlight, Front Porch, FAB
In addressing the convergence of radio, television and online services, Francophone Belgian national broadcaster RTBF sought to rationalise the way it worked, to control costs and streamline its operational performance. They wanted to bring a service-oriented architecture approach, managing all workflows throughout the production and delivery process.
"Every conceivable production capability is integrated into one highly flexible workflow engine," said Didier Vanzeune, the head of the NumProd project for RTBF. "Repetitive operational processes are fully automated, and RTBF personnel, unburdened by technical limitations and redundant tasks, can focus on creative efforts."
A team of suppliers was recruited to realise the vision, led by Dalet and the RTBF IT department with servers from EVS, and other equipment from Orad, Avid, MediaGenix, Fairlight, Front Porch and FAB. The architecture is built around a single backbone, called the intranet de production, from which all media technologies are fully monitored and controlled.
"The end result is a highly collaborative production environment that will easily scale and adapt to future technologies," concluded Didier Vanzeune.
Delivery
Arab States Broadcasting Union
Project: MENOS
End user: Arab States Broadcasting Union
Supplier: Newtec, Arabsat
The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), with 28 member broadcasters across the Middle East, needed to develop a new, fast, efficient means of exchanging content. The resulting system, Menos (multimedia exchange network over satellite), developed by Newtec and hosted by Arabsat, is a revolutionary concept.
"Newtec has a strong reputation for technological innovation, and there is no better demonstration than in the realization of MENOS," said Serge van Herck, CEO Newtec. "Shaping the future of satellite communication is our passion. The pride and satisfaction of the industry recognizing our achievements with this award short-listing, confirms that our vision is the right one and will encourage and spur us on for the future road ahead."
Blackmagic Design UltraScope wins Broadcast Engineering's IBC Pick Hit Award
Blackmagic Design UltraScope was chosen as the recipient of the 2009 Broadcast Engineering's IBC Pick Hit Award. Blackmagic UltraScope, is the world's first PC based waveform monitor with features designed for creative professionals that include both SDI and optical fiber SDI inputs for US$695.
"We are ecstatic at Blackmagic UltraScope having been selected by Broadcast Engineering," said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design Inc. "Current waveform monitor products are incredibly expensive, look ugly, and are often not technically accurate. With UltraScope, we have worked very hard to change that. This award shows that our approach is where our customers want to go."
The prestigious Broadcast Engineering Pick Hits Award winners are selected by a panel of independent judges who tour the IBC looking for innovative products and technology. The judges then meet to make their selections based on several criteria, including the technical and financial improvements the product can bring to a facility's operation. Broadcast Engineering Pick Hits Award's have honored companies and their technology for more than 25 years.
At NAB 2009, UltraScope also won the TV Technology Star Award, the DV Black Diamond Award, and the Videography Vidy Award.
Blackmagic UltraScope is a combination PCI Express card and software package designed to work in a low cost PC with 1920 x 1200 monitors. A 1920 x 1200 monitor allows simultaneous display of six waveform views including: RGB/YUV parade display, composite waveform, vector, histogram, eight channel audio meters, stereo audio scope and picture view. Blackmagic UltraScope is technically accurate which is perfect for master monitoring and quality control tasks."
Blackmagic UltraScope auto detects between SD, HD and
3 Gb/s HD-SDI video standards. UltraScope also automatically selects between regular SDI and optical fiber SDI inputs.
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Despite some pessimistic predictions, IBC2009 exceeded expectations, delivering a final attendance of 45,547, just seven percent down on the 2008 figure. Taking exhibitors out of the calculation, visitor numbers were even more impressive, falling by less than five percent."Judging the success of an event like IBC purely on numbers does not do justice to the whole experience," emphasised Michael Crimp, chief operating officer of IBC. "IBC is about the quality of the interactions, and that is where we delivered once again, through a conference illuminated by some remarkable keynote speakers and an exhibition where virtually all of the world's leading manufacturers met virtually all of the world's key decision makers."Our main aim is not to be a trade show but to be an experience," he continued. "One of the ways in which we do that is through the content we provide which puts the technology on the exhibition floor into context. We knew that in 2009 our constituents needed to invest in knowledge to enable them to compete in the new media landscape as well as the new economic climate, and this is what we provided."IBC added value to the experience of its visitors in ways as diverse as keynote addresses from Marty Pompadur and Rory Sutherland; movie screenings in stereoscopic 3D; a unique opportunity to study both the ASC and the BSC digital camera tests and question the experts behind them; and the chance to let off steam in virtual motor races in the Games Arena.Visitor reaction to IBC 2009 was uniformly positive. Ma Ju, president of ABS SARFT in China said: "Many international giants come to IBC, bringing with them the most advanced technologies and the ideas that will guide industry development forward. IBC is a barometer for international broadcasting development."David Hill, chairman and CEO at Fox Sports established IBC's place in the industry: "IBC is the most important media technology meeting in the world," he commented. Dieter Engel, senior vice president of Deutsche Telekom, agreed, saying: "IBC is the most important show for me – more important than CES or NAB. This year it has been even more relevant than last year. All the vendors who are important to me are here."In conclusion, IBC's Michael Crimp underlined the importance of IBC being run by the industry for the industry, and the way that meant the event could move quickly to respond to changing requirements. "We are all about sustainability, for us, for our exhibitors and our visitors," he said. "We build an event that is right for the mood of the market, and create a buzz around it to ensure that the right audience attends."I believe we have exceeded expectations in 2009, and I look forward to welcoming everyone to IBC when it returns to Amsterdam in September 2010."
