Today marks the end of an era as ETCentric concludes its daily publishing after more than 14 years and nearly 17,000 posts. As we recently reported, it has been our great pleasure to provide this service to our valued members and we are very proud of our accomplishments and commitment to serving the M&E community. In addition to wishing all our readers a wonderful holiday season today, the editorial staff at ETC would like to thank our community for their loyalty and numerous contributions. Our next chapter in knowledge-sharing and fostering innovation begins January 5 with the launch of a new, more dynamic ETC website, which will serve as the first phase in our refreshed communication initiative. We look forward to working with all of you in the new year. Until then, happy holidays to you and your loved ones. Continue reading ETCentric Signs Off, Wishes Happy Holidays to Our Readers

The Entertainment Technology Center at USC launched ETCentric in March of 2011 as a news and commentary forum designed to provide our community members with the most vital information impacting media and entertainment. Over the years we experimented with a variety of delivery methods, eventually settling upon an online portal and associated daily email alert, teamed with a social media presence, highlights of ETC projects, and live reporting from key industry events. While it has been our great pleasure to provide this service to our valued members, we now find ourselves in a different era, one that features a much wider collection of targeted news services and social media tools that serve similar objectives. With that in mind — and as a key part of our larger initiative to refocus information-sharing on ETC projects — we have decided to shutter ETCentric and The Daily News Brief in their current forms and launch a new, more dynamic ETC website on January 5. The final day for ETCentric will be Friday, December 12. Continue reading ETC Updating Info Exchange, Will Shutter ETCentric Next Week

As ByteDance approaches the latest U.S. deadline to sell TikTok or face being banned here, it continues to add new features, with barely a ripple of news concerning a sale. The legislation that contained the sales clause became law in April 2024. The most recent of several extensions was issued in June, pushing the deadline to September 17. In July Reuters reported a deal was “close,” with TikTok building a new U.S. version of its app ahead of a planned sale “to a group of investors.” Now the platform is adding voice notes to DMs and image uploads in chats. Up to nine images or video clips can be added to individual or group chats. Continue reading TikTok Adds Voice Notes for DMs and Image Uploads in Chats

Feed is a new social platform featured within the Character.AI mobile app, which launched in 2023 and now has more than 20 million active users worldwide. Described as “TikTok-meets-ChatGPT,” the AI-native Feed is populated by AI-generated avatars, called Characters, created by the platform’s subscribers using the company’s tools. Characters can post AI-generated content, including videos, viewed in a scrollable format that invites familiar interactions like sharing, comments, follows and likes. What sets Feed apart, Character.AI says, is its vibe of a “remix playground,” as opposed to the “passive consumption” approach typical of conventional social platforms. Continue reading Character.AI Launches AI-First Social Platform Named ‘Feed’

HP has unveiled the HP Dimension, a 65-inch display created for use with the 3D Google Beam videoconferencing system. The $25,000 light field display system features six high-speed cameras built into the bezel, delivering what HP calls “true-to-life” 3D video of callers. Formerly known as Project Starline, Google Beam was rebranded last month in anticipation of the enterprise rollout. Designed to bring “natural eye contact, spatial audio and adaptive lighting” in 3D to small- and medium-sized meeting spaces, HP’s retail price does not include the Google Beam software, which must be licensed separately. Continue reading HP Debuts a 3D Videoconference Display with Google Beam

Adobe has taken a stake in business avatar firm Synthesia, which creates clones for corporate videos using generative AI. The investment of an undisclosed sum through Adobe Ventures was interpreted by one media outlet as a bet that the UK startup’s technology “will transform video production.” Adobe couched the move as a strategic alliance. The investment became public along with Synthesia’s announcement that it surpassed the $100 million mark for what the privately held company says qualifies as recurring annual revenue. Nvidia is also an investor. Continue reading Adobe Investment in Synthesia Could Fuel AI Video Production

In the wake of having to retool its logistical underpinnings to accommodate the massive numbers participating in fundraising videoconferences for Presidential candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris, Zoom has added large-scale, single-use webinar options to its menu of monthly and annual webinar subscriptions. Customers can now opt for webinars with simultaneous participation of 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K or 1 million. The single-use packages include support from the Zoom event services team “to ensure hosts deliver a professional, engaging experience.” Continue reading Zoom Adds Single-Use Events for Up to 1 Million Participants

