Cell phones with build in cameras are replacing cheap pocket size digital cameras and video cameras. Best cell phone cameras can be better in many ways than cheap pocket digital cameras from few years back. And most people do not want to carry separate devices for each function (at least without a very good reason), when a smart phone can handle calls, Internet, photos and video shooting.
CES 2013 fair had more pocket advanced size cameras on display than DSLRs, but the trend on then was that business was going down due cellular phone cameras getting better. So camera manufacturers are integrating more cellular phone like features to their cameras (like Android OS with wireless connectivity to photo sharing sites) and concentrate on building good superzoom and DSLR type cameras. You need to have something clearly different than what cell phone can offer: huge zoom, good performance in low light or works also in harsh environment. Wireless connection is getting more and more common, either built-in or using memory card with WiFi.
As Sales Slip, TV Makers Strain for the Next Sensation because hardware companies want to make their products stand out in a sea of black rectangles that can show the content user want to watch. And one that is particularly acute for television makers. The hardware is becoming kind of boring and exciting things are happening in software. TV manufacturers continue to push the idea of “smart” sets by adding apps and other interactive elements.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. Almost every major electronic device you own is a black rectangle that is brought to life by software and content.
In the last two years, television makers have tried a push with 3-D sets. But now It’s official: 3D is dead. The tech industry’s annual hot air balloon show is gone. On the one hand, 3D has become ubiquitous enough in televisions that people are unwittingly buying it when opting for a high-end new HDTV to fill their living room.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. This year, television makers like Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic are trying to grab attention by supersizing their television screens and quadrupling the level of detail in their images. They are promoting what they call Ultra High-Definition televisions, which have four times as many pixels as their high-definition predecessors, and can cost as much as a car. It’s a bit of a marketing push. It seems that all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays.
4K at CES 2013: the dream gets real article tells that the 4K bandwagon is fully loaded and ready to get rolling. The US TV maker isn’t alone in stepping up to the higher resolution in its new flagship models. Sony, Panasonic and Sharp, Japan’s traditional big-screen TV leaders, are all attending this year’s CES with proper retail products. Manufacturers Need You to Buy an Ultra-High-Def 4K TV. Save Your Money because just as HDTV was slow to take off, the 4K start will be slow. It’s more than the price that’s keeping these things from hitting critical mass. 4K is only for ultra-premium markets this year.
4K resolution TV has one big problem: The entire ecosystem isn’t ready for 4K. The Trouble With 4K TV article tellst that though 4K resolutions represent the next step in high-definition video, standards for the format have yet to emerge and no one’s really figured out how to distribute video, with its massive file footprint, efficiently and cost effectively. Getting 4K content to consumers is hard.
Even though 4K resolution is widely use in digital cinematography, but there is no suitable consumer disk format that supports it and the bandwidth need to stream 4K content would be huge. Given that uncompressed 4K footage has a bit-rate of about 600MB/s. Broadcom chip ushers in H.265 and UltraHD video tells that H.265 video standard, aka HEVC or MPEG-5, squeezes more pixels over a network connection to support new high-resolution 4K TVs.
You should also note that the new higher resolution is pretty pointless for a small TV (where the TV mass market is now). Ultra HD would make a difference only on screens that were at least 80 inches, measured diagonally. For smaller screens, the extra pixels would not be visible to a person with 20/20 vision viewing from a normal viewing distance. Ultra HD TVs can also be a flop. But let’s see what happens in the world where nowadays tiny smart phone screens can have full HDTV resolution.
Keep in mind that 4K is not any absolute highest resolution expected in few years. 8k resolution TVs are coming. Sharp showed a 8K resolution TV with 7680 x 4320 resolution at CES2013. For more details on it read Sharp 8K Super Hi-Vision LCD, 4K TV and Freestyle wireless LCD HDTV hands-on article.
Another development than pushing up the resolution to make high end display products is OLED technology. OLED is another new technology to make expensive products. The much buzzed-about device features next-generation, high-quality OLED screens. OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, and they offer a bevy of benefits: more energy efficient, cleaner image, wide viewing angle and devices can be made thinner. You can also make TV screen curved in shape. In a race between television titans, LG has beat Samsung in becoming the first manufacturer to introduce a 55-inch OLED television to market: the largest OLED TV panel to date.. OLED products are very expensive (LG TV $10,300 in US dollars). OLED display can also have 4K resolution, so you can combine two expensive technologies to one product. Market analysts say that they believe the technology will not become more affordable until 2015.
The Verge Awards: the best of CES 2013 article lists for example product like Samsung 4K “easel TV”, Sony 4K OLED TV, Teenage Engineering OD-11 Cloud Speaker and Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming.
All your audio, video kit is about to become OBSOLETE article tells that although much of the audio and video technology packed into CES 2013′s 1.9 million square feet of exhibition space is indeed impressive, one panelist at an emerging-technology conference session channeled a little 1974 BTO, essentially telling his audience that “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Deep-geek soothsayer predicts smart audio, Ultra HD eyewear, much more in coming years. Audio is going to become adaptive, changing its wave forms to fit each user’s personal aural perceptions. Active noise reduction is finding its way into cars. HD audio will be coming to mobile phones. MEMS-based microphones and speakers are also on the runway. Consumer-level video will see in the future much higher resolution devices with much higher frame rates.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
NBC News Scooping Up Mobile Video Site Stringwire
http://allthingsd.com/20130811/nbc-news-scooping-up-mobile-video-site-stringwire/
The notion that anyone with a phone who witnesses news is a potential source for news video has been around for a while.
CNN, for example, has long had its iReport app. Twitter itself has become the go-to source for many kinds of widely witnessed breaking news, such as protests and plane crashes.
NBC News is now looking to get into the act, scooping up startup Stringwire. The deal is set to be formally announced on Monday, though the company spilled all the beans to the New York Times for a piece that was posted on Sunday.
“You could get 30 people all feeding video, holding up their smartphones, and then we could look at that,” NBC News digital chief Vivian Schiller told the Times. “We’ll be able to publish and broadcast some of them.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Post-Water-Cooler TV
How to Make a TV Drama in the Twitter Age
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/arts/television/how-to-make-a-tv-drama-in-the-twitter-age.html?pagewanted=all
For decades, the TV viewing experience was much the same. Tune into your favorite show, week by patient week, all on the network’s schedule. Feedback was restricted to faceless Nielsen ratings and perhaps a plaintive letter or phone call to executives complaining about a favorite show’s cast change or cancellation.
No more. In a connected world of DVDs, DVRs, video on demand and, more recently, Web streaming, the calculus of control has shifted.
Tweet your delight/disbelief/fury (pick one, or all) about plot twists to your multitude of followers. Marshal an army on social media to demand a show return from the dead, perhaps even as a movie.
Grappling creatively with this industry upheaval — the technological advances, the rapidly shifting economic underpinnings, the cacophonous online commentary — are the show runners, the writers who animate the characters bursting through our big screen TVs, tablets and smartphones.
Certainly the change in the way people watch TV has allowed for heavily serialized storytelling, which was an anathema to broadcast networks a few years ago, because they thought if somebody fell out of an episode, then they would never get them back. But now there’s so many ways for people to watch shows that they recognized that serialized storytelling actually hooks an audience, and they’re not as afraid about people missing stuff because they have so many ways of getting caught up.
They all watch it more than once. They watch it, and they live-tweet, and then the fans will watch it again and be like: I noticed this other thing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lytro’s CEO acknowledges layoffs but promises ‘breakthroughs’ in 2014
http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/08/11/lytros-ceo-acknowledges-layoffs-but-promises-breakthroughs-in-2014/
Camera startup Lytro laid off an unknown number of workers earlier this year, The Chronicle has learned, but the company’s new CEO is promising a series of “breakthrough” products in 2014.
The Mountain View company made a splash nearly two years ago with its light field camera
But industry sources say the inaugural camera isn’t selling well so far.
One of the key challenges Lytro faces is that their base model costs $400, a high tab in a market where most people simply take pictures on their phones or might buy a $200 point and shoot, said Brian Blau, research director for consumer technology at Gartner.
As interesting as the technology is, the average consumer doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about whether they’d prefer the foreground or background in focus. Meanwhile, the product suffers on the high end, because it doesn’t include features that serious hobbyists and pros need like interchangeable lenses and exposure controls.
