The future of cameras seem to be heading to is smaller, more portable, more disposable and mirrorless (DSLRs have a mirror). When Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki told 2010 that Cell Phone Cameras Will Replace DSLRs, I could not believe that on time. But it really seems to become more and more to truth in 2014: Nowadays you can take professional level (“good enough photos”) using consumer level cameras and smart phones. Technical quality is good enough for majority. There is going on a rampant replacement of point and shoot cameras of all flavors and varieties with smart phones and their built in cameras. Now the market is being effectively gutted. Gone. Non-existent. Same thing is happening to video as well.
Part of the technical race came to a (maybe temporary) end: “How can I match and exceed the quality of conventional metrics that we used to get from medium format film.” There’s nothing else pressing to solve, technically. Many photographers are fully equipped but uninspired to move forward. We have have set down for “good enough.” The engineering idea is that we’ve hit the sweet spot and to go for a Six Sigma improvement would be costly and unnecessary.
DSLR sales were down in 2013, worldwide, by 18.5% according to CIPA. The total decline in the entire dedicated camera market is closer to 43.5%. The decline will continue. Credit Suisse prediction: “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fullfil that criteria”. Mirrorless cameras are not a big market: According to CIPA is the total sales of mirrorless system cameras in N. America was slightly fewer than 39,000 units. Total.
The challenge will be: How do you bridge that gap between high photo-capture quality and high-quality camera devices and the cloud where every amateur photographer’s images live? The company which has the most innovative post-processing, easy to share photos feature set wins! The future of photography is same as future in pretty much everything: software and connectivity. Camera manufacturers have been slow on those: we are just now seeing cameras with full operating systems like Android The advantages to smart phones are size, constant (annoyingly constant) access, multi-task tool set, and the ability to send your images, electronically, to an audience just about anywhere in the world.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes: 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
Consumer video device trend is that separate classic video cameras have pretty much faded from market. New smart phones have high definition video cameras in them, so for most users there is no need for separate video camera. For special uses there are small “action” video cameras that are so tiny that you can place them almost anywhere and they can take some beating while you perform your extreme sports. If the video quality of those do not suffice, many people use their DSLR to shoot higher quality high definition video. For professional video production there is still some market left for professional and prosumer video cameras.
The world seems to be heading to situation where separate DSLRs and separate video cameras will be more like high fidelity audio, which used to be common selling point in 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but now only some geeks care about audio quality. This will more or less happen to photographs and video.
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. This development is far from ready. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Video streaming has really become mainstream as Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Because of the rise in video services like Netflix and YouTube, peer-to-peer file-sharing has dropped (meaning less piracy of movies and TV series). Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September — well ahead of any other streaming service. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. It was introduced in the 2013, and the manufacturers start to push it more in 204 because 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. On this road giant curved TVs is gaining ground: LG announces that it will present the “world’s first ” 105-inch curved ultra-hd-TV in January in Las Vegas at CES. Almost at the same time , however, Samsung also announced the proposal at CES “the world’s first and curved” 105-inch ultra HD television.. TV screens are in fact higher resolution the basic 4k level of ultra hd: Samsung and LG screens resolution is 5120 × 2160 pixels in the image (11 megapixels).
4K resolution ecosystem will get more ready for use. Netflix is testing out 4K video streaming and Netflix’s House of Cards was shot in 4K. Amazon Studios also just recently announced that it will shoot all of its 2014 shows in that format as well.
4K and 4K streaming are definitely coming in 2014 regardless of how many people can actually view it. 4K will still require a lot of work “with the compression and decode capability” to be ready for mainstream use. There are a great many things that need to happen before 4K really becomes a reality or needs to do so.
PC hardware with 4G capable graphics cards is already available, so decoding the stream is not a problem. The biggest issue is that the market penetration of 4K-capable televisions needs to grow, but to that happen the prices must drop to ranges for the average consumer. Many users have already fast enough fixed broadband connection, but can the networks handle peak usage 4K streaming? According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it won’t require more than a stable 15 Mbps to stream 4K.
Extreme overkill resolution will also push to tablet and smart phone markets. There are already smart phones with full HD resolution. In high-end smartphones we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior. And we will see also see smart phones that can shoot 4K video.
For a long time music has been listened mainly with small portable MP3 player and such, which for most users provide “good enough” audio quality. The market had already shifted from separate MP3 players to the same functionality included to other devices (smart phones and tablets), so sales of music players sales have plummeted in year 2013 as much as as one-third. Separate music players mostly only used for listening music during fitness hobby, and growing popularity of fitness hobby is full of players saved the market from total collapse. Uncompressed music player to appreciate the need of a decent storage capacity, so some hifi people buy some high-end separate players, but that’s a small market.
Apple’s iPod continues to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players with a staggering 72 percent of the market for standalone music players. Apple has never been afraid of reducing demand for one of its devices by creating demand for another, in this case iPhone. The future of separate music players looks bleak.
Smartphones have taken the music player market. The growing popularity of smart phones and music streaming services will rise in the future to eat even music players sales. If smart watch will become a hit, the music player may be lost in exercisers shopping list.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Loudspeaker operation: The superiority of current drive over voltage drive
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4423155/Loudspeaker-operation–The-superiority-of-current-drive-over-voltage-drive
This is an overview of the destructive effects that voltage drive has on the performance of electrodynamic loudspeakers
Today, practically all available audio amplifier and loudspeaker equipment works on the voltage drive principle without significant exceptions. This means that the power amplifier acts as a voltage source exhibiting low output impedance and thus strives to force the voltage across the load terminals to follow the applied signal without any regard to what the current through the load will be.
However, both technical aspects and listening experiences equally indicate that voltage drive is a poor choice if sound quality is to be given any worth. The fundamental reason is that the vague electromotive forces (EMF) that are generated by both the motion of the voice coil and its inductance seriously impair the critical voltage-to-current conversion, which in the voltage drive principle is left as the job of the loudspeaker.
The most remarkable thing here regarding loudspeakers is that the voltage between the ends of the wire does not appear anywhere in these equations. That is, the speaker driver in the end obeys only current, not caring what the voltage across the terminals happens to be.
There cannot be found any scientifically valid reasons that justify the adoption of voltage as the control quantity – it is only due to the historical legacy originated almost a century ago, most likely by cheapness and simplicity; the quality and physical soundness of operation have not been considerations in this choice. Engineers are also more accustomed to identifying electrical signals as voltages rather than currents.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Native advertising effectiveness research | The Wall Blog
Mexican wrestler proves pre-roll ads have (almost) zero effect
Read more: http://wallblog.co.uk/2014/10/08/mexican-wrestler-proves-pre-roll-ads-have-almost-zero-effect/#ixzz3FdA9wkts
Nielsen has released a report (using a video involving a Mexican wrestler from American brand Jarritos) showing that if you click on a video because you thought it looked interesting, then there’s a high probability that you’ll think positively about the brand that made the clip. But if the ad simply showed up as a 15- or 30-second pre-roll ad before a video you were waiting to watch — that is, you didn’t have any choice but to see it — the ad was only marginally more effective than if you’d watched no ad at all.
