NEM Summit 2009 – Towards Future Media Internet

Following the success of the first NEM Summit in Saint-Malo in October 2008, the second NEM Summit took place again in Saint-Malo from 28-30 September 2009. More than 460 registered Summit participants discussed the impact of media on the future Internet and how the resulting challenges could be met.

The highlights of the conference were the participation of more than 35 highly recognised speakers and the exhibition with more than 55 exhibitors from various projects and organisations. The conference was organised by the European Technology Platform (ETP) on Networked and Electronic Media (NEM) under the aegis of the European Commission. It was organised again in close collaboration with the local supporters – the Media & Networks cluster, the Region of Brittany, and the City of Saint-Malo.

The conference offered participants an opportunity to share information and viewpoints on the R&D status in the area of future media Internet, to network with peers from all over the world, and to get up-to-date and reliable information on the technology and market perspectives.

The NEM Summit brought together a unique group of international experts: representatives of the NEM community from Europe and worldwide, major manufacturers and service companies, start-ups and SMEs, research centres and institutions, industry associations and groups as well as standardization and regulation bodies.

The Second NEM Summit 2009 was dedicated to the theme "Towards Future Media Internet". The Summit included 29 papers, selected by the Technical Programme Committee out of more than 50 submitted papers, and several invited papers and keynote talks. The main topics addressed at the event were electronic media content, media related services and applications, new media delivery networks, user devices and terminals, and 3D technologies. 

The conference

The more than 460 participants discussed various issues related to the Future Media Internet at ten sessions and two panel discussions. The Summit was an opportunity for direct discussions among researchers and engineers working on different levels of development and realisation of the NEM future. Several topics were discussed, such as human and societal issues related to the Future Internet, or how the Future Internet can serve to make living, learning and working easier in the future. There was a lot of agreement that the users must be in the centre of all discussions and solutions. Furthermore, various approaches for distribution of the future media formats were presented and discussed. Finally, particular attention was paid to the topics dedicated to broad R&D activities aiming to establish the 3D media future. 

The exhibition

The Second NEM Summit included a well targeted exhibition with over 55 exhibitors demonstrating their R&D results around the theme of the conference. The booths and demos in the exhibition were done by different players, such as industry, regional and global research initiatives, research centres, and associations. In addition, projects from the European R&D Framework Programmes had a good part of the exhibition. Amongst them was the Integrating Project TA2 (Together Anywhere, Together Anytime), which showed how geographically separated families and friends can keep a feeling of togetherness through applying appropriate ICT services. Dr. Douglas Williams from BT, the technical manager of TA2, said “the NEM Summit is an excellent opportunity to discuss our project with other experts in the Media Internet area”.

The next NEM Summit will be held in Nantes, France, on 25-27 November 2010.

More information about the NEM Summit and its programme can be found at http://www.nem-summit.eu.  

About the NEM Initiative

Set up in 2005, NEM is a European Technology Platform dedicated to Networked and Electronic Media. With more than 700 members, it is a large-scale European industrial initiative to accelerate the pace of innovation through convergence between content creation, audiovisual, telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as information technologies sectors and to place the European industry at the forefront of the information era. NEM brings together industrial players and research institutes from more than 30 countries.