The IBC2004 conference takes place in Amsterdam from 9-13 September. IBC attracts 40,000 professionals involved in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment content worldwide.
With a wide conference programme planned, informitv previews some of the highlights for those with an interest in interactive media, providing a timetable that still allows some time to review the extensive exhibition.
THURSDAY 9 SEPTEMBER
Delivery - Tomorrow’s digital networks: from high definition to handheld
09:30 - 11:00
The next wave in delivery and distribution
This panel session looks at how programme contribution and distribution are being revolutionized by new technology, applying corporate information technology to content management and distribution; using Internet Protocol as the platform for convergence; store-and-forward distribution; addressing non-traditional networks; and repurposing media content to non-television devices.
14:30 - 17:00
Content protection - Securing the right way forward
Chaired by Chris Hibbert of Walt Disney Television International in the UK, this technical paper session will include contributions from Irdeto, looking at the security requirements for IP and broadband television; Tandberg, considering access control for broadcasting over IP to home networks; and NDS on copy protection strategies for the digital home.
16:00 - 17:30
Broadband - New thinking for options and services
Broadband networks are evolving and becoming universal delivery highways for data, phone and television services. Understanding the implications of the new broadband world is both complex and challenging. This panel, chaired by Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of new media and technology, includes contributions from Hewlett-Packard and nCUBE.
17:30 - 18:00
The future of delivery and networks
Media and technology journalist Julian Clover interviews Patrick Griffis, director of worldwide media standards at Microsoft. Can conventional broadcasting survive in a world of broadband, wireless networks and peer-to-peer file sharing?
FRIDAY 10 SEPTEMBER
Content Protection - The Three Ps: Piracy, Peer-to-Peer and Profits
12:00 – 12:45
Can content remain king?
Abe Peled, president and chief executive of NDS, provides a keynote presentation considering whether ubiquitous broadband networks pose an unprecedented challenge to the conventional wisdom that Content is King of the media business.
14:30 - 16:00
Who’s watching? Whose rights? Whose technology?
A panel chaired by journalist and media commentator Ray Snoddy continues the theme that broadband delivery of high quality audio and video, file sharing and personal media players all challenge traditional media revenue streams by enabling content to be easily distributed beyond the contracted audience.
SATURDAY 11 SEPTEMBER
Content production - Technical innovation and the creative mind
14:00 – 15:00
Keynote presentation
Shane Robison, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer of Hewlett-Packard will be speaking about the impact and implications of digital production, enabling professionals to deliver cross-media on different platforms, while the audience is also empowered to create their own content.
15:30 - 17:30
Cross media feature production - From start to finish
A panel session chaired by Dan D’Aversa of RTL, including John Holland of Ensequence and Sander Dullaart of Endemol Interactive, looking at how to integrate interactivity at initial conception and whether third generation mobile and broadband will lead to new interactive formats.
SUNDAY 12 SEPTEMBER
Digital lifestyle - Understand the opportunities
09:30 - 11:00
New platforms, new content, new opportunities
Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology at the BBC, chairs a session looking at the opportunities of cross-media interaction to create new media forms and open up new revenue streams.
12:00 - 13:00
Getting from OK to brilliant - Yes, nice colour, but how easy is it to use?
John Drori of the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the former head of commissioning for the BBC’s online service, is joined by Fiona Carter of the DCMS, former head of interactive television at Granada. They present their top ten rules of usability.
14:00 - 15:30
Understanding the range of platforms - A multitude of destinations
A panel chaired by Ken Rutkowski, new media networker and broadcaster. Participants include Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Digital Media Division.
16:00 - 17:45
Future business models - Beyond the 30 second spot
Media journalist Kate Bulkley chairs a panel including Mark Boyd of Bartle Bogle Hegarty. The personal video recorder is seen by some as heralding the end of the thirty-second advertisement, threatening the traditional broadcast television business model. This session looks at other means of deriving revenue, including targeted and personalised advertising, branded content, parallel advertising channels, interactive applications and character licensing, among others. The delivery of content to new platforms like mobile also opens up potential additional revenue streams.
MONDAY 13 SEPTEMBER
Digital cinema - Will the world wait for Hollywood?
14:30 - 17:30
Digital lifestyles - Bit by bit progress
A technical paper session, with contributions from Vincent Dureau of OpenTV on
addressable advertising; Timothy Wahlers of Vidiom on the OpenCable Application Platform OCAP; Jon Piesing of Philips on extending the DVB Multimedia Home Platform to personal video recorders; and Dr Uwe Rauschenbach of Siemens on delivering interactive television over broadcast and broadband networks.