The line-up of speakers has been revealed for a unique free media and technology conference in London taking place in May.
The three day conference is a free event attached to the Mediacast exhibition at London’s Olympia, designed to encourage and promote the sharing of information among leading international operators, technology suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, content providers, installers and retailers.
Focusing on the technology and business of content delivery across multiple platforms to multiple devices, the conference programme includes senior executives from the worlds of broadcasting, network operation and telecommunications, as well as key players from technology vendors and service providers.
Themes addressed will include the content everywhere generation, interactive entertainment, telco television, launching and managing television channels, high-definition, home networking and mobile media.
The first day will be opened by Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology at the BBC, while Rahul Chakkura, controller of BBCi 24/7 services will give a keynote address on the role of public service broadcasting in the on-demand world.
Looking at business models will be a panel including speakers from Goldman Sachs, KPMG and Kleinwort Capital.
A panel of legal experts will look at whether the proliferation of content will present new opportunities or problems of piracy.
A special session on the telco television triple play of voice, video and data includes presentations from Microsoft TV and Video Networks. William Cooper of informitv will moderate a panel session with speakers from Tandberg, Nortel, Microsoft TV, Alcatel, Lucent and NDS.
There will be an afternoon devoted to looking at the issues involved in launching and managing a television channel.
High-definition television will set the agenda on the second day, alongside personal video recorders and video on demand services.
The third day will look at the next steps for satellite, cable and terrestrial, questions of open standards versus proprietary platforms, and the potential for home networks and mobile services.
Mediacast, which runs from 10-12 May 2005, is organised by Reed Exhibitions, the world’s largest exhibition organiser, part of the Reed Elsevier group.