Broadcast Industry Tackles Video/Data Crunch
Written by Harrison Donnelly
GIF 2010 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 (February)
EVENT ADDRESSES COMMERCIAL SOLUTIONS TO
CHALLENGES CREATED BY EVER-INCREASING
AMOUNTS OF SENSOR-GENERATED INFORMATION.
Cutting-edge video technologies developed for commercial broadcasting represent a valuable resource in meeting military and government challenges, according to sponsors of an upcoming “military and government summit” to be held this spring during the broadcast industry’s major annual convention.
The summit, one of five ancillary conferences during the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nev., April 10-15, will focus this year on the mission-critical challenges created by ever-increasing amounts of sensor-generated video and data.
The event is aimed both at military and government users who want to learn more about commercial technologies, and at video and broadcast companies that want to do business with the military and government. The preliminary schedule lists a number of sessions on networking issues, including infrastructure and architectures, storage and virtualization, as well as sessions on IP video, video workflow, video compliance standards, video production techniques, 21st century sensors and high definition (HD) technology.
The first NAB Military and Government Summit was held in 2009, explained John Marino, vice president, science and technology, for the National Association of Broadcasters.
“Feedback from attendees indicated a strong interest in many of the applications currently in use by commercial broadcasters,” Marino said. “Applications relating to the management of real-time video content, the transition to high-definition video and the latest developments in sensor technologies are especially important to these attendees.
“The broadcast industry has overcome many of the challenges related to content management and the transition to HD. Our summit program provides a unique opportunity for attendees to network, exchange ideas and talk with representatives of NAB Show exhibiting companies,” he said.
The goals of the summit are to educate attendees on the latest digital video technologies and foster new relationships between the commercial and government sectors. “The NAB Show is often cited as the world’s largest digital media event,” Marino noted. “Our exhibiting companies are interested in developing new business, and it is our desire to encourage more government attendees to attend the show and meet with company representatives.”
In putting together the agenda, organizers’ priorities were to determine the needs of the military and government sector as they relate to video technologies and identify how the commercial sector can help satisfy those needs. Summit topics are linked with actual technologies being shown on the exhibit floor.
The theme of this year’s summit is “Trends in Mission Critical Video and Data,” Marino continued. “All our presentations and panel sessions address the necessity of finding effective solutions for processing what amounts to terabytes of video content. As intelligence organizations increasingly look toward multiple sensors with higher resolutions while decreasing latency, the demands on infrastructure to process and store video content can become enormous. The sessions within the summit address architecture and infrastructure issues and look at solutions being utilized today by the broadcast industry to solve similar challenges.”
Addressing in particular the needs of smaller companies that exhibit at the NAB Show, one session will be on “Doing Business with the Government,” with information on procedures and contract vehicles necessary for successful bidding and acceptance. ♦