Comparing Resonance for Native and Pre-roll Video Ads with Real-time Metrics
http://25h4pl1p8r9f2fc6of24zpt71dz2.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Nielsen_Sharethrough_Jarritos_CPG_Case-Study_NativeAdvertising.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTC Unveils Its 13-Megapixel Selfie Phone, the Desire Eye
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/08/htc-unveils-its-13-megapixel-selfie-phone-the-desire-eye
Camera technology is a big selling point for HTC right now.
The real stars here are the Desire Eye’s cameras. Both the front and rear cameras are a whopping 13 megapixels and offer digital image stabilization technology and dual LED flashes.
HTC is taking the selfie situation plaguing our society very seriously. With the most powerful front-facing camera on any smartphone in the history of smartphones, your self-portraits will look pretty good. Additionally, taking a selfie while engaging in cumbersome activities like mountain climbing if you’re the sporty type (or eating a slice of pizza if you’re like me) will be even easier with the option to forego the shutter button altogether. To snap a selfie when one of your hands is otherwise engaged, all you have to do is boot up the camera and hold the phone still for two seconds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Audio playground: How does an Oculus Rift with surround sound sound?
Bose vs Deezer and other sonic snippets: LG adds DTS codec support
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/09/bose_oculus_rift_deezer_lg_electronics_sonic_snippets/
Wi-Fi music streaming and virtual reality both just received audio boosts, with news from Bose, DTS and Oculus.
Bose has done a music streaming supply deal, like Sonos, with Deezer, but for Deezer’s Premium Plus service, not the higher-rated lossless Elite service Sonos is involved with.
Deezer’s digital music streaming service is available in more than 180 countries, with 16 million monthly active users and five million paid subscribers worldwide.
LG Electronics is going to incorporate the DTS audio technology, the DTS-HD decoder, in its home entertainment products, such as connected 4K TVs, sound bars, audio-video receivers and digital media players.
Oculus, developers of the Rift virtual reality headset, has licensed RealSpace 3D Audio engine technology from VisiSonics Corp. It sounds (sorry) brilliant as it should enable “the virtual placement of sound anywhere in a 3D space with pinpoint accuracy, creating the perception of real source direction, distance, depth, and movement relative to a listener when heard through standard stereo headphones.”
With Oculus licensing it both the video and audio experiences should be conjoined and fully immersive.
We’re told RealSpace 3D Audio “models the transformations sound undergoes as it travels from a source to a listener’s ears in an environment, using a combination of head-related transfer functions, room models and head-tracking, as well as their interplay.”
Realspace’s technology is based on a decade of research at the University of Maryland.
Music streaming is becoming the new radio. Wi-Fi streaming is a natural partner for it if you want to escape from your speakers’ wiring tethers.
YOU FOUND US! The Best 3D Audio in VR/Gaming…RealSpace™ 3D Audio
http://realspace3daudio.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Chromecast Is The Top “Connected Device” App
http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/08/google-chromecast-is-the-top-connected-device-app/
Google’s Chromecast is the most popular “connected device” – or so infers a new report from app analytics firm App Annie, which analyzed the top apps associated with connected devices across both iTunes and Google Play in the U.S. Google’s Chromecast app was in spot #1, in terms of downloads, followed by Fitbit, DirectTV, HP ePrint, Kodak Kiosk Connect, Square Register, GoPro, AT&T U-verse, DISH Anywhere, and HP All In One Printer Remote.
Gartner says that there will be 26 billion connected devices globally by 2020 – an astounding figure – but one that makes more sense when you start to think about the connected devices you already use in your own home – DVRs, game consoles, smartwatches, wireless printers, and more.
That the Chromecast came out on top in this list is impressive, though – especially in a market which still seems to be drawn toward traditional TV and DVRs and yes, even home printers. It also signals a shift in the way consumers are viewing content today – accessing video from the internet and online services via mobile devices and then sending that over to the big screen. Our mobile phones are becoming the new remote controls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startup’s Open Source Device Promises Gamers “Surround Sound For Your Eyes”
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/10/09/149213/startups-open-source-device-promises-gamers-surround-sound-for-your-eyes
Antumbra’s open-source-based Glow, which launches in a limited beta of 100 $35 units on Thursday, is a small (1.5″ x 1.5″x 0.5″) doohickey that attaches to the back of your computer monitor via USB port and is designed to enhance your work or gaming experience — and lessen eye strain — by spreading the colors from your screen onto the wall behind it in real time.
The the idea might not be new, and people have been home-brewing their own content-driven lighting like this for a while
Computer lighting startup Antumbra delivers “surround sound for your eyes”
Glow device reduces contrast between computer screen, background on the fly
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2824512/data-center/computer-lighting-startup-antumbra-delivers-surround-sound-for-your-eyes.html
Glow software, which works on Apple, Windows and Linux machines, can be configured by the user to adjust brightness and colors so that they are most comfortable for the individual’s peripheral vision. Antumbra says the device sips just 2.2w of power.
While Antumbra is taking aim at gamers and those who like to watch movies in the dark (not unlike the founders themselves), co-founder Nick Peretti says the ambient backlight could easily find its way into business organizations as well.
“Glow is built for those who need to get the job done and stay in the office late at night. Glow can definitely add some color to a cubical or office, and if the room is dark, will absolutely help with eyestrain,” he says. “In addition, it’s totally open-source, so they could be used for server/rack illumination, status indication, or just about anything a USB-controlled RGB LED could be used for.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introducing GIFV
http://imgur.com/blog/2014/10/09/introducing-gifv/
GIFs are no longer about .GIFs–the culture of the GIF now trumps the file format. With Project GIFV, Imgur is reimagining the looping GIF video with all the richness it deserves as a key piece of Internet culture.
The above GIF started at a whopping 50MB. After conversion, the final file is 3.4MB and loads at warp speed. Pretty sweet, right?
The cornerstone of Project GIFV is a platform-wide upgrade to automatically convert uploaded GIF files on the fly into the MP4 video format.
Beyond performance increases, the core experience will not change: Project GIFV implements MP4 video in a way that looks and behaves exactly like a GIF.
The .GIFV Extension: With all these improvements, Imgur will now denote converted MP4s with a “.gifv” extension. The intention is to signal to users throughout the Internet that these links will feature a GIF experience
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY idea:
The Cassette MP3 Player
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/09/the-cassette-mp3-player/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Cassette-MP3-Player/?ALLSTEPS
Tomi Engdahl says:
Axiom Open Source Camera Handily Tops 100,000 Euro Fundraising Goal
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/10/09/2043226/axiom-open-source-camera-handily-tops-100000-euro-fundraising-goal
The Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for an open-hardware cinema camera has closed far in the black, though the project continues to accept contributions.
