Approximately 90 U.S. television stations are already transmitting Mobile DTV signals.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition held a press conference on Capitol Hill announcing that local Mobile DTV will roll out by 130 stations in 50 markets during the next few months.
Speakers at the event included several politicians; Derek McGinty of WUSA-TV in Washington; Lynn Claudy, senior VP of technology for NAB and Eric Moreno, senior VP of corporate development with Fox Networks.
“Among Moreno’s points of discussion was the advent of the new Samsung Galaxy S Lightway 4G handset, the first smartphone to come with a preloaded Dyle TV app,” reports TVTechnology.
“It is available in 12 markets where TV stations are now transmitting Dyle-branded signals, that costs north of $400; as well as what are known as ‘dongles,’ which the industry will rely on to further boost the use of the technology.” The small plug-in antennas from Belkin and Elgato will run about $100.
It will cost approximately $125,000 for stations to set up for Mobile DTV transmissions.
“There are 64 million iPhones and iPads in use in the U.S.,” Moreno explained. “If you reach 1 percent penetration, you’ve got yourself a business.”
“This is the culmination of a number of years of work from disparate sectors of the television industry,” added Claudy, “that marks the start of a new broadcast service. Now we have to convince the entirety of the industry to use it and the market to adopt it.”
Shazam announced it is expanding its second-screen service in the U.S. to support nearly all channels with a new focus on Facebook and Twitter integration. The company also announced that it has exceeded a quarter of a billion users globally.
“In addition to expanding Shazam for TV, Shazam is also enhancing its social features for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices,” notes the press release. “When Shazamers activate the Shazam Friends feature in the app, they can see what their Facebook friends are tagging, and now they will be able to make comments about their friends’ tags in the app.”
“With the activation, people’s tags will appear on their Facebook profile in their timeline, enabling people to discuss with their friends in Facebook what they are watching or listening to,” explains the release.
As a second-screen tool, Shazam users can access information related to featured music, cast members, related trivia, celebrity buzz and more. It can be also be used during sports broadcasts to access scores, stats and schedules.
“According to industry studies, 86 percent of smartphone owners use their mobile device while watching TV and, with our expansion into television, we’ve seen a surge of activity due to recent Shazam-enabled events such as the NBC Olympic broadcast, where more than one million people tagged the closing ceremony,” explains Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher.
“We think that broadening our television service and offering more comprehensive social features will continue to drive activity and engagement,” he adds.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has introduced a new specification for wireless multimedia streaming called Miracast that allows devices to transmit content without a wireless router.
Miracast uses the Alliance’s Wi-Fi Direct standard for enabling peer-to-peer ad-hoc wireless connections. This allows devices to communicate directly without access to Wi-Fi or much, if any configuration.
“Speed-wise, Miracast is based on 802.11, so connections will be limited to the slowest device in the network,” ExtremeTech reports. “Good news for content owners too: Miracast has built in content protection, using wireless versions of the same security measures used in HDMI and DisplayPort.”
Intel and Apple already have their own technology — Wireless Display (WiDi) and Airplay — for wireless multimedia streaming.
“Miracast may have the advantage here where others have failed: it is not a proprietary solution unlike AirPlay, and that it seems to be targeted towards portable devices as it is far more power efficient — one of WiDi’s biggest downfalls,” the article suggests.
Intel has already updated its WiDi pages to include support for Miracast, which “likely indicates that the industry is ready to settle on a single specification,” notes the article.
Many consumer products are already compatible with the standard. By 2016, an estimated 1.5+ billion devices will be Miracast-enabled, according to an iSuppli analyst.
“Can a media platform really survive without flooding its audience with advertising?” asks The Atlantic.
Vimeo has long attempted to take this route, even while its competition at Facebook and YouTube have relied heavily on advertising.
But Vimeo has marketed itself differently. “With its clean interface and cuddly community vibe, Vimeo has carved out a niche as the videomaker’s video platform,” explains the article.
On Thursday, the video sharing site announced two new tools that will further enhance its ad-less business model. The tools will allow videomakers to generate their own revenue.
Videomakers can utilize the new “tip jar” and keep 85 percent of profits earned. “The second and more exciting feature is a ‘pay-to-view’ setup, which will allow users to charge viewers for access to content, customizing the parameters to suit their needs,” details The Atlantic.
