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NEM - The convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications
The NEM (Networked and Electronic Media) Initiative is the necessary revolution that the emerging convergence of digital devices and networks at all levels demands. This initiative will enable European society to progress to the all-embracing integrated communications community. You must have noticed the convergence happening – your mobile phone is also a camera, your PC can find networks in hotels, airports, anywhere, and you can receive TV by cable, satellite, internet, DVB-T or even on your mobile phone again! However, what has been happening is that many of these convergences have been on a low level putting greater and greater pressure on the networks and the device manufacturers to incorporate many different inter-working capabilities for different network technologies and services. This is directly causing higher manufacturing costs and a degree of complexity in the devices that intimidates most users. We cannot continue in this ad-hoc fashion if we are to achieve substantial progress and maintain a competitive European industry in the ICT area. What is needed are consistent research teams working in cooperation and in competition towards well-defined visionary and challenging goals. NEM will provide the vision and the goals and will work with the EU and the national research authorities in the European countries to ensure Europe maintains a competitive networked and electronic media industry benchmarked with other business regions in the world. An industry-led initiative for focused research NEM is an industry-led initiative to promote and direct the large-scale efforts needed to accelerate the pace of innovation and technology evolution to position the European industry at the forefront of competitiveness and give users a wide choice of services. The key point that the main players in the ICT sector will put their energy into this initiative shows how important it is to the community. We need to focus the research investments towards a common vision of how pervasive services that benefit all society can be provided in an innovative, cost-efficient way. Without such a vision we will not achieve the critical mass of large-scale sales, high levels of employment, and good economic well-being for the people and states of Europe. This vision must be implemented through a strategic partnership of public and private investments, coordinated at European level, to ensure the optimum use of the investment efforts by each individual Member State in a global context. This will also ensure that the individual investments are contributing consistently to improving the European position in the world marketplace. Cooperation with regulatory authorities It will also be necessary for the European administrations to work with the industry to create a favourable regulatory environment, which will foster the use of networked and electronic media technologies to contribute to growth and opportunities empowering skilled employment. To achieve a level playing field that will encourage the commercial development of the NEM services, there will have to be consistency between national and European regulations. The approach proposed by industry is to have as little regulation as possible and only to introduce rules where necessary to ensure equal opportunity for all players. One of the biggest challenges here will be to show the regulatory authorities the NEM vision in such a way that they can understand the different nature of the converged services market and they can plan for the removal of many of today’s regulations that actively prevent convergence. The new NEM sector will need openness between internet, telephony (fixed and mobile), VoIP, DVB-T, DVB-S, and the many related services that are already beginning to be seen in “Quad-Play” offers. Societal impact These new networked and electronic media are already proving to have a major influence on quality of life. Notably in the context of extended home environments, they will further create changes to societies, democracy, education, health and culture, in addition to providing major opportunities for wealth and job creation. On this latter issue, two ambitious targets for Europe should be:
Clearly here the NEM initiative is a win-win scenario for industry and governmental agencies. The economic wellbeing of Europe is tightly linked to fostering successful industries employing many people. The envisaged public-private partnership nature of this initiative – with the steering coming from the industry based on market and user needs – has the highest potential for long term sustainable success. Current status of the NEM Initiative The first public meeting related to the NEM Initiative was held in December 2004 in Nice where 140 companies were represented. At this meeting the needs for the NEM initiative and the willingness of the ICT industrial sector to promote and support this initiative were discussed. The consensus reached at that workshop was that the NEM initiative represented the needs of the community to define a new sector and to push for consistent and coherent research strategies to realise these ambitions. The founder members co-opted some more of the leading industry players onto the steering board and continued to develop the initiative. This reached its first target with the official launch of the NEM initiative on 29 June 2005 where Commissioner Reding stressed the importance of this marriage between the media sector, the entertainment sector and Broadcasting sector, and the ICT sector, which is the key to an inclusive society and a successful advanced-technology industry in Europe for the future. The first General Assembly was held in Brussels on 30 June 2005. There, the governance approach and the proposals for the first NEM work groups were discussed and decided. The first work-group meetings are planned for mid-October in Madrid where the principles of the vision will be discussed and rationalised. These meetings will identify some subdivisions of these working groups, and a continuation of these meetings will be the primary mechanism for updating and refining the NEM Strategic Research Agenda. Today there are more than 250 companies registered as NEM members, and the number is growing. The initiative is open for more companies to join.The next General Assembly is planned for December 2005. Visit www.nem-initiative.org for further information and online registration to the General Assembly. The NEM vision:
The NEM Steering Board:
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