“For a typical small company with a lot of hype, the product maybe didn’t quite meet expectations,” Blau said. “People think the product is interesting, but it might not meet their needs in terms of what a camera is today.”
“We have a packed product roadmap for next year, we’ll introduce multiple what I think are just breakthrough products. I’m super excited and the world will be as well.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Youth illegal online downloading halved in Finland
Also the attitude of piracy has changed in a negative direction.
Today, Tuesday, the publication Copyright barometer, an illegal online downloading has decreased radically in the 15 to 24 age group.
When in 2009 the illegal net downloadind professes an interest in 61 per cent of the age group, is a recent figure of 33 per cent.
Four years ago piracy was accepteb by 42 percent of young people – now only 23%.
Piracy is deformed
Legality in addition to the phenomenon also explains the transition to another type of illegal services. All respondents, 25 per cent of young people as much as more than half the year having used illegal streaming services.
In those games, music or movies do not have to download them to their computer, but they can be used directly through the website.
These pages use has increased significantly since last year. Kaira view, especially in foreign illegal websites are a major problem in terms of intellectual property rights. Finnish films distributed illegally in Turkey, for example.
Obvious reason for the reduction of illegal downloads is also legitimate services, such as Spotify, a breakthrough: when the music runs your mobile phone in your pocket, the temptation to download it to your home computer illegally will be substantially reduced.
Technological developments also says that the physical pirated CDs, movies or games will only bought a couple of per cent of Finnish.
Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/nuorten_laiton_nettilataaminen_puolittui/6773689
Tomi Engdahl says:
Timo Vuorensola: Piracy save the movie
May 2010
Piracy promoting the market economy
In fact, I believe piracy – you could say that I am a believer in piracy. However, I do not like pirate party posts, which makes piracy a political question, not very relevant if I do not because, for example itself is not willing to stand behind the Pirate Party of the message as strongly as many. I also do not think that all online material free distribution is sustainable, and that everyone should automatically get always all for free.
Piracy is a question of a purely market economy – demand, supply, and between them falling to availability. In the current form of piracy is the key to future business models for the design. It will force media companies to dominate the bodies and adjust to consumer demand.
Piracy is a demonstration that forces decision-makers to change their policy requirements of the citizens.
This may sound like politicizing the issue, but it is not: the consumer’s position, the digital distribution of, and trade in the media persons who decide not sit in Parliament, but the high skyscrapers roof in offices. Piracy is not a political issue and can not resolve the political will, but it is primarily a commercial problem.
Suggests, but does not understand to give
The movie industry has established a whole distribution on one hundred years of history, the Territories, and the publication of the windows, the United States released the film has been marketed in the local market with a big noise, and the other regions of the time has come, has begun marketing these Territories.
Marketing is a double-edged sword: it is done properly it raises the consumers’ interests, but if it can not be answered, it can jump up to roost. We live in the internet, where the understanding of the Territories is dead. All communication will end up all available at the same time all over the world: the United States, published a hit movie or TV series, Finnish consumers are immediately aware of. This consumer is able to offer what he wants, when it is available, not when this is desired. If the consumer wants to buy the product, but he does not sell, the product is applied wherever it may be.
In a perfect world, the consumer finds that a hit movie can not wait half a year Finnish theaters. TV series again with even more patience is required – one year after the commencement of the cycle, it is available in DVD or BluRay discs from abroad, and sometime in the next three years, it may – if the channel bosses to bring to – land up on domestic television.
In the real world, new movie and the TV series episodes may be a peer to peer right away free of charge, of good quality and in every way more easily than legal services, so is it any wonder that the people will vote in favor of this option. The irritating thing is that the cost may not be, even if I wanted.
Piracy is a kick in the ass
The movie industry is probably the slowest of the most adaptable to change in an area that still stubbornly cling to old ways – or at least this is how it looks from a consumer perspective. Current digital cinema services are not formed within the sector of innovation, but of pure necessity through the crowd – and it shows. Consumers are offered expensive and bad service, the use of which is significantly more difficult than the illegal download services
At the same time, the industry horrified when the consumer does not settle for anything.
Responsibility for the invention of the solution is not the consumer, but to the industry. Piracy is the gun industry’s head, which forces a rethink of the solution, or all of the spread in the hands.
The music industry has tried to solve the problem by editing the record companies to music company position that does not worry no more just distribution, but for everything music related. One of these approaches is Spotify, which is certainly not the ideal of the artist, but no one use the service can not be denied its excellence in the consumer’s point of view.
Piracy will force the film industry to make hard-needed changes in direction. If this does not happen, just a giant Blockbuster no longer able to make their money back
Piracy forces to build a digital, efficient distribution channel, which is not dependent Territories and not trip over the availability, quality or usability.
Such a distribution channel offers a huge potential for the cultural sector to reform the movie. Is it possible that 90 minutes is not the best form of storytelling?
Loser consumer
The future still looks bleak: the film industry a hundred years the system has formed a huge huge amounts of resource rich gatekeepers, who are threatening to leave the job because they are not digitized world simply no longer needed. These entities are willing to fight and lobby for each of the last pennies before I lost the grant.
Unfortunately, the battle is fought against individual consumers. Is the population size of the future will be destroyed before the recognition that we have entered a new era.
In fact, I do not think that piracy and the free dissemination of all is the future-proof solution.
Consumers living in this day, the industry was still in the 80′s. Soon it is time to make up for the gap.
Iron Sky, Star Wreck and
What about my films? Star Wreck was applied at first hand in play, free internet release as marketing motor, and later several distributors took the movie to their distribution channels
Since the Iron Sky us primarily aimed at the international theatrical distribution and a budget of almost seven million, the free market is not in the current climate is not the solution.
The private non-commercial free distribution allowing for there are many good arguments, but the author’s point of view, the hand is always the one fact: when has spent 6.5 million to make a film, something they should get back again.
People would be paying for it, what they like, so the most important thing is to make a good product a fair attitude, after the purchase and the payment must be made as easy as the illegal copying – or easier. This is the only way to fight – no, to compete – against piracy.
(Timo Vuorensola is maker of Star Wreck and Iron Sky movies)
On music and the porn side of this is already almost been reached, but in the film and TV industry outside USA is has barely begun.
It is now grown in a generation that is accustomed to the fact that it is difficult to legal and media firms are the representative organization of the consumer’s everyday life in the yard full of bad guys. This attitude to climate change is a greater thing than any technical challenge.
Source: http://yle.fi/vintti/yle.fi/kohtaus/kohtaus/blogit/tuotannon-takaa/piratismi-pelastaa-elokuvan-kommentoi=1.htm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple acquires second screen TV startup Matcha.tv (scoop)
http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/13/apple-acquires-matchatv/
Apple’s latest acquisition is the recently-shut down second-screen TV/video app Matcha.tv, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who asked to remain anonymous.
Matcha.tv was an iOS app that provided a comprehensive overview of everything that’s available to watch via cable TV providers (Comcast), streaming video services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime), and digital video stores (iTunes, Amazon). Additionally, you could manage what you watched from a universal queue, get video recommendations, and connect with social networks to see what your friends were watching/liking.
Apple responded to VentureBeat with the following comment: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter Is Testing Out A New ‘TV Trending’ Box At The Top Of Your Timeline
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/14/twitter-is-testing-out-a-new-tv-trending-box-at-the-top-of-your-timeline/
Twitter is betting big on TV, both as a source of traffic and as a potential source of lucrative advertising revenue. And that’s leading the company to test out new ways of bringing even more TV content — and traffic — to its platform. In the latest move, the company appears to be is testing out a new feature where links to popular TV shows appear as Twitter cards at the top of your Timeline, complete with related Tweet data and show information.
Meanwhile, the cards themselves link through to pages dedicated to the program in question, with more information about the show and related Tweets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung OLED TV review
Is the Samsung KN55S9C, a 55-inch curved OLED TV, the best HDTV ever?
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/08/samsung-oled-tv-review/index.htm
It’s not often that we get an up-close look at a truly new TV technology, but that’s exactly what happened when we brought the Samsung KN55S9C OLED TV into our labs. OLED promises to be a game-changer that could one day push current TV technologies to the sidelines. It combines the best attributes of plasma and LCD sets: the deep blacks, high contrast, and unlimited viewing angles of plasma TVs with the bright images, super-slim designs, and energy efficiency of LCD sets.
