This was my first year attending IBC, and as a long-time NAB veteran I was not real sure what to expect. I found that in many ways IBC is like a kinder, gentler NAB because of its relaxed pace over a 5 day period. The halls however were smaller and arranged in a maze-like pattern, which caused a bit of confusion to a newcomer like myself.

Regardless, the major themes I noticed this year were 3D, Push-VOD and TV Everywhere.

There were several vendors prominently displaying their 3D offerings, but most attendees commented that viewers are not ready to make the switch from HD to 3D. Many people have recently purchased one or more HD televisions and are not willing to purchase a new television with new technology so soon. There is also concern about the limited amount of 3D content and of course those silly glasses. Glasses-free 3D televisions are on the horizon, but the popular thought I heard time and again was the market is simply not ready to adopt 3D yet. To put it in perspective, the first U.S. public HD broadcast was in 1996 and the New York Times reported that as of November 2010, only 56% of U.S. households had at least one HD Television.

Push-VOD was a new concept to me, and the business model is based on the idea that the large majority of the world's population does not have access to broadband. The Push-VOD model has content suppliers sending a pre-determined amount of content to a set-top box from where viewers can access the content without having to stream in real-time. This seems like a good idea for newly released movies, but not for someone with more eclectic tastes in television. I saw multiple vendors presenting their implementation of TV Everywhere. Offering the ability to view content on almost any device offers content sellers the chance to gain more impressions and hopefully better monetization of content. I will keep watching out for the latest TV Everywhere trends as it should get pretty interesting in the coming months.

The IBC Show is a great venue to not only meet European prospects, clients and vendors, but get a different perspective on our business.

 

As an amateur musician I have learned that the best way to improve my playing is to perform with musicians that are better than I am. Getting out of my comfort zone allows me to expand my musical knowledge and become a better musician. The same is true of my experience participating in broadcast standards committees. Having a strong background in business systems and some master control experience, I had joined the SMPTE BXF standards committee; a group created to improve broadcast software system integrations. I quickly realized that up until that point, that I had given little thought to the issues facing metadata, essence, and the processes necessary to get content ready for air.

It was at my first standards meeting that I found myself struggling to understand most of what was being discussed. It took some time listening to the many discussions (and asking a lot of questions) before I got a handle on the issues being debated and began actively participating.

I faced similar challenges when I joined the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA). After learning the new terminology and concepts, I not only began contributing, but started designing custom workflows for broadcasters.

Creating a standard that crosses broadcast operational silos requires input from experts in all areas involved - including multiple vendors in each area. Standards committees need to have participants from a broad range of backgrounds to reduce the risk of limitations within the broadcast community. All participants must listen to each other to create a standard that will work for all systems and be widely accepted.

To be in the know is to get out of your comfort zone and learn about new areas of the broadcast business. Joining standards groups will not only help to shape the entire industry, but will also advance your professional growth as you make new business contacts and expand your knowledge. Like any musician, it's difficult to become a great proficient without the help of a mentor and lots of practice!

 

As an active member of the SMPTE BXF Working Group since 2006, I've had the pleasure of helping to develop the Broadcast eXchange format (BXF) standard. BXF was designed to provide multiple broadcast systems a common language to communicate without creating custom integrations for each client's custom needs. BXF can provide the link between any number of systems including but not limited to traffic, program management, asset management and automation.

StorerTV utilizes BXF in our integration with traffic systems as well as using it as the backbone of other custom integrations. BXF was designed to easily allow extensions for custom features where needed while maintaining a common structure that makes it easy to use.

BXF is gaining popularity and as vendors work with the standard we are finding areas that need expansion. The BXF committee is continuing its work by enhancing the standard to support new features and functionality for the constantly changing broadcast business.