October 23, 2009, the third and the last day of the 7th Eastern Europe exhibition and conference ЕЕВС 2009 Telecom&Broadcasting, was distinguished by the following events:

• The International conference “High-Tech Marketing” on the topic: “Marketing New Products and Services in Telecommunication”;
• The International scientific-practical conference "Advanced TV Broadcasting Technologies. High-Definition Television and Digital Cinema”;
• The closing of the exhibition and the ceremony of awarding the participants for the most interesting new items presented and for successful booth designs.

The business program of the third day started with the International Conference “High-Tech Marketing” organized by IKS-Consulting. The event was opened by Vladimir Zverev, a member of the National Communication Regulation Commission, who gave a talk on: “The steps taken by the NCRC to simplify stakeholders’ access to the telecommunications market”. In the presentation, Mr. Zverev presented his vision of an ideal regulation process and the necessary steps to simplify the procedure of accessing the telecommunications market.

According to him, the ideal market condition is self-regulation, with all the functions of the existing body being performed by market processes. The discussion was continued by Oleg Prozhivalsky, MTS Ukraine Corporate Management and Control Director. The speaker voiced the hope for effective performance of the regulatory function by the government, and stressed that the NCRC representative had quite objectively emphasized the existing problems, both political and legislative. A lot of minutest details of the marketing policy in the IT and telecom industry were discussed by the representatives of the Ukrainian High Technologies, Mobile Media Group, iKS Consulting, COMSTAR Regions, Telecom Italia Sparkle, TELE2 Russia, Ericsson, Vidimax, Inc., and the TELAS Association.

The audience was interested in the International conference “Advanced TV Broadcasting Technologies. High-Definition Television and Digital Cinema”. The event was opened by Markus Fritz, CEO of SES ASTRA SA, who gave a talk on the topic: “Making HD Happen”. His presentation was devoted to the development of HD broadcasting in Europe and the Europeans’ readiness to receive HD content. Thus, from 2005 to June 2009, 100 million HD Ready TV sets were sold in Europe. By 2013, 74% of European viewers will have HD Ready TV sets, which is more than 50 million HD households. Satellite HD content delivery platforms rank first (followed by cable TV, digital terrestrial and IPTV). The speaker also gave best examples of implemented projects and guidelines for HD development in Ukraine.

A presentation on the topic: “The Business of Digital Cinema” was given by John Graham, General Secretary of the European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF). In the presentation, the expert provided a review of the development of digital cinema in the world and Europe with a focus on the business models applied for financing projects in this area. The speaker also examined the reasons for the slow process of transition to digital technology, as well as the impact of 3D on the current production and distribution of movies.

The creation of a digital terrestrial television platform and the need of its development to provide such services as HD, Mobile TV and 3D was considered by the First Vice President of TDF Global Media, Chairman of the DigiTAG digital dividend and the future of digital terrestrial television working group, Bernard Pauchon, in the presentation: “Terrestrial Television from Analogue SD to Digital HD. The Unique Platform to Provide Universal Coverage to All Television Households”. The representative spoke about DTT HD services provided in Europe, and the opportunities to complement them with standard definition digital TV at the initial stage of development of digital terrestrial television. Among other issues under consideration were those of the use of MPEG 4 and DVB-T2 standards for full HD services with an aim at 3D TV, the aspects of the impact of the regulatory framework on the development of HD. Finally, some recommendations were given for the successful introduction of HD services in Ukraine.

Very interesting, according to the audience, was the seminar on the topic: “Understanding HDTV Technology”, by Peter Wilson, International Consultant in High Definition Television and Digital Cinema (HDDC). The main issues of the seminar were: brief history and the notion of HDTV, the history of the moving image, compression technology for HDTV, spatial or temporal coding, codecs, etc.

The questions of technological progress and international standardization of digital broadcasting technologies were not set aside. They were covered by the representatives of the UNIIRT and Odessa National Academy of Communications named after A.S. Popov.

A traditional booth competition was held at the exhibition, and this year the role of the selection committee was not performed by experts, but by all visitors of EEBC 2009.

According to the “public” opinion, the best company in the Big Booth nomination was IP COM, a telecommunications equipment manufacturer and supplier to the Ukrainian market. The company manufactures vandal-proof office telecommunication cabinets and boxes and is the official dealer of Yuzhkabel and Odeskabel plants. The winners in the Medium Booth and Small Booth nominations were Teleodyn (M1, M2) and Gamma — the first Ukrainian channel to broadcast in the DVB-T format.

Memorable prizes were also awarded to representatives of companies that presented new products and solutions in telecommunications and broadcasting at EEBC. Among them were such companies as COGENT, Intercom, ASTRO, Mortelekom Service, DEPS, FORO tel, GEFEST and VAGO Ukraine.

At the conclusion of EEBC 2009, a post-exhibition press conference was held, providing statistic information on the event. The speakers at the conference were Inna Burgela, Director of EEBC 2009, Vlada Rublevskaya, the Project Manager, Olga Averina, Program Director, Onno Zonneveld, SES SIRIUS AB Vice President of Market Development in Eastern and Central Europe / Representative Office in Kyiv, Mykola Oliyarnyk, an analyst at the iKS-Consulting agency, and Valery Perkar, President of Euroindex.

According to Vlada Rublevskaya, EEBC 2009 Project Manager, this year the exhibition occupied 3,500 sq m, the total number of participants was 159 from 28 countries (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Germany, Israel, Canada, the USA, India, Pakistan, South Korea). The number of companies exhibiting with booths was 86. The number of unique visitors totaled 3,650.

The topics of the solutions exhibited were distributed as follows: equipment for satellite and cable television (37%), telecommunications equipment (30%), equipment for content production and broadcasting (11%), TV channels and production studios (22%). It was also noted that satellite segment was much more active this year, and the sector of telecommunication equipment was presented more widely compared to last year.

So, the outstanding event of the telecommunications market has come to its logical completion. Next year, the Eighth Eastern Europe exhibition EEBC 2010 Telecom & Broadcasting will traditionally gather a community of telecommunication and broadcasting market professionals from 20 through 22 October.