That’s a winning combination, judging by our tests of the Samsung KN55S9C. It’s arguably the best all-around TV we’ve ever tested, with the highest overall picture-quality scores and no major shortcomings—except, perhaps, its steep $9,000 price.
Will the future of TV be curved?
Samsung’s new OLED TV is a striking-looking set, with its elegant, slightly curved screen perched within a rectangular metallic stand. While it’s likely that the curved screen—a design characteristic also shared by LG’s OLED set—is primarily an aesthetic touch to differentiate the TV, Samsung claims the curve helps create a more immersive viewing experience, giving viewers a sense that the TV is actually larger than its actual screen dimensions. From the viewer’s seating position, you can sense the curve from the outer profile of the frame, which has a bowed contour at the top and bottom of the screen, much like a Cinerama projection screen in a movie theater.
We also noticed that the TV is angled back a bit on its stand, so it faces slightly upward. This means the preferred position for this TV is at or below eye level to the screen. Because of the curve, there is an implied viewing sweet spot that limits the optimal seating position to the two or three viewers directly in front of the screen. But unlike that of many LCD TVs, the KN55S9C’s picture doesn’t look washed out as you move off angle from the center of the TV, though at wider angles the curve introduces some subtle non-uniform image geometric distortion to the picture, and at more extreme angles the edge of the TV can actually block the image. (A regular flat TV, by comparison, maintains the image geometry over the complete 180 degrees.)
Still, at normal viewing angles, most viewers probably will not find the curve distracting. But there is one other consequence of the curved screen: This TV can’t be wall-mounted.
Bottom line
It should be obvious that we were impressed by the performance of Samsung’s first OLED TV, though we should note that the set was likely optimized for best performance. We hope that all retail models will offer similar performance.
But all OLED TV manufacturers face formidable challenges before these sets can become a mainstream choice for consumers. One is that OLED is hard to manufacture, especially in larger screen sizes. Yields right now are relatively low, so a large percentage of sets that come off the manufacturing line aren’t up to snuff and can’t be sold. There’s also a question about longevity, since the blue diodes have a shorter life expectancy and lose brightness at a faster rate than the other colors.
And there’s also a possible issue of burn-in, where the set retains ghosted images of persistent images, such as station logos, that are left onscreen. In a preliminary test, we displayed our special “burn-in” test pattern, which includes a mix of very high contrast graphics, on the screen and checked every 10 minutes for image sticking.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Internet Television Isn’t Quite Ready To Save Us From Cable TV
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/08/15/2236205/why-internet-television-isnt-quite-ready-to-save-us-from-cable-tv
“It’s no surprise that few people love their pay TV providers. In May, Variety reported that the American Consumer Satisfaction Index ranked cable television providers last in all consumer categories. Pent up frustration with cable and satellite TV providers fuels a steady buzz that Amazon, Apple, Google and Netflix will disrupt TV.”
“But true disruption is wishful thinking. Data from the PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC) global entertainment and media outlook for 2013-2017 doesn’t support a disruptive market scenario.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix and Amazon don’t have enough content to replace cable TV
http://qz.com/115346/netflix-and-amazon-dont-have-enough-content-to-replace-cable-tv/
Pent up frustration with cable and satellite TV providers fuels a steady buzz that Amazon, Apple, Google and Netflix will disrupt TV. These new entrants promise to offer variability in pricing and greater choice fueling notions that Americans have officially cut their proverbial cords.
But true disruption is wishful thinking. Data from the PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC) global entertainment and media outlook for 2013-2017 doesn’t support a disruptive market scenario. Incumbent cable and satellite pay TV providers and over-the-top (OTT) challengers such as Amazon and Netflix are both forecasted to grow.
OTT TV has only reinvented a single part of the TV business, streaming archival movie and television content over the internet replacing physical DVDs and time-shifted DVR replay of TV programs. To displace incumbents, OTT TV has to continue to change TV business models in ways that appeal to consumers and attract content owners.
Only recently, OTT TV challengers Netflix and Amazon have started to deliver their own exclusive, originally-produced content. Netflix committed to finance six new series and Amazon, five. Compared to the average consumer’s appetite for TV content, Netflix and Amazon’s original content is merely an appetizer.
Consumers are not only dependent upon pay television providers for volume of content but also variety. Pay television providers are unchallenged by OTT TV in three live TV categories: news, sports, and reality TV. Very few households would choose to drop live TV. This explains why Nielsen’s ZeroTV households, or cord cutters that are not pay TV, subscribers amount to less than 5% of all households.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Viacom-Sony TV Is a Big Deal. It’s Also the Same Deal We Already Have.
http://allthingsd.com/20130815/viacom-sony-tv-is-a-big-deal-its-also-the-same-deal-we-already-have/
Viacom’s deal to deliver its cable TV shows to a new Web video service from Sony isn’t final.
But it is a big deal: As the Wall Street Journal first reported today, this is the first time a major programmer has agreed, in principle, to sell a “linear” feed of its shows to the Web.
That is, subscribers for a yet-to-launch Sony TV service would get Viacom’s shows at the same time they get delivered to Comcast, or DirecTV, or Verizon Fios subscribers.
Viacom’s agreement — or potential agreement — will make it easier for other programmers to step out and make their own agreements. That’s also big.
Here’s the key question: Are those guys going to sell their stuff to Sony in a way that differs materially from the way they’re selling their stuff to traditional pay TV operators?
I haven’t been able to get confirmation on this. But I do have an educated guess: No.
Again, recall that the cable TV guys weren’t happy when Dish and DirecTV showed up and started competing with them 20 years ago. But the programmers were happy to sell the satellite guys their stuff, because they like having more customers. Same thing 10 years ago, when Verizon and AT&T showed up to add even more competition.
Meanwhile, if you’re one of those people who takes delight in the notion of the Web “killing” cable, remember that a Web TV service still needs to be delivered over the Web, which means anyone who uses it isn’t cutting the cord at all: They’re just paying a different programmer but using the same pipe.
That is: If you’re getting TV and broadband from Comcast, and start getting TV from Sony instead, you’re still going to pay Comcast* for broadband.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s Kinect and $150 software transforms ordinary surfaces into touchscreens
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046724/microsofts-kinect-and-150-software-transforms-ordinary-surfaces-into-touchscreens.html
Working with Microsoft, a company called Ubi Interactive is bringing us ever-closer to the day when everything is a touch screen.
Microsoft
The software from Ubi (no relation to the game publisher Ubisoft) turns any surface into a touch screen when combined with a projector and Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows motion controller. It’s available for purchase, starting at $149 with support for projected images up to 45 inches.
Microsoft first showed off Ubi’s software last year at its Worldwide Partner Conference.
Just don’t think of it as a quick and dirty way to have touch screens all over your house. Ideally, the projector should be set up behind a transparent surface, so you don’t block the projection with your hands and arms, and Kinect should be set up in an area where it can easily see your hand movements. Ubi recommends a ceiling mount. Also, keep in mind that for projected images larger than 45-inches, you’d need Ubi’s professional software, which costs $379 and up.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blackout brawler: meet the combative CEO keeping CBS off your television
The fight with Time Warner Cable is one of Les Moonves’ many battles
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4618518/blackout-brawler-meet-the-combative-ceo-keeping-cbs-off-your
As the feud between CBS and Time Warner Cable (TWC) over retransmission drags on for a third week, more than 3 million TWC subscribers are blocked from watching programming from the nation’s most popular broadcast network.
Last year, when Aereo made a splash by offering consumers web access to live, over-the-air TV, there was Moonves filing suit and threatening to pull CBS shows off the airwaves. When Dish Network released its Auto-Hop feature that automatically skips past commercials, there was Moonves again, suing and threatening to pull programming off the satellite system. And when Amazon began undercutting traditional booksellers on ebook prices, there was Moonves signing off on a scheme to force the web’s top retailer to stop discounting.
The CEO appears to be the latest in a long line of media chiefs willing to use the courts and Congress to try and thwart impending paradigm shifts brought on by innovation.
