IBC Attendance Up 4% To Record 50,000+

Organizers of the annual IBC convention reported today that the Amsterdam event attracted 50,462 people, a new record and an increase of 4% over 2010.

The exhibition’s 13 halls and 1,300-plus exhibitors made it the largest IBC ever in terms of display space. Exhibitors large and small reported excellent visitor numbers and good customer contacts, IBC said. Deals worth $20 million or more were signed at the show.

The conference was again built around four streams: Added Value, Technological Advancements, Content Creation and Innovation and the Business of Broadcasting. The last, in particular, brought in many people to IBC for the first time, taking the debate into new areas around the commercial future of the industry and enriching the whole conference.

This year IBC attracted a wide range of leading figures to join the debate and share their experience and knowledge across a wide selection of topics, including Connected TV and Devices, Sports, Advertising, 3D and Next Generation Workflows.

Keynote speakers included Joanna Shields of Facebook, William H Roedy of MTV Networks International, and Mainardo de Nardis of global advertising agency OMD Worldwide. All provided essential context to discussions and shared a wealth of knowledge with attendees.  

The IBC Connected World was the exhibition home to the technology leaders in one of the most important trends at the show: the rise and rise of multi-screening and connected devices. Alongside the busy stands was a dedicated Demonstration Area showing the latest innovations in broadcasting, Internet and telecommunications. The hottest topics from the IBC Connected World were also debated in the Exhibition Business Briefings, with presentations from companies such as Ericsson, IBM and Platinum Sponsor Cisco.

The IBC Production Village continued to provide a unique opportunity to compare cameras from 3Ality Digital, For-A, Nikon, Pure4C and Vision Research, with experts on hand to deliver their expertise through presentations at Inside Knowledge. The IBC Production Village was also once again home to the IBC TV News which is filmed, cut, edited and broadcast onsite.

A long-established IBC feature, the New Technology Campus was expanded into the Future Zone this year. This was host to the sensational NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) Super Hi-Vision demonstration — 16 times the resolution of today’s HD — including footage of the Space Shuttle Endeavour shot on May 16. Alongside it was some of the most thought-provoking work from the world’s R&D labs, likely to become products of future IBCs.

The IBC Certified Training Programme in Apple, Avid and Adobe desktop tools and produced by FMC with Silver Sponsor AJA, continues to rise in popularity, as those already in the industry seek to improve their skills and demonstrate their competencies and gain certification.

The IBC Awards celebrate the best of the collaboration between skill and talent, collaboration and communication. This year the Innovation Awards went to CNBC, CNN and DNA in Finland, which also won the Judges‟ Prize. Yukihiro Nishida, senior research engineer collected the IBC2011 Best Conference Paper Award on behalf of a group of colleagues at NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), and Exhibition Design Awards went to Phabrix, Tangent Wave and Christie.

For a remarkable 60 years in wildlife television Sir David Attenborough was awarded IBC’s highest accolade, the International Honor for Excellence. IBC said: “His career started in black and white television on 16mm film, and throughout his career he pushed forward the use of cutting-edge technology, from color to low-light cameras, and from HD to 3D. His most recent program, Flying Monsters 3D, received the Special Award which went to its producers, Atlantic Productions.