The EBU is hosting demonstrations of Member-driven innovations, ultra-high quality content created as part of EBU-led production trials, community meet-ups and a conference session on the “coming age AI and Cloud-based workflows” at this year’s International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), 14-18 September in Amsterdam. The EBU stand, located in hall 10 at lot F20, is also home to the Eurovision Media Services' desk.
The annual International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam is Europe’s most important trade show for media production and distribution technology and the continent’s equivalent of the annual NAB show in Las Vegas. With more than 50,000 visitors over a five-day period, and numbers growing every year, it is a fixture on the calendar for broadcasters, their R&D departments, and vendors.
The EBU stand showcases innovative technologies developed by broadcasters for broadcasters, including 5G distribution technologies, UHD content with High Frame Rate (HFR) and Next Generation Audio (NGA) produced at the European Championships, as well as collaborative developments by Members’ R&D departments such as the Next Generation Audio (NGA) renderer EAR – the winner of the 2018 EBU Technology & Innovation Award.
As a point of call for public service media (PSM) organizations and a forum for dialogue with the wider industry and technology vendors, the EBU stand also hosts meetings of our experts, as well as talks and events such as the annual Open Source Meetup.
Conference session on AI
At the IBC Conference, which is held in parallel to the IBC Exhibition, the EBU invites visitors to join its session on “Public Service Media and the coming age of AI and Cloud-based workflows” on Monday, 17 September, 11:45-12:45 in the IBC Forum. The session features the BBC’s Head of Internet Research & Future Services Section George Wright, KMPG Manager at Data and Analytics Tania Stephan, RTBF Big Data Manager and Chair of the EBU Big Data Initiative Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, and Arvato Systems Product Manager Yvonne Thomas. The session is chaired by EBU Director of Technology & Innovation Antonio Arcidiacono.
Demonstrations
The following demonstrations are hosted on the EBU stand at location 10.F20:
- The IRT is showing 5G broadcast technology developed as part of the 5G-XCast project, of which the EBU is a partner.
- A media room allows visitors to experience sports content produced at the European Championships 2018 in UHD with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and High Frame Rate (HFR), and with immersive sound delivered in the form of Next Generation Audio (NGA) to cutting-edge soundbars that eliminate the need for multi-speaker setups.
- The EBU ADM Renderer (EAR) showcase will demonstrate Next Generation Audio, its advantages in multi-platform production workflows and its ability to deliver access services and immersive audio in a single, multi-purpose package. The EAR is co-developed by the BBC, EBU, France Télévisions, IRT and b<>com, and the winner of the 2018 EBU Technology & Innovation Award.
- The Live IP Software Toolkit (LIST) is an EBU-led and open software solution used to visualize, measure and inspect content streams in IP-based production infrastructures – an essential addition to the toolbox of IP system architects.
- BISS-CA is an EBU-developed and royalty-free Conditional Access mode for live content streams. It is interoperable by design, works in real-time, and on any network.
- The Media Cloud and Microservice Architecture (MCMA) is a framework for cloud-based and AI-enhanced microservices that can be deployed in seconds and aim to streamline the integration into production workflows.
- The EBU T&I Strategic Programme on Radio is showcasing Smartspeaker applications developed by Member broadcasters as well as open.radio, a new platform that helps broadcasters to be visible on connected devices and deliver enhanced content to their listeners.
- The EBU-led PEACH project is showcasing its suite of personalization modules, which are being co-developed and used by several EBU Members.
- Eurovision Flow is demonstrating its multi-CDN solution, a robust and cost-effective way to deliver content over the internet that addresses the financial and operational challenges of the ever-growing demand for OTT content.