MUMBAI: With a total of 2,238 exhibiting companies from 55 countries, CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia and EnterpriseIT will showcase the latest IT & communications, broadcast technologies and enterprise solutions. Asia’s rising global influence in driving technological innovation and the impact of digital convergence grows more evident on the show floor each year.

An expected 59,000 international attendees visiting the exhibitions and conferences will experience firsthand the key emerging trends that will shape the future of technology. Next generation networks (NGN), voice-over-IP (VoIP), WiMAX, 3G, biometrics and telco services have emerged as some of the predominant technologies at CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT, while interactive TV and radio, as well as computer graphics and animation, are a few of the up and coming broadcast technologies and trends at BroadcastAsia. Mobile entertainment, one of the most important trends, will blaze a trail across the shows as a result of the convergence of digital technologies.

Mr Stephen Tan, chief executive of organiser Singapore Exhibition Services, said, “CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia and EnterpriseIT offer THE converging platform for companies to launch new technologies into Asia. No other trade show offers such a rich diversity of technologies across a spread of 62,000 square metres. Over the next four days, an expected 59,000 attendees – of which 28,000 will be from overseas – will forge relationships and re-affirm valued partnerships with the exhibiting companies.”

Mobile Entertainment: The Impact of Convergence

The rise of mobile broadcasting has accelerated convergence between traditional telecommunications, satellite broadcasting and IT technologies. The increased availability of high speed connectivity services such as 3G, coupled with nimbler applications and mobile devices are delivering the promise of a richer medium supported by colour, video and sound.

Mobile broadcasting is currently seen as a holy grail in the wireless market, with much debate over which platforms and standards will be most effective at delivering broadcast and video to handheld devices.

At BroadcastAsia, the Korea Broadcasting Commission is leading a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) pavilion, and under that pavilion are leading broadcasters from Korea including KBS, SBS, MBC, YTN DMB and TU Media. Korea has already launched a free-to-air terrestrial DMB service in Seoul and a paid satellite DMB service nationwide. Samsung and LG Electronic will be demonstrating the DMB capabilities of its new range of phones at the pavilion.

The Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) pavilion at BroadcastAsia will feature demonstrations of the latest DVB technologies from a number of DVB member companies. These demonstrations will focus in particular on the new Digital Video Broadcasting to Handhelds (DVB-H) standard (a competing standard of DMB) for delivering broadcast services to handheld receivers.

Will the varying standards of mobile broadcasting such as DMB, DVB-H and ISDB-T evolve the same way as GSM and CDMA? Speakers from Japan, Korea and Europe will compare notes on these standards adopted in different parts of the world at the BroadcastAsia2005 International Conference session on “Broadcasting to Handheld – An International Review” chaired by DVB’s executive director Mr Peter MacAvock.

Players in the mobile entertainment arena at CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT include Chiang Mai Digital Works, Game Square, Huawei, Infogate Online, LG, Mobtoon, NTT DoCoMo, Orca Interactive, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanuk Software, Siemens, SingTel, Sony Ericsson, Telekom Malaysia, Unified Communications and ZTE.

The conference session on Mobile Entertainment and Digital Lifestyles at the CommunicAsia Summit on June 14 looks at the experiences of both entertainment and mobile phone companies, and explores the best strategies for capitalising on this market. C-level executives will share their views on the latest developments of mobile content provision and the impact it will have on the mobile industry as a whole in the “ CEO Perspectives” Plenary Session.

With this dynamic interchange of data, Vision Global can alert users to potential conflicts such as the fact that a scheduled promo is not available for play-out. This gives traffic and production people ample time to avoid costly errors by taking action-ingesting the necessary promo onto the play-out server or swapping it for another-before airtime. By utilizing Nielsen audience ratings data, Vision Global is capable of supporting the media sales process by showing users how best to schedule and price spots to make the most of their precious inventory.

3G
3G networks will enable service providers to deliver high-speed wireless data and video services with enhanced voice capacity and is expected to drastically change the way people interact with mobile devices. Leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC predicted that there would be 127.4 million 3G users in the region in 2009. This means that subscriber numbers, which stood at 10.2 million last year, will surge by an average 66 percent each year. The report also predicts that Singapore will be among the top five countries in the region with the highest penetration of 3G users. Companies featuring 3G technologies at CommunicAsia are Comverse, Ericsson, Huawei, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Series 60 Platform, Siemens, SingTel, UTStarcom and ZTE. A CEO Perspectives plenary session at the CommunicAsia Summit will be dedicated solely to 3G.

Next Generation Networks (NGN)

The telecommunication industry is witnessing an evolution from the legacy circuit-switched network to NGNs. NGN promises huge revenue potential, as it supports emerging technologies such as IPv6, 3G and WiMAX, while offering potential operational and capital expenditure savings. At CommunicAsia this year, some of the companies that offer NGN solutions include Aperto Networks, Ciena, Harbour Networks, Huawei, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nexus Telecom AG, Rad Data Communications, Siemens and UTStarcom. Attend the CommunicAsia Summit to hear more about NGN from senior executives of SingTel, Lucent, M1, UTStarcom, Sonus Networks, BrookTrout Technology and other companies.

