Media futures go on show at IBC

By Chris McWhinnie and Ian Piper
BBC Monitoring, in Amsterdam

A host of media and broadcasting issues will be tackled

Thousands of media professionals have converged on Amsterdam to explore the future of media and broadcasting at the International Broadcasting Convention.

Organisers of the IBC are expecting more visitors than last year's 40,000.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the conference will consider the role and responsibility the media has in covering such disasters.

The problems faced in squeezing high-quality bandwidth-hungry services into homes will also be a key concern.

An army of support crews have built the banks of promotional stands in the 11 vast exhibition halls and installed complex equipment made by over 1,000 manufacturers.

The exhibition hosts organisations working on cutting-edge ideas and products at its New Technology Campus.

A Mobile Zone showcases the latest developments in mobile TV and the new 3G mobile services.

Some of the technologies on show will rarely be seen by the public

Mobile devices are already more than just a phone, but new so-called "visual radio" and TV programmes adapted for download to the smallest screen will be on view.

There is even a Content Cafe, where promotional material and information can be downloaded to mobile phones via Bluetooth, a wireless system.

And the Training Zone gives hands-on experience of the latest TV and video systems.

No knobs

Many professional tools for broadcasting are now server and PC-based instead of actual boxes with knobs and switches, so visitors can start to acquire new skills at the exhibition too.

Advances in TV screens and the sheer number of different displays at the IBC has prompted a Displays Zone showing the latest and largest plasma screens, video projectors and digital cinema equipment.

The days of the glass cathode ray tube seem numbered. New equipment for high definition TV, digital radio and home networking fill the halls.

Over the next few days products will be on show which are so new that they have yet to go on sale.

Some will never be seen by the public because they play a behind-the-scenes part in today's complex computerised broadcast stations and production houses.

It can take years for new systems like digital broadcasting, PVRs (personal video recorders) and broadband internet to become mainstream.

But the pace of technical change is now so fast that on the first day of this year's IBC, speakers and delegates were already speculating on what we will see at the IBC in 2006.

IBC takes place from 8 to 13 September.