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A preview of this years IBC with Will Strauss

by Will StraussIssue 80 - August 2013 Writing an IBC preview when the show itself is still seven weeks away is never easy. Despite best intentions, lots of exhibitors havent yet shown their hands (or are still deciding which cards to play) and many of those that have, are really not giving much away. However, fear not dear reader. The next two page...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 September 2013

No more pizza for Dick Hobbs!

A couple of months ago I used this column to talk about geeks and nerds. Our industry depends upon them, whether we like it or not. Re-reading the article, I was struck by the fact that I quoted four people in the article (five if you count Christian Louboutin). All were male. According to a recent survey just 17% of the people in the technology se...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2013

The cushion quotient

I have just been to a conference organised by the Mobile Data Association. I was very grateful to the organisers for the invitation, as it is the sort of thing that appeals to me: some of the top analysts in the industry throwing out statistics and predictions. Of course, at this sort of conference you get a lot more about where we are than where w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2012

Gold all round

In my ramblings in the January edition of TV-Bay, I offered some predictions for the year, which included the following:“Television coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics will be extraordinary, capturing all the skill and dedication, elation and heartbreak of the world’s finest athletes. But somewhere in 29 days of intensive, multi-channel broadc...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Looking for the connection

This time last year I wrote a column which looked back. This year I have set myself the infinitely more challenging task of looking forward. What are the hot topics for 2012?The first prediction is easy. Television coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics will be extraordinary, capturing all the skill and dedication, elation and heartbreak of the w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Cameras for streaming

I first saw true HD pictures years ago at IBC. OpTex had a camera focusing on some beautifully lit fruit. The image on the screen was extraordinary, hypnotising. Leap forward a decade and Amsterdam brought Europe its first taste of Ultra High Definition Television - not 720p, not 1080i, but 4320p. The enveloping cinematic pictures and the embrace o...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 August 2011

Either meet your listeners halfway, or get them to come t...

In TV Bay’s IPTV & Online issue, I spoke about how streaming video online enabled content owners to share their work with the world a lot more effectively, so although the end result is the same, what technical procedures are different for streaming pure audio content?The pace of technical advancements have now established distinct requirements for...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 June 2011

Ring out the old, ring in the new

At the start of a new year many of us will look back on the highs and lows of the last 12 months and try to predict what’s in store for us in the coming months before seeking advice on how to protect our business against the unknown. Before making predictions for 2011 I thought I’d take a look back at key industry and business milestones over the p...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Seeing 3D or 2D

The press coverage of all angles of 3D continues unabated but the subjects are changing away from the technology and more towards the commercial aspects and how 3D should be shot. With some people saying there’s no extra money above an HD budget to make 3D, there’s a money problem. For a start there’s twice as many cameras and more people, specific...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011

What does the Royal Wedding mean for us

The recent announcement of the royal engagement has triggered a wave of national euphoria – at least at the thought of an extra bank holiday in April next year. But, for us broadcast professionals, it also brings a welcome boost and a much hoped for additional income to our cash-tied industry. It is one of only a few indicators showing that the lon...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011

Deja Vu

3D was everywhere at IBC with a choice of new products on offer for all parts of production. This makes 3D far more accessible as well as easier to produce. It was also clear that interested visitors to the show were no longer swayed by the initial ‘wow’ factor and were trying to see the more important things – notably the economic realities. In th...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2010

Eye to Eye: Storage and archiving

In 1986 or thereabouts, I visited the London headquarters of a stripling company named Lightworks which had developed an innovative and relatively low-cost video editor based around a 1 gigabyte hard-disk drive. The drive was the size of a standard British housebrick and, bought in at £1,000, was considered mightily good value. A typical 1,500 giga...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2010

IBC2009 set to be a successful show

IBC COO Michael Crimp is "confident but not complacent\" as he tells how IBC is building a vibrant and healthy IBC2009. How are plans for IBC2009?Exhibition bookings for IBC2009 are still very strong. Currently we are about 10% down on the final space requirement for last year, which at this time is very good. My view is that we will have an excell...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009