The importance of languages in shaping the audiovisual media industry’s future is set to be a hot topic for discussion in Berlin – Europe’s new media hub – later this year. And it is a topic which has already generated an “unprecedented” level of interest among industry experts and media firms keen to win new business in a rapidly expanding market.

The theme of this year’s Languages and the Media conference, which will take place in the German capital on October 3 – 5 2018, is ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution – Reshaping Languages in the Media.’

Conference organisers say they have been “astonished and delighted” by the response to a recent call for papers, in which respondents were asked to submit their proposals for presentations, talks and discussions on the effect of a so-called “fourth industrial revolution” on audiovisual media distribution and localisation.

The “fourth industrial revolution” refers to the increasing interlinking of the physical, digital and biological worlds by new technology. It is already having a profound effect on almost all industries and economies. Experts are predicting that its impact on the media, however, could be transformative, leading to a range of new solutions to age-old problems that have hitherto obstructed the development and distribution of content.

“It is going to have a huge effect on the localisation of media content,” says conference organiser, Rebecca Stromeyer. “Industry leaders understand that this is a period of great change in which there are big challenges and opportunities. I have never known anything like the response to this year’s conference theme. It is clear that this is the big issue of the day for both companies and education institutions.

“They all realise that things are changing very fast now and the media industry is keen to get together to discuss the consequences and implications for the way we use languages and the new solutions that are now being made possible. Some big commercial opportunities are opening up.”

Keynote speakers at the conference will include David Padmore, the UK-based SVP of Content Services at TVT. With 25 years’ experience in the TV and media industries, he started out as a subtitler with the BBC before going on to lead Red Bee and Ericsson Access Service teams delivering subtitling, audio description and sign language translation for broadcasters in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, USA, Canada and Australia. At ‘Languages and the Media’, he will set out the scope and scale of new opportunities for content localisation and accessibility.

Major themes at the conference, which is being sponsored by STAR and PBTEU, will include new distribution models, language tools, interlingual transfer, accessibility, the future of work and quality standards.

The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition, at which international solutions providers will showcase a range of innovative products and services.