Turin is the city where Italian television was born and is still home to a major part of its activities in the production, technical and research sectors. It was the birthplace of Italian cinema in the early 20th century, and has boosted the industry in the last decade thanks to a fascinating museum, an innovative festival, and brilliant service facilities for film production and promotion. And it is therefore pleased and honoured to host the 2010 EBU Technical Assembly. This event allows us once again to put the spotlight on our city, to publicize its recent transformation that did not stop at the Olympics but is to the contrary forward-looking with ambitious goals. Participants in EBUTA 2010 will be able to experience and enjoy our city, the precious testimonies to its past history and the richness and liveliness of its present-day initiatives.

Welcome to Turin

 

Sergio Chiamparino Mayor of the City of Turin	Fiorenzo Alfieri Deputy Mayor for Culture and the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy

Over 150 years ago, Turin was the first capital of a united Italy. Today Turin is identified both in Italy and abroad as a "laboratory-city" in many fields: economic, social, science and technology. It is the city where the domestic car industry was born and continues to develop;  the best car designers flourish; the  film and fashion industries were born; and its wine and culinary traditions are internationally renown.

Even Italian television took its first steps here. In 1930 the EIAR Laboratories, the ancestor of today's Rai Research Centre, were established in Turin.  Immediately after the second world war the Eremo Transmitter Centre, on the hills of Turin, was Rai's first TV station.

I would say that hosting the Technical Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union in Turin is a "natural" choice: the EBU, founded in 1950, is one of the first successful attempts at international and European cooperation, well before the Treaty of Rome that gave birth to the EEC.

In extending to EBU delegates a warm welcome in Turin, I confirm that the Province and other local authorities of our country have every intention of mantaining Turin as one of the poles of technological development for television.

Antonio Saitta
President of the Province of Turin Administration

 

With great pleasure we welcome, in the main town of Piedmont, the 2010 edition of the Technical Assembly of EBU, the main association of European broadcasters.

Recently Piedmont has completed the switch off to Digital Terrestrial TV, in an multiregional contest adopting the same new technology. An important contribution to its development is due to the Centre for Research and Technological Innovation of Rai, a centre of excellence for studies and development of the technologies in the broadcasting field, born in 1930 with the first Laboratory of EIAR (Ente Italiano Audizioni Radiofoniche) in Turin.

Other important research centres were born and operate in this Region, particularly in the field of Telecommunications. Internet, satellite, digital terrestrial TV, mobile communications are not competing technologies but they converge to provide more opportunities for enhancement and innovation of our region. Digital TV broadcasting is the main channel of this system, it is central and preeminent, both for demographic and cultural reasons.

On behalf of the Piedmont Region, we welcome you and wish a successful work to EBU Technical Assembly participants, with the hope that this event can contribute to the knowledge of Turin and Piedmont, also as an technological hub of international importance.

Massimo Giordano Councillor for Economic Development	Roberto Cota President of Piedmont Region