Finding your way through the halls and aisles of the massive IBC can feel a bit like attempting to complete all 21 stages of the Tour de France — but in far fewer days. But have no fear; your team at Garland is all geared up and ready to show you the best on show at this year's exhibition.

Consistently breaking away from the pack is LiveU (stand 3.B62). This crowd favourite leads the live video revolution with its must-have solutions for live streaming for TV, mobile, online, and social media. On the stand you'll have the chance to see the ground-breaking Griiip G1 Formula car with LU200 on-board and learn how the G1 Series in Italy is live streamed. The G1 Formula race car brings new features and superior performance to the race track and for the first time drivers and fans are connected to a LiveU-powered Multiview platform, letting viewers switch between drivers' views throughout the race.

Of course, the demo of LiveU’s LU600 with the HEVC-4K Pro Card added is a must-see. They’ll also be showing their Video Return capability for sending content from the studio back to the LU600 for confidence monitoring or teleprompter applications. And save a few minutes for the LiveU Solo, the plug-and-play live streaming device for online media. You can live-stream seamlessly to Facebook Live, Twitter, YouTube Live and other platforms. Perhaps the coolest device you’ll try at IBC. But that’s not all! Watch for an exciting addition to the LiveU portfolio — it could be the yellow jersey of the day.

Watch out for NTT Electronics’ (stand 2.C58). Their 4K UHD HEVC encoders to continue to sprint ahead this year. They’re renowned for their leadership in hardware-based 4K/UHD HEVC codec technology with the highest quality, most efficient bandwidth and density savings in the market today. NTT Electronics will be demonstrating UHD HEVC HFR (High Frame Rate) at 100/120FPS, as well as the MV7000, their new HD HEVC encoder.

No Grand Tour would be complete without a visit to see the HEROs over at Media Excel (stand 14.G18). The multi-screen video encoding/transcoding solutions of this leading supplier power more than 300 million multi-screen subscribers worldwide, delivering the reliability, scalability and performance required to process high -quality video for head-end and cloud-based workflows. At IBC, you’ll have a chance to see in action their HERO product line of OTT and 4K encoders/transcoders and decoders. They’ll be demonstrating 4K UHD HEVC workflows, ad signalling/ad insertion, DVB subs for subtitling, HDR (High Dynamic Range) encoding/decoding, and industry partnerships interoperability in all workflows such as USP, Azure and AWS.

Get ready for a ride in the clouds with Teracue (stand 11.C40). The Teracue Application Cloud (TAC) gives you the chance to unite the popular features of the well-known Teracue MC-ROUTE and MC-TRANS. The TAC lets you adjust, manage and control routing and transcoding of live SD/HD/4K streams in a single application. The new GUI design is an intuitive matrix overview that allows an overview of incoming and outgoing streams at first glance. Teracue will have on hand their next-generation MC-Route system with added support for RTMP and SRT (Secure Reliable Transport). It’s the ideal application to bridge networks and encapsulation conversion. Ask Teracue also about their contribution encoder/decoders ENC400/DEC400 and compact HEVC HDMI encoder, the ENC500.

Manning the race control centre is WISI (stand 5.B50), who’ll be showcasing their software-based headend solutions. Their Tangram platform is ideal for distribution via IP as it’s designed with high density and performance in mind. You can get an amazing 24 x DVB transponders in a 1RU platform. WISI’s Chameleon headend platform was designed with current and future applications in mind making it perfect for transitioning from analogue to digital. Take advantage of its unique flexibility that lets you change functionality at the click of a button. Be sure to also check out Firefly, their professional integrated HLS receiver converting HLS into IP multicast/unicast streams.

So much to see, but so little time? Don’t worry. In this race, we given you a time bonus so you can get over to Broadcast Wireless Systems (BWS) (stand 1.A78). Ask about their Sapphire encoder/decoder, which offers exceptional compression ratios on video resolutions up to 4K UHD — ideal for live applications such as broadcast contribution, ENG/SNG and wireless cameras. You’ll save money on contribution bandwidth and have the most cost-effective 4K UHD platforms on the market. Now supporting multichannel encoding, BISS and Dolby AC3 Passthrough.

It’s a sprint to the finish, as we take our last lap around the Champs D’ Artel. Artel Video Systems’ 30+ years’ expertise in IP- and fibre-based technologies has made them a trusted partner in developing integrated solutions for contribution media delivery, data networking, OTT and precision timing (PTP) over managed and un-managed networks.
Look for their Digi-Link and Infinity-Link baseband to IP gateways, with SMPTE 2022 support and 2110 coming.

So, while you’re in the zone, mark the 13th to 18th of September in your calendars now and start making plans to attend at RAI in Amsterdam. In fact, why not take a minute to register, then email us to set up a meeting. By completing our Tour de Tech you’ll even have time for a well-deserved victory lap.

Lorna Garrett is the co-founder of Garland. She has been providing professional and profitable digital video solutions over the past 10 years. Contact her at +44(0)24 7610 2020 or info@gpl-uk.co.uk.