At this year's International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), 13 - 18 September in Amsterdam, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will stage leading edge tech demos under two main themes: more immersive media experiences and greater flexibility and efficiency in content production and distribution.

In addition, the EBU’s new Director of Technology & Innovation, Simon Fell, will chair an IBC conference session showcasing innovative projects from across the EBU Membership. 

More profoundly immersive media experiences

Visitors will be able to see for themselves the impact that higher frame rates can have on the viewing experience and to assess progress made in High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) in the past year. Some captivating UHD-1 footage shot at the Eurovision Young Dancers 2013 contest will also be shown.

Recognizing that sound is as important as vision to deepening our immersion in media, the EBU will demonstrate the possibilities for delivering binaural audio to headphones.

Smarter content production and distribution

Technology used for producing and distributing content is evolving more quickly than ever before, with file-based production, cloud-based services and the use of IT-based networking all playing key roles. The EBU will present a prototype cloud infrastructure based on open source software with many potential use cases, as well as architectural and technical solutions that will interest broadcasters and service providers alike.

The BBC’s R&D team will also demonstrate how a fully networked production environment is possible, with high bit rate signals being exchanged in real time.

Finally, the EBU will introduce its new set of Quality Control checks that vendors can integrate into products to provide robust, automated processes; and for radio, IBC visitors will be able to see the latest developments in hybrid and digital services.

Public Service Media pioneers

The new EBU Director of Technology & Innovation, Simon Fell, will chair the EBU’s Saturday afternoon IBC Conference session from 15:30 – 17:00 titled "Public Service Media: Innovation & Inspiration".

Presenters from six EBU Members – RTBF (Belgium), Radio France, NPO (Netherlands), NRK (Norway), RTVE (Spain) and SVT (Sweden) – will introduce projects that exemplify public service media taking the lead on technical innovation.

What else?

EBU experts will give presentations every 30 minutes at a mini auditorium on the stand. No registration is required, just roll up, take a seat and listen in. Topics to be covered are:

More information on finding the EBU stand at IBC can be found here.