BIRTV 2009 heralds China’s digital media

China’s most prestigious exhibition for the radio, film and television industry, Beijing International Radio, TV & Film Equipment Exhibition (BIRTV 2009), welcomed 50,000 attendees this year.

Spanning 50,000 square metres, the exhibition featured 419 exhibiting companies showcasing their latest equipment and technologies. Of these, 170 exhibitors were from outside the host country, coming from England, USA, Japan and Germany. The show also saw the presence of a UK Pavilion participating for the fifth time.

“We are definitely encouraged by the positive feedback from exhibitors,” said Wang Yuming, deputy manager, China Radio & TV Co. for International Techno-Economic Cooperation (CRTV), the show organizer of BIRTV.

“This year’s show saw more attendees coming from the television and broadcasting industry. Response from China’s local and provincial broadcasters and exhibitors has been good. This is very encouraging, particularly now when the world economy is facing a downturn. Many of the exhibitors have already indicated that they will be participating in the show next year,” says Wang Yuying, manager, international communication department of CRTV.

Among the exhibitors at the UK Pavilion, Television Systems Limited (TSL) reported good business opportunities in China. “We started a year ago for the Olympics, but right now we are already making inroads by working with the top five integration systems,” according to Chris Exelby, general manager –

products at TSL. TSL’s presence at the show was marked by a range of audio monitoring, mains distribution, UMD and Tally Systems products.

Citing broadcasters as TSL’s main clients in China, Exelby noted that Chinese broadcasters want the best integration systems, while pricing is not a priority. “Chinese broadcasters can afford the equipment as they are now fully developed,” says Exelby.

Also at the UK Pavilion was Novella SatComs, a company which designs and manufactures tracking receivers and other systems for commercial and military satellite earth stations and CATV systems.

According to Ventura Rufino, managing director of Novella SatComs, the company is performing very well in the China market, due to its strategy of engaging agents in Beijing and Shanghai. “A significant part of our turnover in China is due to our agents,” says Rufino.

The company, which sights its main fields in broadcasting, general communications, internet communications, telephony and digital communications in general, plans to expand further into the broadcasting sector – a much larger sector in China, notes Rufino.

“China is a huge country with a lot of potential. We are a small company, and even a small penetration is significant,” remarked Rufino.

According to Donagh Sequeira, VP technical (broadcast) of Monarch Innovative Technologies, an Indian IT solution provider of application-specific software and high-density hardware, the company has generated great interest from China’s provincial stations as well as the universities with their simple-to-use products.

Monarch showcased the Mario award winning Virtuoso 500 SD and Virtuoso 2000 HD (trackless virtual studio solution). The solutions enable broadcasters to deliver presentations, may it be news, talk shows, game shows and a myriad of other application possibilities.

Virtuoso is a trackless 3D virtual set solution with a simple set-up and an intuitive user interface, and is available in two camera/five camera inputs and SD/HD formats.

Virtuoso is powered by iPass technology to achieve optimum processing power. All inputs and outputs are now put in a separate break out box, outside the main system thus reducing the heat generated inside the server. This feature lends full stability in 24x7 environment required by broadcast industry.

Virtual sets can be enhanced with reflections and shadows for real life features. These features lend a more realistic and natural look to the live broadcast and production process while retaining a low cost environment.

At the Harris Corporation booth, the company showcased, for the first time in China, its next-generation range of OPTO+ fiber optic solutions spanning its signal processing portfolio. The OPTO+ line includes transmission products in the 6800+ core processing platform, the X75 and X85 platforms, Platinum routing switchers and the CENTRIO multisource display processor, as well as optical fibre testing precision test and measurement devices.

Avid displayed the Media Composer Nitris DX and ICON D-Control – systems used for the China Film Group’s Jian Guo Da Ye (The Great Cause of Building New China), a historical feature film made in honour of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

“The partnership between Avid and China Film Group is the company’s biggest China project for film to date and is worth over RMB$2 billion,” reveals Joe Tam, general manager, greater China for Avid.

China’s new digital media landscape was among the topics at the conferences held in conjunction with BIRTV2009. The day long seminars also covered multi-business development opportunities and technical issues relevant to new digital media.

BIRTV exhibition this year was centred around the theme ‘Content Production for Multi-Platform’.