Vimeo will roll out its pay-to-view this fall, with a full launch in early 2013.
“It goes back to the core of Vimeo as a platform,” says Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor of the new tools. “Vimeo has been quite successful in terms of distinguishing itself as the quality platform for creative people. Enabling those people to start to build businesses and generate revenue around their work really feels like the next logical step.”
The Associated Press Video Hub is now out of beta, offering 24/7 news videos. Content is curated from the Internet and supplemented by the AP’s archives.
AP is hoping the service will help recruit publishing clients. The UK’s Daily Telegraph has signed on with a significant investment in production equipment.
“TMG’s existing three-camera studio will now be able to stream directly to the Web as a story breaks,” reports TheNextWeb. “Used in conjunction with a series of new content deals, this will give the Telegraph’s digital subscribers access to key live events as they unfold.”
In 2003, AP became one of the first to launch a live news service. “Today, around 200 broadcasters use it as a live video source, tapping AP’s coverage to bring news and analysis to their own viewers,” notes the post.
“AP Video Hub is already proving itself as an indispensable tool for online news providers,” says Sue Brooks, AP director of video transformation. “The addition of live content will enable our customers to create even richer storytelling experiences for their customers.”
“Looking to the future, all computing will become wireless computing, with an ever-increasing demand for faster wireless communication,” Intel CTO Justin Rattner said in a statement.
To address this trend, Intel has worked to develop WiGig, a multi-gigabit wireless docking technology that provides speeds of up to 7Gbps, ten times as fast as current Wi-Fi networks.
Intel demonstrated the technology at its annual Intel Developers Forum, claiming “WiGig is on track to becoming the most important next-generation multi-gigabit wireless technology,” Computerworld reports.
WiGig is based on the IEEE 802.11n standard and “operates in the unlicensed 60GHz frequency band, which has more spectrum available than the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands used by existing Wi-Fi products,” the article explains. “This allows wider channels that support faster transmission speeds.”
The specification also supports Wi-Fi over 60GHz and a wide range of applications. It enables wireless connectivity using HDMI and display extensions, which could allow laptops to connect to TVs to stream video.
“The technology is nearly ready, and with chips from multiple WiGig member companies already in production and certification ready for mid-2013, I would expect a real explosion in the number of WiGig devices coming to market soon,” said Ali Sadri, chairman of the WiGig Alliance.
Square COO Keith Rabois claims “nearly all retailers” will soon ditch registers in favor of tablets. Rabois suggests the shift could happen within the next eighteen months.
“Everyone will be migrating to iPads and comparable devices, which will be powered by an app — that is, hopefully, Square,” says Rabois.
Of course, he could just be overly optimistic because of his ties to mobile payment company Square, but a “survey by the National Retail Federation last fall found that while only 6 percent of retailers said they used mobile point-of-sale devices, half of the respondents said at the time that they planned to adopt such devices over the next 18 months,” writes AllThingsD.
Market researcher NPD also reports that 75 percent of merchants plan to buy a tablet within the year.
“Essentially, Square’s biggest goal is to enable any merchant, regardless of their resources, to offer a mobile experience similar to the one Starbucks offers today through its application,” explains the article. “In August, Starbucks announced that it was investing in Square, and was going to start using it to process all of its credit and debit transactions.”
“Any merchant that is focused on customer service and the ambiance of their experience will be intrigued by what we offer,” claims Rabois.
A new start-up hopes to change the VR game, providing a rich virtual gaming experience that could set it apart from other early failures.
Called the Oculus Rift, this new prototype accrued almost $2.5 million on Kickstarter by selling 10,000 game developer kits worldwide. The project has been backed by “Doom” and “Quake” creator John Carmack and Brenden Iribe, a former Autodesk, Scaleform and Gaikai executive.
“The most striking thing about the experience is the sheer depth of the stereoscopic image, which wraps around the field of view without the eye-crossing, headache-inducing out-of-sync effect that sometimes comes with 3D glasses or viewing a head-mounted LCD too closely,” writes Ars Technica.
“The creators told me that this is a result of the Rift’s optics… Those optics also help improve the Rift’s resolution where it’s needed most, increasing the functional pixel density in the center of the view, where your eyes naturally rest, while decreasing it on the periphery.”
