A new video metadata specification that would enable efficient interoperability of video between cameras, editing, playout and archiving may arrive as early as next year’s NAB Show, reports TVNewsCheck.
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) has spent the past nine months developing AS-10, aimed at retaining and rendering readable the video metadata across devices that come from different vendors.
“Our goal is to have a single file that could move from camera to edit to playout to archive and back, really to be able to traverse the entire work flow,” says CNN’s Michael Koetter, who also serves as the AMWA director.
“I would love for CNN or CBS or whoever to be able to walk up to a [product] and see a little badge on it that says ‘AS-10 Inside’ and have some greater level of assurance than I do today,” adds Koetter.
The AS-10 effort has drawn support from CNN, NRK (the Norwegian state broadcaster), and vendors such as JVC, Sony, Harmonic, MetaGlue, MOG Solutions, Canon and Adobe.
Acer has introduced a home theater projector and 27-inch monitor that can show 3D content from Blu-ray players, camcorders and smartphones.
Both devices can also add 3D features to 2D content, according to the company.
“Not only can you enjoy 3D movies and other multimedia content at 1080p full HD on both devices, you can also see get your 2D content automatically enhanced with 3D effects without any additional software,” reports ZDNet.
The new monitor requires that users wear polarized (passive, no batteries necessary) 3D glasses, while the Acer projector requires Active Shutter 3D glasses (that require charging).
The 3D projector is priced at $1,999 and the monitor is available for $599. One pair of glasses is included in each purchase.
Some theaters and performance groups are setting aside “tweet seats,” special sections for patrons to live-tweet during performances.
Rick Dildine, a theater festival director in St. Louis, says tweet seats have “become a national trend.”
“Coast to coast, theaters are experimenting with how to use ‘tweet seats’ effectively,” he explains. “The arts are evolving right now, they are participatory… Social media is a tool we rely on, and we have been unafraid to experiment with it.”
Some have placed tweet seats in the back row of theaters to minimize disruption, while others (including Carnegie Hall in NYC and the Kennedy Center in DC), “have not tried tweet seats and expect audience members not to access their phones during performances,” reports USA Today.
The article cites some interesting success stories of performances incorporating tweet seats, including a recent example involving the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO). “Tweeting the CSO’s performance was like attending a members-only social event in the midst of a traditionally formal setting,” said tweeter Jennifer Nissenbaum. “I could communicate openly about my reactions to the music, musicians and conductor — without speaking a word. Plus, I had the opportunity to engage others, and get their reactions to the performance.”
The Connected TV Marketing Association (CTVMA) launched this week in New York, London, and Melbourne, Australia — in addition to 47 other chapters worldwide — to organize the fast-growing Connected TV industry, which is projected to account for 90 percent of the global TV market by 2014.
“I will be serving as an advisor and co-chair in North America of events and networking,” writes Natan Edelsburg of Sawhorse Media. “The implications for connected TVs with social is obvious. The more Internet enabled your TV becomes the more opportunities there will be to bridge apps and social platforms.”
Co-founder Zach Weiner told Lost Remote in an interview: “Our core reason for existence is help navigate the ways that the marketing, technology and device community can all come together to achieve potential. We hope to help educate, inform and provide oversight for the industry at large.”
“We believe that social TV is one of the core elements that truly enlivens Connected TV and makes it relevant,” adds Weiner. “Television with an endemic connection to the Internet allows for watching behaviors to be socialized in amazingly new and novel ways. New TV apps that are being created and app branding vehicles will all be highly social. EPGs and even programming itself will all have social graphs at their core.”
Earlier this week, ETCentric featured a PC World article that claimed “an app called Carrier IQ is logging literally everything you are doing on your smartphone including keystrokes, SMS messages and HTTPS sessions.”
The network diagnostic tool maker has since told AllThingsD it does not log or understand keystrokes but only monitors them looking for a specific code that support technicians use to cue appropriate diagnostic information.
CIQ also noted that it does not read SMS messages or content associated with website URLs even though it can see messages come in or capture URLs.
“Okay. Then what information is being captured and passed along to the carriers who use Carrier IQ?” asks AllThingsD. “Data related to call quality, battery life, device crashes — everything you’d expect, really.”
Andrew Coward of Carrier IQ explains, “If there’s a dropped call, the carriers want to know about it. So we record where you were when the call dropped and the location of the tower being used… Similarly, if you send an SMS to me and it doesn’t go through, the carriers want to know that, too. And they want to know why — if it’s a problem with your handset or the network.”
According to a related Ars Technica article, Apple has issued a statement hoping to curb fears about tracking via the iPhone and iPad: “We stopped supporting Carrier IQ [a piece of software that tracks user activity] with iOS 5 in most of our products, and we’re going to remove it completely in a future software update.”
Downtown Oakland’s new Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE) will open its first exhibit “The History of 3D” tomorrow, December 3.
