The EBU Production Technology Seminar 2011 allowed over 100 EBU Members and other industry representatives to be briefed in use-case presentations, discussions and by sharing experiences on recent innovations in production technologies for television and radio, or more, generally for video and audio.
| Depth
The annual seminar this year started with depth. Four technology tutorials, on HDTV, 3D, SOA and Loudness, provided focussed training on priority topics faced by many industry organisations. As far as concerns the use of depth in television, Andy Quested (BBC), chairman of the EBU 3D Group, made it very clear that 3D is not a top priority for public service broadcasters. He sees a definite interest from EBU Members to better understand the production of 3D material, but not for any imminent transmission. The presentation of several product/service providers (Sony, TPC and Wige Media) made clear there are a lot of facilitators ready to provide a helping hand and gaining experience in doing so.
Width
The wide range of topics addressed in the seminar was not only reflected in the different background the participants had, but also in presentations on the use of new technology that has a wide impact on media professionals' workflow. Such as the VRT's archive digitisation project and the notes from the BBC on which cameras to (not) use for which purpose. And of course, by the strategic work on a future integration technologies based on the Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) concept. |  |
Height
An Ambisonics demonstration provided for 'audio with height' and underlined the importance of work on high-end technologies, which are candidates for tomorrow's offerings to the broadcasters' audience. High production values were shown as well, for example in the RAI live (!) HD Opera production and the meticulous management of the audio-visual archive at SWR for the FIFA World Cup. Normalising the highly annoying level of some of the audio broadcast was the subject of the Loudness presentations (and demonstration!) provided by several PLOUD Members. For those who wanted to control width, depth and height within a single device, the steerable 3D virtual microphone presented by the RAI certainly was an impressive innovation. Maybe almost as impressive as the NHK's visionary Ultra-HDTV system, presented on day three.