Voice-over IP (VoIP)
Robust growth is expected of VoIP in Asia Pacific over the next five years due to the awareness of the conspicuous benefits and improving quality of VoIP. The deployment of broadband networks and services is expected to emerge as a strategic driver for the proliferation of VoIP services as high-speed Internet access allows better quality of voice and video services, particularly with time sensitive applications. Cascade, Huawei, Lucent, Motorola, Siemens, Sonus Networks, Tandberg, Unified Communications, UTStarcom and ZTE are some of the companies showcasing their VoIP capabilities at CommunicAsia. To find out how VoIP impacts mobile operators in terms of fixed-mobile convergence, attend the CommunicAsia summit on June 16 where Telekom Malaysia, China Resources Peoples Telephone Company, Chunghwa Telecom, and Huawei Technologies will shed some light on this.

WiMAX
With its ease and speed of deployment, relatively low-cost, minimal deployment disruption, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) has emerged as an alternative wireless technology to deliver last mile access in the metropolitan area networks. T outed as a strong competitive threat to 2G/3G wireless data and fixed DSL for Internet access and VoIP applications, WiMAX will hasten the pace of convergence in the fixed/mobile environment. CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT, this year, will feature a WiMAX pavilion organised by the WiMAX Forum and the companies in this pavilion are Wi-LAN, TeleCIS Wireless, Aperto Networks, Navini Networks, and Redline Communications. Alvarion, InfiNET, Motorola Canopy, smartBridges and ZTE are also players in the WiMAX space.

Telecom Services
Research firm, Frost & Sullivan, projects total telecom spending in Asia to reach US$52 billion in 2005. Telecom service providers participating at CommunicAsia are Celcom (with Telekom Malaysia), Digi, Globe Telecom, Maxis, NTT DoCoMo, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), SingTel, Telekom Malaysia and Telecom New Zealand.

BroadcastAsia2005
Over 750 international companies are participating at the exhibition, with 10 national pavilions from nine countries – China, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, USA, two from the UK and of course, Singapore. Visitors will be thrilled to experience and engage with the latest in broadcast technologies such as digital mobile broadcasting, and interactive TV and radio, which have demonstrated to be key technologies driving the industry through the next lap.

Interactive TV
Interactive TV enriches the viewing experience by offering the audience greater choice and control over the programme; it personalises the experience for the viewer, provides a much closer involvement with the TV programme or series and allows for a wide range of services associated the particular programme. For the channel programmer and broadcaster, it allows a direct interactive relationship with the viewer and an increased viewer attention span which increases both viewer loyalty and ratings. It also opens up new and lucrative revenue streams for the advertising, platform and sponsorship parties involved. Exhibiting companies showcasing interactive TV solutions include Conax, Irdeto Access, DVB, Sea Change and Pro Consultants.

The International Conference will also be discussing the pros and cons of interactive television in the session entitled “Interactive Television: The Ins & Outs”. For operators, broadcasters and producers, interactivity will generate new streams of revenues, besides advertising and subscription. In the region, Austar, Astro and Foxtel have already developed successful applications and other digital platforms will soon follow.

Interactive Radio
It is well known that digital radio offers better audio quality and enables broadcasters to pack more channels into the same frequency spectrum. What is less known, however, is the same digital radio technology can also be used to transmit data.

A new trend is emerging – using the backbone technology of digital radio, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), to transmit data at high speeds to virtually unlimited numbers of recipients. It works just like broadband Internet or leased lines, except that using DAB is a lot cheaper and is able to reach out to the masses faster. There is a DAB feature area at the exhibition with exhibitors including Factum, Kaonmedia, Radioscape, Somerdata and VDL offering their latest DAB showcase.

Nokia and Jutel will be co-presenting the Visual Radio concept which redefines the mobile FM experience. The listener with a Visual Radio-enabled mobile device can tune into his favourite FM radio station and simultaneously view and interact with the visual channel delivered over the GPRS mobile network.

Additionally, for the first time, BroadcastAsia brings the RadioAsia 2005 Conference, the first of a planned annual conference on radio in Asia. The three-day event (15-17 June), which includes a half-day workshop will examine hot topics such as Digital Radio, and how radio can continue to play a vital role in reaching out to the masses and being the voice of the people.

International gurus in digital art, computer games, graphics and animation will be mentoring selected projects at the first X|Media|Lab Singapore. The international mentors include Matt Costello, known for authoring the phenomenally successful Doom 3 computer game; Anurag Khurana, CEO of Paradox Studios, India’s top game and animation development company; and Emmy Award winner Dale Herigstad, known for his work on Minority Report, Battleship Galactica and other hit movies.