Mark Schubin, a television technology consultant and author from New York and easily the most knowledgeable person I know, is the director of the HPA Tech Retreat and has been for a number of years. I always thought it was a good sign that a Hollywood-based group would use an expert from the east coast (or "the world west of Burbank" as the HPA president has been known to say.) to direct their seminars.
Anyway, Mark always does a session himself called the Technology Review. He always presents lots of TV facts about recent technology related to our industry. Some of the "highlights" this year include the ability to purchase a high-definition camcorder (HDV) for LESS than $800. A 1 gigabyte memory card for LESS than $50. And the fact that $2 media downloads are now a BIG business. One can purchase (in Japan, I think) software for $20 that automatically fixes lip sync.
Other recent odd offerings that the DTV revolution has brought us include, a camera pan-head designated as "high-definition" and studio lights called "digital". (Someone commented that they are digital - they're either "on" or "off"!) How about the fact that you can buy a "disposable" video camera at the local CVS for about $30? And the HDV (High-Definition Digital Video) cameras I mentioned previously? There were over 30,000 HDV cameras sold before March of 2005. They will be everywhere!
On the storage front, the BIG news is that in the past year there were NO new tape formats introduced by anybody. There have been less and less each year and this year it finally happened. Hey, big news: Tape is dying! There is a new TIVO-like device in development which records ALL channels, ALL the time, so viewers will never miss anything they want to watch. Yikes! I'd love one of those! And the high-definition DVD war is about to heat-up, with both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD format about to hit the market (possibly this April). Both formats use MPEG compression, so MPEG lives on! (The same type of compression is used in HDV camcorders.)
The Broadcast Panel is always a good event at the Retreat. There were high-level representatives from ABC, CBS, NBC-Universal, Fox, PBS, Sinclair Group and even the soon-to-be-gone WB. Most reported on the high-level of HD programming their networks are offering. Some even showed us clips, as though we had never seen HD before. But, for the most part, their comments were positive and most agreed that over-the-air broadcasting still has a long life ahead, although alternative distribution methods will be important for them to utilize, as content providers.
The panel discussion on the Video Consumer Marketplace included a diverse group including reps from NBC-Universal, Direct TV, CEDIA (a trade group for home system designers and custom installers) and Sharp. The NBC person described 3 important factors they consider when looking at alternate distribution paths- Quality, Security and to not find themselves competing against those who provide material "illegal and free". The CEDIA rep claimed that much of the problems associated with DTV when it comes to consumer confusion and such is born by the equipment installers. And Sharp reported something I have commented on myself, which is the fact that many consumers have high-definition-capable equipment and do not know how to use it properly. Or, worse, they have no access to HD programming or do not know they can get it free, right over the air in most big markets.
A Pittburgh-based presenter, Tom McDonough, which some of you "old-timers" at PMI will remember, gave a presentation on Mobile Video Services. Tom works for Azcar in the 'Burgh, a systems designer and integration company, and recently worked on the new network operations center for locally-based Crown Castle Communications for their soon-to-hit "Modeo" mobile video distribution system. This and other similar systems in the works enable users of wireless mobile devices, such as cell phones, laptops, PDA's and handheld media players to capture video and audio content. These types of programs could include linear-style presentations such as streaming "live" video and non-linear programs that get downloaded and watched later (like a podcast).
Tom gave us lots of technical details on these types of systems and also some of the "business model" stuff on how these companies plan to make money on this technology. He tossed the term "Content Aggregator" out at one point, which got me thinking of the future. Hmmmm.
There was a long session presented on Digital Content Management, presented by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). Suffice to say that this is a very important subject for content providers which can be technically daunting and confusing. The end goal, however, is to make this complicated subject as transparent to the user as possible. Good luck on that.
The bottom line is that the big studios do not want to release their high-def digital content on ay format that will allow it to be copied at will and distributed via cheap disks or free on the internet. But they DO want to release their HD digital content!
Well that wraps-up the first day of fun and excitement. More on Thursday. (Hey, it IS Thursday! I'd better get moving!)
Your dry freind in the desert,
Ed
Here's fun fact I just heard on the news: It takes over 3,000 cows to provide the leather used to make footballs for one NFL season. That's a lot of beef! It probably took a thousand of them just for the balls used in the recent Steeler Super Bowl victory, as the ball was changed after every play (so there could be many "authentic Super Bowl souvenir balls to be later sold).