IBC 2004 in Amsterdam: Just the same as the NAB except for the bicycles, canals, the famous Red Light District and “brown” cafes. All photos courtesy of IBC.

On a sunny day in mid-September, 40,000 attendees descended upon the RAI Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for the five-day IBC exhibition and conference. IBC is the European version of NAB, and is the third part of the “troika” (NAB, SIGGRAPH and IBC) for postproduction facilities to investigate new products or updates to the tools in visual effects and 3D animation. While not as large as the behemoth NAB, it’s still considered a “must” for the manufacturers and facilities who want to keep abreast of the latest in technology. It draws studios, broadcasters, filmmakers and commercial makers from around the globe.

And the location of IBC, Amsterdam, gives Las Vegas a run for its money. Vegas may have erupting volcanoes and dancing water, but in Amsterdam there are one million bicycles, every other street is a canal and, oh yes, don’t forget the famous Red Light District and the “brown” cafes.

As with NAB, there’s a mixture of broadcast and visual effects companies and products. Anyone attending for the visual effects/3D animation segment of the market makes an immediate beeline for Hall 7 (the RAI Convention Center is comprised of 11 halls spread out in a campus-like manner). Here, under one roof, are the main players with smaller ones tucked in-between. It’s a mini-show within a show. Brian Reid, visual effects artist for Technicolor Toronto, said, “This is my first time attending IBC, and I think I prefer it to NAB. The scale of the Vegas convention center is so large you have multiple parts of the industry in the same building, so Discreet might be next to a satellite company. And another company you want to see will be in a different building. At IBC, they break the segments up into multiple halls and so I can go to one specific hall that has the companies and products that hold the most interest to me.”

Jim Davey, director of digital services at CapitalFX in London, stated, “NAB and IBC are both important in terms of checking out new products. All the main players are at IBC, but at NAB you’ll see some of the smaller companies exhibiting who can’t afford to make the trek across the pond. Obviously it’s easier for Europeans to go to Amsterdam, but NAB & IBC are both important for those of us investigating new technology, because at one show it might just be a technology demonstration, whereas by the time the next one rolls around it’s more a real product that we can incorporate into our pipeline. To stay current, I attend NAB, SIGGRAPH and IBC.”

While companies announced new products at IBC, they were more evolutionary than revolutionary and a build-on to what was either showcased or announced earlier in the year at NAB and SIGGRAPH. With several hundred companies exhibiting, it’s not feasible to cover all the announcements or trends, but there were two topics that garnered particular attention.

Because it’s smaller in size than NAB, IBC can organize its exhibition hall so that the attendee easily focuses on companies that interest him.

One “hot” topic at IBC was Digital Intermediate (DI). In Hollywood, DI is defined as the process of transferring film to a digital file and doing the intermediate work, including color grading and mastering, in the digital realm, and then returning the work to film for delivery. In the commercial world, they may use a similar setup, where the spots are output to the digital deliverable required by the client. Ascent Media outlined its strategy for DI, and Ken Williams, ceo, made a bold prediction for advertising production. “The vast majority of commercials are not even finished in HD yet, so they may skip HD and go directly to data.” He envisions an upsurge in commercials finished in the DI realm, but predicts the most critical growth in DI about to begin in the feature arena.

Manufacturers targeting the DI space included Discreet, Quantel, Thomson Grass Valley, as well as Filmlight, Nucoda and Assimilate. Some claim to provide an entire solution; others a part of it.