With ANGA COM 2016 around the corner, time to catch up again with Dr. Peter Charissé, managing director ANGA COM, about the current status of this year’s event, which will be held from June 7 – 9 in Cologne, Germany.
How is the current booking status for ANGA COM 2016?
As today already 430 exhibitors from 34 countries have registered for ANGA COM. Three months to go we are close to our record level of 450. Astra, AVM, Nagra, Nokia, QVC, and Unitymedia will continue their longstanding commitment as sponsoring partners. Several leading exhibitors, including Deutsche Telekom, Eutelsat, and Huawei, will significantly expand their presence.
ANGA COM 2016 has just released its congress agenda – could you tell us some key facts?
Our congress agenda lists a total of 26 expert panels. Among the congress cooperation partners are 12 leading associations from the broadband and media sector including SCTE and ISBE. With an upgraded International Television and Broadband Summit – presented by Cable Europe Chairman Matthias Kurth – the re-designed Broadband Day and three overseas panels we underline our claim to be the leading market place for both industry sectors far beyond Germany.
What are the highlights of this year’s congress agenda?
For the first time, Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter (CEO Vodafone Germany) and Anke Schäferkordt (Co-CEO RTL Group) will join the congress opening session. Highlight of the international congress track with 13 panels in English will be the upgraded International Television & Broadband Summit. Speakers are: Michel Azibert (CCO & Deputy CEO, Eutelsat), Wilhelm Dresselhaus (Spokesperson of the Managing Board, Nokia Solutions and Networks), Wolf-gang Elsäßer (Chief Regional Officer Central Western Europe, SES / Managing Director, ASTRA Deutschland), Bruce McClelland (President Network & Cloud and Global Services, ARRIS), Xinbing Tang (CTO of Huawei Fixed Network Product Line), Dirk Wierzbitzki (EVP Products & Marketing, Swisscom) and Dr. Dirk Wössner from Canada (President, Consumer Business Unit, Rogers Communications).
ANGA is well-known for its technical expertise. What are your plans for this year?
Topics of the technology panels are Cloud TV, RDK (in cooperation with SCTE – The Society for Broadband Professionals), UHDTV (in cooperation with DVB), DOCSIS 3.1 (in cooperation with ISBE – International Society of Broadband Experts), Internet of Things, Big Data, PNM, RF Design, 5G and WiFi. All technology panels will be held in English and the other panels will be translated simultaneously.
You announced to put more focus on overseas markets. What do we have to expect?
In addition to the regular congress panels, there will be three `Overseas panels`. With “ANGA Asia“, “ANGA Middle East“ and “ANGA Africa“ experts will speak about experiences and outlooks in these growing markets. These panels can be attended by all visitors without any additional registration.
If we look at the congress agenda in more detail – which points would you like to emphasise?
Contents get more and more important for broadband operators. Exciting discussions on the distribution and marketing of digital media offerings can be expected from the titles of the strategy panels “Personalized TV: Recommendation Engines and NetPVR“, “TV goes App: Multiscreen and TV Everywhere“, and “New TV Advertising & Big Data“.
Another top-class strategy panel deals with the competition between the next generation of terrestrial television (DVB-T2), which will begin operating in Germany during the course of this year, and Mobile TV via mobile networks and WiFi. Taking part in the discussion are Media Broadcast, Media Group RTL, Telekom Deutschland, Sony, Vodafone Deutschland and ZDF.
Another content panel deals with the future of Pay TV and Video on Demand. Following his keynote, Dr. Christoph Schneider (Managing Director Amazon Instant Video Germany) will discuss with Deutsche Telekom, NBC Universal Global Networks Deutschland and Sky Deutschland.
A completely new feature is our broadband day with free visitor access – what’s behind this?
The third congress day will be placed on a completely new fundament this year: It will become the Broadband Theme Day with free access for all visitors. The panels will particularly address all kind of broadband companies including the increasing number of local and regional fibre network operators. The topics range from FTTH, G.fast and Smart Home to Internet of Things and Regulation. On 9 June the visit to exhibition and congress is completely free of charge upon prior online registration.