AXIOM Beta: The first open digital cinema camera
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/axiom-beta-the-first-open-digital-cinema-camera
Creating the first free software and open hardware digital cinema camera.
AXIOM Beta is a brand new professional digital image capturing platform and you get access to it before anybody else does. So we want to make sure that you are aware of what you are getting yourself into. We’re inviting you to be part of this journey as a contributor (you do not need to be a programmer to use the AXIOM Beta), helping to shape the final product.
We created a proof-of-concept prototype to get a feel what moving images from the 4K global shutter image sensor are like. This is the AXIOM Alpha, which we sometimes call “the shoebox prototype”
Even at this early stage, the fully rigged AXIOM Alpha was surprisingly nice to handle even for handheld shooting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Download Heard ‘Round the World: iTunes Numbers Show 81 Million ‘Experienced’ U2 Album
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6274359/itunes-numbers-u2-songs-innocence-album?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=biz_breakingnews&utm_campaign=Breaking%20News
‘Songs of Innocence,’ the band’s latest release delivered for free, is firmly entrenched with 26 million customers downloading the set in its entirety.
U2 has gone from setting records to breaking them and, with the band’s game-changing Apple partnership, simply defying all imaginable expectations.
So how did the album Songs of Innocence fare after being made available to 500 million people around the world as a free download on iTunes? No surprise here, scale pays off.
In a statement to Billboard, U2 said: “Apple is a tech company fighting to get musicians paid. The idea that they wanted to make a gift to the very people that actually purchase music is both beautiful and poetic, and for that we are very grateful.”
Meanwhile, a physical deluxe edition of Songs of Innocence hits all other retailers Oct. 14, featuring 10 additional bonus tracks (unavailable on iTunes)
While U2′s one-month iTunes deal is unprecedented in music retail, other recent experiments with “windowing,” or exclusive release windows with a single retail partner, have produced surprising results in recent years.
The U2 deal sets a new milestone in how recorded music is distributed — and paid for. Not only did the band (and label Interscope, by association) net $100 million in free media exposure from Apple’s global marketing campaign, Universal Music Group could have secured a $52 million payment for exclusive rights to the product, based on Billboard’s estimates of standard label profit from 26 million album sales; alternately, Billboard estimates an upfront fee, excluding royalties, could be in the $5 million range.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comedy club charges per laugh with facial recognition
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29551380
A comedy club in Barcelona is experimenting with charging users per laugh, using facial-recognition technology to track how much they enjoyed the show.
The software is installed on tablets attached to the back of each seat at the Teatreneu club.
Each laugh is charged at 0.30 euros (23p) with a cap of 24 euros (£18). Takings are up so far.
The project was developed to combat falling audience numbers.
The results of the experiment have so far proved positive with overall ticket prices up by 6 euros, according to the theatre.
The system is now being copied in other theatres around Spain.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon in Talks to Join Digital Locker for Movies
E-Commerce Giant Might Come on Board With Studios’ Cloud-Access System
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/amazon-in-talks-to-join-digital-locker-for-movies-1412896797-lMyQjAxMTE0MDEzMDUxNjAyWj
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -1.26% is in talks with at least three studios to join the Ultraviolet digital-movie “locker” consortium, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. Such a deal could jump-start Hollywood’s effort to expand the $2 billion-plus online movie-sales business and make Amazon a bigger threat to market leader Apple Inc. AAPL -0.29%
Ultraviolet allows people who buy movies from any participating digital retailer, or who redeem a code from a Blu-ray disc, to access an entire library from most Internet-connected devices.
Currently, people who purchase a digital movie from Amazon can watch it only via an Amazon app, while movies they buy from Apple’s iTunes Store are listed separately in that app.
Backers of Ultraviolet have claimed digital movies will be more appealing to consumers when they have a single online collection, or locker, much like a shelf of DVDs bought from different stores.
Ultraviolet is backed by every Hollywood studio except Walt Disney Co.
The online movie services participating so far are all relatively small players
Ultraviolet is viewed by the studios, in part, as a way to prevent Apple from gaining too much power over the sale of movies online, by banding together smaller competitors. Apple’s market share in online movie sales and rentals last year was 58%, said IHS, down from 75% in 2008.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix comes to Linux via Ubuntu and Chrome
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2824623/ubuntu-linux-gets-netflix-without-weird-workarounds.html
Ubuntu Linux users no longer need to employ arcane workarounds to watch Netflix on their computers.
Instead, they can just head to Netflix’s website through Google’s Chrome browser to start streaming. Netflix is supported in Chrome 37, which runs on up-to-date Ubuntu installations of 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS or later.
Why this matters: Previously, users had to tweak the user agent string in Chrome to fool Netflix into thinking the browser was Internet Explorer. And before that, users had to run a Netflix desktop app through WINE, a popular Windows software emulator. While many Linux users are presumably savvy enough to jump through an extra hoop or two, it’s nice that they no longer have to.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WIN a CHANCE to RECORD your WORLD in 3D
21st century Viewmaster up for grabs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/11/win_a_poppy_and_your_world_can_be_in_3d/
There are lots of devices which allow you to turn your mobile phone into a 21st century Viewmaster, but the Poppy is special. While the Google Cardboard, Durovis Dive and VRase all let you experience side-by-side video in 3D, only the Poppy will also let you record it.
Available from Firebox, it’s a device where you can slide in an iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S or 5th gen iPod Touch with rear camera and view pictures diableries style.
But something the Victorian pioneers never dreamed of was colour… or moving images … or smartphones.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SoundCloud Posted A $29M Loss In 2013 On Revenues Of $14M
http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/11/soundcloud-posted-a-29m-loss-in-2013-on-revenues-of-14m/
SoundCloud, the popular online music and audio sharing platform, is now exceeding 175 million listeners each month and is on track to reach 200 million. But its rapid growth has seen the company’s costs run away from its revenues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix Quietly Raises its 4K Ultra High Definition Subscription Rates
http://hdguru.com/netflix-quietly-raises-its-4k-ultra-high-definition-subscription-rates/comment-page-1/
Netflix, the leader in 4K Ultra High Definition streaming services, has raised their rates, while continuing to add more 4K content with the recent additions of The Blacklist and Smurfs 2.
The Netflix spokesperson contacted via email confirmed that new subscribers, or current subscribers with newly purchased 4K UHD TVs, now will have to pay $11.99 to receive 4K streaming content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nielsen says it has issued faulty ratings data since March
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/10/8554365/nielsen-says-it-has-issued-faulty-ratings-data-march
Nielsen, which controls almost all of the television ratings measurement market, says that a technical error resulted in the company issuing incorrect TV ratings for national broadcast networks.
The error was introduced in March, and was not discovered until Oct. 6, the company said in a statement.
The error is a big one for Nielsen to make, as it is effectively the currency of television, the metric that advertisers and networks rely on to conduct their ad sales business. It is not clear to what extent the ratings will change when the numbers are reprocessed, though the changes are expected to be relatively minor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Inspires Startup’s PC TV
G-Pack hides behind LCD, eliminating cables
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324257&
Francois-Xavier Gardes would love an Apple iTV, but he suspects the iPhone giant will never ship one so he designed his own. It’s a PC, but a high-quality one.