The creators have focused on providing “incredibly smooth” head tracking, hoping to eventually get the refresh rate down to single digit milliseconds from 15-30 milliseconds by the time final consumer units are ready. Iribe says this refresh rate enables games to run faster than the current 60 frames per second, “which would lead to a noticeable improvement in the realism of the world the Rift immerses you in,” the article states.
The costs for small, thin, high-resolution, hi-def screens have gone down with the mobile expansion. This enables Rift to offer improved screens at a reasonable price. The team is also working to reduce the weight to make the device more comfortable and wearable.
Ars Technica did note that the games still require controllers for navigation. The team hopes developers will create new control schemes for the Rift.
“The opportunity now for anybody on a connected platform to build a business to compete with the big guys is just amazing,” says Andrew Stalbow, North American general manager for ROVIO.
At the Silicon Beach conference at USC, Stalbow discussed how the playing field has been leveled, enabling anyone to build a worldwide brand quickly, just as ROVIO’s “Angry Birds” took off across the globe.
Although most associate ROVIO with the widely-adopted “Angry Birds” app, “we don’t want to be a mobile games company,” Stalbow notes. “I think we’re an entertainment company.”
He explained that games are at the core of what they do, just as movies are at the core of Disney. But like Disney, which has built out theme parks and retail and more, ROVIO has many other aspects to its business, such as consumer products, retail and animation.
He also said that the company has built itself on a business model of ubiquity. He criticized the Hollywood business model for being built around scarcity, saying it is “very challenged” with rights and window schemes. “I think the business model needs to evolve,” he suggests.
“The power of these new connected devices hasn’t really been realized yet,” believes Stalbow, suggesting there is opportunity in the entertainment industry to more efficiently use new media.
Moreover, these connected devices and new platforms can create a new forum for marketing. “In an app ecosystem, you’re actually connected [to your fans],” he says. “The people who create the content and control it will have the opportunity to tell their audience about their other [ventures].”
Stalbow contrasts this environment to that of the traditional entertainment industry in which content is provided or distributed by third-party channels.
ROVIO spends nothing on marketing, Stalbow claims. Instead, it leverages its apps and other products to inform its customers about the company’s various offerings. Also, working with NASA for its “Angry Birds Space” app or Disney for its “Rio” app, allowed for a cross-pollination of promotion, showing how one can use media in new ways to push a brand.
Social media continues to revolutionize communication, while technology enables more sophisticated electronic devices, and media consumption is being rewritten by new distribution methods.
Aber Whitcomb, CTO for the Social Gaming Network, and Drew Baumann, CTO of the YouTube-oriented business Fullscreen, spoke about these changes — and how Los Angeles is where it all comes together.
According to Baumann, Silicon Beach is the place for media technology companies. The more established media companies in the area are intrigued by new technology-powered media ventures.
There is an assumption that technology comes from Silicon Valley and entertainment from Hollywood, Whitcomb agrees. But actually, there is a convergence of the two spheres, even more so in Silicon Beach.
The norm today is to “consume content on multiple screens and people expect to be able to do that,” Whitcomb notes of the new distribution philosophy. This also applies to gaming; his company works to provide seamless transitions between devices and platforms.
“The media business has been around for a hundred years, but it’s evolving,” Baumann explains. Brands and media companies are awesome at creating content, but don’t really know how to use new distribution methods, like YouTube, to their full potential.
“The video distribution business is really being disrupted right now and I’m excited to see what new businesses it creates,” he says.
Both panelists believe this is an exciting time to be in the industry, especially in Silicon Beach — even though the next chapter is difficult to predict.
The Hollywood Post Alliance has announced the 2012 winners of its HPA Engineering Excellence Award.
“The coveted honor is an integral part of the HPA Awards, which have become the standard by which creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of post production is measured,” reports TV Technology.
This year’s winners include: Cinnafilm’s standards transcoder Tachyon; Crossroads Systems’ file-based, portable storage solution StrongBox; the Dolby Atmos sound system from Dolby Laboratories; and Sony’s F65 CineAlta digital motion picture camera system.
“The Engineering Award not only represents the creativity of technology and technical innovation, but also helps to enable the creative power of our artistic community,” notes Leon Silverman, president of the Hollywood Post Alliance. “The products and processes that we honor with this award continue to demonstrate the important engineering work that is done behind our industry’s scenes and screens.”
