12th International Exhibition and Conference
CSTB-2010
Digital Free-to-Air TV, Cable & Satellite TV, IPTV, HDTV, Broadband, Mobile TV, Content, Operators’ services, Satellite Communications
12th International Exhibition and Conference CSTB’2010 in Moscow is over!
On February, 4, the annual exhibition and conference CSTB’ 2010, held in Moscow for the 12th time, completed its work. The main event in the field of broadcasting and telecommunication technologies in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries was open to visitors for 3 days and showed all the latest formats and actual trends of the field: digital free-to-air TV, pay-TV, broadband, wireless technologies, multiservice network operator services, equipment for TV and radio broadcasting, for production of programs and post-production, satellite communication. Special attention was traditionally given to content. Over 19500 experts, representatives of professional establishments, mass-media and interested individuals visited CSTB’2010.
The CSTB exhibition and conference was held with the participation of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, under the patronage of the Moscow City Government, with the support of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, Committee for Telecommunications and Mass Media of Moscow.
The year 2010 was officially declared the Year of Russia in France and the Year of France in Russia. One of major goals in Russia identified by the state today is digitalization of TV and radio broadcasting, therefore the CSTB' 2010 international exhibition and conference became the first event included in the official list of events held under the aegis of Russian-French relations. The opening ceremony of the project was conducted by the President of Cable TV Association of Russia Yury Pripachkin and the General Director of MIDEXPO exhibition company Irina Nedumova, with the participation of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to Russia Jean de Gliniasty. His Excellency the Ambassador noted the importance of CSTB for strengthening Russian-French cooperation in the field of TV and radio broadcasting and informed on the desire of France to support Russia along the way to digitalization.
There was a rich activity program offered to the attending experts. With traditional IBC assistance an international conference was held which had long proved to be a major annual meeting of professionals.
This year the CSTB conference began its work with the Russian-French Round table "Introduction and development of digital TV broadcasting in France and Russia" which provided a venue for the meeting of heads of telecommunication and broadcasting branches of Russia and France. The Round table participants, among them representatives of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Federal Supervision Agency for information technologies and mass communications of the Russian Federation, Federal state unitary enterprise "Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network", the Ambassador of France to Russia, representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment of France, TDF (Tele Diffusion de France), Supreme Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of France, discussed cooperation of the two countries in the sphere of TV and radio broadcasting, considered a number of major problems and shared experience in the area of TV and radio broadcasting transition to digital technologies.
The current state of affairs and problems in the light of digitalization was presented by the representatives of the relevant ministries of the two states. Thus, Dmitry Severov, Deputy Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, informed that there are about 20 thousand mass media registered in Russia today, with more than 1700 broadcasting companies, among them almost 700 – TV free-to-air, more than 100 - cable and over 900 - radio broadcasting companies. However, not all citizens have equal access to information because of the use of outdated equipment, and it is transition to new digital technologies that should eliminate this inequality. Priority is given to the development of digital broadcasting in small and medium settlements, that is those which now have access only to two or three channels. The networks building is begun with remote regions of Russia, in 2009 - 2011 the relevant facilities planned to appear on the border with the Peoples Republic of China, Japan, Mongolia, Korea. His French colleague, Olivier Japiot, General Director of Supreme Television & Radio Broadcasting Council of France, in turn, told about the French experience of transition to digital broadcasting. Since March, 2005 there have been 18 digital free channels, in 2006 - 9 pay-TV channels, since 2008 - 5 HD channels launched. The major goal till the end of this year is to cover 95% of the population. The remaining 5% will be able to receive the channels via a satellite. Today digital TV makes 17% of the market. It is planned to fully terminate analog broadcasting by 2014! In turn, Sergey Sitnikov, the Head of the Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Mass Communications, stressed that an important fact for Russia is that the state is a subject and player in the television market, financing the creation of programs, supplying the population with the minimum set of channels and performing regulatory functions. "We should reach a goal of 18-19 channels available across the territory of the Russian Federation ("Moscow standard"), ensure free access for 98% of the population by means of surface on-air broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, fixed communication facilities (cable networks)", Sergey stated. Meanwhile, the key decision has been taken – there will be no revolutionary transition, it will be smooth and gradual! Different from France, analog broadcasting in Russia will remain after 2015.
Summing up the round table results, its participants noted that Russia started on the way of digitalization later, and this has its positive aspects, as we are able to take into account the experience of our partner.
The CSTB’ 2010 Conference had the following sessions: ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF BROADBAND NETWORKS PROJECTS (CABLE TV, MOBILE TV, IPTV, INTERNET-TV); NEW AND THE LATEST TV TECHNOLOGIES: HD-PROJECTS, 3D-TELEVISION, CDN SERVICES; SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND TV BROADCASTING; CONTENT FOR PAY-TV SYSTEMS. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS.
General sponsor of the Conference: Harris Corporation.
Sponsor of the Conference: Globo Trading.
The first section of the conference – "ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF BROADBAND NETWORKS PROJECTS (CABLE TV, MOBILE TV, IPTV, INTERNET-TV)" was devoted to the most extensive opportunities for introduction of modern types of services in cable networks, in particular in IPTV and in Internet broadcasting given by new technologies. Within the several last years optimum solutions have been found for many technical questions of construction of broadband multiservice networks. Therefore in the epoch of global financial problems the first place is taken by the questions of economic efficiency of such projects. This section of the conference has shown how the most effective projects are born at the interface between business and technologies, allowing to offer the subscriber the maximum number of modern services at minimum investments in the network infrastructure. Ericsson.