The G-Pack is essentially a souped-up PC that hides behind a flat screen TV, providing streaming video, PC games, a Blu-ray player and more.
“The idea was to remove any boxes from around the TV,” Gardes said in an interview from his London office. “Theres definitely some DIY involved, but it’s better than trying to hide all those cables,” he said.
The $1,600 G-Pack includes an Intel Core i3 processor and Nvidia GTX-960 graphics card. It uses a set of carefully placed high-end fans to cool the 500W beast so it’s cool to the touch while remaining quiet and not interfering with the thermal envelop of the fast-screen TV.
“We tried water cooling, but it’s expensive and there are things that can go wrong,”
The concept of the G-Pack was inspired by the Apple iMac, the first mainstream all-in-one computer. “I thought why not build a PC that’s more like that. You buy a new TV and PC at different times so this enables that,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cell phone would be nice to watch the news and more in the video, but still annoyingly often pushes back the connection. Samsung and SK Telecom are now in the demo the technology, which promises a lot.
Samsung and SK Telecom are the name of the technique TRTMS (True Real-Time Mobile Streaming). The aim is to provide the technology MPEG and 3GPP organizations for standardization, so that it would not leave a single operator as internal.
Korean companies have developed a technique where video is transferred to a new MMT technique (Media Transport of MPEG). This is a new standard, which is to be transferred HEVC-encoded video over IP.
SK Telecom’s LTE network, a new coding bitstream reduced latency by up to 80 per cent. With current techniques, the latency may be up to 15 seconds. MMT collapse of that time for three seconds, which seems significant improvements in the user’s screen.
MMT is to be commercialized as early as next year.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1899:kannykkavideossa-iso-lapimurto&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-end cable manufacturers try to push their cables to extremes (does that matter is another thing):
Taralabs cables known as cables with low low capacitance.
Zero Gold was known to the extremely low capacitance and wide band.
New Zero Evolution -interconnect has only 2pF capacitance per foot cable capacitance.
That’s very low.
Evolution series has three levels of intermediate and speaker cables.
Source: http://www.hifimaailma.fi/uutiset/taralabsilta-uusi-kaapelisarja-maailman-huipulle/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maker Studios CEO says Disney had to buy it to ‘remain relevant’
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/13/maker-studios-ceo-says-disney-had-to-buy-them-to-remain-relevant/
When Disney plopped down $500 million earlier this year to buy Maker Studios, it seemed to symbolize a dramatic upheaval in the world of entertainment.
And to a large degree, Maker Studios chief executive Ynon Kreiz says, that’s true. The Los Angeles-based studio, which helps digital creators produce web content, runs a network of YouTube channels that get more than 5.5 billion pages views each month.
“They had to do something to remain relevant in that space, in the short-form medium,” he said.
Disney’s Maker Studios Teams with Disney-Backed Fusion to Produce Block of TV Programming
http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/disneys-maker-studios-teams-with-disney-backed-fusion-to-produce-block-of-tv-programming-1201328617/
Maker Studios, the YouTube multichannel network Disney acquired earlier this year, has reached another TV deal that falls under the Mouse House’s corporate umbrella.
Maker on Monday announced a pact with Fusion — the youth-skewing news joint venture between Disney’s ABC News and Univision Communications — under which the MCN is to produce a branded block of programming for Fusion’s TV platform.
Content produced for Fusion will feature themed content culled from across the YouTube MCN, beginning with a “best of 2014” special. In addition, Maker will expand the reach of Fusion’s online video content, working to optimize Fusion’s YouTube channel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Set to Lead Huge Investment in Magic Leap and Its “Cinematic Reality”
http://recode.net/2014/10/13/google-is-set-to-lead-a-huge-investment-in-magic-leap-a-company-that-says-it-can-deliver-cinematic-reality/
Google and other investors are planning a huge investment in Magic Leap, a secretive but boastful company building hardware and software it says will deliver “cinematic reality.”
Sources say Google is leading what could be a $500 million funding round for the Florida-based company; Andreessen Horowitz may be one of the other investors in the consortium. Magic Leap already announced $50 million in funding earlier this year.
Abovitz and Magic Leap have given some hints about what they’re working on, though: They say they can deliver a more realistic 3-D experience than the kind offered by current technologies, including Oculus Rift, the 3-D headset; Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2 billion earlier this year.
“Those are old terms — virtual reality, augmented reality. They have legacy behind them. They are associated with things that didn’t necessarily deliver on a promise or live up to expectations,” Abovitz told the South Florida Business Journal earlier this year. “We have the term ‘cinematic reality’ because we are disassociated with those things. … When you see this, you will see that this is computing for the next 30 or 40 years. To go farther and deeper than we’re going, you would be changing what it means to be human.”
Talking to industry sources and parsing what’s been said publicly, here’s what we think we know: Magic Leap will show you super high-resolution images right in front of your face, probably by projecting them onto your eye from some sort of glasses. There will be different angles and depths that you can see when you adjust your focus — kind of like a Lytro camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Avigilon brings adaptive video analytics to HD surveillance cameras
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/10/avigilon-adaptive-video-analytics.html
Avigilon says its new HD dome and HD bullet cameras bring the benefits of the company’s proprietary adaptive video analytics directly to the device. Powered by Avigilon’s pattern-based, self-learning video analytics technology, these intelligent cameras automatically adjust to changing scene conditions and continue to adapt to scene changes without the need for any manual calibration, delivering new levels of performance and ease of installation.
The new HD cameras also support Avigilon’s breakthrough ‘Teach-By-Example’ technology that not only enables the analytics to learn continuously by watching the scene, but also learns from operators actively using the system. This innovation symbolizes the vision behind Avigilon’s acquisition of VideoIQ earlier this year, said company representatives.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HDMI will make you cry
http://edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4435763/HDMI-will-make-you-cry
Tomi Engdahl says:
USB audio/video encoder from Sensoray supports multiple analog and digital input formats
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2014/07/usb-audio-video-encoder-from-sensoray-supports-multiple-analog-and-digital-input-formats.html
Sensoray’s Model 2263S is a USB audio/video encoder that captures HD or SD video and simultaneously sends a compressed and an uncompressed (preview) stream to the host. The encoder supports DVI, component, and composite video inputs and audio is optionally captured from analog line input, compressed and multiplexed into transport stream. T
The Model 2263S—which is controlled using a video API (DirectShow or Video4Linux)—is suitable for use in video pipeline inspection, radar and sonar processing, remote video surveillance, and traffic monitoring applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg: GoPro camera may be partly responsible for Schumi’s injury – a company in difficulty
Former Formula One driver Michael Schumacher ski accident received head injuries may partly be due to the helmet-mounted camera.
