Over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed rules for the commercial use of small drones (unmanned aircraft weighing up to 55 pounds), that could have an impact on future film and television production, still photography, sports coverage, product deliveries, and much more. The proposed regulations call for operator certification, daylight flights only, and keeping aircraft in sight. The rules would not apply to recreational drones, growing in popularity with hobbyists, which have their own regulations. Continue reading FAA Proposes Long-Awaited Rules on Commercial Drone Use

A team of French and American designers at Catopsys has developed a projector for immersive gaming and video experiences that can be shared by a room full of people. The Immersis is designed to display a 180-degree view of a virtual reality experience. Instead of everyone shutting out the world (and each other) when they put on a VR headset like the Oculus Rift, people can share in a VR experience. The LED projector could encourage developers to make more party games and turn VR into more of a social experience. Continue reading Immersis Projector Aims to Make VR Experience Less Solitary

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has developed a new standard to enhance the resolution display of laptops and all-in-one PCs. VESA’s improvement to its Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) from version 1.4 to 1.4a will enable laptops and desktops to support images at a 7680 x 4320 resolution. As of now, 8K displays have only existed on high-end TVs but VESA anticipates the technology will be supported by computers, mobile phones and tablets in the coming years.  Continue reading New Standard Could Bring 8K to Laptops and Mobile Devices

Social bookmarking service Pinterest is adding new features that will allow people to download new apps and purchase their favorite furnishings and clothing directly from the site or mobile app. Pinterest teamed up with Apple to launch “App Pins” last week, so that users can discover new apps as part of their searches and download them without leaving the Pinterest app. Since the service is used by many for discovery, Pinterest may also integrate a “buy button” into pins as early as this year. Continue reading Pinterest Looks to Help App Discovery and In-App Purchasing

The latest trend in artificial intelligence involves implementing a much more efficient microprocessor rather than a whole cloud computing system to power deep learning research. These microprocessors, or graphical processing units (GPUs), are great at math-crunching skills, which makes them ideal for deep learning networks. Now, companies such as Google, Facebook, and various labs that run supercomputers, are using GPU-based computers to power their AI and deep learning operations. Continue reading AI: GPU-Based Computing is Proving Ideal for Deep Learning

Monotype, a company that specializes in fonts, has designed a new technology called Spark, which can be used to scale down fonts to be legible and attractive on smaller screens found on smartwatches, medical devices and vehicle dashboards. Spark provides font flexibility, which is especially important with so many Internet connected devices hitting the market. The company claims that the new software makes fonts on tiny screens look as clean as they would appear on an iPhone or computer display.

Continue reading Monotype Makes Small Fonts Legible on Tiny Digital Screens

On the third and last full day of the HPA Tech Retreat in Indian Wells, California, a panel of imaging experts drilled down into some of the more esoteric topics related to 4K and digital acquisition. Among the topics addressed were sensor-lens options for 4K acquisition; solar activity and lit/stuck/dead pixels; design challenges of long-range zoom lenses for 4K S35 digital cameras; video/D-Cinema camera/sensor noise; the role of nonlinear coding of the TV image; and 4K, HDR and imagers. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Understanding the New Digital Acquisition

During yesterday’s HPA Tech Retreat, I moderated a panel on two emerging production standards: DPP and IMF. Although SMPTE standard IMF (Interoperable Master Format) is familiar to many in the industry as a single, interchangeable master file format that allows for flexible versioning, very few in our industry know about DPP (Digital Production Partnership), a new British standard for B2B file exchange. Our discussion tracked the evolution and potential overlap of the standards, and how they are currently being used in the industry. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Emerging Standards Enable Interoperability

Erik Weaver of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC@USC) moderated an HPA Tech Retreat panel on “Cloud Demystified: Understanding the Coming Transformation from File- to Network-Based Workflow.” Panelists included DigitalFilm Tree’s Guillaume Aubuchon and Dolby Laboratories’ Christine Thomas. Weaver described ETC’s Project Cloud, which brings together media and cloud-resource leaders to develop guidelines and accelerate innovation and adoption of next-gen cloud-based content creation and production tools and processes. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Next-Gen Cloud and Production Workflows

Samsung updated its privacy policy to explain that the company would not be eavesdropping on viewers when they use the voice controls on their Samsung smart TVs. The previous version of the policy suggested that recorded audio could be transmitted to a third party through the television’s voice recognition software. Samsung clarified that only words spoken into the remote would be recorded and sent to the outside company. Users can also opt to turn off the voice recognition feature. Continue reading Samsung Clarifies its Policy Regarding TV Voice Recognition

LG is the latest company to introduce a portable virtual reality headset. The ‘VR for G3’ is a simple plastic headset, which will be given to new buyers of the LG G3 smartphone for free. The headset’s design models that of Google Cardboard. While powered using LG’s smartphone, the headset uses Google Cardboard software and other readily available VR experiences on the Google Play Store (a VR game will be included as a promo). There has been no mention of whether the headset will be independently sold.   Continue reading LG Introduces Virtual Reality Headset That Works with the G3

Facebook is designing its own custom hardware, including computer servers and networking switches — and other companies are following suit. The Facebook engines are being rebuilt so that they are more affordable, more efficient, and enable the company to easily expand its own networks. Other companies are taking a similar approach, creating a new market for custom networking gear and other hardware. Facebook shares its networking designs as part of the Open Compute Project. Continue reading Facebook Shares the Designs for its Custom Networking Gear

What Next Generation Cinema technologies and techniques mean for filmmakers was the focus of the six mini-panels that made up a single session at the HPA Tech Retreat in Indian Wells on Wednesday. Topics addressed included Extended Color Gamut; Pairing the Mathematics of Motion and Frame Rate with Artistic Vision; Laser Projection and Higher Dynamic Range; Next-Generation Cinema Technology Test Material; Beyond the Screen; and Suspending Disbelief: When and How to Use New Tools and Techniques. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: A Look into Next Generation Cinema Tech

At the HPA Tech Retreat in Indian Wells this week, the Broadcasters Panel featured broadcast network executives answering audience questions about TV spectrum re-allocation, IT-based infrastructure, UHD, the emerging ATSC 3.0 standard, and the future of broadcast. Moderated by Ericsson’s Matthew Goldman, the panel included CBC/Radio Canada’s Maxime Caron; CBS’s Bob Seidel; FOX Networks’ Rich Friedel; NAB’s Skip Pizzi; PBS’s Mario Vecchi and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Mark Aitken. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Broadcasters Consider UHD, IT and More

On the second day of the HPA Tech Retreat, Jim Burger, a partner at Thompson Coburn LLP in Washington, DC and copyright lawyer, gave his annual Washington Update. “Washington, as always, is a city under construction,” he said. “There’s a lot going on.” Burger discussed the potential impact of the Aereo decision on cloud storage, the latest regarding lawsuits against Dish Network, the FAA’s examination of drones, a very busy FCC and what’s next for net neutrality, and an update on the spectrum auctions. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Jim Burger Delivers a Washington Update