IBC2008 opens in Amsterdam

The 2008 edition of IBC, which opens today in Amsterdam at the RAI Exhibition and Congress Center amid a rapidly changing broadcast environment, will address the technologies and business developments shaping this accelerated evolution.

A total of 1300 manufacturers and specialty suppliers serving the television, radio, TV production, post-production, mobile TV, IPTV, digital signage and digital cinema markets will be present when the exhibition hall opens Friday, Sept. 12.

IBC2008 offers a robust conference schedule, including the presentation of numerous technical papers, sessions focused on a variety of niche topics, business briefings, keynotes and technology demonstrations.

This year, as in the past, the organizers of IBC have assigned overarching themes to each day of the conference program, including: Content Access via the Web, Thursday, Sept. 11; Future Broadcast Business — Shaping the Product Environment, Friday, Sept. 12; The Digital Dividend: HD, Mobile, Broadband or New Media?, Saturday, Sept.13; Content Production, Sunday, Sept. 14; and New Dimensions for the Big Screen, Monday, Sept. 15.

The international gathering also will feature some well-established popular technology highlights, including the D-Cinema theater, which will play a special role in presenting a glimpse of the future with its 3-D stereoscopic presentation of “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D” Sept. 15, as well as the New Technology Campus, where a variety of international labs will present their latest concepts and technology.

The potential of live stereoscopic 3-D will be available for all to see at IBC2008 with a special live trans-Atlantic interview of Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg shot in 3-D in California and transmitted via satellite to the RAI Center in Amsterdam.

On the exhibit floor, the IBC exhibition will once more tackle areas of special interest with the presentation of individual zones devoted to mobile TV, IPTV, training and, for the first time, digital signage.