But what does CBS’ challenges with Dish and Aereo have to do with TWC? Plenty. With every victory in court, Aereo undercuts the long standing agreement that cable companies should have to pay networks for the right to carry their programming. At a time when Netflix and Amazon are adding customers, the number of cable subscribers is shrinking.
Amazon and Netflix are just the start. Within the past year, Aereo, Dish, and similar companies have generated a lot of headlines by offering to supply consumers with new ways to interact with TV programming, such as watching live TV online and automatically removing commercials. The upstarts have managed to do all this without permission from the networks, or violating copyright law. But instead of rallying around a besieged distributor, CBS is “at war” with TWC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aereo CEO: Service will turn a profit before turning in 1M subscribers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57598600-93/aereo-ceo-service-will-turn-a-profit-before-turning-in-1m-subscribers/
The upstart online TV service will have a “fabulous” business at 1 million users and an “extremely fabulous” one at 5 million, but registrations need only be in the hundreds of thousands for it to be profitable, its CEO says.
Aereo doesn’t disclosed its user numbers.
The company, which is backed by IAC Chairman Barry Diller, uses antenna/DVR technology to let consumers can watch live, local over-the-air television broadcasts. It’s a capability that has provoked the ire of from broadcasts giants including CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC Universal, and Telemundo, which are suing Aereo for violating copyrights and skirting retransmission fees.
Kanojia has previously said that he hopes that one out of every four people will be using Aereo in the next five to seven years. At today’s population, that would represent 78.5 million people. Netflix, currently the biggest subscription service for streaming video, has nearly 30 million domestic streaming members.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multitask Nation: ESPN Lets iPad Users Call Up Scores, Clips, While They Watch Live Video
http://allthingsd.com/20130815/multitask-nation-espn-lets-ipad-users-call-up-scores-clips-while-they-watch-live-video/
ESPN’s WatchESPN is a very good app that lets you stream the sports channel’s live broadcasts to your phone, tablet or TV.*
But what if you’re not content watching a single game at a time? Now iPad owners can mainline even more sports video on the same screen, via new multitasking features included in an app update.
The key here is something ESPN is calling a “live toolbar.” It’s a widget that runs across the bottom of the video screen and lets you pull up data like scores and stats for other games you’re not watching. And, if your attention span can handle it, you can also use it to pull up on-demand video clips, like highlight reels, that you can watch side by side with a live feed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Ad Network Problem? Vungle Raises $6.5 Million for Mobile Video Ads.
http://allthingsd.com/20130815/what-ad-network-problem-vungle-raises-6-5-million-for-mobile-video-ads/
Public investors aren’t very excited about ad networks and ad technology. But private money is still placing bets.
The newest: A $6.5 million A round for Vungle, a mobile ad network focused on “in-app” ads.
Vungle’s main pitch is to app developers who want to promote their programs inside other people’s programs. But the company has also been branching out into more conventional brand advertisers, too.
It’s hard to imagine his big competitors leaving him much room — Facebook in particular has been talking up its success as an app advertising platform — but Jaffer does say he’s growing fast: He said his ads have been viewed two billion times in the last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AquaTop: a gaming touch display that looks like demon possessed water
http://hackaday.com/2013/08/18/aquatop-is-a-touch-display-that-projects-images-on-water/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple big-screen TV rumor zombie RISES FROM THE DEAD
Forget the low-cost iPhone, forget the iWatch, here comes the Cupertinian boob tube!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/16/apple_said_to_be_holding_talks_about_big_screen_television_manufacturing/
It’s time to fire up the Apple big-screen TV rumor mill again: a report out of Taiwan says that Apple has held talks in the US with representatives of Corning, Foxconn, and G-Tech Optoelectronics for the purpose of getting Corning to share some of its Gorilla Glass expertise with G-Tech.
That expertise would assist the Taiwanese firm with the polishing and surface treatment processes necessary to manufacture a “large TV screen”
The 電視螢幕大 would be available in 55- and 60-inch versions, EDN says, and would be launched in the first half of next year
Veteran – and decidedly unsuccessful – Apple predictor Gene Munster said in August 2009 that Apple would release a television in 2011, an incorrect guess
difficult to get all fired up about Yet Another Rumor™ coming out of the Far East concerning a possible Apple big-screen television on the way
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Death of the American Drive-in
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/13/08/18/0155222/the-death-of-the-american-drive-in
“Claire Suddath writes in Businessweek that the number of drive-ins in America has dwindled from over 4,000 in the 1960s to about 360 today. Since Hollywood distributors are expected to stop producing movies in traditional 35 millimeter film by the end of this year and switch entirely to digital, America’s last remaining drive-ins — the majority of which are still family-owned and seasonally operated — could soon be gone.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
America’s Last, Remaining Drive-Ins Face a New Threat
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-15/americas-last-remaining-drive-ins-face-a-new-threat
the number of drive-ins in America has dwindled from over 4,000 in the 1960s to about 360 today.
Unless James and his wife can scrape together $210,000 to pay for digital projectors, there won’t be any cars at the Mesa Drive-In at all next year. “We knew this switch to digital was coming,” he says. “We’ve been saving for years for this. But for us, $210,000 is a huge chunk of change.”
By the end of this year, Hollywood distributors are expected to stop producing movies in traditional 35 millimeter film and switch entirely to digital.
The digital push is good for moviegoers who like crisp, shiny blockbusters and for the Hollywood studios who make them; it costs over $1,000 to print one 35 mm film copy, compared to the $100 it takes to release a digital version on an encrypted hard drive.
According to industry analytics firm IHS, about 76 percent of all screens across the world have already been upgraded. (In the U.S., the rate is more like 90 percent).
But at $75,000 to $100,000 for just one projector, the cost of upgrading to digital is expensive for movie theaters, sometimes prohibitively so.
According to Vincent, only 150 drive-ins have converted so far—the other 210 have until the end of the year either to get with the program or go out of business.
Vincent replaced his five 35 mm projectors—which had been running smoothly since they were installed in 1957—for about $70,000 each. “I’ll admit it, it’s a fantastic picture,” he says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google patents ‘pay-per-gaze’ eye-tracking that could measure emotional response to real-world ads
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/18/4633558/google-patents-pay-per-gaze-eye-tracking-ads
Advertisers spend heaps of cash on branding, bannering, and product-placing. But does anyone really look at those ads? Google could be betting that advertisers will pay to know whether consumers are actually looking at their billboards, magazine spreads, and online ads. The company was just granted a patent for “pay-per-gaze” advertising, which would employ a Google Glass-like eye sensor in order to identify when consumers are looking at advertisements in the real world and online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone Photography Awards
http://www.ippawards.com/
iPhone Photography Awards™ (IPPAWARDS) is the first and the longest running iPhone photography competition since 2007. IPPAWARDS has been celebrating the creativity of the iPhone users since the first iPhone has inspired, excited and engaged the users worldwide. Since then every year, IPPAWARDS has selected the best shots among thousands of images submitted by iPhone photographers from 38 countries around the world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter Lures Top Google Exec to Focus on Entertainment Biz (Exclusive)
http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/twitter-lures-top-google-entertainment-ad-sales-exec-exclusive-1200580745/
Looking to win more Hollywood followers, Twitter has hired Jennifer Prince, formerly Google’s head of media and entertainment ad sales, to pitch new ways movie and TV marketers can use the social giant’s platform.
“All entertainment brands are working with Twitter, but they’re just scratching the surface,” Prince said. Over the next few months, she plans to hire a sales team to widen Twitter’s coverage of movies and TV and possibly expand into the videogame biz.
As director of entertainment industry sales, Prince will promote Twitter as the “social soundtrack” that can enhance marketing of TV shows and pics. Twitter sells “promoted tweets,” and last month debuted a TV ad targeting product that pushes sponsored messages in real time to users who appear to be following specific shows.
“In my first two weeks, I’m going to meet with key entertainment brands to find out what exactly what they’re doing with Twitter today and where they want to go,” Prince said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Remember podcasting? It’s back – and booming
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2013/08/15/podcast-explosion/2647963/
Anyone who’s anyone has a podcast these days. And they’re finding millions of listeners.
