The DVD Forum, the 220-member international association of hardware manufacturers, software firms and content providers that defined the DVD format, and now HD DVD, has chosen Berlin to hold its annual European conference.

The 1-day event will take place on Monday 3 September, concurrent to the massive IFA consumer electronics fair, thus enabling delegates "to kill two birds with one stone."

Through a variety of sessions, the Forum will fulfil its mandate, namely, "to exchange and disseminate ideas and information about the DVD Format and its technical capabilities, improvements and innovations."

In addition to updating delegates on the activities of the Forum's key steering committees and working groups, the conference will take stock of the latest technical developments such as DVD/HD DVD Video Recording, Triple-layer HD DVD, recording HD data onto red DVD disc, CSS Downloading, the AACS issue and the various HD codecs, amongst other topics.

Analysts will provide market statistics and strategic thinking with contributions on the future of packaged media in a changing marketplace, the growth of HD-ready/Full DVD displays and the forecasting the HD format take-up.

The highlight of the day will be a Grand Panel HD best practices by frontline practitioners, where authoring companies pioneering the HD DVD format and its HDi interactive features will showcase their work.

"It is a momentous year as next-generation disc formats finally broke into the consumer market with fanfare," says Jean-Luc Renaud, president of Globalcom Ltd, www.dvd-intelligence.com publisher, contracted by the DVD Forum to organise the event. "It is an excellent initiative to invite frontline practitioners who are using the technology developed by the DVD Forum membership to push the creative envelope. So, this year in particular, the attractiveness of the conference ought to extend to Europe's authoring community."

Story filed 08.07.07