The 2012 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards event is slated for November 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
As mobile continues to expand, game publishers are putting more focus on social, free-to-play, the cloud, and of course, mobile gaming. And EA is no exception.
“Going forward, every EA game will have some multi-player or social component,” Forbes reports. “This doesn’t mean single-player games will cease to be a part of the EA catalog, it just means that even single-player games will have tie-ins across multiple devices.”
The article notes that this transition to the cloud is very beneficial for certain games, enabling users to to pick up where they left off on any of their devices.
“The problem is, an immersive single-player game that tries to force people to play minigames on separate platforms is probably going to lose whatever immersion factor it ought to have had,” the article suggests. Additionally, requiring social integration, like a mandatory Facebook login, could deter gamers from playing at all.
“That’s not evolving with consumers, it’s adapting to what many in the industry see as the wave of the future: mobile, free-to-play, and social gaming displacing more traditional games,” Forbes writes. “It’s also a bit of sleight of hand. For all the talk of fan service, many of these mobile and social tie-ins are little more than the gamification of viral marketing.”
Mobile gaming is not necessarily growing at the expense of traditional gaming. “The two experiences are fundamentally different, especially since mobile touch-screens are essentially the most limited and limiting type of game controller on the market,” explains the article.
Verizon FiOS views cord-cutting as a potential game-changer that could launch a new revenue stream through a la carte content.
Cord-cutting “is not stopping. It’s growing. The question is: Is it growing enough for us?” asks Maitreyi Krishnaswamy, Verizon’s director of interactive video services, responsible for the company’s FiOS TV.
Verizon is planning a Netflix competitor with Redbox to launch later this year. GigaOM notes that “cord cutting is fundamentally changing the parameters of Verizon’s TV business.”
“Is the migration to a-la-carte enough that we can go that route?” says Krishnaswamy. “It impacts how we negotiate TV contracts with studios. It’s not something we can do overnight, but definitely something we’ve been looking at.”
“Krishnaswamy didn’t spell out all the details, but here is what I read between the lines of this statement: Cord cutting isn’t just about some people not paying for TV anymore, but also about enabling new and innovative business models, including unbundled subscriptions to individual channels,” suggests Janko Roettgers, writing for GigaOM. “And Verizon is apparently ready to take the plunge as soon as the wave is big enough.”
According to new data from Ericsson, 62 percent of people each week participate in social media activities during their TV viewing time, an increase of 18 percent over last year.
Four in 10 of those consumers are using social media to discuss the TV content they are watching.
Additionally, 67 percent of consumers are using tablets, smartphones or laptops for “their everyday TV viewing, both for video consumption and to enable a social media experience while watching TV,” according to Ericsson.
“But despite the growing popularity of on-demand viewing across many platforms, watching broadcast TV programming live is still the dominant viewing preference, the study found. Pair that insight with the social TV stat and you can see why a social TV strategy is so vital,” reports MediaPost. “Yes — consumers are watching on other devices, but by and large they’re watching on TV and they’re often also talking about the show thanks to social networks on their phones or mobile devices.”
“This research underscores how deeply habits are changing, and how essential it is for programmers and marketers to capture the TV viewer not only on the ‘first screen’ but also on the screen they use for interaction — the mobile one in most cases,” explains MediaPost.
“Google has extended its Patent Search facility to include European patents and has added a Prior Art facility,” reports I Programmer. “With the patent war over Android going on, one has to wonder whether this was to meet an in-house need.”
Google’s Patent Search has been available for U.S. patents since 2006. Its traffic has recently doubled.
“Jon Orwant, the leader of Google’s Patent Search team, says, ‘People are thinking about patents a whole lot more’ and thinks this trend is ‘correlated’ to interest in the various high-stakes mobile patent lawsuits,” notes the post.
Google’s partnership with the European Patent Office “enables Google to improve its machine learning technology for technical language and in return Google provides its improved translation service free of charge to the EPO.”
The Prior Art facility will be of value to inventors and the legal profession. “In order to be granted a patent the inventor has to establish that it is a novel idea — and in the current litigious environment companies and their lawyers might want to show that patents should not have been granted,” suggests the post.
