Key CE trends to dominate.
IFA is the world’s leading trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances. It will take place from September 2 to September 7 2016 at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. More than 70 start-ups and 100 companies, research institutes, universities, and industry associations will be at this year’s IFA.
IFA TecWatch, the central hub of ideas for the markets of tomorrow, will be showcasing innovations and the latest products from all corners of the consumer and home electronics industries. The TecWatch Forum at the center of the hall complements the exhibition with a program of lectures, panel discussions, and presentations.
For the third time this year, the German Start-ups Association is working closely with the IFA organisers to put together five days following different themes: the Start-Up Days.
Friday, 2 September: Smart Home
Saturday, 3 September: Virtual Reality
Sunday, 4 September: Digital Health
Monday, 5 September: Future Mobility
Tuesday 6 September: Internet of Things
A group of young entrepreneurs will present their product ideas all day on each of the five Start-up Days. In addition to this, the founders of these start-ups will each present their technology and marketing concepts on the TecWatch Forum presentation stage.
Virtual reality
The largest 3D scanner of all time creates templates for the virtual worlds for a variety of applications, such as video games. It records objects and people using more than 80 high-aperture lenses arranged around the walls of a compact photo booth. The entire scanning process is complete within just a fraction of a second.
Smart home
Industry association ZVEH’s e-home is a reference installation for the connected life. It presents smart home solutions for intelligent energy and atmosphere management, comfortable communication, media distribution, and security.
The e-home shows a host of successful examples in action. Many small and medium-sized companies will also present detailed solutions for life in connected homes, where the Internet of Things plays an increasingly dominant role in everyday life.
The smart home kitchen of the future is also likely to include an app-controlled personal brewery. Visitors to TecWatch aged 18 and over will be able to try it for themselves.
TV image quality
The future of broadcasting has arrived in the form of DVB-T2 HD, the next generation of terrestrial TV. Broadcasters in Germany are using an extremely efficient video coding standard to make this a reality – HEVC, which was specially developed for Ultra HD. Spectacular image quality will be another focus, including brightness, contrast, and colours.
Audio sound
3D audio has already established itself in home theatre, virtual headphones, and even car audio. The new MPEG-H audio codec offers a range of additional opportunities. This new codec can pack multiple audio objects into a single sound data stream, such as different language options which can be selected via the remote control.