The share price dropped 9.9 per cent yesterday to $ 76.67.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/uutisia/bloomberg+goprokamera+ehka+osasyy+schumin+loukkaantumiseen++yhtio+vaikeuksissa/a1019719
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bono apologises for iTunes album dump
Megalomania, generosity and FEAR of irrelevance drove group to Apple deal
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/15/bono_apologises_for_itunes_album_dump/
Bono has apologised for sending U2′s latest album into every iTunes library in the world.
The singer’s apology came, ironically, in a video to promote the album to those who didn’t get it for free in iTunes.
“I had this beautiful idea. We got carried away with ourselves.”
Artists are prone to that kind of thing
U2 video
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153458076501686
Tomi Engdahl says:
Good News, TV Guys: ComScore Found Your Missing TV Watchers
http://recode.net/2014/10/14/good-news-tv-guys-comscore-found-your-missing-tv-watchers/
If you’re a TV programmer, you’re very worried about the recent erosion in TV ratings, which have hit networks across the board this year. The best-case scenario: People are still watching your shows, but they’re watching them in ways that aren’t properly measured, like on the Web.
That’s what Nielsen says is happening, and now comScore has a bit of data to help shore up that argument: A new survey that says the younger TV watchers are, the less likely they are to watch TV shows on actual TVs.
These results are flattering to the TV guys, because it means their missing eyeballs aren’t lost, just misplaced. But even if the results are accurate, it’s hard to imagine that people who watch TV on Web-connected devices like phones and laptops aren’t also watching lots of other, non-TV video.
Meanwhile, not all of comScore’s data is that reassuring. The company says a whopping 24 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds say they’re not subscribing to pay TV. More than half of those folks — 13 percent of the total number polled — say they’ve cut the cord, while 11 percent say they’ve never had a cord, period.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aereo to the FCC: Let us join the cable companies we tried to replace
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/10/13/aereo-to-the-fcc-let-us-join-the-cable-companies-we-tried-to-replace/
It’s been weeks since we last heard from Aereo, the shuttered streaming video service that lost big at the Supreme Court this summer. Now it’s back, and the company is rolling over in its fight against TV broadcasters — in hopes of a longer-term victory in Congress.
The Federal Communications Commission is weighing whether to extend regulations for satellite television providers, cable companies and other “multichannel video providers” to Aereo and other “linear” online video distributors. (Linear distributors are considered distinct from on-demand services like Netflix or Hulu, so those services aren’t likely to be affected by the rule.) In a meeting last week, Aereo told the FCC that it would be willing to accept those regulations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
H.264 support arrives in Firefox, thanks to Cisco — but H.264 web videos still won’t play
https://gigaom.com/2014/10/14/h-264-support-arrives-in-firefox-thanks-to-cisco-but-h-264-web-videos-still-wont-play/
Firefox is now supporting H.264 for web-based video chat, thanks to a binary component provided by Cisco — but H.264 web video streams still can’t be played natively in the browser.
Cisco and Firefox first announced their collaboration on H.264 a year ago in an attempt to solve a stalemate around the future of browser-based video. The problem: Everyone in the industry is agreeing that the future of voice and video communication is based on WebRTC, an emerging standard that will allow browser and app makers to offer native video chat without the need for any third-party plugins.
However, browser and teleconferencing vendors are split on which video format to use for next-generation video chat services. Google has been pushing the industry to adopt VP8, the video format it open sourced back in 2010. Cisco and others instead have been favoring H.264, which is supported by legacy video conferencing hardware, but could require companies to pay licensing fees, and is covered by a number of patents — usually a big no-no for open source projects.
Mozilla has traditionally been in the open source and open codec camp, but changed course last year
Gaal also noted that Mozilla is continuing to support open codecs, and is in fact developing a next generation video codec right now.
The binary component provided by Cisco doesn’t actually support all flavors of H.264, if you will, but only a more basic set of features used for real-time video applications
Tomi Engdahl says:
£100k project to understand how the brain hears 3-D sound
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/uoh-pt101514.php
Listening vertically as well as horizontally — Dr. Hyunkook Lee aims ‘to do for the ears what 3-D cinema has done for the eyes’
Dr Hyunkook Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Music Technology in the University of Huddersfield’s School of Computing and Engineering, and he has been awarded a grant of £100,077 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for a two-year project entitled Perceptual rendering of vertical image width for 3D multichannel audio.
“If you are at a live concert you hear sounds from everywhere, including reverberation and reflection from the ceiling,” explained Dr Lee, “but conventional surround sound systems are limited because they are effectively two-dimensional. 3D means you have an additional height dimension.”
“We know how we perceive sound horizontally very well, because we are so used to stereo and surround sound, but the height dimension is the new thing,” said Dr Lee.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HBO To Offer Online Streaming Without TV Subscription
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/10/15/2034235/hbo-to-offer-online-streaming-without-tv-subscription
By now, everyone not living in total isolation knows that HBO has announced plans to offer content streaming in 2015 with no TV subscription requirements. Many wonder what took HBO so long to make this transition.
Whatever the reason, all are expecting this development to induce “more content providers to make their shows more readily available online”.
HBO will fulfill cord cutters’ dreams and launch a standalone streaming service next year
http://bgr.com/2014/10/15/hbo-online-streaming-service-launch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Evolving World of DRM
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2014/10/the-evolving-world-of-drm.html
The world of digital rights management (DRM) – the hardware and software used to secure content – is stable and has become a fairly routine enabling service for cable operators. There are, however, some significant changes that will gradually shift the focus – and make DRM a bit more complex in some ways and simpler in others – during the next few years.
Right now, the programming offered by cable operators is primarily protected by Microsoft PlayReady, Adobe Primetime and Google’s Widevine. Thing are under control, said Arnaud Perrier, the vice president of solutions and marketing at Envivio (NASDAQ: ENVI). “Most operators have figured out how to get coverage using a combination of the [main types of DRM available],” he said. “It’s not so much confusing. It’s more a question of operator constraints, and cost constrains as well. There are multiple royalties and licenses.”
The DRM world mirrors the adaptive bitrate streaming world in that there are a number of techniques that are discrete but highly similar at their cores. DRM, said Perrier, uses 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technology. The ways in which the keys are handled and secured are a bit different. The sense is that most of what separates DRM systems is on the business and competitive side.
Crackers always are looking for new worlds to exploit, and OTT is promising. “Perhaps five years ago, at the beginning of the OTT boom, Nagra may not have been able to offer solutions to OTT providers that were equivalent to broadcast content solutions,” Schouten said. “Systems have evolved to the point at which a single content protection system protects any network over any device that is anywhere.”
Perhaps the biggest transition is that the various platform providers are becoming more competitive and, for that reason, are likelier than in the past to make it difficult to use more than one DRM solution.
Apple, said Frankland, has recently said that using other DRM approaches slows down performance on their devices. That is leading the company to limit DRM to its FairPlay system. That could create a domino effect in which platform owners force a fragmentation of the DRM platforms.
