Project News: MODIBEC goes to China

Date: 11 August 2008

The EU-funded and ERTICO coordinated MODIBEC project will hold its China National Event on 27- 28 October 2008 in Beijing. This conference paves the way towards strengthening EU-China research collaboration as well as looking forwards to future EU-China joint research project opportunities and what has been achieved so far. A dense programme ahead!
 
MODIBEC held its kick-off meeting in March 2007. A year and a half later, it is time to synthesise its achievements. The two-day conference will take place within the modern Swissôtel venue, in the heart of the Chinese capital and will bring together key players in digital broadcasting and mobile communications. In addition to the identification of concrete joint research priorities and the possibility of making recommendations for future EU-China research cooperation, the participants will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the latest technological advances through the exhibition area devoted to digital broadcasting receivers and other demonstrations.
 
The conference will be dynamic and enriching thanks to the diversity of the speakers and panelists and to the opportunities scheduled in the programme for the attendees to interact with the speakers. Speakers will range from Chinese Government (SARFT) and European Commission officials, standardisation bodies, private companies, industry associations and research bodies.
 
A whole morning session (1st day) will be dedicated to analysing what has been done in the digital broadcasting sector in the context of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Other main themes include convergence of digital broadcasting and mobile communications, in-car applications (mobile devices embedded in cars) and future cooperation areas for European and Chinese funded research activities.
 
On the second day, Traffic Mobility Logistics (PTV) will review the first year and a half of the MODIBEC project. The last element of this morning section will suggest future EU-China research cooperation areas identified by current EU and Chinese research projects; it will encourage the participants to come up with new proposals and give new ideas in order to stimulate further collaboration.
 
Interactive broadcast services will be the focal point of the next discussion forum during the morning session (2nd day). Both the prospects and challenges of interactivity in broadcast and mobile services, convergence of broadcasting with mobile communications and the identification of potential areas for joint RTD will be addressed. Guangdong Mobile TV Media (GTM) will give a concise presentation on the actual state of play in the industry. Nokia Siemens Networks, GTM, Orient Dragon and Stream Media will discuss the key areas within this topic.
 
The very last session of the conference will address the following theme: Opportunities and constraints within the broadcasting and telecommunications sector. SARFT will take the lead in presenting the state of play in China to be followed by an open discussion with WorldDMB, GTM, Da Tang Mobile and Thomson as panelists.
 
The expected outcomes of the event are to secure further participation from, and continue to create closer links between European and Chinese experts in the convergence of digital broadcasting and mobile communication systems, in order to strengthen international co-operation for future R&D projects in this area. 
 
The event will explore and identify priority areas for possible future joint R&D projects involving European and Chinese participants, particularly in those areas currently identified in the draft event agenda, namely:  interoperability of standards in one device; interactive broadcast/telecoms service solutions; and in-car applications.
 
Finally the National Event will seek to define potential areas for future EU-China RTD cooperation in the area of digital broadcasting and mobile convergence. 

For more information please visit http://www.modibec.org/ or contact Mr Javier Barrio at j.barrio@mail.ertico.com