From our correspondent BOB AUGER. We have all come a long way since the early days of the International Broadcasting Convention, yet still the crowds flock to the RAI Centre Amsterdam, ready to marvel at audiovisual creation and delivery technology from around the world. IBC 2014 sprawls across 14 halls, showcasing suppliers from every corner of the industry - from the vendors of the latest UHDTV acquisition equipment to that must-have $5 adapter, without which the whole production would fall apart.

Above all, though, this year's event promises to be about delivery. Getting content to the customer was easier when 'broadcasting' required a few high towers on hilltops close to population centres. The term 'narrowcasting,' now no longer in fashion, can be seen as just a step along the way and content owners have had to adjust to the needs of the individual, as much as to those of the crowd.

The demand for distribution of simultaneous live streams to a worldwide audience of millions - for example at the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup - sits alongside that of the small group of viewers who have paid a premium price to watch a high-value first-run movie. Both expect high-quality, buffering-free delivery and the increased use of Subscription Video On Demand means that Quality of Service has become an issue that it never was before.

DVD and Blu-ray have raised the quality threshold, forcing broadcasters and online services to up their game. Although IBC has never been a consumer show, the power of the market has obliged decision makers at every point in the chain to concentrate on the Quality of Experience. A single UHDTV stream requires high-speed connections well in excess of 10 Gbps at every point in the production chain, generating terabytes of data in the process. Simply storing such streams creates demands that were unimaginable at the start of this decade.

High-efficiency video compression (HEVC) has made astonishing progress over the past year but even so, delivering UHDTV to the increasing number of smart devices owned by the consumer is going to present a challenge.

Can the many exhibitors at IBC 2014 provide solutions to the data rate challenge? Will the rumoured arrival of the 4K Blu-ray Disc put packaged video back in the spotlight? Is the curved display the first step on the road to a 360 degree wrap-around screen in every home?

The next four days will be illuminating, even if IBC 2014 does not deliver all the answers, bringing the best brains in the business together in Amsterdam for one week every year is still an inspired idea. Next report, I'll be on the floor of the show, taking a look at how these ideas have become a reality at IBC 2014.

Story filed 12.09.14