Dawson isn’t the only video star to give online audio a try. The land of podcasting, once an esoteric outpost devoted to heavily tech-oriented chats, is booming. Actor Alec Baldwin, Extra’s Maria Menounos and comedians Joan Rivers, Jeff Garlin and Tom Green all recently threw their hats into the podcasting ring alongside CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, which now offer audio versions of many of their TV news shows.
Apple just surpassed 1 billion subscriptions for podcasts via its iTunes app, which is a major milestone for a category that had been considered an also-ran.
Many top podcasts — such as the Nerdist, NPR’s This American Life and Aisha Tyler’s Girl on Guy, see millions of downloads.
“Our culture is so niche-oriented now, you don’t need 3 million people to listen to your podcast,” says Hardwick. “If 10,000 people listen, which isn’t a hard number to achieve, then 10,000 people listen to your podcast. You can do something with that, you can build a community, and literally change the world, just recording into a recorder.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
CBS, Time Warner Cable, and the Disruption of TV
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/08/cbs-time-warner-cable-and-the-disruption-of-tv.html?currentPage=all
Until the nineteen-eighties, American television was dominated by CBS, NBC, and ABC, broadcast networks so powerful that they were known simply as the Big Three. Then a new technology came along, one that gave viewers many more options to choose from, completely disrupting the way that people watched TV. It was called cable.
Then Congress came up with a solution that would help the broadcast networks. Unlike cable, which enjoyed revenue from both subscribing customers and advertising, the broadcast channels were financed only by advertising. In 1992, Congress passed the Cable Act, which handed a second revenue stream to local broadcast stations, many of which were owned by or affiliated with networks like the Big Three. To insure that local stations would be carried on cable systems and that the local stations would continue to produce the news and some other programs in the public interest, Congress allowed the local stations to charge cable-system owners, like Time Warner Cable and Comcast, a fee called “retransmission consent” for displaying broadcast content. Soon, networks like CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox hijacked most of that fee, claiming that since their programming comprised so much of the audience for TV stations they should be compensated. Before long, the networks were requiring their stations to pay them compensation for airing network programs.
A fight over the size of that fee is ostensibly the reason that, for the past two weeks, more than three million Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas haven’t been able to tune into CBS or Showtime, which CBS owns.
The cable industry, for its part, has been flush with cash for the past twenty-five years. As Jason Hirschhorn, a former MTV executive and a serial entrepreneur, put it: “MTV had profit margins like cocaine cartels.”
But now restless cable customers chafe at average monthly bills of more than seventy dollars, not including a broadband Internet connection. Cable bills rose by more than six per cent last year, according to the Federal Communications Commission, and higher retransmission fees could spur cable companies to raise their rates even more. Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable executives see that their subscriber base has begun to drop, as people go elsewhere for content.
Cable-system owners are so worried about losing their leverage as distribution platforms that some of them believe they should try to regain leverage by merging. Others argue that they should pull back on their relationships with broadcast networks and concentrate instead on the other part of their business: selling broadband-Internet subscriptions.
Broadcast networks are also challenged. For years, they enjoyed a gusher of dollars from retransmission consent, and advertisers were willing to pay more for thirty-second spots, even as network audiences dwindled. Why? Because the networks still assembled a mass audience.
The networks and their corporate parents tapped other revenue sources, like Disney’s ESPN for ABC, Showtime for CBS, CNBC for NBC, and Fox News for Fox.
Today, broadcast networks like CBS take solace in being able to sell reruns of their programs not only to cable channels and local stations but also to digital platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Google. But these new platforms don’t come close to matching the lucrative syndication fees once paid by local stations and cable networks.
The networks bluster that if cable providers refuse to increase retransmission fees, they’ll stop delivering their over-the-air signals and transform themselves into cable networks, able to tap subscriptions along with ads.
In the end, the challenge to the TV industry comes down to choice, just as it did thirty years ago. Today, a cable-and-Internet-connected home has thousands of choices. Armed with their remote controls and a mouse or a touch screen, consumers can choose what they want to watch, when to watch it, and which device to use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arrival Of Fall, Not Football, Could End CBS Blackout
http://www.buzzfeed.com/peterlauria/arrival-of-fall-not-football-could-end-cbs-blackout
Time Warner Cable subscribers have been unable to watch CBS for 17 days due to a contract dispute. But, if historical trends are any guide, the beginning of fall — not the start of the football season — could provide the impetus to end the standoff.
CBS will be restored to Time Warner Cable subscribers by Sept. 8, but it won’t be because of the start of the NFL season. Rather, there is an impetus for ending the blackout that involves the beginning of another season entirely: autumn.
Right now, the more than 3 million Time Warner Cable subscribers in eight markets — among them New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas — unhappy about being unable to watch CBS since Aug. 2 as a result of a contract dispute between the two companies have to switch to another provider. But only the angriest of subscribers will go that far because, quite frankly, switching pay-TV providers is a pain in the ass. You have to call Time Warner Cable and have someone come to your house to pick up your equipment during a certain four-hour window, or pack it all up yourself and bring it to the nearest location. Then you need to call DirecTV or DISH or Verizon FiOS and figure out what package you want, schedule an appointment, and wait for the field agent to come to your home and set up your equipment. Ugh! Who wants to go through all of that when you can just change the channel and watch something else until the dispute is resolved? The answer is not that many people.
“Everyone cancels when they leave for the summer, and everyone signs back up again when they come back,” said David Bank, a managing director at RBC Capital Markets who follows the cable industry.
As with all blackouts, the length of time they last is directly proportional to how much pain each side can take. The longer this one lasts, the more leverage tilts in CBS’ favor. The network, despite being blacked out in some of the country’s largest markets, still ranked as the most-watched network during the first full week of the blackout. Time Warner Cable hasn’t disclosed how many subscribers have disconnected as a result of the dispute.
“While back-to-school/end-of-summer is a big new sign-up time for cable and satellite operators, we believe consumers are becoming more and more immune to these corporate slugfests,” said BTIG media analyst Richard Greenfield. “They know the content comes back and can probably leverage the blackouts into a short-term discount. While CBS is ‘America’s Most Watched’ network, there is not a lot of compelling content on in the middle of August.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
SF fire chief bans helmet cameras in wake of crash
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-fire-chief-bans-helmet-cameras-in-wake-of-crash-4741338.php#page-1
San Francisco’s fire chief has explicitly banned firefighters from using helmet-mounted video cameras, after images from a battalion chief’s Asiana Airlines crash recording became public and led to questions about first responders’ actions leading up to a fire rig running over a survivor.
Filming the scene may have violated both firefighters’ and victims’ privacy, Hayes-White said, trumping whatever benefit came from knowing what the footage shows.
“There comes a time that privacy of the individual is paramount, of greater importance than having a video,” Hayes-White said.
Without someone’s permission, videos are not to be taken.”
It is not clear how many San Francisco firefighters and paramedics have such cameras, but their use has spread in recent years. Paramedics, in particular, say having still and video images can be helpful if patients question how they were treated before arriving at a hospital.
Footage shot with helmet cameras has been used as a learning device to train new firefighters
Hayes-White said Johnson “has been interviewed” about possibly being in violation of the 2009 policy.
The footage raised several questions about the handling of the firefighting and rescue efforts after the Asiana plane slammed into a seawall short of the runway at SFO, spun to a stop and caught fire.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get 4K video from your phone’s USB port with the new MHL 3.0 spec
Updated standard does Slimport and Miracast one better.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/get-4k-video-from-your-phones-usb-port-with-the-new-mhl-3-0-spec/
The Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) standard already lets you connect certain phones, tablets, and other devices to your TV using adapters that connect to the devices’ micro-USB ports. But the consortium has just announced that an upgrade is coming: the new MHL 3.0 standard adds support for 4K displays. This will allow mobile devices that support the standard to output 3840×2160 (also known as 2160p) video at up to 30 frames per second, an upgrade from MHL 2.0′s 1080p.
The updated standard can transmit data and video simultaneously, and a device connected via MHL can draw up to 10 watts of power to charge your device. Backward compatibility with MHL versions 1.x and 2.x, HDCP 2.2 DRM support, and 7.1 channel surround sound support are also part of the standard.
