Welcome from the TPC chairs
Dear Colleagues,
We are delighted to welcome you to Mobimedia 2009 in the vibrant city of London. We would like to commence by thanking you all for your valued contribution to the technical program. Needless to say, the period spanning from Mobimedia 2008 in Oulu to Mobimedia 2009 has been a busy one for the entire organizing committee, but in particular for the Technical Program Committe (TPC). Without their sterling efforts we would have been unable to compile such a rich blend of cutting-edge keynote lectures, up-to-date technical papers, insightful panel sessions, informative tutorials, the IMS, EUMOB and PEACE workshops as well as all the whole spectrum of other related activities.
We owe a debt of gratitute to our valued colleagues, the General Chairs Maria G. Martini and Christos Politis for their tireless efforts to make the conference a success. We would also like to join them in thanking our keynote speakers -- Profs. Bernd Girod and Chang Wen Chen for their generosity with their valuable time and for their insight. On a technical note, following the standardization of the Third-generation Partnership Project's Long-Trem Evolution (3GPP LTE) initiative, research is already well under way towards the definition of 'LTE Advanced', which is expected to provide an even more flexible framework for the streaming of potentially error-sensitive multimedia information. The goal is that of maintaining the current momentum in increasing the achievable bitrate, since flawless multimedia communications requires both a potentially high bitrate and a high transmission integrity.
Achieving this ambitious goal requires further quantum leaps in innovation, despite the more modest levels of research funding available in the current economic climate. The PHY-layer innovations cover advanced stereophonic audio and stereoscopic, multiview and 3D video compression, joint source and channel coding, advanced implementation-friendly, low-delay protograph LDPC codes, Repeat Accumulate (RA) codes, diverse irregular channel code designs, new near-capacity variable-length codes, advanced multi-functional near-capacity MIMO techniques using both co-located and distributed antenna elements as well as iterative detection. Distributed video source coding as well as super-resolution coding, the context-aware control of personalized multi-party sessions also continue to be at the forefront of research. Further advances in multihop ad hoc networks used for video streaming are also documented in the conference program. Cooperative communications and relaying remain hot topics for our conference. Routing, route-repair and sophisticated interference-rejection based PHY techniques are also proposed for ad hoc networks, all of which serve an improved multimedia user experience. No doubt, the near future will witness the integration of optical and wireless communications in the interest of seamless mobility. Rateless MAC-layer coding is capable of providing multimedia source signals with 'just' sufficent protection without sacrifycing any unnecessary bandwith, while providing opportunities for cross-layer optimization from the physical up to the service-layer of the OSI-stack.
Our hope is that you, dear Colleague will enjoy the technical discussions, meeting old friends and forging new professional links, but that you will also be able to sample the local culture and history - we much look forward to an enlightening and enjoyable event with you!
Sincerely
Georgios Kormentzas and Lajos Hanzo
TPC Chairs
