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Inter BEE 2024

History

The Broadcast Equipment Exhibition, the original name of Inter BEE, was first held in 1965 by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB-J) as a joint exhibition with the 2nd Technical Report Conference on Commercial Broadcasting at the Invention Hall in Toranomon, Tokyo, with some 12 companies exhibiting products. The second exhibition was held in 1966 under the joint sponsorship of NAB-J and the Electronic Industry Association (currently known as the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association/JEITA). From the third exhibition in 1967, the venue was moved to the Science Museum located in Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo, which had just opened at the time. The fourth exhibition in 1968 was held under the main sponsorship of the Electronic Industry Association with the NAB-J as a supporting organization.

And from the tenth exhibition in 1974, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) also became a cooperating organization. Established specifically for the benefit of broadcast equipment users, the exhibition garnered much attention within the industry to earn it a prominent position among domestic exhibitions.

The eleventh exhibition in 1975 attracted a remarkable amount of attention when an experimental display called, “Broadcast-TV Multiplex Broadcasts ? The Wave of the Future”, was created as a special exhibit. The number of visitors and exhibitors increased significantly from the thirteenth exhibition in 1977 and by the fourteenth exhibition in 1978, the number of overseas exhibits grew to coincide with the rising amount of international visitors.

The venue for the eighteenth exhibition in 1982 was moved to the TRC (Tokyo Ryutsu Center) in Heiwajima, Tokyo, which offered 2.5 times more exhibition space than the Science Museum. Taking advantage of this move, the exhibition name was changed to “The International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition (Inter BEE)”, to reflect the growing number of participants from overseas.。

Sections within the exhibition become more specialized and were clearly grouped into different categories such as Professional Audio, Broadcast Equipment-Materials, and Camera/VTR/Studio Equipment. This helped provide participants with unfettered access to an expanding range of fields to better answer the needs of broadcast stations, software producers, CATV, and public organizations, as well as companies seeking to purchase new broadcast equipment.

In 1985, the twenty-first exhibition was relocated to the Convention Center?Tokyo at Ikebukuro Sunshine City, which expanded exhibition space to 13,000 square meters. Moreover, the exhibition was now recognized both in Japan and overseas as a truly international event that included exhibitors from over 250 companies. This period also marked the beginning of a series of new services such as the publication a broadcast equipment catalog, the holding of international symposiums, and a system for full visitor registration.

The exhibition venue was relocated in 1990 to its current site at Makuhari Messe with an initial exhibition space of 20,000 square meters. Since then, a new exhibition hall has been added about once every five years to expand exhibition space to its current size of 47,000 square meters. More than 30,000 visitors attended the thirty-fourth exhibition in 1998, with the event now ranking alongside the NAB in the USA and the IBC in Europe as one of the top exhibitions in the broadcast equipment field.

Beginning in the year 2000, the process of digitalization of broadcasting, starting with broadcasting satellites, brought about great changes in the broadcasting industry. Numerous proposals for digital equipment began to surface, producing an immense effect on the creation of peripheral industries and new business opportunities as well as the broadcasting industry itself.

For the forty-third exhibition in 2007, the name of the event was published as “Inter BEE” in a move meant to attract media outside of broadcasting. “Inter BEE online” was set up to reach a broader audience via the website, and exhibit information and news was presented in news articles and in video format.

In 2008, for the forty-fourth exhibition, a professional lighting division was added. This expansion provided an opportunity for imaging and lighting collaboration, and broadened the possibilities for exhibition. More than 35,000 visitors attended the exhibition, which garnered interest from the broadcasting industry and many other types of media. The following year, In 2009, exhibitors for the first time exceeded 800 companies.

In its forty-sixth year, the exhibition began to feature a different country or region each time, beginning with Korea in 2010, setting the stage for greater participation by the Asian market by encouraging local users to attend and local companies to participate in the exhibition pavilions.

The 47th event (2011) was held in the year of the complete transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting (excluding the three prefectures in the Tohoku region), and the Cross Media Division was newly established to integrate new media movements utilizing frequency bands after analog wave outage and ideas for utilizing digital content in businesses other than broadcasting. From this year, Inter BEE set out on its path to becoming a comprehensive media exhibition encompassing the fields of broadcasting, video, audio, and communications, as well as related fields seeing advancing digitization.

In 2014, as the initiative of 50th anniversary, two special events, INTER BEE EXPERIENCE X-Speaker, a line array speaker listening experience, and INTER BEE CONNECTED (now INTER BEE BORDERLESS), offering a glimpse into the future of broadcasting were newly established.

For the 52nd event (2016), we stepped up efforts to improve our capabilities as a comprehensive media exhibition to deliver information and hands-on experiences by further expanding our special programs to incorporate INTER BEE IGNITION, which presents the cutting edge of video expression, INTER BEE CREATIVE, which delivers the latest information on high-end video production, and INTER BEE EXPERIENCE X-/X-Microphone, which invites visitors to listen firsthand to headphones and microphones.

In the 54th event (2018), Inter BEE began to be held concurrently with DCEXPO (organized by the Digital Content Association of Japan), resulting in the number of visitors topping 40,000 (40,839) after we increased the number of exhibition halls to eight.
The 55th event held the following year (2019) saw the number of exhibitors reach 1,158 companies and 2,125 booths, making it the largest exhibition in our 55-year long history. This year was also the final year of the three-year plan to create a comprehensive media event, which we had been working towards since 2017, and the official name of the exhibition was changed from "International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition" to "Inter BEE".

The 56th event held in 2020 was held as "Inter BEE 2020 ONLINE", an online-only event held for the first time to combat the spread of COVID-19. This year marked a major turning point for the global media and entertainment industries and was a catalyst for dramatic progress in the creation, expression, and delivery of content taking full advantage of the Internet environment.

The 57th event held in 2021 heralded a new start for Inter BEE, with the revival of the physical exhibition at the Makuhari Messe venue held in conjunction with the online event. In addition, in response to the trend toward virtual production, which was beginning to make rapid headway in video production, that was the year we demonstrated in-camera VFX for the first time at an exhibition in Japan.

For the 59th event (2023), we renamed two categories as "Entertainment/Lighting" and "Media Solutions" and strengthened their related categories to provide a further boost to the media and entertainment industry and associated industries.
Inter BEE is now poised to become Japan's largest comprehensive event for media and entertainment, capturing major trends in related industries, such as the expanding use of online video, the growing population of content creators, rapid advances in the use of technology such as AI and cloud computing, and the resurgence of the global entertainment market.

The year 2024 will mark the 60th anniversary of Inter BEE.
Over the past 60 years, the development of related technologies and products has progressed without end, and Inter BEE has always showcased the forefront of these developments. At the same time, it continues to be a forum for people to encounter and experience new technologies and products, as well as to deliver the latest information from a global perspective and interact with others and encounter various new discoveries and opportunities leading to the creation of new business.
As Inter BEE enters its 60th year, we will continue to take on new challenges to give a further boost to related industries, while leveraging the achievements accumulated over this period.