Commissioner Reding delivers Keynote Address at DVB World 2008

12 March 2008

The DVB World 2008 international conference opened in Budapest today with a keynote address from Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media. More than 220 delegates were in attendance for her presentation which focused on mobile TV, the opportunities for DVB technologies worldwide, and the European Commission’s strategy for the digital dividend. The full speech can be downloaded from the Commission website.

A series of flagship presentations set the tone for the rest of the conference. Professor Ulrich Reimers, chair of the DVB Technical Module, outlined some of the key specifications delivered by the DVB Project in the last year. He finished by looking forward to some exciting new deliverables, including DVB-T2 and DVB-C2. Spencer Stephens, of Warner Bros Advanced Media Services, highlighted the fact that the break with traditional media delivery formats means that content protection must now be tied to the media or the device – DVB-CPCM is designed to meet that challenge, he said.

Peter MacAvock, DVB’s Executive Director, gave an overview of how the landscape has changed for standardisation activities and how DVB’s working procedures have changed to keep pace with changes in the industry. Nokia’s Mark Selby delivered a thought-provoking presentation that set out the challenges faced by the television industry in an environment where citizens are gaining more and more control over what content they consume and when and how they consume it. Finally, Lieven Vermaele, the EBU Technical Director, set out his thoughts on how Europe’s broadcasters can meet these challenges head-on through taking a leadership role in innovation and cooperation.

For more on DVB World 2008 visit: www.dvbworld.eu