21581 - SCTE Broadband August2022 COMPLETE v1

50 Vol. 44 No. 3 - September 2022 Issue After a long and frustrating three years IBC is at last back at the RAI in Amsterdam. Europe’s largest broadcast conference and exhibition, the show has endured a period of being unable to plan and in a business characterised by forward planning, that is not a comfortable place to be. Now that the show is confirmed, it has certainly added to a sense of confidence across the industry that life is returning to normal. Melissa Cogavin caught up with IBC’s CEO Mike Crimp to find out the show is looking for September, as well as a look at how the show has evolved over the years. IBC - Looking ahead Over a coffee and a Zoom call, Mike Crimp was happy and relaxed. He was keen to tell me what the show was going to look like, as well as stress that the recovery is dependent on the confidence of people returning after Covid, as restrictions and attitudes cover a broad spectrum. “It is more about the human side, reassuring people who worry about the element of risk involved. Our responsibility is keeping people informed so that they can make their own judgment, and reminding them that we’re doing everything we can to keep people safe.” He went on, “I would urge those who are undecided to look closely at what we’re doing, because it’s going to be very valuable. Apart from the 12 halls, there’s going to be a lot of interesting content as well.” I wanted to hear how the show had evolved over the years, so that whatever is coming in 2022 made sense. Mike explained the show’s ethos first. “IBC is all about different kinds of delivery,” he began. “When I first started in the early 2000s, we knew there were going to be four screens in the future; the cinema screen, TV screen, the computer screen and the mobile screens which were in their infancy. The way forward then was to be agnostic about what the use of those screens were.” “Screen resolution was getting better and cheaper, regardless of size. TV at the time was just digital terrestrial. So we embraced cable and satellite, followed by mobile and telco. We also saw that people wanted to talk about the creation, management and delivery of content rather than just broadcast. So, at one end we had all the screens, and at the other we had all the delivery mechanisms covered. And in the By Melissa Cogavin, Managing Editor, SCTE with a nod to the past from the industry Mike Crimp CEO, IBC