IBC: one step closer to the dream job

Every year, every June, every student of our university can take part in conference of "Digital and Information Technologies in the Electronic Media Industry" where he or she can win a trip to Amsterdam for the largest congress of broadcasters IBC. Last year I’d just sent an application for participation, but as a result I was frightened and gave up. This year I’d decided to take part again. There were too much questions from myself to myself and I thought that I will not succeed. However, when I was named among the students who will go to Amsterdam, I couldn't believe in it. For now, I think, I was able to believe that I will get to the most long-awaited event in the direction of television and radio broadcasting and digital technologies only in September, when we flew to Amsterdam.

The whole week was full of new impressions and bright emotions for us. Every day we went to the RAI center, where everyone had found some things to do for the whole day.  So, I’d visited the presentation of a new Sony camera, a master class by HBS, where I was allowed to try myself as a director of sport broadcasting. We saw the camera plan on the football field, we talked about the basic directorial concepts (for example, we learned when to use of replays). I made some conclusion for myself that every Broadcast of a sport event is a story telling. As in every story, there are the different scenarios arise during a match (goals, penalty kicks). And for now, I understand that it’s a very difficult job, which requires close attention and I had realized the responsibility of doing this job. Actually, I was worried on the trial test because I thought that I could make a mistake.

Since I’d started a studying in the direction of "Television broadcasting", it had very important for me to attend lectures of production broadcasting. I was very impressed by the session named «TV is not Going Anywhere, it’s Going Everywhere» (by Fabrice Mollier). Thanks to this session I am sure that television broadcasting will not disappear, until people trust TVs.  So, we must do our best to make sure that it develops at a high level and pay more attention not only to the contents of the programs, but also to the development.

In addition, the issue of integrating the Internet and television was touched there. The same issue was discussed more widely at the session "Integrating Broadcast & Internet Businesses: Social networks - friend, frenemy or foe?" (Speakers: Carlos Sanchez, Global Director of Social TV - Kantar Media, Daniel Danker, Product Director - Facebook, Joanna Wells, VP, Comedy Central and MTV International - Viacom International Media Networks, Nick Dandy, Director of Product Management - Foxtel) and "The New TV: Who's really watching?" (Speakers: Andy Taylor, Co-Founder & CEO - Little Dot Studios, Barry Flanigan, Chief Product Officer - COPA90, Christopher Mead, Senior Director of Partnerships, EMEA - Twitch, Curt Marvis, CEO and co-founder - QYOU Media, Jonathan Kitchen, Commercial Director - Brave Bison). To say honestly, before this lecture I did not use the platforms that the speakers had represented. I just did not find them useful. But I heard a lot of advantages of this there. One of the most important, I think, that the many sports events do not broadcast on television, for example, eSports. Now, I think, it will be easier for me to follow up on these events using platforms (for example, Twitch or COPA90).

Our specialty is quite wide, that is why I had no idea, what I want to do first on the IBC. So, it was difficult to choose only one direction.  Every day I’m thinking about what is the most important in my life, and what do I want to do next? However, when I saw the scale of the IBC conference, I’d realized that new technologies are the future. I was convinced how it’s important to be an universal specialist. It is not enough to know only about the theory or practical aspects of the process in television broadcasting, you must understand both of them. So, the director should understand how the material is installed, how the signal is transmitted, what equipment should be in each hardware-studio complex.

Especially, I want to tell about the exhibition. Before our arrival, I did not suspect how huge this exhibition can be: countless stands which and where you can: to approach, to watch, to touch, to ask and to take photos (photo 1). Before the IBC, I was not very interested in camera skills, but when I’d seen the stands of Canon, ARRI, Sony, I was so impressed by the cameras with their incredible quality of images. So that, I’d spend several hours talking with the company representatives to try to understand basic camera skills. 

Also, we received pleasant souvenirs from the world's media industry companies such as Google, Dell EMC, Sennheiser, Sam and others. Each of us had experienced the action of virtual reality glasses, and I’d won VR glasses at the Vimeo stand (photo2). I've never tried playing a virtual reality glasses game. This caused me a storm of emotions. By the way, I always thought that virtual reality is used more often for entertainment purposes. But, only on IВC you can realize all the grandiose possibilities of virtual reality. I even thought that, you can conduct excursions to museums, make it realistic to find yourself in another century, in different parts of the world with the help of the VR. 

Moreover, we were fortunate to meet with the president of IEEE BTS Bill Hayes. I would like to express my gratitude to Bill Hayes for some valuable advices for our future profession. In addition, we met several students from Great Britain, Germany and France, become friends and of course had exchanged contacts with them (photo 3).

Do I need to explain how it can be interesting to immerse yourself in the life of another country: walk along narrow streets, visit museums, taste the most delicious cheese, etc...? All our free time we spent on walking around Amsterdam. We’d also visited the Van Gogh Museum and found it very unusual and interesting.

If someone will ask me: «What does the trip to IBC means for you? », I can’t answer only "I liked it". This place had opened up new horizons for me. For now many people talking about a disappearing of TV-broadcasting. They are thinking that people will receive the information only from the Internet. Before the IBC I had no a clear opinion about this, but now I understand that television broadcasting is developing at a high level! It just simply departs from the usual forms, becomes more modern, new and diverse. The best example to prove it is the IBC exhibition and conference. All in all, every year the best broadcasters from all over the world come to Amsterdam to discuss modern approaches of the creation, management and delivery of both entertaining and news content.
What do I want to say as a student who only makes the first steps into his future profession: to visit an IBC means to make a breakthrough. I am so thankful to IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. It was a great opportunity to hear the opinions of real experts of the media industry, to see the latest developments of the world companies and to choose a future direction into the real profession. 

Daria Merzliakova
The student of St. Petersburg University of Film and Television, Russia
+79226815634
Dashabonheur7[at]rambler[dot]ru