The MHL standard competes with a few standards (as well as Apple’s proprietary AirPlay), all of which are designed to put your phone or tablet’s display up on your TV. There’s SlimPort (used most prominently in Google’s Nexus 4 and 2013 Nexus 7), a DisplayPort-compatible spec which like MHL uses the micro USB port to connect over HDMI. There’s also Miracast, an Airplay-like standard that uses a Wi-Fi-equipped receiver to beam video to your TV without the use of cables (Miracast support was baked into Android beginning in version 4.2, but it’s also included in a smattering of other devices). Neither standard supports 4K video at this point, making MHL 3.0 slightly more appealing for those on the bleeding edge of TV technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Software Won’t Let You Look Away
The creepiest educational technology yet
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/this-software-wont-let-you-look-away/278812/
It’s hard to imagine a creepier educational technology than “FocusAssist,” a new feature announced by online training company Mindflash last week. Designed to be used in corporate training courses on iPad, FocusAssist, according to Businessweek:
uses the tablet’s camera to track a user’s eye movements. When it senses that you’ve been looking away for more than a few seconds (because you were sending e-mails, or just fell asleep), it pauses the course, forcing you to pay attention–or at least look like you are–in order to complete it.
Yeesh. FocusAssist forces users to pay attention to Mindflash’s videos.
I was immediately creeped out by this. FocusAssist forces people to perform a very specific action with their eyeballs, on behalf of “remote organizations,” so that they may learn what the organization wants them to learn. Forcing a human’s attention through algorithmic surveillance: It’s the stuff of A Clockwork Orange.
But maybe everything just sounds creepier when you talk about it in corporatese. Is FocusAssist as insidious as it sounds?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia HERE 3D v2: We ride the 68MP rig putting Google Maps on notice
http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-here-3d-v2-we-ride-the-68mp-rig-putting-google-maps-on-notice-20294279/
Nokia may have come late to the game with Streetview-style 3D photography in its HERE Maps service, but the company is aiming to overtake Google with its second generation of mapping cars. Built using newly developed camera, LIDAR, and processing technology from 3D specialist Earthmine, which Nokia acquired last November, the updated system promises higher-resolution panoramic imagery than Google, as well as more accurate 3D buildings and sign recognition. SlashGear went out on the road in one of the prototype cars with Earthmine founder John Ristevski, to find out why Nokia’s 68-megapixel mobile mapping system should be giving the Google Maps team sleepless nights.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG Display claims a world’s first with 2,560 x 1,440 LCD for smartphones
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/20/lg-display-worlds-first-quad-hd-display/
Full HD displays? Eat your heart out, handset manufacturers. LG Display has just laid claim to the world’s first Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) smartphone display, which also boasts the highest pixel density of a mobile device, clocking in at 538ppi. The firm’s panel measures up at 5.5-inches and is only 1.21mm thick, and just 1.2mm at its bezel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vevo in Deals With Apple, Samsung for TV Programming
Online Music-Video Company to Deliver On-Demand Programming Via Set-Top Boxes, Television Sets
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323423804579024951363749072-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html
Music-video company Vevo LLC is migrating from YouTube to the boob tube in a back-to-the-future attempt to recreate something akin to the original MTV.
But unlike the music television of yore, the new incarnation of Vevo is supposed to generate revenue for the record companies that create the videos.
Vevo, a joint venture between Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, has signed deals to deliver on-demand music videos—plus a new channel of original, 24-hour-a-day programming—via Apple TV set-top boxes and Samsung television sets.
Vevo has said it is hoping eventually to launch its own channels on cable TV, though it hasn’t yet been able to land a deal.
The move is part of Vevo’s strategy to surmount its biggest challenge: getting fans to watch its videos and original content though the sites and apps it owns—and not through YouTube.
YouTube, owned by Google Inc., takes a significant share of the ad revenue generated by content viewed on its site.
A YouTube spokeswoman said the share it takes from partners is always less than 50%. By contrast, Vevo gets 100% of the ad revenue when fans watch its videos on Vevo.com, or Vevo apps.
Getting fans to circumvent YouTube on their computers is tough, but it could be easier on devices such as Internet-connected TVs. YouTube currently accounts for more than two-thirds of Vevo’s video streams in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
The deals also allow Vevo to sell ads made specifically for television
That is a big shift from the heyday of MTV in the 1980s and 1990s, when record companies and artists didn’t get any of the revenue from ads that ran with their videos.
Vevo began testing its TV offering online in March when it launched “Vevo TV”—an online channel programmed like normal television, without offering viewers any ability to choose what they see.
Initial research also suggests that viewers don’t like programming that jumps between musical genres, with rock fans tending to tune out, for example, when a rap-themed show comes on, according to a person familiar with the matter. In November, Vevo will roll out three new channels
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where is really a complete web-TV?
Spotify and iTunes offer almost all of the music from around the world. Television friend will wander channel packages, firewalls, geographical and technical problems quagmire.
Watching TV has increasingly shifted from on-line services and mobile devices. Nearly one in three Finnish considers programs for domestic TV channels and on-line services through a recent survey of the world in ten smartphone to use the programs already over long view.
Promoted to chief strategy Tuija Aalto says that the change has been so rapid that it is up to the players by surprise.
The Internet is thus full of TV content, but some offers are too good to be true. Moving in the gray are is often the fact that the content is not otherwise available. Multi-service does not work as a single country, even if the willingness to pay would be. Also watch the programs later is often impossible.
MTV3 program director Jorma Sairanen believes that we live in a transition period, after which the TV in the consumer begins to resemble more the music of the world model, where all the content is available worldwide.
- People are really willing to pay for, if your content is easy to find. This kind of ideology is sure to spread that you are looking for yourself you got to where you want to see this particular program, and then comes the information that you will find it here on this and at this price. Here’s how it will go in the future, but still have not reached that point.
So far, domestic TV channels have responded to the demand for their services the center filmed, and in the summer, launched a joint TeeVee site.
The same market is, however, also companies that have not paid their programs work. Sairanen considered illegal activities.
- I think this is illegal in the sense that there is utilized the stuff of which we are paid. And then, however, someone paid by the customer for the price that he will be able to see them nauhotuksina. This has not yet been solved globally, but I hope that it will be resolved in such a way that these services are removed.
One of these services – all domestic channels of its own application through the spectacular Boox TV, however, believes that the issue is resolved. It also believes that its own service to find users in the future.
- The mobile device can act as a visual intelligent remote control. The old remote controls that come with the telly with the user interface nightmares form 40 years back. They have become harder and harder to use and can be thrown in the dustbin.
Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/missa_viipyy_oikeasti_kattava_netti-televisio/6779465
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney’s ESPN Holds Preliminary Talks for Web-Based TV
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/disney-s-espn-holds-preliminary-talks-for-web-based-pay-tv.html
Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN sports network has held preliminary talks to offer programming on a Web-based TV service like those proposed by Google Inc. (GOOG), Sony Corp. and Intel Corp. (INTC)
An Internet TV provider would have to pay as much or more than cable and satellite services, President John Skipper said today at ESPN’s campus in Bristol, Connecticut. He declined to specify the companies ESPN has spoken with.
A Web-based service would have to buy “the whole suite of products,” Skipper said. “We’re not going to offer one-offs.”
Access to ESPN would give new online TV providers instant credibility and a foothold to compete with established players like Comcast Corp. and DirecTV. The network is the most valuable channel on pay TV, garnering the highest subscriber fees on basic cable, according to researcher SNL Kagan.
Talks with alternative TV providers are exploratory and any new platform would have to offer a package of channels comparable to what other operators provide, according to Chris LaPlaca, a spokesman for ESPN.
$100 Billion
Sony, Google, Intel and Apple Inc. are trying to obtain programming rights to win TV viewers from cable, phone and satellite companies. The tech giants plan to use existing cable, fiber and wireless networks, as Netflix Inc. (NFLX) does, to offer Web-based TV in living rooms and on tablets and smartphones.
The companies are seeking to grab a slice of the $100 billion a year in U.S. pay-TV fees collected by cable, phone and satellite providers. On average, U.S. viewers pay about $80 a month for programming bundles, with the revenue shared by broadcast and cable networks. The TV industry also collects $59 billion a year in ad sales.
Tokyo-based Sony recently reached a preliminary agreement with Viacom Inc. for access to programming such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, a person familiar with the matter said last week. Apple is also working on a TV service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Google Ready to Buy Its Way Into TV With an NFL Deal?
http://allthingsd.com/20130820/is-google-ready-to-buy-its-way-into-tv-with-an-nfl-deal/
Here’s a fun combination to ponder: The world’s most powerful media company and America’s most popular sport.
