The 2019 42nd International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP) was hosted in a gem on the Danube, in Budapest, Hungary on July 1-3, 2019. Under the patronage of IEEE Region 8 (Europe, Middle East and Africa), the IEEE Hungary Section, the IEEE Czechoslovakia Section and SP/CAS/COM Joint Chapter, and Scientific Association for Infocommunications (HTE), Hungary, a Sister Society of the IEEE and the IEEE Communications Society, the conference was organized by 18 universities from Europe and Asia for academics and researchers and it serves as a premier annual international forum to promote the exchange of the latest advances in telecommunication technology and signal processing. In line with this mission statement, the TSP provided a great opportunity to about 170 researchers from more than 30 countries on six continents to demonstrate their exciting achievements in research fields from information systems, network services and technologies, telecommunication systems, modeling, simulation and measurement, to analog, audio, speech, language, biomedical, digital, image, and video signal processing. Besides regular submissions, three special featured sessions also gave participants a great opportunity to meet several prominent representatives of emerging scientific disciplines. All presented papers are indexed by the IEEE Xplore® Digital Library.

One of the important factors for the success of the TSP 2019 Conference was the presence of world leading keynote speakers. First, Prof. Dr. Lie-Liang Yang, B.Eng., M.Eng., Ph.D., FIEEE, FIET, University of Southampton, UK, delivered a speech entitled “Diffusive Molecular Communications: Principles and Research Challenges”. This keynote speech addressed four research challenges in diffusive molecular communications, namely interference mitigation, error-control coding, capacity improvement, and multiple-access diffusive molecular communications. The second keynote speech by Nokia’s experts, Dr. Gabor Jaro, Dr. Attila Hilt, Mr. Lorand Nagy, Mr. Akos M. Tundik, and Dr. Jozsef Varga, addressed the continuous change toward the new worlds of Telco-Cloud and 5G. The rapidly increasing amount of cloud-based Virtual Network Functions have introduced new concepts for dimensioning, deployment, operation, management, licensing, and monitoring. At the same time, the strict requirements of telecommunication networks still must be fulfilled on cloud. Several established availability and operability requirements and expectations are inherited from the legacy world. The last keynote speech, delivered by Prof. Dr. Ioannis Pitas, FIEEE, FEURASIP, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, was related to “Multiple Drone Communications and Video/Data Streaming”. This talk aimed to provide an overview of the current state of the art in drone cinematography and future perspectives of intelligent single-drone and multiple-drone platforms for media production.

Finally, in cooperation with the IEEE Czechoslovakia Section SP/CAS/COM Joint Chapter, to recognize outstanding technical contributions by students, as evidenced by the quality of papers, their presentations, and their technical excellence, the authors of the best five student papers were awarded during the conference Gala Dinner by the Technical Committee. The Best Student Paper Award consisted of a Plaque and a Certificate of Appreciation.

For 2020, the next TSP will be taking place in Milan, Italy, in the Fashion Capital of the World. For more information please visit http://tsp.vutbr.cz/.