It’s hard to believe that it's not yet four years since the modern iteration of 3D reared its head at IBC once more, chasing away the ghosts of 50s and 70s monster and disaster films as digital projection and post production power gave the viewer a technology fit for the 21st century. With numerous dedicated 3D channels already transmitting worldwide, set costs plummeting, and with no let up in the appetite for 3D films, the progress of the format since has been astonishingly rapid.

At the moment even the most downbeat assessments seem to point to a rosy future, with latest figures suggesting that there will be 11million 3DTV sets in the UK alone by 2016. And even if only 42% of owners of those sets will have activated 3D services, as a new Informa Telecoms & Media report suggests, that’s still over 4.5m viewers.

With the speed of progress surprising even the most seasoned of industry professionals, IBC2011 is the ideal place to find out where it's headed next. And this applies to the conference as well as the showfloor, where the state-of-the-art stereo 3D projections systems of the RAI’s immense Auditorium can be fully stretched to their limits.

It is, of course, too early to talk about what the world’s manufacturers working in the 3D space are planning on bringing to the show, but from rig developers to specialist software providers, camera manufacturers to post production specialists, every aspect of the 3D production chain is present amongst IBC’s 1,300+ exhibitors. IBC’s heritage of worldwide technology premiers means that visitors to the show are likely to see the very latest 3D technology in Amsterdam first, well before the rest of the world.

With 3D firmly installed as a hot topic at the show, the conference programme is also already filling up with sessions on the subject. Again, this will take attendees from glass to glass and cover all levels of expertise along the way. ‘Getting to Grips with Stereo 3D’ (10:30, Sunday 1l September in the Auditorium) will act as an invaluable primer for producers, cinematographers and other creatives about the basics of 3D shooting; ‘3D Live at the Big Screen’ (09:00, Monday 12 September in the Auditorium) will delve into the topic and complexities of live 3D, as well as reporting back on the summer’s developments in 2D/3D combined shoots; and that session will be closely followed the same day with a look at the flip side of the coin with ‘Stereoscopic 3D – Fixing it in Post’ (11:00, Monday 12 September in the Auditorium).

Then, of course, there are the popular Added Value sessions on Tuesday 13 September run by SCTE which will look in depth at the problems of distributing 3D movies and 3DTV, and EDCF will review the years progress in D-Cinema.

Lastly on the Monday afternoon at 15:30 an intriguing session titled ‘A Glimpse into the Stereoscopic Future’ asks what we can expect to see on our screens a decade from now. “Tantalizingly,” says the precis of the session, “perhaps the future of holographic technology is closer than you think.”

Tantilizing indeed. The past three years of 3D has been a frenetic ride. At IBC2011 you will see what the next three years may bring.