The Federal Communications Commission has updated its definition of what constitutes high-speed broadband, increasing it fourfold to download speeds of 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second from the 2015 benchmarks of 25/3 Mbps. The change is based on speeds available from Internet service providers, consumer usage patterns and federal and state programs, the FCC says. In a report assessing whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed “in a reasonable and timely fashion” across the U.S., the FCC concludes it is not, and that gaps in deployment are not closing rapidly enough. Continue reading FCC Announces Updated Benchmark for Broadband Speeds

Slack AI is a new paid add-on for enterprise clients that want to boost productivity using artificial intelligence. Generative capabilities in the initial release include personalized responses to questions, channel recaps and thread summaries that promise to “catch you up on long conversations in one click.” Slack says pilot data indicated customers including Uber and Anthropic “could save an average of 97 minutes per user each week using Slack AI to find answers, distill knowledge and spark ideas.” Slack AI is backward compatible, generating information based on the history built over time on the platform. Continue reading Slack AI Brings Generative Features to Channels and Threads

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is getting a lot of love from Wall Street, which saw the company’s stock add $100 billion in value in Q1, largely on the basis of announcing layoffs. Now the 38-year-old is getting attention for a 2,200-word staff memo that has garnered high marks for candor even as he eliminates another 1o,000 jobs. “Last year was a humbling wake-up call,” Zuckerberg wrote. “The world economy changed, competitive pressures grew, and our growth slowed considerably.” Streamlining while working more strategically is the foundation of what Zuckerberg has coined a “year of efficiency.” Continue reading Zuckerberg Memo Outlines Management Based on Efficiency

IT pros are grappling with the ways ChatGPT can be worked into the enterprise stack. The generative artificial intelligence from OpenAI has demonstrated the ability to compile reports, craft marketing pitches and write software code, which makes it seem convenient for business use. Yet concerns remain, including potential security risks and sometimes erratic or inappropriate data feedback. In the past week, one third-party tester had ChatGPT pledge love for its interlocutor, while another received a detailed lecture on why cow eggs are bigger than chicken eggs. Continue reading Business World Asks if Generative AI is Ready for Enterprise

There are a growing number of companies working on technologies that strive to make a person’s voice more intelligible to the listener over speakers, headphones, hearing aids and other consumer audio devices. Augmented Hearing, a Danish startup launched two years ago, is one of the more interesting companies at CES 2023 focusing on this space. The firm’s software-based solution runs on iOS, Windows and other CE operating systems. Their solution could mitigate the current trend of people across all age groups turning on closed captioning because they often find video dialogue difficult to understand. Continue reading CES: Startup Leverages AI to Address Problematic Acoustics

Darren Murph, head of remote for GitLab, was interviewed during this week’s all-digital CES 2021 by Joe Matthews, VP of purchasing & diversity officer at Gentex Corporation, on the future of remote work. Murph stressed the importance of communicating in ways that treat remote and in-house staff equally. It will be especially important if you reopen your office post-pandemic and allow people to continue working remotely to signal that you are committed to supporting remote work and not just “allowing” it. Continue reading CES: Execs Consider Post-Pandemic Future of Remote Work

Facebook is looking to take on Snapchat with a new messaging app the social giant is developing as a companion to Instagram. The Threads app reportedly intends to encourage constant sharing between “close friends” by automatically sharing data such as location, speed and battery life in addition to the usual messages comprised of video, images and text. Instagram previously had a standalone messaging app called Direct, but users were frustrated when they had to move between the two apps to send messages. A new messaging app built around a user’s close friends list could provide a viable alternative.  Continue reading Facebook Creating Companion Messaging App to Instagram

USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things (CCI) is hosting the second International Symposium on Foundations and Applications of Blockchain (FAB 2019). The event will take place on Friday, April 5, 7:00 am – 8:00 pm at USC. This one-day symposium builds on the previous success of FAB 2018, attended by close to a hundred participants and featuring presentations by distinguished speakers from academia and industry. To register, visit the symposium’s Eventbrite page. Continue reading USC Will Host Full-Day Blockchain Symposium This Friday