News

18 Jul 2017

SMPTE 2017 Defies doomsayers

You’d be hard pressed no to be impressed inside the halls at the new International Convention Centre in Sydney as SMPTE 2017 pulled in the crowds. 97 exhibitors plus the right visitors made the show a success within its first hour of opening.

The convention had its ICC debut and without doubt the new venue helped the numbers. Built over the site of the previous venue, ICC condenses its footprint by going tall with two levels of tradeshow halls. SMPTE sat in part of the upper level.

Themes hot on the floor were the shift to IP, with many sporting venues installing Teltra’s Digital Production Network. (DPN) This means the outside broadcasters can port multi camera feeds into the DPM so switching, CPU and other tasks – possibly audio mixing  as well – are done back at a central control room. The push is on to trim the expensive site team on an OB, and put smaller trucks on the road.

Out the back of the show, some exhibits were devoted to drones, and to keep order the Civil Aviation Safety Authority were exhibiting as well.  Like many industries, the upswing in drone capability is changing everything, the need to properly manage and pilot drones over 2kg includes getting competent in aviation procedures. Drones over 7kg need the operator to hold even greater qualifications.

SMPTE’s Australian trade show strategy has had its share of criticism in these pages over the years, but its strong showing this year belies all that – and proves the broadcast industry is evolving fast. The streamlining and simplifying of video and audio capture and edit means more content gets produced more quickly.

That’s exactly what the networks and the cable channels are screaming for.

• SMPTE runs until this Friday, and is free after registration at Darling Harbour in Sydney.

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