Around the IBC 2016 in Five Days

We continue to publish materials about the trip of the winners of the International Conference "The digital and information technology in the electronic media industry" to IBC Congress broadcasters in Amsterdam. The author of following notes is Stepan Korostekov , the 1st year MA course student of the Faculty of Film and Television Technologies, Radio Engineering programme.

For the third year in a row the beginning of July for me isassociated with one of the most important events held in our University with the conference "The Digital and Information Technology in the Digital Media Industry".

My participation in this conference began with the role of an ordinary viewer, and in the following year I prepared a report and was a full-fledged participant, but unfortunately I lost the competition. In this year's conference, I presented my report about a new approach to get metadata from the audience facial expressions for estimation of media content . My performance has allowed me to get one of the main prizes – a trip to Amsterdam at IBC2016!

Three years are a long time to reach this aim, but it was worth it! I got a chance to see one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Throughout our stay in Amsterdam there was great weather, it allowed us to see many sights and museums of the city (and even take a trip to the Hague). 

Amsterdam is beautiful both at day and night, so you always have the desire to walk through its streets even at night. I always will remember this city due to kind people and beautiful architecture.

Here is the best place to say thank you the IABM Educational Foundation for the opportunity to attend IBC2016, which without their help I would probably never visit. On the next day after registration I began my journey through the huge halls with different stands and exhibits.A huge number of the latest multimedia technologies was presented at the convention, a large number of broadcasting companies offered their services and advertised their unique technologies. Several people have told me that it is impossible to get around the whole exhibition and see each stand. I did not test this theory, but decided to stick to my plan and see those companies that were most interesting to me, and in the remaining time to visit all the others. 

First of all, I visited the stands of the companies that had managed content and metadata collection because it was the issue I had researched in my work and was going to research in future. The names of those companies: “Spideo” and “Perfect Memory”. I made interviews with the heads of these companies and got a lot of useful information and advices relating to my research.

Besides these two companies I also visited the stands with new acoustic equipment, stands with different camcorders and TV-cameras, stands of a variety of broadcasting companies, where I also got a lot of useful and interesting information.

Another parts of IBC2016 were sessions and meetings on various topics, all of which we could freely visit. It was especially interesting to watch a demonstration of how to shoot films, and how to create effects to them, and what programs were used.

It was very comfortable and pleasant, that after the completion of the IBC2016 I got a list of visited sessions on my e-mail. The names of the most interesting sessions are given below:

·        Making Much More of Metadata.

·        Advancing the art and science of motion capture towards the continuous control of facial performance of actual live action footage.

·        New skills for the robot-dominated future.

·        From Earth and Beyond - original broadcasting techniques.

·        Virtual sets and Virtual Production – A Masterclass describing the production of The Walk.

It is also worth noting The Rising Stars programme, the day when the students visited conference sessions. During the conversation, I got a knowledge of the right CV writing, about the right job search and other useful information and met with other students.

 

 

Only when one short week came to the end and when I came back home I realized all experience and new knowledge, which were obtained at IBC2016.

This trip changed my view of the broadcasting industry. I learned about the different directions of modern television. I got more knowledge about IP-TV and OTT technology, during a conversation with specialists.

I liked the huge assortment of professional and prosumer equipment, which can't be seen in consumer electronics stores.

I liked to communicate with new small companies that were just beginning to develop. Their advices gave motivation to open my own company in the future. They said that nothing wrong is to start something from scratch. And their companies’ existence has proven this statement.

And the most helpful advice relating to my scientific work I got. Collection and processing of metadata is my favorite part of the multimedia industry. It was very interesting to talk with the world's experts in the field.

Nowhere, except IBC, I would have got so much useful information in one place.

All this gives inspiration to continue my scientific work and aims for new discoveries and achievements!

The IABM Education Foundation gives great opportunities for students from the whole world and I want to say “thank you” to the IABM Education Foundation one more time for this amazing trip and great experience!