The section "NEW AND THE LATEST TV TECHNOLOGIES: HD-PROJECTS, 3D-TELEVISION, CDN SERVICES" moderated by Gerasim Gadiyan, HD Media network NPK Era General Director, numbered the representatives of seven foreign companies, among them being Harris Corporation, Dolby Europe, Alcatel-Lucent, IPTP Network, DVB Project Office, and others. They told not only about development prospects, but also about specific experience of introduction of new services. Among the Russian companies represented were four winners of the National "Big Digit" Award: MNITI, "Ricor-TV", "Netris", "Triniti". Various methods of 3D-TV implementation were considered, as well as matters pertaining to dissemination of the technology of interactive personal TV, use of CDN at building IPTV-networks and in the global Internet. A characteristic feature of the section was "live" displays which became possible due to first line support of the exhibition and conference organizers. The opportunities of interactive Internet-TV broadcasting with a quality of up to HDTV were shown directly from the conference room: "TV-bridges", receipt of HDTV-channels via an Internet-TV add-on without a computer. The section work results show that Russia is in the wake of the process of introduction of the latest TV-technologies.
The "SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND TV BROADCASTING" section moderator was the editor-in-chief of the "Tele-Sputnik" magazine Nikolay Orlov. The section was divided into 2 parts. The first part "Satellite constellation development of Russian and foreign operators " included the speeches delivered by the representatives of domestic and foreign satellite operators acting in the Russian market. The operators presented their potential satellite resources, told about the plans of updating the satellite groups, introduction of new services. The representative of the state operator - FSUE RSCC told about the role of the Enterprise in the transition of the Russian TV and radio broadcasting to the digital format.
The second part – "Peculiarities of the direct satellite broadcasting development (DIRECT-TO-HOME) in Russia and CIS countries. Economics. Marketing. Advertisement." became the venue for the Russian operators of direct-to-home satellite broadcasting who told about their vision of the market in general and in Russia in particular, about the ways to be resorted to, in their opinion, to attract and keep subscribers. The representatives of Russian VSAT-operators also reported on their new developments and offers, in particular, on the project of the first Russian-made VSAT-terminal.
Session sponsor: Orion Express.
The Conference section "CONTENT FOR PAY-TV SYSTEMS. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS" was devoted to two topics: "DVB and IPTV-network content" and "Commercial TV advertising". As is known, digital technologies materially expand the range of services which the digital cable or IP-TV operator can offer to its subscribers. These are not only additional packages of television channels, but also a weight of other services not accessible to the users of analog TV. However, the TV channels themselves do not like digital networks because of their as yet small audience, and the service suppliers are so few that it this business may safely be considered as embryonic. There are a lot of questions here: what additional services of the operator can be claimed by subscribers? On what can the digital TV operator economize and what allows no economy? How should one work with TV channels? How to organize a "Home cinema" in the cable operator network? Will torrents be able to kill the "video on demand" service? The last topic turned out to be so disputable and sensitive that a heated discussion followed, however, the participants failed to agree on whether it is possible to fight Internet piracy and what methods of such fight exist, if any. The small room allotted to the section could not contain all those wishing to visit the session, therefore most reports will be published in the "Cableman" magazine, its editor-in-chief Yana Belskaya acted as the section moderator.
The second part of the content section was devoted to advertising on pay-TV channels and in the cable TV operator networks. The fact that advertising is useful and necessary both to cable and TV channels is well-known, the same as that, according to sociologist studies, from 10 to 90 percent of the viewers leave the channel during the commercial break. Free-to-air TV channels put up with it, but commercial non-air channels do not wish to lose the loyal audience, therefore they pay much attention to placing advertising in the air. Nevertheless, the tendency is that during the last year, despite the global financial crisis, the amount of advertising in pay-TV has grown by several dozen percent points. Advertising is sold by both TV channels, advertising agencies and operators. The reefs and subtleties of this work were spoken about at the conference by the representatives of all these sectors.
Session sponsor: Lagardere Active
Sponsor of the business seminar session: Open Technologies
For the first time in Russia, on February 3 in the Crocus City Hall within CSTB’ 2010 a ceremony of giving the first National "Big Digit" Award in the field of multichannel digital TV was held.
The National "Big Digit" Award was organized with the participation of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, with the support of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications and Committee for Telecommunications and Mass Media of Moscow, under the patronage of the Moscow City Government.
The Award caused a broad resonance from the TV public and drawn interest in the development of modern TV technologies both on the part of the cable and satellite TV broadcasters and operators, and on the part of subscribers. The aim of the Award is uniting all leading players of the market of multichannel digital TV and popularization of modern technologies, services and products for pay-TV networks among subscribers.
There were 125 applications submitted from the nominees to the National "Big digit" Award. The TV audience of the channels put forward for the voting of the viewers exceeds 50 million persons. The winners were defined by the results of the voting of the professional jury chaired by the President of the International TV and Radio Academy Anatoly Lysenko.
Detailed information on the nominees and winners: www.bigdigit.ru
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During 3 days of intense work the visitors and participants of CSTB’ 2010 had an opportunity not only to expand their knowledge on many professional questions at the conference sections, but also to learn all news in the field of TV equipment and content within the framework of stand expositions. The CSTB exhibition and conference again proved its right to be called the largest business-ground and venue for the dialogue of experts of the broadcasting and telecommunication branches not only from Russia and the CIS countries, but also from all over the world!
We invite you to visit the 13th International exhibition and conference CSTB’2011!
For detailed information please visit www.cstb.ru
