CeBIT 2007 Australia: Report

David Field | May 10, 2007 5:03 PM
This year's CeBIT was a mecca for demonstration and discussion of technology. Here are some of the highlights.
You may have seen our pictures from the floor, but there is still a lot to be said about this year’s CeBIT.

Open Source
This year saw the introduction of a series of seminars on Open Source. Dubbed Open CeBIT, the talks culminated in an address by Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer of Sun Microsystems. He focused on software patents and how they affect the Open Source Community, the numerous software licence classes in the open source world and the shift in software models since the 70’s. He opined that the best way of fighting patent trolls is with a combination of patent grants (donations of patents to protect projects; a model used by Samba), compulsory licensing (co-owned communal patents, similar to the GPL’s terms) and non-competition covenants (which mark work as patent free).

Phipps’ address analysed the obsession our culture has with the term “free”, pointing out that in other cultures “gratis” or “without payment” is the term applied to open source software. He applied the gratis system to the current software market, currently in its third revision, and outlined software’s evolution from the 1970s (when software was bundled to make hardware work) through the 80s (where unbundled software was sold with a licence that you didn’t get commensurate value from) and finally to the third software model in use from 2000 to today. Developers choose to pay for the tools they need when they deploy. His emphasis was on the freedom open source delivers, not the fact that it is free.

Video and displays
The most exciting piece of display technology was Panasonic’s 103” plasma, the TH-103PFPWK. It’s the biggest single plasma panel on earth, is larger than a double bed, weighs 220 kilograms and costs $130,000 including installation. We had a feeling that any display larger than the TH-103PF9WK would have to have a house built around it instead of being carried through a door. That was until we saw a clever piece of video wall engineering from Total Concept Projects known as the Multi Plasma Display Panel.

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Video walls are huge displays made out of many smaller displays, and are most often used in stadiums and concert venues. Total Concept Projects has chained together multiple Orion 42” plasma panels, which created the largest image at the show. The system works by chaining the output of one panel to the input of another, then using a serial connector to control how each panel sections off and displays a section of the image. Up to 200 plasma screens can be connected into a video wall, and although LCDs could have been used in lieu of plasma, they aren’t as rigid, reducing the number of potential applications.

Analysis software
You may have seen our photos of Sony’s Intelligent Video Analysis software using its range of IP cameras to track movement and identify faces. This kind of technology isn’t limited to security applications, as we saw at the National ICT Australia stand. We watched multiple video streams taken from different angles at an intersection being fed into a computer, where custom NICTA software determined average speeds, traffic densities and use of breakdown lanes -- all while measuring and graphing the data. The demonstration was not connected to any traffic control systems, but it is capable of driving them. The RTA is reportedly interested in the system.

Media and Telecommunications
Paul Budde of Budde–Comm gave a series of talks focusing on new media and communications, as well as what they believe will influence it and its uptake. He pointed out that while the rollout of mobile broadband continues, we have stopped being so concerned with convergence and more concerned with digital media, indicating that the infrastructure is in place and we should now be concerned with the content that will drive the mobile revolution. The revolution will be televised on mobile handsets, will occur sometime between 2008 and 2010 and will be powered by WiMAX. Concerns over the ability of major telcos to simply drop the prices of their own 3G powered mobile data services -- thus reducing the appeal of WiMAX -- were expressed.