That could happen if Google buys the rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, the all-you-can-eat subscription-TV service currently owned by DirecTV.
As I’ve noted before, the DirecTV deal ends at the end of the 2014 NFL season, which would mean it would make sense for the league to start talking to potential bidders now.
And it is. Today, according to sources, Google CEO Larry Page, along with YouTube content boss Robert Kyncl, met with a delegation from the NFL led by commissioner Roger Goodell. And the Sunday Ticket package was among the topics of discussion, according to people familiar with the meeting.
An informal chat is a very long way from a deal
That said, Google plus the NFL is an intriguing concept. Google could certainly afford the rights, which currently cost DirecTV $1 billion a year.
Meanwhile, the NFL seems willing to consider an “over the top” provider for the service, which it views as ancillary to the core TV packages it has sold to CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facial Scanning Is Making Gains in Surveillance
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/us/facial-scanning-is-making-gains-in-surveillance.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project.
The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will someday be used.
There have been stabs for over a decade at building a system that would help match faces in a crowd with names on a watch list — whether in searching for terrorism suspects at high-profile events like a presidential inaugural parade, looking for criminal fugitives in places like Times Square or identifying card cheats in crowded casinos.
The automated matching of close-up photographs has improved greatly in recent years, and companies like Facebook have experimented with it using still pictures.
In interviews, Ed Tivol of Electronic Warfare Associates and Dr. Farag both suggested that as computer processing becomes ever faster the remaining obstacles will fall away.
Several independent biometric specialists, given a description of the project’s test results, agreed that the system was not yet ready. They said 30 seconds was far too long to process an image for security purposes, and that its accuracy numbers would result in the police going out to question too many innocent people.
“This technology is always billed as antiterrorism, but then it drifts into other applications,” Ms. McCall said. “We need a real conversation about whether and how we want this technology to be used, and now is the time for that debate.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Local TV facing increasing competition in weather and traffic
http://lostremote.com/local-tv-facing-increasing-competition-in-weather-and-traffic_b38436
The most popular mapping and navigational tool on the planet, Google Maps, is expanding its traffic coverage. This week the app added traffic accidents and other incidents courtesy of Waze, the mobile startup Google acquired for $1 billion earlier this summer. This is just one more sign that two of local TV’s biggest drivers — weather and traffic — are under increasing pressure from non-traditional competitors on the platform that increasingly matters the most: mobile.
Google Maps has an incredible footprint. It’s always in the top most-downloaded apps on iOS, and it’s pre-installed into most Android devices.
Meanwhile, Google Now is breaking new ground in anticipating what users want, and traffic is one of its key offerings. For example, the Google Now experience will automatically offer traffic reports when I’m about to travel to work — or back home at the end of the day
On the weather front, Google Now displays the forecast whenever I tap the search bar on my Nexus device — whenever I prepare to search (for anything), it displays the forecast (upper left).
Meanwhile, a recent survey discovered that four out of five smartphone owners check their phone in the first 15 minutes after waking up. Among those people, 80% say it’s the first thing they do when they wake up — not turn on the TV, but pick up their phone.
The massive reach and prominence of “good enough” weather and traffic on mobile devices is shaping up to be a strong competitive threat with the potential to cannibalize audiences outside periods of breaking news. If I glance at a forecast on my iPhone when I wake up, I’m less likely to watch the morning newscast for the weather. Unfortunately, most stations still view other stations — and increasingly the newspaper in town — as their sole competition.
At the same time, local TV stations are dedicating more coverage on weather and traffic.
There’s certainly reason to celebrate local TV’s growing mobile traction, but local stations should recalibrate their product and marketing strategies to combat the real competition.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Web TV Skeptic Mark Cuban Thinks Google Can Make the NFL Work on the Web
http://allthingsd.com/20130821/why-web-tv-skeptic-mark-cuban-thinks-google-can-make-the-nfl-work-on-the-web/
If Google ends up getting the rights to stream NFL games over the Web, could the Web handle it?
That is: Is America’s Internet infrastructure capable of letting millions of people watch the same football games, at the same time, while delivering a TV-quality picture?
We’ve seen hints that the Web is now up to the challenge, but for now we don’t really have an answer. We won’t know until someone tries.
Cuban, as you may recall, got into Web streaming way back in Web 1.0, and became a billionaire after he sold his Broadcast.com to Yahoo.
Fast-forward to today, and Cuban is pouring a lot of resources into conventional TV, via his HDNet/AXS TV venture. He has also been a frequent skeptic about the limits of YouTube specifically and Internet video in general.
Surprise! Cuban thinks the Web, and Google, are capable of delivering NFL games to your TV.
Less surprising is that Cuban has lots of other things to say.
Short version: Cuban says that Google would be smart to grab the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” rights from DirecTV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Layoffs to hit Disney/ABC TV Group
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-disney-abc-layoffs20130821,0,4888715.story
The Disney/ABC Television Group, which includes the ABC network, local TV stations and the Disney Channel and ABC Family cable networks, is restructuring its operations, which will result in layoffs across the unit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lady Gaga tries to cheat the top of the charts
The new single, released a pop star Lady Gaga trying to get a copy to top playlists using questionable means.
Last week, Lady Gaga held a competition that encouraged her to buy fresh Applause single releases as much as possible: two most bought or downloaded fans will get a price.
On Tuesday, Lady Gaga, in turn, shared the link on Twitter, through which he APPLAUSE take a look at the music video 150 times in a row. Merchandise can leave the computer to rotate the pieces and this piece is easily obtained a number of viewing times. Tweet with link has been removed already.
Star suspected of attempting to manipulate the sales figures as well as Youtube and VEVO music videos audiences, as they also affect the playlists.
Self-marketing is the acceptable, but share a link to nine hours of video in one piece is not right.
- I hate to see the kind that are all trying to play the position list. Whether they are fans or artists.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/popstars/2013082217397439_ps.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
A fast and easy-to-use vision sensor
http://hackaday.com/2013/08/21/a-fast-and-easy-to-use-vision-sensor/
Pixy, a small camera board about half the size of a business card that can detect objects that you “train” it to detect.
Training is accomplished by holding the object in front of Pixy’s lens and pressing a button. Pixy then finds objects with similar color signatures
Pixy can report its findings, which include the sizes and locations of all detected objects, through one of several interfaces: UART serial, SPI, I2C, digital or analog I/O.
The platform is open hardware, its firmware is open source and GPL licensed, making the project very interesting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multi-format matrix switcher integrates legacy analog, HDMI digital video gear
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/fsr-matrix-switcher.html
FSR (Woodland Park, NJ) has introduced its DVS-MFSW-94XT, a multi-format 9×4 scaling matrix switcher that reduces the challenges associated with integrating legacy analog gear with newly installed digital video products. The 94XT offers 9 inputs: 4 HDMI with stereo audio, 3 HDMI via CAT x cable, and 2 multi-format analog inputs. On the output side, there are 2 HDMI outputs and 2 HDMI over CATx outputs, each scaled to match the resolution of the display.
“While most new purchases of video equipment are digital, there is an incredibly large installed base of legacy analog equipment already in place,” explains Jan Sandri, FSR president. “The 94XT extends the life of the legacy gear by allowing it to operate seamlessly alongside the newest digital video equipment.”
“Too many other products work only in fixed environments and our world is far from a fixed environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Airbnb Is Making a Short Film Out of Vines (And So Can You!)
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/08/airbnb-vine-movie/
After months of Vine being used – with varying levels of success – to promote movies, the six-second video app is being used to make one. The effort spearheaded by Airbnb is called, appropriately, Hollywood and Vines.
The idea is deliciously simple. Today, the room-sharing service started tweeting shot directions (“a paper airplane soars,” “cup is thrown into a recycle bin”) marked with the hashtag #AirbnbHV. Aspiring Vine directors were asked to record a submission and post it to Twitter.
