IBC 2014 Recap
IBC 2014 has come and gone, and it was certainly time well spent in Amsterdam for The Telos Alliance. The opportunity for some face time with our European customers is essential, and we’re delighted to see familiar faces every year – and some new ones too!
This year, we got a fresh take on things with a new booth location, which was a plus for visibility. Traffic was heavy and the booth was met with large crowds and positive reviews. While there we premiered some new gear, received some great feedback, and met with clients familiar and new for an excellent IBC experience.
Our gang of Telos attendees filed these reports…
Mary Ann Seidler, Director of Sales, EMEA, Omnia Audio
“IBC 2014 was a fantastic show for Omnia. It was really exc
iting because we have lots of new products that we unveiled at IBC. We had kept them under wraps for months, so they were a complete surprise and very well received.
“The IBC is wonderful because over the course of 5 days, we have time to spend with our clients, finding out what they really want and need in their audio processing products.
“Plus, the added bonus is that for 5 days I got to hang around amazing talented audio processing engineers such as Vincent Defretin, Camille Gonnet and Leif Claesson – what could be better than that? Only Having Mr. Foti here could have possibly topped that!”
Ken Skok, Director of Sales, APAC
“Location matters!
“As the final day slowed enough I would look back at booths behind ours and walkways were mostly vendors. And we still had nice traffic and conversations. And yes Leif was a very busy guy...
“AES67 was big this year as a topic. Seems like after each person looking at consoles said hello the next topic was ‘Do Telos/Axia do AES67 as well?’ ‘Well yes, of course, let me fill you in on the whole story.’
“Russia and Asia Pacific had a nice showing of customers/prospects and dealers this year over last year as well.”
Milos Nemcik, Product Manager, Axia Audio
“Axia products were well received. Both Fusion and intercom I would say are the key products in this arena. Fusion is of interest as the market is already aware of it and anxiously awaiting for it to begin shipping. Intercom received some attention as I noticed many standing in front of our intercom units and taking pictures. Intercom will be a hot topic in the next few months.
“AoIP is a big topic as the market is paying attention to AES67. In Europe this is a big deal. Attendees are aware of AES67 and with that are asking questions about the future of audio facilities. Attendees are beginning to rethink what is normal and starting to think about what is possible. BBC announced ViLoR and now the new catch phrase in the industry at IBC 2014 and the future is virtual radio. The Telos Alliance is in perfect position to lead the industry here with our years of experience in technologies that are the building blocks of what will be virtual radio.”
Jim Kuzman, Applications Engineer
“I spent the majority of my time near the Omnia gear and can report that there was great interest in both the 11+ and the 7. Current 11 customers were glad to have the "Undo" feature from the 9 and really like that the 11+ will have the 9's remote interface.
“The 7 was very well received as a processor to help bridge the price and performance gap between the ONE and the 9. It should bring some customers up from the ONE who wanted more, without making customers considering a 9 think about stepping ‘down’ to the 7.
“On the Linear Acoustic side, I had some good in-depth conversations.”
Peter Passian, Director of Sales, Eastern Hemisphere
“This was my fifth and busiest IBC since working for the company. We were literally stormed from the first hour. Part of this is certainly the much better location direct at the entrance of Hall 8, but also because everybody is now avid for AoIP. From the studio product side people wanted to hear about AES67, Ravenna and Livewire and our consoles got the most attention, especially Fusion. The international ‘serious’ design paired with the much more flexible software features made it our show star.
“Aside of the consoles people wanted to talk about streaming solutions including IP codecs, but also about VoIP talk show systems.
“Even on day five we had some decent traffic which is normally not usual for trade shows like IBC.”
Leif Claesson, Processing Creator
“For me, this was by far the best IBC yet. We had visitors practically from beginning to close, every single day – never a dull moment.
“It was also a great relief that when people asked what the differences are between the 7, 9 and 11+, I could point out the strengths and weaknesses of each product, and dealers were almost unanimously positive to the change. The future of Omnia is looking brighter than ever.”
Kirk Harnack, VP, Telos Systems“The Telos VX Broadcast Phone System received attention and interest, as broadcasters look to replace aging legacy phone lines with IP-based telephony. Quality-minded broadcasters are learning that IP-based SIP connections typically cost less and are far more flexible than traditional phone lines. The Telos VX is becoming a must have to provide routing flexibility and better-sounding phone calls for news, talk, music request lines, and contesting.
“Radio stations operating out of geographically diverse studios are learning how the Telos iPort PLUS gives them instant routing, superb audio over IP links, ample synchronized GPIO, and diverse, redundant IP transmission paths for ultra-reliability. New aptX and content delay options provide familiar coding quality and multi-time zone programming options.”
Denny Sanders, Omnia Marketing and Brand Manager
“This was a very busy show; the busiest IBC that I can remember. We were packed every single day, all day. Where we were this year, there were two main access points; one from the main hall, where Leif's setup was, attracted a lot of attention. Lots of eye candy. Omnia.11+ was very well-received.”
