BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference to discuss new trends in Broadcast

BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference, Asia’s most established conference for the film and TV industries, returns this June with 120 speakers from 31 countries/regions, its largest ever speaker line-up thus far. More than a hundred case studies will be presented from June 18 – 21 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Over The Top (OTT) technology will dominate this year’s conference programme. Industry leaders from across the globe will share vital insights on where the opportunities lie in harnessing OTT technology, and divulge valuable tips from its widespread adoption in the broadcast industry.

The conference will also see several keynote addresses, case studies, panel discussions and workshops. Speakers will include Nicholas Wodtke, Vice President of Content & Services of Samsung; Fedor Ezhov, SPB TV’s Chief Operating Officer; Fintan McKieman, Chief Executive Office of Ideal Systems; Felix Chandra, Chief Executive Officer of IMTV; Tae Sung Park, Chief Execuitve Officer of Vidiator; Sreedhar Subramaniam, President & CEO of ABNxcess and Brian Lenz, Chief Innovation Officer of Astro.

The BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference will also feature five new tracks and four new sessions – Country Focus, Broadcasters Exclusive Interviews, CIO/CTO Panel and Captains of Industry Dialogue.

The new ‘Captains of Industry’ dialogue will be led by top-level speakers from radio and television broadcaster Media Prima Berhad; telecommunication operator Starhub, software security and media technology company Irdeto; renowned independent production company activeTV Asia and video and broadcast technology company Grass Valley. The dialogue will provide perspectives from various aspects of the broadcasting industry.

Charlie Dunn, Senior Vice President of Strategic Accounts, Grass Valley, says: “We know multiplatform distribution is a reality and OTT may hold promise as a new revenue stream for many broadcast organizations, but there are still distinct challenges that we face entering a relatively untested market. Grass Valley has led the industry through several major technological evolutions and our current innovations uniquely position us to lead this next transition.  We look forward to sharing our insight and discussing this emerging OTT market, its opportunities and its challenges at The Captains of Industry Dialogue at BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference.”

This year, the conference tracks are organised into two broad categories: content-based tracks and infrastructure-based tracks. This will allow visitors to better plan their visit and get the most value from the conference in their preferred area of interest.

Director of PR & Conferences from organiser Singapore Exhibition Services, Ms Lindy Wee says, “In addition to designing the most up to date and cutting edge content for the BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference, we have restructured the tracks this year to make it more streamlined and to give attendees the best value for their time.”

With the rise in mobile devices ownership around the world, consumers are progressively turning to their mobile devices to access content. As the OTT development in Asia is still at its infancy, companies from broadcasters and content providers to device manufacturers are able to embrace the opportunities available to deliver more content to consumers. The OTT video market surpassed US$8 billion in 2012 and is expected to cross the US$20 billion mark by 2015.

In Singapore, MediaCorp partnered with OTT platform provider, Tvinci to provide multi-screen content through its mobile content service called Toggle as a paid service. Telco operators, such as SingTel and StarHub, are also jumping into the OTT bandwagon by offering consumers the option to watch their favourite content across multiple platforms at their convenience. However, monetisation of OTT services may be the greatest challenge which mobile OTT providers will face.

Delegates at the BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference can hear expert views on ‘Making OTT a Business Reality in Asia’, from Seow Yoke Kong, VP Technology Services of Mediacorp and Ido WIesenberg, Co-founder and VP Business Development of Tvinci. In a keynote address, Benjamin Grubbs, APAC Head of Partner Marketing at YouTube will discuss the future of TV and share insights on why OTT is a game-changer. Danny Wilson, President and CEO of Pixelmetrix will elaborate on ‘Ensuring Effective Delivery of Content through OTT and Multi-Screen’.

A half-day interactive OTT workshop led by Stephen Lee, Business Development Manager of Conax AS and Ather A. Baig, Senior Manager IP operations of Pakistan Telecommunication will conclude the conference on day four.

With the increasing convergence of technologies between the telecom and broadcast sectors, attendees will hear from leaders of both industries, who will be speaking across BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference and CommunicAsia2013 Summit on the various aspects of successful OTT deployment, ranging from content creation and delivery, to infrastructure and broadband requirements.

Delegates at the BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference can also gain insights into strategies for leveraging a range of advanced technologies to cope with transformations in the broadcasting industry. Some of the technologies that will be covered include Ultra HD, DVBT-2, Pay-TV, Hybrid Interactive TV, Cloud Broadcasting and 4K technology.

CTO/CIO Panel titled ‘Developing Next-Gen Technology Solutions for the Changing Landscape’ will touch on topics like the future of media services in the cloud and also the expected major challenges the industry will face in the years to come with the transformation within the industry. The panel will consist of Michael MacDonald – Group CTO and Executive Solution Consultant of Huawei, John Carlucci – CTO Americas of Alticast, Peter Docherty – Founder and Chief Technology Officer of ThinkAnalytics and Brian Lenz – Chief Innovation Officer of Astro.

This press release was issued by BroadcastAsia.