A Trade Show Too Far – IBC?!

Of course not, it’s extremely accessible for most of Europe, and for us at Soliton Systems, it is only a 10-minute walk away.

Since opening the Amsterdam office, this IBC was our third where we exhibited, and which also coincides exactly with our 3-year anniversary of Soliton opening their first European office. Since that time, we have grown and acquired a wealth of resellers and partners as well as some enviable customers including the BBC, NEP and TVN using our Zao and Zao-S technology for remote live streaming, primarily for live news and sports productions.

I personally joined Soliton when they opened the office three years ago. It has the pleasures of a start-up, but with the big difference that we were selling technology that is already proven with a wealth of R&D behind it back at its Tokyo HQ. We were selling the smallest HEVC mobile encoder capable of live steaming over multiple 4G connections available, and that is still true today with the Zao-S, which weighs only 400gramms and arguable can outperform a much larger SNG truck.

Enough with the self-promotion, what about IBC?
I think we all have different expectations of IBC. I had a few issues with overzealous security guards, never an easy job, but that aside the show itself and the quality of people coming cannot be underestimated. This year I asked most people that came onto the stand what they had seen that was new and amazing. Maybe I was being a bit unfair, as most said nothing really - it's mostly just a carry on of existing technology and ideas with a twist of something new.

Naturally IP solutions, Cloud and UHD have all been pouted in previous IBC’s as the future – and with the current adoption of these technologies then that future is now. Though we are just at the beginning of universal adoption, I would expect a lot more innovation in this space and many exhibitors enjoyed showing off their new products and services.
The new buzz word for me this year was AI. Artificial Intelligence is't generally new, but the way it has been adopted as main stream certainly is. Some of the companies I chatted with about their AI offering did finally admit some of it was more hype than reality but are certainly chancing a large part their future strategy on it.

Back to self-promotion, are you following these trends?
Yes of course, we just launched our cloud decoding, IP and web management solutions. AI is something we work with our partners on as an extra layer. As for UHD, we successfully stream full HD solutions over 4G, but trying to stream 4K reliably and consistently over multiple LTE mobile networks is going to be prone to inconsistency and unreliability. I believe UHD over the public mobile telephone network, even with H265 encoding, will only really come of age when 5G is released. When will 5G come? I think not until 2022 – some of the frequencies needed are still not freed up.

Will you be back at IBC next year?
For sure! Despite the security guards and despite the fact it is 5 days (it could be just as effective as a 4-day show), I believe it is “must-attend” show for media and broadcast professionals. The show and the after-hours events are a great chance to meet new people and catch up with old friends, acquaintances and colleagues. I just need a week after it to recover.

Mark Andrews, Head of Broadcast and Public Safety at Soliton Systems