The Institute for broadcasting technology: a Phoenix from the ashes?

As you heard recently from the Institute for broadcasting technology (IRT), the public broadcasters carried-out technology lab in Munich, it looked bleak. A long patent dispute with the Italian marketer Sisvel and a Munich lawyer, initiated by the legal office of the Headquarters of the Bavarian broadcasting Corporation, had brought to little: Of the required two hundred million euros for the marketing of the Mpeg patents were after all sixty million. For years, nothing was noticed, years the controversy lasted. Last December, all the members of the IRT from jumped, then, as a surprise. The ARD lifts accounted for 80.8 percent of the grants to the Budget, the ZDF and 14.4, the Germany radio 3.2 and the ORF, as well as the Swiss SSR of 0.8. The end of an innovative, but apparently negligently-run Institution is in the room. And those who were not quite innocent, to leave the ship.

Axel Weidemann

editor in the features section.

F. A. Z.

With the termination of the shareholder at the end of the year 2020 has not been calculated, said IRT spokesman Thomas Schierbaum at the time. Especially since you’ve seen each other on a “good path” and a part of the first, allocating money specifically for the relief of the public broadcaster used. These are under pressure to achieve from the policy, required savings.

Now, the IRT published its annual report in 2019, and to nourish the hope that it is not over yet. The Preface of the managing Director, Michael Hagemeyer and Jochen Mezger with the keyword “continuous improvement” begins. In 2019, the IRT had been re-oriented, “to improve with a future – proof spectrum of tasks and services the more value for the shareholders”. Despite the unexpected termination of the shareholders will worked “intensively” on receipt of the IRT. However, the Institute will be subjected to downsize: “Depending on the number of the remaining shareholders, and their financing options would adjust in this case, the IRT with respect to number of employees and variety of topics.”

it All depends on bythe decisions of the partners

On demand, how this might look in practice, it means that such “questions are dependent on the decisions of the shareholders and can not be answered by us currently”. In the figures, it looks like this: income In the IRT took over in the year 2018, more than 60 million from the Patent litigation, a total of 84,397 million. The expenses of 61,364 million were offset, of which, with 49,528 million, the lion’s share of personnel costs. A large part of which, in turn, went to the engineers, which was once involved in the development of the Mpeg audio patents. 2019 with the proceeds of 16,635 million euros, compared with expenses of 24,182 million all a bit more modest. The staff was reduced from 120 to 108 employees.

on the Basis of the ongoing projects, it is clear that the IRT in the development of broadcast technology standards have still something to say about that – if the new start is a success. Working on a radio network on 5G technology, the Hybrid Radio mentioned combination of linear and Persian label of the rotatable Radio-services, the accessibility of the “immersive media” such as VR technology, and a database that links the entire value chain of a moving image production intelligent by storing the data-loss-free and their meta combines data with each other, so that at the end of the different programs of the individual production steps on the database can communicate with each other.