Ioan Rus, Platform Manager, Streaming Media Applications
“There is an increased interest in streaming products, both for software and hardware. The ProStream X2's sneak peak was well received by all who saw it, with the next question usually being ‘When can I buy it?’
“On a personal note, Ioan was happy about another development: “I got to speak Romanian to a few customers. That was rather exciting for me.”
Geoff Steadman, President, 25-Seven Systems
As always, protection of station operations and adherence to the law is of paramount interest to broadcasters. Stations originating live talk and call-in programs are particularly sensitive to this, but even broadcasters who only air the occasional live contest are concerned about protecting themselves, and 25-Seven's Program Delay Manager was the focus of plenty of interest. Clients tell us that the PD Alert feature is particularly interesting; not only does PDM allow talent to protect against undesirable outbursts, but Program Directors and other managers receive real-time notification of events, with before-and-after audio attachments. Broadcasters are also enthusiastic about Program Delay Manager's Livewire capability; it's the only profanity delay that boasts one-wire connection to Livewire networks, reducing setup and configuration to a few simple keystrokes.
Egor Tyuganov, F
ield Applications Engineer
“Location was very convenient. We had a great flow… extremely busy.
“Lots of new customers from Eastern Europe came to the booth asking to see Linear Acoustic… lots of new people from Kazakhstan and Belarus to see Omnia and S4. Fusion took great attention for people from Russia and Ukraine. The market is changing and we're making that change.”
Mike Richardson, Director of Engineering, Linear Acoustic
"As usual the new Linear products were well-received at IBC. Some visitors who had seen early versions of the MT2000 were thrilled that it is now close to completion, and with its huge list of capabilities. Many of these visitors specifically mentioned how much more the MT2000 can do than the product that inspired it and is now discontinued, the Dolby DM100.
“The SDI xNode was viewed as a logical extension of our xNode line into TV formats, and of course along with that comes the ease of using AoIP in a TV facility.”
Cam Eicher, Director of Global Studio Sales
“This show was a great one. The stand was in a prime location and constantly busy. Omnia really stole the show – Leif had a constant crowd of attendees gathered around drooling over all the new Omnia offerings… just a fantastic flurry of activity in the Omnia section of the booth.
“Fusion was a close second as crowds were awed by the console and blown away by the demos provided by Milos, Peter and Ken. People are excited that after a long wait, it’s finally here and by all indications they really are eager to get their hands on one.
“In addition to Fusion, the hot topic was AES67 - everyone wanted to know about compatibility and learn the story of AES67 and what that means for Axia and Livewire. We have a great story and we believe we told it well.
“Along with our own activity in the booth we had several dealers using our booth as their base of operations. It was great to see them engaging customers on our turf, and be able to watch them demonstrate their expertise on our product line. Finally, if you add a number of meetings regarding some large projects, you end up with a very busy, exhausting and worthwhile IBC.
"Additionally, the experience of being able to accept the IBC Innovation Award as a Finalist in Content Creation on behalf of Cumulus Media was a great experience. As I sat in the theater and watched the nominees for the awards, the significance of being nominated began to sink in. Some of the technology was simply amazing and I was humbled to be part of that elite group. While in the end we were not chosen as the winner in our category, we were the only nominee of all 10 finalists across three categories with an application solely for radio. There is a great amount of pride in being a part of the technology behind this fantastic application developed by our partners and friends at Cumulus.”
The Telos Alliance was proud to be represented in two categories at the IBC Innovation Awards: Content Creation with the Cumulus iPad-controlled radio mixers, and Content Delivery with BBC's Media Factory. But while recognition such as this is nice, we’re not resting on our laurels. We continue to strive to bring more groundbreaking products like Fusion and Omnia.11+ to the broadcast community.
And while our traveling Telosians are happy to be back home following a busy show, they’ve come back excited and invigorated, and planning has already begun for IBC 2015!
*Special thanks to John Makley for so many great shots of the Telos Alliance booth!
Telos Alliance has led the audio industry’s innovation in Broadcast Audio, Digital Mixing & Mastering, Audio Processors & Compression, Broadcast Mixing Consoles, Audio Interfaces, AoIP & VoIP for over three decades. The Telos Alliance family of products include Telos® Systems, Omnia® Audio, Axia® Audio, Linear Acoustic®, 25-Seven® Systems, Minnetonka™ Audio and Jünger Audio. Covering all ranges of Audio Applications for Radio & Television from Telos Infinity IP Intercom Systems, Jünger Audio AIXpressor Audio Processor, Omnia 11 Radio Processors, Axia Networked Quasar Broadcast Mixing Consoles and Linear Acoustic AMS Audio Quality Loudness Monitoring and 25-Seven TVC-15 Watermark Analyzer & Monitor. Telos Alliance offers audio solutions for any and every Radio, Television, Live Events, Podcast & Live Streaming Studio With Telos Alliance “Broadcast Without Limits.”