The yearly technology event CommunicAsia, Broadcast Asia, EnterpriseIT2015 was back in Singapore recently. The 4 day event was held in Marina Bay Sands between 2^nd to 5^th June. Over the years the scale of the event has grown considerably and changed venues with the latest covering five floors in the MBS Convention centre. For the past couple of years some free programs have been included for the public. Technology tours and lectures by industry experts are some of the popular ones. It is an easy way for the general public to get acquainted with latest technologies and actually see the demos in many booths on display.

Smart home related technologies have been around for a few years now. But this year smart techs displayed covered an entire range of home appliances and devices across every part and aspect of home like LED lighting to curtain drawing. Other than Smart technologies what a visitor took away as this year’s buzz was the cloud services and internet of things in the enterprise related technologies. Among those displayed in the BroadcastAsia technologies that saw the maximum crowds was the TV everywhere  zone which basically is about monetization of OTT (Over the top) content for multi-screen viewing and for devices on the move.

It is evident that what was envisioned on papers as a research topic a few years ago has now mushroomed into a host of applications with the bottom-line reason being that the devices can now connect to the internet faster than ever through technologies like Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G. The whole idea of smartness which was till few years ago limited to smart handheld devices and Smart TVs today spans the entire spectrum of the consumer, health and industrial electronics based technologies. The small  embedded chips have made entry into our lives in unimaginable ways through every sort of device, tools or even wearables acting like sensors and providing unlimited data for analysis. The new technologies have spurred some builders including the HDB to announce building of smart homes as part of the drive towards making Singapore a smart nation.

The IOT or the internet of things which is essentially the collection of data (Big Data) through sensors in industry environment with a centrally managed cloud is believed to be waiting for a second wave to become widely accepted if only its business model could add more functional value to the devices at a radically lower cost with real privacy. If cloud services is decentralized the enhanced functionality of devices could create a new market place and a new economy of things.

The increased connectivity and connected devices is central to the players in OTT market too who are trying to make money by producing the right digital content for the right device also known as second screen content. The deployment of 4G(LTE) mobile networks in recent years has enabled a higher bit rate with increased streaming speeds for viewing on smart devices like I-phone and I-pad. Since the full rollout of Digital Transmission(DVB) is yet to catch up in many countries, and traditional broadcast networks not being ready to support for the much hyped 4K UHD, OTT networks provide alternative channels for 4K content delivery for the broadcasters. Broadcast- IP broadband integration technologies are thus the in thing to take care of the changing consumer behavior with regards to on -demand and anywhere and everywhere of the viewing content. This has opened up a range of possibilities for tech companies for leveraging their expertise in content management.