A parallel trend is reworking the delivery of DRM. Schouten noted that while the worlds of DRM and conditional access (CA) are fundamentally different, each brings things to the table that can be used to buttress the other: CA technology is adept at handling authorization tasks simultaneously for large groups of subscribers. DRM excels in securing content to a far wider range of devices and platforms. The goal, he suggests, is for each to borrow from the others’ approach.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dolby Atmos is coming home and it sounds amazing
Don’t bin your multichannel home cinema system just yet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/13/breaking_fad_dolby_atmos_for_the_home_theater_preview/
Can Dolby Atmos save the beleaguered home cinema business? With sales of AV receivers tanking, makers of multichannel home theatre receivers are banking on the latest in surround sound technology to rekindle interest.
Dolby Atmos has been called 3D for your ears. It’s a cute label to describe a tangible leap forward for movie audio. Unlike traditional surround sound, Atmos is object rather than channel based, using metadata to position audio within a hemispherical three-dimension soundstage, adding height to the usual encircling speaker array. It’s gaining traction in Hollywood, with over 120 movies rendered in Atmos so far.
From a sound design point of view, Atmos offers unparalleled creative control, which no doubt explains its acceptance. Up to 128 objects in a frame can have their own positional metadata. When the soundtrack is played back in an Atmos-equipped movie theatre, adaptive rendering steers the sound to where the sound designer intended it to be heard.
In larger theatres with scores of speakers, precision is hardwired. In smaller venues with fewer speakers, the renderer in the processor creates a phantom channel to most accurately recreate the spatial position. From a cinematic point of view, this translates to wonderfully detailed soundfields and precise panning of transitory effects.
Immersive is an over-used word, but seems entirely appropriate
Is living with Dolby Atmos worth the faff?
Subtle, naturalistic ambiance – perfect for Transformers 4
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/16/is_living_with_dolby_atmos_worth_the_faff/
So, in a nutshell: seven channel AV Receivers able to decode Atmos in a five front/back and two height speaker configuration (also known as 5.1.2, where the ‘point one’ is the LFE pre-out for deep bass from an attached subwoofer) are probably going to work best in relatively small rooms, where your upward firing Dolby Enabled speakers can be parked in a sensible position.
So, is Dolby Atmos worth all the faff? Certainly, the Transformers: Age of Extinction Blu-ray is technically very impressive, but the impact of the Atmos mix is surprisingly subtle. The differences aren’t in the ceaseless sonic destruction, but with ambiance.
Indeed, throughout Atmos appears to trade traditional steerage for a more naturalistic sonic umbrella
There’s no doubt that Dolby Atmos represents a significant step forward in multi-channel audio (and having lived with it I don’t want to go back), but a mainstream audience may prove difficult to convince.
Not that I think this 3D audio fad is going to run out of steam any time soon. Rival immersive sound format purveyor Auro-3D has just signed at least one AVR major, although software remains unannounced. One key problem facing Auro-3D is that the speaker configuration is quite different from Atmos, essentially two tiers of front/back speakers with an optional ceiling Voice of God.
Potentially the biggest threat to Atmos will come from old rival DTS, which is expected to announce that its MDA (Multi Dimensional Audio) 3D audio file format is heading to home AV at CES in January.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gaming Could Be Killer App for Nexus Player Box
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/google-nexus-player-android-gaming,news-19776.html
Between the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 announcements, Google’s had a busy day, but its third new product has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle. The Nexus Player is Google’s answer to full-featured streaming boxes like the Roku, Apple TV and the Fire TV, and bringing Android functionality to televisions might be the next major step in set-top box design.
Google revealed details about the Nexus Player on its website today (Oct. 15), and while none of it is shocking, most of it looks promising. The Nexus Player itself is a small black cylinder that runs the Android TV operating system. The device comes with a small voice search-enabled remote control.
As an online media player, the Nexus Player can run a variety of streaming apps. Google’s webpage for the Nexus Player highlights 28 popular choices, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Crackle, Plex and Pandora. Naturally, the device will also support Google Movies & TV as well as Google Music. Like a Chromecast, Nexus Player can also screen-mirror Android devices or cast just about anything from a Google Chrome browser tab on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, ChromeOS, iOS and Android.
Where the device gets interesting is in its capacity for gaming. Like Amazon’s Fire TV, the Nexus Player will offer a large selection of games as well as an optional Asus controller (made by Asus, which, at first glance, looks much more streamlined than Amazon’s model). Where it differs from the Fire TV, though, is that it will have direct access to a huge selection of titles from the Google Play Games section.
While it’s not reasonable to expect that every single game on the Play Store will run on the device, the vast majority probably will, and that gives gamers an enormous selection.
The Nexus Player will not replace a PS4 or an Xbox One. Depending on its price point, though, it may finally provide the midpoint between set-top box and game console that everything from the Ouya to the Fire TV to the recently released PlayStation TV has tried, and failed, to provide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix Shares Plunge as Growth Disappoints
Streaming Video Service Cites Price Increase for Lower-Than-Expected Number of New Users
http://online.wsj.com/articles/netflix-reports-disappointing-number-of-new-subscribers-1413403954
Netflix Inc. said its recent price increases contributed to a disappointing number of new users in the third quarter, a harbinger of slowing U.S. growth even as the online video-streaming company prepares to face a new challenge from rival HBO.
HBO will fulfill cord cutters’ dreams and launch a standalone streaming service next year
http://bgr.com/2014/10/15/hbo-online-streaming-service-launch/
This is the moment that cord cutters have been waiting for: HBO will start offering a standalone over-the-top online streaming service starting next year, which will be a massive blow to the American cable TV industry. HBO made this announcement during an investor conference for parent company Time Warner, which has in the past hinted that it wants to give HBO fans the option to watch their favorite shows without having to subscribe to expensive cable bundles. Now that HBO is unbundling its highly acclaimed shows from cable, it will put pressure on more content providers to make their shows more readily available online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Leads the Charge Into Ultra HDTV – Really?
Content providers scramble to keep up
If Ultra HDTV lives up to its hype, it will be in spite of a couple of major drawbacks. Foremost is the near total lack of Ultra HD content to play on these new sets. Furthermore, even the HDMI connector to link the Ultra HD set to a device capable of playing back Ultra HD content isn’t up to handling the higher Ultra HD bandwidth.
To begin, let’s consider the hype. Taipei-based Digitimes Research estimates that worldwide Ultra HDTV (also called 4K TV) shipments will reach roughly 12.8 million in 2014 and will grow five-fold to 68.2 million by 2017.
Carlos Angulo, senior manager of product marketing at Irvine, Calif., TV manufacturer Vizio Inc., expresses the suppliers’ optimism for Ultra HD: “Vizio kept tabs on consumer demand for a better viewing experience, combined with market trends, for the indication that Ultra HD is here to stay.”
