Every year for the last 10 years or so, September begins with what I call my “European Tour”. Basically, it begins in Amsterdam for IBC and then go on at the SMPTE fall quarterly engineering committee meeting cycle (where TV and Cinema standards are discussed) which as been held in Europe since 1999 (with the…
Category: default-boxes
IBC: Many still skeptical about 3DTV
Now that IBC 2012 is history, I was reflecting on the perception that industry members have of 3DTV. While some people are strong believers (and have strong economic interest like James Cameron) there still a lot that don’t see the benefits. For instance at the London Olympics, the director of BBC sports was clearly not…
IBC Conference Saturday: Sports Day
On Saturday at IBC 2012 the main theme around that conference was sports. In the morning it was all about London 2012 and in late afternoon there was a session on the need to change the live production workflow in sports. Overall, a much better day than the first two days. There was some insightful…
IBC: More about brands, less about content
I guess that I am a bit like the proverbial frog not realizing that the water has warmed up. Being in the TV business for 30 years, I have been immersed in it and did not realize truly how much it changed. With the changing landscape of more channel, more ways to watch TV, the…
IBC: First morning of the exhibition
It’s by a sunny morning that the IBC 2012 exhibition did open this morning. After an early uninspiring conference session on “second screen” potential revenue, I decided to begin the visit of a few Halls. IBC is bigger than ever this year with a couple of temporary halls that are setup outside. I did a…
Trend at IBC 2012: Solutions
The sun has shown up in Amsterdam and although it definitively feels like autumn, it is now very nice. I had to go in Amsterdam “centrum” for two press event tonight; Harris and Harmonics. One common theme to both is the emphasis on providing complete solutions. It’s not really new to Harris as it has…
IBC: The obligatory connected TV theme
Titled “The Evolution of connected TV platform” this session on the first morning of IBC 2012 is the mandatory session around the connected TV theme. First speaker was TIVO’s CEO Tom Rogers with a dreadful presentation based on the Clint Eastwood interview of a chair presenting how wise it is for cable operator to use…
IBC 2012 conference opens
It’s by a “de rigeur” grey sky that the IBC 2012 conference opens this morning in Amterdam. The keynote session is called “The rise and rise of broadcasting? The Next Chapter…” and I am still unsure what to make of it. Representatives from the BBC, Disney, Discovery and Sky seemed to all try to convinced…
Travel Day
The sky was grey over New Jersey this morning but it was not a big issue since the plane quickly left Newark airport (apparently it DOES happen some time) and we met the blue sky soon. This is travel day, IBC 2012 for me begins on Thursday with the conference program so I have to…
3DTV: The Olympics were no “Avatar”
Almost a year ago Panasonic hosted a large press event to tell the press how great was 3DTV and how the 2012 London’s Olympics would be it’s “Avatar”. Now that the Olympics are done, I see no parallels at all! The event was held one night during the IBC 2011 (International Broadcasting Convention) in Amsterdam…