According to the museum’s site: “The MADE is a center and museum dedicated to activities that engage participants with all forms of digital art and entertainment. The museum’s primary purpose will be to educate the public about the artistry, craftsmanship and inspiration that go into the creation of videogames and digital works of art, such as programatic visual/audio demonstrations.”
ABC affiliate News10 reports: “Using the crowd funding site Kickstarter.com, the museum raised $20,000 to secure the new location.”
The new exhibit will focus on “the history of 3D in games and will feature playable demonstrations of games displayed.”
“3D is such a broad topic in video games. Our exhibit creators, Jason Cutler and Nealon Leadbetter evaluated hundreds of games and types of 3D, from voxels to vectors, from pre-rendered sprites to normal mapped polygons,” explains director of the MADE Alex Handy. “They’ve chosen a wonderfully varied set of examples from the rich history of video gaming on consoles and computers. We hope this exhibition inspires the next generation of game developers, both young and old.”
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld adds: “This is the seed of a great resource. ETC member companies may want to make product donations!”
Jonathan Yi is a freelance director and cinematographer who works largely in film and advertising. He teaches camera and cinematography at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts film program.
Yi recently posted an impressive six-minute test video of the new Canon EOS C300 that makes comparisons with current DSLRs and reveals a new standard for digital cinematography.
“I believe that Canon made a beautiful camera that is sensible, reliable and portable in a way that I’ve always dreamed a camera could be. It prioritizes great skin tone and has higher ISO sensitivity than any other camera out there,” he writes. “I know there’s nothing I can say to change the minds of the RED fan club. For the rest of the skeptics, I think once you get your hands on it you’ll understand how great this camera really is. Please buy this camera in January and go film some good skin tones in the dark. You’ll love it.”
The EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL are expected to be available in early 2012, at an estimated cost of less than $20,000.
Yi’s (very) detailed review is available on the Canon site, in which he writes: “As Canon’s flagship 1080p HD cameras, the EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL are designed to fit a wide variety of production needs. They are at home as A Cameras for Independent Films, Commercials, Television and Dramas as well as B Cameras on Major Motion Pictures, offering in addition to the more common 23.98P frame rate, several selectable frame rates including a straight 24.00P setting for intercutting directly with film originated material. Full HD 1920×1080 (1080p) is currently the most used and needed deliverable frame size for these applications. The EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL provide easy adoption and simplified workflow that 4K cameras currently cannot deliver.”
Is emailing a thing of the past? Thierry Breton, CEO of the French firm Atos (one of the largest IT companies in the world), believes email is a time-killer and plans to get rid of the practice within his company.
Breton’s 80,000 employees will be asked to make the transition from email to using social media tools, phone calls and face-to-face communication as alternatives.
“If people want to talk to me, call or send me a text message,” said Breton. “Emails cannot replace the spoken word.”
Breton himself has not used email at work for three years, claiming that it’s inefficient and a “burden to the workflow,” according to Engadget.
Forbes adds that Breton cites specific examples of how email wastes time: 1) “The ‘deluge’ of information that plagues organizations,” 2) “The need to review ‘useless’ emails and the time it takes to get focused again on important tasks,” 3) “The ‘pile’ of email that employees end up sorting through after hours and the associated drain on employees’ personal time.”
According to The Daily Mail, Breton quotes a recent study by business watchdog ORSE: “Reading useless messages is terrible for concentration, as it takes 64 seconds to get back on the ball after doing so. Poorly controlled, the e-mail can become a devastating tool.”
YouTube is redesigning its homepage and channel pages to incorporate “better personalized video discovery and viewing, with a notable emphasis on social features,” reports TechCrunch.
A new default Subscriptions feed on the homepage offers users content based on what videos they watch and which channels they subscribe to (the feed can also be filtered). Users can share videos using Google+ or by opting-in on Facebook, both located on the navigation bar.
Channel pages have four new templates that come with a Feed tab showing the channel owner’s activity (highlighting features such as commenting on a video and subscribing to a channel).
“These additions, which are more analogous to template options in Tumblr or MySpace rather than Facebook’s one-size-fits-all style, let producers promote their works in the most natural style for what they offer,” suggests the post.
The homepage and channel changes are the first significant updates, but TechCrunch adds that YouTube is “also introducing a site-wide design upgrade to all the elements — typography, iconography, etc. It’s separately adding new versions of its Xbox and Google TV applications, that feature magazine-style tile interfaces showing various channels. Finally, the company is touting the success of its advertising platform, saying that it’s seeing strong demand for its new cost-per-click style of video ads.”
Despite analyst speculation that video game consoles may be in jeopardy due to the increased capabilities and growing popularity of smartphones and tablets, “Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Wii sold in record numbers last week as Americans kicked off their holiday shopping,” reports AllThingsD.
Some 960,000 Xbox 360s were sold last week and 500,000 Wiis were sold the day after Thanksgiving. Game consoles are still experiencing strong sales five and six years after they were introduced.
“It’s difficult to imagine any other consumer hardware that could attract that kind of demand after such a long period of time,” suggests the article.
