IBC 09: Show preview

These days it seems every time I switch on my TV there are more ‘new and exciting’ channels to watch. Sure, most of these are targeted at credit card-wielding housewives or lonely (credit card-wielding) men, but the BBC’s channel-count is fast approaching that of Sky. The same is true of ITV and Channel 4 and you only have to look at the quality of this new programming to realise the potential in terms of advertising revenue. Taking into account radio and the internet, it’s obvious that there is now an unprecedented demand for broadcast content and an equivalent pool of marketing budgets ready to finance it.

The show that grows
It’s of little surprise then, that the leading international forum for those involved with content creation, management and delivery has grown year-on-year since its inception. This year the show is due to break the 50k mark, having added an average 6.5 per cent more visitors with each successive event. In 2009, 1,000-plus exhibitors will attract industry types from more than 130 different countries; between 15 and 20 per cent of these are expected to represent the broadcast trade. The importance of audio will be represented by a host of familiar, leading brands such as Audio Technica, Sadie, Sennheiser, Soundcraft and Teac, which will be grouped together in Hall 8.

New broadcast audio technologies are likely to address the increasing use of surround sound and all the mixing and metering challenges that this brings, such as the implications for the sound field when the pictures are in three dimensions. Examples include Dolby, which will have key executives on hand to discuss how the company’s portfolio of technologies helps simplify the delivery of quality audio across traditional and emergent media and the long-term benefits to the European broadcast community.

Junger Audio will show a complete workflow solution for Dolby-coded 5.1 audio. It will also be showing new ESDI cards for its popular Level Magic loudness control system and introducing the new ANA series of input and processing cards, which are designed to help terrestrial re-broadcasters tackle loudness and synchronisation issues.

Meanwhile, Linear Acoustic promises to ‘turn the world of audio processing for digital television on its head’, but gives little else away, other than the assurance of several industry firsts.

In Hall 7, the free post-production training zones will give visitors hands-on time with the latest desktop tools.
One of the sessions takes a comprehensive approach to Apple’s Final Cut Studio suite, including its integrated audio sweetening tool Soundtrack Pro.

There will also be the new Production Village in Hall 9, which features a range of displays and free training opportunities around television production. There are special training workshops on getting the best out of a performer and setting up interviews – sound recordists will also be interested in sessions on tapeless workflows in the field.

This year, IBC has been re-organised to focus on three key strands: technology advances, creative innovation and the business of broadcasting. Each will have huge implications for audio, including the sessions on audio coding and best practice in multimedia broadcasting.

An afternoon in the technology papers section of the conference is given over to audio matters. A tutorial will summarise trends in audio formats for next generation services, including HDTV, and the key considerations in the selection of an audio format to accompany Mpeg-4 and other next-generation video or music file delivery. Audio technology: Coding and Concatenation, Loudness and Lip Sync takes place on September 13th, from 13:30 in the Forum.

Another audio conference session will explore techniques such as text-to-speech processing and voice transformation and new microphone technology to ease the production of surround sound. From Audio to 3D – The Latest Ideas Straight from the Lab is on Thursday, September 10th, from 14:15 in Room L.

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