The goal, according to the Hollywood and Vines site, is that “Airbnb and the global community will help create a story of travel, adventure and finding your place in the world.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #399 – GoPro Hero 2 Teardown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1nsYd3lG60
What’s inside the GoPro Hero 2 action camera?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix executive upends Hollywood
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-netflix-ted-sarandos-20130825-dto,0,1864697.htmlstory
Ted Sarandos took a big gamble on committing to ‘House of Cards’ without a pilot and releasing all its episodes at once. And he says ratings are irrelevant.
When Ted Sarandos put out the word that Netflix would begin producing original shows, he was swamped with story pitches that everyone else in Hollywood clearly had taken a pass on — including some scripts marked with coffee stains, smudged fingerprints and other telltale signs of rejection.
That all changed in 2011 after Netflix bought the political thriller “House of Cards” from “The Social Network” and “Fight Club” director David Fincher.
Overnight, the Internet video service began receiving A-list pitches, including the prison comedy “Orange Is the New Black” from “Weeds” creator Jenji Kohan, a mockumentary from “The Office” creator Ricky Gervais and a sci-fi drama from “The Matrix’s” Andy and Lana Wachowski.
Netflix received further validation this summer with 14 Emmy nominations, nine for “House of Cards,” three for the cult comedy “Arrested Development” and two for the horror series “Hemlock Grove.” None of the nominated episodes ever aired on broadcast or cable TV.
The man at the center of Netflix’s transformation from DVD-by-mail service to Internet TV network, Sarandos, as the chief content officer, seems to take pleasure in upending industry conventions — ordering an entire season of a series without asking for a pilot, withholding ratings and even throwing all of a new show’s episodes online at once, in one big bundle, so viewers don’t have to wait a week for the next installment of a series they love.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Silent’ staff stood by as £100m BBC IT project tanked – DG
Hang on. They DID speak up…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/23/bbc_dmi_hall/
The BBC’s new director general Tony Hall says staff should have spoken up about the catastrophic Digital Media Initiative (DMI).
The utopian media storage project cost the BBC almost £100m since 2010 (and some £81m before then) before it was formally abandoned in May, with the corporation opting to use off-the-shelf software tools instead.
“The thing that worried me most about DMI is the fact that people said we knew all about that, but no one said. That’s a problem of culture where fingers are pointed and people don’t feel they can own up and say something’s wrong,” said Hall in an interview, we learn from Ariel, the BBC’s staff mag.
Shifting the blame to the workers, rather than the management, for the project’s failings is odd – since the DMI’s shortcomings were widely known. The only deliverable the BBC will keep is the Fabric archive database, which was far slower and harder to use than the systems it replaced. “Research that would have taken an hour now takes four,” notes one producer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Happy birthday MIDI 1.0: Slave to the rhythm
Part Two: The notes in the machine
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/26/part_two_midi_spec_1_is_30_happy_birthday_musical_instrument_digital_interface/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Synchronized virtual reality heartbeat triggers out-of-body experiences
http://www.gizmag.com/visualized-heartbeat-out-of-body-experience/28728/
New research demonstrates that triggering an out-of-body experience (OBE) could be as simple as getting a person to watch a video of themselves with their heartbeat projected onto it. According to the study, it’s easy to trick the mind into thinking it belongs to an external body and manipulate a person’s self-consciousness by externalizing the body’s internal rhythms. The findings could lead to new treatments for people with perceptual disorders such as anorexia and could also help dieters too.
In a typical out-of-body experience a person either experiences a feeling of floating outside of their body or of viewing it from outside of themselves. Most of us don’t experience OBE’s because our brains are constantly filtering information from all our senses to help us identify what we are and what we aren’t.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Musk’s New Hologram Project Invites ‘Iron Man’ Comparisons
http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/musks-new-hologram-project-invites-iron-man-comparisons/
n the “Iron Man” trilogy, billionaire inventor Tony Stark uses a gesture-controlled hologram to draft new designs of the titular armor, sending virtual parts flying around his lab with the flick of a wrist.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk—who is often compared to Stark by the tech press—is apparently creating the real-life equivalent of that fictional hologram system. “We figured out how to design rocket parts just w hand movements through the air (seriously),” he Tweeted August 23. “Now need a high frame rate holograph generator.”
“Will post video next week of designing a rocket part with hand gestures & then immediately printing it in titanium,” the SpaceX CEO wrote in a Tweet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
To Protect Its Empire, ESPN Stays on Offense
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/sports/ncaafootball/to-defend-its-empire-espn-stays-on-offensive.html?pagewanted=all
ESPN likes to call itself the Worldwide Leader in Sports, and by most every measure it is in a league of its own.
The network produced 35,000 hours of programming in 2012, including at least half of all live athletic events televised in the United States. It is a prodigious cash machine, regularly generating nearly half of the operating profit of Disney, its parent company.
The more than $6 billion in cable fees flowing annually to ESPN from almost 100 million homes is threatened as growing numbers of consumers cut ties with cable providers to avoid rising bills for pay TV, turning instead to video streaming services.
But ESPN has shown over the past decade that it will fight tenaciously and opportunistically to protect an empire it built by using the billions of dollars it collected from cable fees to gobble up the rights to more and more sports events.
ESPN’s average monthly price is more than four times the monthly fee for the next most expensive national network.
With cable packages known as bundles under repeated attack, ESPN and Disney have gone on the offensive, making it one of their priorities in Washington. Beyond lobbying and campaign donations, they have hosted lawmakers in Bristol and in Burbank, Calif. They brought their stars to Washington, where ESPN, the network that turned competition into 24-hour fare, has often found an eager audience among political players.
“I was proud to call on senators, congressmen, F.C.C. commissioners, staff and talk about ESPN,” said George Bodenheimer, ESPN’s president from 1998 to 2012. “And by the way, many, many of those folks enjoyed talking about ESPN.”
ESPN has long been able to deploy an array of weapons on the field of politics.
As the cable debate heated up in the mid-2000s, ESPN and Disney representatives played the usual Washington game: testifying to Congress, lobbying on Capitol Hill, meeting with Federal Communications Commission officials and making campaign contributions.
ESPN has used the billions of dollars in cable fees to build a moat of programming around its empire, which is likely to be tested in the coming challenge from Fox Sports 1, which made its debut on Aug. 17. ESPN’s business strategy has been to aggressively buy the rights to as much programming as possible for as long as it can to impede the growth of rivals, including Fox and sports channels owned by NBC and CBS.
With ESPN having locked up the rights to so many professional and college sports contracts beyond 2020, the bidding war between it and Fox Sports 1 over the few remaining prizes is expected to be fierce.
One, the Big Ten Conference, has a 10-year, $1 billion deal with ESPN that expires in 2017, but Fox has already built influence through its 49 percent ownership of the Big Ten Network. The National Basketball Association, which Fox covets, has deals through 2016 with ESPN and TNT.
Almost from its beginning, ESPN has controlled its destiny. One network wasn’t enough? It built several more. Altering the course of sports television wasn’t enough? It built Internet, international, mobile, radio, print and applications businesses that have perpetuated its dominance.
Central to that success has been a mastery of technology. ESPN runs two research laboratories that develop graphics, mine data, create equipment and package highlights and audio to feed the voracious appetite of fans who cannot get enough sports information from TV. Its ESPN3 online network is capable of showing an unlimited number of games — a godsend to some universities, including some that so crave national exposure that they are willing to pay the costs of production. It created one channel, the Longhorn Network, devoted to a single university, Texas, and is starting a second, the SEC Network, for the powerful Southeastern Conference, in 2014.
Now ESPN is working on an interactive screen project, code-named 2016, that would let viewers simultaneously watch multiple ESPN channels or videos, send social media messages, buy products, watch commercials and summon statistics at the touch of a button.
“ESPN has no reason to have any fear as long as it keeps innovating,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Even as ESPN moves forward, the landscape it pioneered is rapidly changing. It recently announced cuts of up to 400 jobs, yet it will hire as needed, especially in growth areas. Although the revived à la carte legislation has an uphill battle to passage, it underscores a persistent concern with the rising costs of ESPN and other sports networks.
With the rise of new competition come questions about the fate of existing customers.
Consumers are fleeing pay TV at a quickening pace: 898,000 in the past year, nearly twice the number in the previous year, the analyst Craig Moffett said. And in the past two years, ESPN has lost more than one million subscribers.
What’s more, ESPN ratings plunged 32 percent in the quarter that ended in June.