Blockbuster game titles like Activision’s “Call of Duty” game, which grossed $775 million in its first five days, continue to juice the market.
Motion-controls such as Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect open up the market beyond gamers to a family market.
And, as previously reported on ETCentric, game consoles are becoming entertainment centers for streaming video, music and other media content through partnerships with providers such as Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, HBO GO and others.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter believes Netflix cannot repair itself from the damage inflicted earlier this year after the streaming company raised prices on subscribers.
CNET reports that, “according to Pachter, by year’s end, Netflix will show a loss of 11 million ‘hybrid’ customers that previously rented DVDs and streamed video content. He said he believes that 7 million of those customers will have traded down to the streaming-only option, while another 4 million will have ‘quit the Netflix service altogether.’”
Shareholders also seem uncertain if Netflix can bounce back. “Over the past six months, the company’s stock is down 75 percent,” indicates the article.
Netflix has not given up, and believes things can be turned around. However, the company offered this honest evaluation: “If we are unable to repair the damage to our brand and reverse negative subscriber growth, our business, results of operations, including cash flows, and financial condition will continue to be adversely affected.”
In the wake of a devastating couple of months, the company is looking to rebound “brick by brick” with a strong rebranding, suggests a related Home Media Magazine article.
In addition to ongoing damage control, Netflix is working to increase its content selection, update its interface and improve user algorithms. These changes, the company hopes, will restore credibility after its recent 60 percent price increase led 800,000 people to unsubscribe.
According to the DisplaySearch unit of The NPD Group, 6.6 million 3D TV sets were shipped in the third quarter of 2011, up 27 percent from the previous quarter.
The research firm expects shipments to increase 30 percent this quarter, for a total of 21.5 million units in 2011.
However, DisplaySearch suggests a “lack of 3D content and services” means buyers are mostly watching 2D video.
Additionally, Nielsen released a study last year suggesting consumers were reluctant to wear 3D glasses and nearly 90 percent said that viewing 3D TV would get in the way of checking e-mail or Web surfing while watching television.
The article suggests that marketing and aggressive pricing has made the difference. “Television vendors have been pushing 3D sets on customers all year,” reports CNET. “In fact, companies such as Samsung, Vizio, and Panasonic, among others, have made 3D a key component in a large number of their televisions, making it harder and harder to find sets that don’t come with 3D support.”
Founded by a team of execs and engineers from Intel’s Wi-Fi Centrino group in 2007, Wilocity is developing next-gen 60GHz multi-gigabit wireless chipsets for mobile and peripheral markets.
According to the company’s website: “Wilocity’s Wireless PCI Express technology will enable truly multi-gigabit wireless for a wide range of applications from I/O to networking to video.”
“Wilocity, which is leading the charge for next-generation technology called 802.11ad designed to reach 7 gigabits per second over short distances, plans to show off a variety of devices using its technology at the mammoth CES trade show,” reports CNET.
“In Wilocity’s dream, the company will excite people about the possibilities of wireless networking that’s faster than what typical computers today can do with a wired connection,” explains the post. “For example, a smartphone carried into the office could connect to a keyboard, mouse, and large display. A tablet carried into the den could become a controller for a game shown on the big-screen TV.”
The ever-evolving Viera Connect IPTV system is now available on many of the company’s plasma TVs, LCD TVs and BD players. At a recent press event, the company provided details including updates to the number of available apps.
The Viera Connect Market of interactive apps includes 120 offerings with expectations of growing two to three times that amount by the end of next year, explained Merwan Mereby, Panasonic interactive content and services VP. According to TWICE: “The connected TV trend is on an explosive course, with estimates for worldwide connected TV shipments expected to surpass those of PCs by the end of 2013, he offered.”
The article cites recent additions including a Social TV app, an AccuWeather tracking app and a new 3D car racing game from GameLoft.
“To keep up with the challenge, Panasonic has been actively recruiting app development, and is offering a JavaScript app to help third-party developers create programs for the Viera Connect platform,” indicates the article.
Time Warner Cable is expected to add local broadcasting to its iPad streaming app in the New York City market. The app allows its customers to view broadcast programs on the tablet anywhere in their homes.
It will expand the local offering soon and extend it elsewhere by early next year, according to Rob Marcus, TWC’s chief operating officer.
The service will also include access to local newscasts and syndicated programming. “We’re moving towards delivering local programming, which is a little more difficult to do technologically,” Marcus explained to investors.
“Marcus reiterated that TWC believes it has rights to offer Viacom-owned networks on its app. The two companies are suing each other over the matter,” reports Media Daily News. “Cablevision has reached an agreement with Viacom, and offers its channels among the 300-plus it provides.”
“Marcus went on to say there is some impetus to move ahead with TV Everywhere-type opportunity extending outside the home, where it has a deal with ESPN and some others, but ‘the process has taken a lot longer than we would have anticipated at the outset,’” suggests the article.
