At the IBC Conference 2013 a showcase of six technology projects from around the EBU membership will demonstrate that innovation is alive and well in public service media. The Saturday afternoon session (15.30-17.00, Emerald Room) will be chaired by new EBU Director of Technology & Innovation, Simon Fell.
Each of the six projects to be featured is an example of an EBU Member at the vanguard of technology development, leading and inspiring other broadcasters and the wider industry. For example, Johan Wahlberg (below, left) will describe how Swedish Television built their SVT Play platform, which racked up 600 million video starts in 2012 alone, while NPO's Joost Negenman will introduce an exciting new app-based service from the Dutch public broadcasters.
In the domain of immersive media experiences, two groundbreaking projects will be presented. First Hervé Dejardin (below, centre) will take delegates into the world of binaural audio through Radio France's nouvOson portal, where a new world of audio adventures can be explored with just a pair of headphones. Turning from audio to video, RTVE's Pere Vila Fumas will explain how the Spanish broadcaster and its partners took the first steps into a UHDTV future with pilot transmissions over DVB-T2 at this year's Mobile World Conference.
Xavier Jacques-Jourion (above, right) of Belgium's RTBF will present a novel project that builds on semantic web and open linked data, changing the way journalists work by giving them fast access to well-structured data and cross-media content drawn from multiple data sources inside and outside the organization.
Finally, the story of Norway's pioneering path towards an all-digital radio market will be told by NRK's Jørn Jensen. The public broadcaster is working with its commercial competitors, the regulatory authorities and other stakeholders towards an early switch-off for FM services - possibly as early as January 2017.