Paul Gagnon, director of Global TV Research for NPD DisplaySearch, explains the phenomenon as follows: Chinese “consumers are purchasing the sets because they represent the latest technology, and these 4K TVs embody the best technology, which is very appealing to Chinese consumers…”
Falling premiums
“This is especially true at the rapidly falling [cost] premiums. Most Chinese consumers are not even using native 4K content, and many of the 4K TVs currently installed in homes from early adopters can’t even connect to 4K sources because of format incompatibilities.” The Digitimes report cited earlier confirms Gagnon’s contention, claiming that “more than half of the 4K TVs shipped throughout 2016 are expected to go to the China market where low-priced units are expected to drive most of the demand.“
This is probably difficult to digest, given the Western view that US consumers typically set the pace for new technology adoption as they did with the PC, smartphone, and every other high-tech gadget produced up to now. However, the International Monetary Fund predicts China will past the US as the world’s leading economic power, according to Chris Giles, economics editor of the Financial Times in a story written on April 30 this year. The IMF findings are based on purchasing power of consumers in their own economies. According to Gagnon, “The Chinese already have exceeded the West in 4K TV purchases, and will continue to outpace all other regions in sales. Primarily this is because of the much lower price premiums and greater competition.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Discovered What Makes Someone A Good Dancer
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-a-better-dancer-2014-9#ixzz3GOGcXmHa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Journalist recants comments linking Schumacher injuries to GoPro camera
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-shumacher-gopro-idUSKCN0I42S320141015
(Reuters) – French journalist Jean-Louis Moncet recanted his comments suggesting that Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher’s injuries in a skiing accident last year may have been caused by a wearable camera made by GoPro Inc.
“Talking about GoPro, there were no news. It was just my opinion,” Moncet tweeted on Tuesday.
“The problem for Michael was not the hit, but the mounting of the GoPro camera that he had on his helmet that injured his brain,” Moncet had told radio station Europe 1 over the weekend. [ID:nL3N0S84UP]
Up to Wednesday’s close, GoPro shares had fallen 14 percent to $72.87 since Moncet’s comments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Single Pixel, Color Digital Camera
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/20/a-single-pixel-color-digital-camera/
[Ben] wanted a digital camera. Not any digital camera, but a color digital camera, and didn’t want to deal with pixel arrays or lenses. Impossible, you say? Not when you have a bunch of integral transforms in your tool belt.
[Ben] is only using a single light sensor that outputs RGB values for his camera – no lenses are found anywhere. If, however, you scan a scene multiple times with this sensor, each time blocking a portion of the sensor’s field of view, you could reconstruct a rudimentary, low-resolution image from just a single light sensor.
[Ben]‘s camera consists of the Adafruit RGB light sensor, an Arduino, a microSD card, a few servos, and a bunch of printed parts. The servos are used to scan and rotate the ‘blocking arm’ across the sensor for each image.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google changes ‘to fight piracy’ by highlighting legal sites
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29689949
Google has announced changes to its search engine in an attempt to curb online piracy.
The company has long been criticised for enabling people to find sites to download entertainment illegally.
The entertainment industry has argued that illegal sites should be “demoted” in search results.
The new measures, mostly welcomed by music trade group the BPI, will instead point users towards legal alternatives such as Spotify and Google Play.
Google will now list these legal services in a box at the top of the search results, as well as in a box on the right-hand side of the page.
Crucially, however, these will be adverts – meaning if legal sites want to appear there, they will need to pay Google for the placement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Computer Vision Opens New API
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324320&
Developers of computer vision applications are expected to get a leg up from the OpenVX specification published today. OpenVX defines a high-level interface for mapping vision apps on to any chipset in a way optimized for low power.
The interface lets developers handle front-end processing of computer vision data without waking up a CPU or graphics core. “That enables low-power operation for virtual and augmented reality wearables that want to continuously scan the environment — a very battery sensitive use case,” said Neil Trevett, president of Khronos Group, in an interview with EE Times.
Khronos is the ad hoc standards body behind OpenVX and other standards such as the popular OpenGL graphics API. The group will release an open-source implementation of OpenVX in C before the end of the year.
A broad range of companies announced support for OpenVX including AMD, Nvidia, Cadence, Imagination Technologies, Intel, and Samsung.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney and chums halt Comcast-TWC, AT&T-DirecTV weddings
FCC reaches to pull back curtain, TV networks run screaming from sunlight
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/23/fcc_telco_mergers_delay/
US watchdog the FCC has hit the brakes while scrutinizing the proposed mergers of Comcast-Time Warner, and AT&T-DirecTV.
On Wednesday, the comms industry monitor said [PDF] that its comment and review processes for the pair of mergers would be put on hold following pressure to publish the cable companies’ contracts with TV networks.
At issue are the agreements the telcos have signed with the networks for the rights to carry programming. All four of the companies involved in the two mergers had signed such deals with the networks in order to offer channels to their subscribers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google exec: Chromecast V2 is coming; users have cast 650 million times
https://gigaom.com/2014/10/21/google-exec-chromecast-v2-is-coming-users-have-cast-650-million-times/
Google’s Mario Queiroz said that users have hit the cast button 650 million times. An API for developers will let feed content into Backdrop, the device’s customized home screen.
Queiroz also said more than 6,000 developers are building more than 10,000 apps for the Google Cast ecosystem, signaling a rising developer community.
This developer adoption is an important strategy for Google and bleeds over into its new “Backdrop” feature, which lets users customize their TVs with their own pictures.
Queiroz wouldn’t say much about what Google is planning for the second iteration of Chromecast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.K. Supermarkets Beta Test Full-Body 3D Scanners For Selfie Figurines
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/10/23/0140249/uk-supermarkets-beta-test-full-body-3d-scanners-for-selfie-figurines
Walmart-owned ASDA supermarkets in the U.K. are beta testing 3D full-body scanning booths that allow patrons to buy 6-in to 9-in high “selfie” figurines. Artec Group, a maker of 3D scanners and software, said its Shapify Booth, which can scan your entire body in 12 seconds and use the resulting file to create a full-color 3D printed model, is making its U.S. debut this week. The 3D Shapify booths are equipped with four wide view, high-resolution scanners, which rotate around the person to scan every angle.
Artec offers to print the figurines for booth operators (retailers) for $50 for a 6-in model
3D full-body scanning booth to create custom figurines
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2836838/worlds-first-3d-full-body-scanning-booth-to-create-custom-you-figurines.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
New 3D technology:
LCD technology maintains 3D images it displays without drawing power
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-lcd-technology-3d-images-power.html
At first glance, the static, greyscale display created by a group of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China might not catch the eye of a thoughtful consumer in a market saturated with flashy, colorful electronics. But a closer look at the specs could change that: the ultra-thin LCD screen described today in a paper in The Optical Society’s (OSA) journal Optics Letters is capable of holding three-dimensional images without a power source, making it a compact, energy-efficient way to display visual information.
“Because the proposed LCD does not have any driving electronics, the fabrication is extremely simple. The bi-stable feature provides a low power consumption display that can store an image for several years,” said researcher Abhishek Srivastava, one of the authors of the paper.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-lcd-technology-3d-images-power.html#jCp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Omron develops 3D display technology using transparent sheet
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-omron-3d-technology-transparent-sheet.html#nRlv
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reinvention of Broadcast TV: 10 Things to Know
Broadcasters bet its future on ATSC 3.0
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324366
As US consumers grow more comfortable with streaming video on mobile devices while continuing to watch cable and satellite TV, terrestrial broadcasters find themselves fighting, as a matter of survival, to redefine an over-the-air digital broadcast system that’s now almost 20 years old.
Broadcasters, their future hanging in the balance, hope to prove that they can become friends, rather than foes, of mobile broadband.
Their big bet in this high-stakes game is a new standard — still in the making — called ATSC 3.0.
At 1:00 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22, WKOW-TV in Madison, Wis., briefly shut off its digital TV signals and transmitted 4K UHDTV, 720P HD, and 480P SD signals simultaneously. Witnesses were a group of industry expert viewers, broadcast engineers in the region, and a few reporters, including EE Times.
This real-world broadcast field test used the Futurecast universal terrestrial broadcasting system — co-developed by LG Electronics, its US R&D subsidiary Zenith, and GatesAir, the former Harris Broadcast RF division.
Wayne Luplow, vice president at Zenith R&D Lab, says Futurecast thus far is the only physical layer proposals for ATSC 3.0 to pull off real-world trials. “Others are still paper systems,” he says. The Futurecast team carried out in August its first round of field testing in Madison — outward from downtown more than 50 mile
Why broadcast now? Let’s start with why 3.0 now.
Politically speaking, US broadcasters are caught between a rock and a hard place.
The FCC’s pending spectrum auction is likely to help build out the latest generation of mobile broadband. Many broadcasters worry that the auction will risk the very future of broadcasting.
With ATSC 3.0, the broadcast engineering community aims to achieve significantly higher data capacity and genuinely improved robustness. The goal is to support the simultaneous transmission of content to UHDTV, mobile, and handheld in a single 6 MHz channel. Increased payload capacity of the physical layer will be based on an OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) modulation scheme, combined with HEVC (high efficiency video coding) encoding.
More important, the industry group has already decided that ATSC 3.0 will use only IP-based transport, presumably making the new standard more broadband and mobile friendly.
One scenario has broadcasters transmitting both HDTV and LTE content at the same time on the same channel. Other possibilities include broadcasters offering à la carte pay TV content, in addition to free-over-the-air broadcasting. Advocates hope these flexible service models might give broadcasters opportunities to rethink and reinvent their business models.
ATSC UHD is “equal to four full 1080P HD channels and dozens of SD streams.”
“Digital TV is almost a 20-year-old technology,”
“The broadcast industry’s priorities are mobility, flexibility, and robustness in the coverage and service areas.”
While OFDM modulation with guard intervals allows the easy removal of multipath effects, the SFN can provide different angles of arrival for the broadcast signals.
In responding to ATSC’s call for proposal for the ATSC 3.0 physical layer, a total of 19 organizations submitted 10 proposals.
Some proposals are more explicit than others in addressing the use of ATSC 3.0 physical layer with LTE Broadcast.
Futurecast allows single-channel, multiple data pipe configuration
A small antenna used for receiving Futurecast’s ATSC 3.0 signals
Through efforts now divided into three working groups — physical layer, management and protocols, and application and presentation, the ATSC is expected to put together a so-called “Candidate Standard” for ATSC 3.0 by March 2015, in time for the National Association of Broadcasters’ convention.
Perceived by many broadcasters as one of the biggest threats to their future broadcasting business is the upcoming spectrum auction promoted by the FCC.
The FCC plans next year an auction of the 600 MHz spectrum band owned by local US broadcast television stations. The goal is to free up the spectrum for mobile broadband.
Broadcasters’ participation in the auction is voluntary.
Broadcasters decided to start with a clean slate in developing ATSC 3.0. They’re breaking from past practices of maintaining backward compatibility.
In short, ATSC 3.0 will not be backward compatible with the current Digital Television (DTV) standard, prompting consumers to buy a new TV set or set-top. Whether that will be a deal-breaker for consumers remains to be seen.
Perhaps the trickier question is how the broadcast industry transitions from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0.
“converters should be as affordable or more attractive than ATSC digital converters were.”
What about ATSC 2.0?
When ATSC first developed its standard, it was never called ATSC 1.0.
But time has gone by. Broadcasters have gotten itchy and started to talk about ATSC 2.0.
Standardization for ATSC 2.0 was promised for completion by the middle of 2012, with backward compatibility to ATSC 1.0.
Fast-forward to Oct. 2014, and ATSC 2.0 is yet to emerge on the market.
Today, those working on ATSC 3.0 vaguely describe ATSC 2.0 as a stepping-stone for ATSC 3.0
So, what will be the biggest challenges broadcasters face in pulling off ATSC 3.0?
Clearly, with ATSC 3.0, they need to convince the public of the relevance of TV broadcasting. Since many consumers view traditional broadcasting in a boob-tube context, it will take time for them to appreciate the advantages that TV broadcasting’s big overhaul is expected to deliver.
The same goes for broadcasters.
Meanwhile, when asked about the biggest challenges for ATSC 3.0, Zenith’s Wayne Luplow and GatesAir’s Jay Adrick both quipped in agreement: “We don’t have ATSC 3.0 yet. The standard is not set.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using Excel to Watch Movies at Work
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/24/using-excel-to-watch-movies-at-work/
The Excel subreddit exploded earlier this week when redditor [AyrA_ch] shared his custom spreadsheet that allowed him to play video files on a locked-down work computer. How locked down? With no access to Windows Media Player and IE7 as the only browser (all plugins disabled, no HTML5), Excel became the unlikely hero to cure a 3-hour boredom stint.
Behind the cascade of rectangles and in the land of the Excel macro, [AyrA_ch] took advantage of the program’s VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) functions to circumvent the computer’s restrictions.
http://np.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/2jtd2f/worked_on_a_completely_locked_down_machine_time/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Highly Accurate Proximity Sensor
http://www.eeweb.com/news/highly-accurate-proximity-sensor
STMicroelectronics introduces a new highly accurate optical range-finding module based on FlightSense™ Time-of-Flight technology that offers designers superior distance-measurement capability. FlightSense™ provides accurate distance sensing by measuring the time for emitted light to reflect back from the target, whereas conventional sensors can only report reflected signal levels and not absolute distance. ST’s FlightSense™ technology brings unique advantages versus conventional infrared sensors; measuring longer ranges that are independent of the target reflectivity, at high frame rate and low power.
ST’s VL6180X module combines FlightSense™ proximity sensing with an ambient-light sensor (ALS) and supports basic gesture recognition
Global electronics giant LG utilizes the FlightSense™ technology to assist the laser auto-focus performance of its G3 smartphone.