MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.
Analysts and veterans of the International CES expect to see plenty of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions, new smartwatch uses, and a large section of the show floor dedicated to robotics. 2015 will be the first year CES gets behind 4K in a big way, as lower price points make the technology more attractive to consumers. Samsung, Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba will be big players in the 4K arena. OEMs must solve the problem of intelligence and connectivity before 4K will really take off. CES attendees may also see 4K TVs optimized for certain tasks, along with a variety of sizes. There will be 10-inch and 14-inch and 17-inch UHD displays.
4K is not enough anymore? 8K – finally come true? Korean giant LG has promised to introduce ehdan 8K TV at CES 2015 exhibition in January. 8K means a total of 33.2 million pixels, or 7680 x 4320 resolution. 4K video material fate is still uncertain, 8K video can not with certainty not available for a long time.
Sound bars will be a big issue at shows. One problem with new TVs — the thinner they are, the harder it is to get sound out.
Open file formats Matroska Video (MKV) and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) gets more widely used as Windows 10 To Feature Native Support For MKV and FLAC.
Watching shows online is more common now. More people are watching videos on smaller screens. You can use a tablet as personal TV. Phablets and portable televisions have taken off in China, Japan, and Korea, where many people watch videos during long commutes. Tablets now have become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that you can buy them for a specific application. Much of the innovation will be in software, rather than hardware — tuning the tablets to boot up like a television instead of an Android tablet
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. It seems inevitable that smartphones and tablets will replace the television in terms of time spent. Many metrics firms, including Nielsen, report on the rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps. Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets.
Qualcomm will push this year broadcast LTE. That will be picked up more and more by some vendors in tablets, so they can have broadcast TV signals, but it doesn’t have to be generic LTE.
There will be lots of talking on traditional TV vs new streaming services, especially on who gets which program material and at what price. While it’s possible to create a TV platform that doesn’t deal with live channels, smart TVs and game consoles alike generally try to integrate the content as best they can.
Netflix’s new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable to get its app included on set-top boxes of cable, fiber and satellite TV operators. Roughly 90 million U.S. households subscribe to cable or other forms of pay TV, and more than 73 million subscribe to the biggest five operators alone. That’s why Netflix has been working hard to team up with one of these major operators.
Google intends to integrate content best it can. Google Publishes ‘Live Channels For Android TV’ App Into The Play Store. G The “Live Channels for Android TV” app is unsurprisingly incompatible with phones and tablets, maybe because for some reason those markets are intentionally artificially tried to be kept separate.
Virtual reality video is trying to get to spotlight. Samsung’s new Milk VR to round up 360-degree videos for Gear VR article tells that Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality. Milk VR service will provide free 360-degree videos to anyone using a Gear VR virtual-reality headset (uses Galaxy Note 4). Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement as the company is looking at virtual reality as a potential growth engine at a time when one of its key traditional revenue sources — smartphones — has slowed down. The videos will also serve as a model for future filmmakers or artists looking to take advantage of the virtual-reality medium, as well as build up an ecosystem and viewership for VR content.
Although digital video is increasing in popularity, analog video remains in use in many applications.
1,154 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluetooth Studio Headphone Amplifier
https://hackaday.io/project/6233-bluetooth-studio-headphone-amplifier
Use your expensive high impedance studio quality headphones with a portable media player to get the best possible sound without extra wires!
Using the aptX Bluetooth protocol, this device can stream CD quality audio to your earballs at the highest bitrate possible. It has selectable output impedance so you can choose what type of headphone to use. This makes it perfect for anything from ipod headphones to high quality Sennheiser cans!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: HOMER, A 2D GPU For Microcontrollers
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/19/hackaday-prize-entry-homer-a-2d-gpu-for-microcontrollers/
Just about the hardest thing you’ll ever do with a microcontroller is video. The timing must be precise, and even low-resolution video requires relatively large amounts of memory, something microcontrollers don’t generally have a lot of. HDMI? That’s getting into microcontroller wizard territory.
Despite these limitations, [monnoliv] is working on a GPU for microcontrollers. It outputs 1280×720 over HDMI, has a 24 bit palette, and 2D hardware acceleration.
[monnoliv]’s HOMER video card doesn’t need Linux, and it doesn’t need a very high-powered microcontroller. It’s just a simple SPI device with a bunch of memory and an FPGA that turns the most minimal microcontroller into a machine that can output full HD graphics.
https://hackaday.io/project/5651-homer
Tomi Engdahl says:
News & Analysis
IR Cameras Soon a Commodity, Warns Yole
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326926&
Over the next several years, uncooled thermal camera shipments will accelerate rapidly, with volumes growing at 22% CAGR between 2015 and 2020, according to Yole Développement’s latest report, Uncooled Infrared Imaging: technology & Market Trends.
Annual shipments are expected to reach more than 1.5M units in 2020, compared with more than 450 K units in 2014, says the market research firm.
In fact, consumer applications, including both personal vision systems (PVS) and smartphones are likely to provide the highest shipment growth in the coming years. This part of the market volumes was multiplied by three from 2014 to 2015, with smartphones in particular holding great promise.
“The smartphones market is already the main application in the consumer area in less than 6 month of sales”
Yole’s team highlights rapid price erosion – between 2014 and 2015 alone prices fell by 30%, down to $249. This is thanks to 12 micron sensors, with sensor miniaturization driving the major trend in the uncooled infrared camera industry.
Reducing the sensor die size decreases chip and optic costs. In 2016, key players including BAE, Raytheon, FLIR, DRS, and NEC will have 12 micron pixel architectures. The next step will be 6 microns. This is a major challenge as it is smaller than the wavelengths of longwave infrared light (8 to 12 microns).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sean O’Kane / The Verge:
The DxO One is a $599, 20.2MP, 1-inch camera that attaches to your iPhone lightning port; preorders open now for September delivery
The DxO One makes your iPhone better than most compact cameras
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/18/8802377/dxo-one-iphone-camera-sensor
We all take pictures with our phones but some of us want to grow the experience up a little. There is no shortage of companies that will sell you a way to do that, usually by attaching things like lenses that modify your phone’s own lens (like the Moment and Olloclip lenses) or actual camera sensor / lens combinations that communicate with your phone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (like Sony’s QX series, or the Japan-only Olympus Air).
The problem with the former is that is they degrade your phone’s already tenuous image quality. And, so far, the problem with the latter is that they;re big and bulky, the software is sluggish, and the outboard sensors are so compact they hardly offer an improvement on your phone to begin with.
That’s where the new DxO One camera comes in. Yes, it’s another take on strapping a separate camera sensor and lens system to your iPhone, but it’s the best one yet.
The first thing you notice about the DxO One is its size — DxO says it’s the world’s smallest 1-inch sensor camera. It’s small and light, not much bigger than a zippo lighter. Yet inside is a 1-inch, 20.2 megapixel sensor.
The fixed lens gives you the equivalent of a 32mm wide focal length, opens all the way up f1.8 (with a pretty great minimum focusing distance of just 20cm) and can stop down to f11.
It can shoot in RAW or JPG, and even has a mode called “SuperRaw” that takes four back-to-back RAW images and stacks them to weed out sensor noise for better low light performance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jonah Weiner / New York Times:
Behind Comedy Central’s experimental programming and digital business model challenges
Comedy Central in the Post-TV Era
The network is in the middle of a creative renaissance — and a business-model crisis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/magazine/comedy-central-in-the-post-tv-era.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
uSenseCam
Open source multispectral array camera for vegetation analysis for UAV.
https://hackaday.io/project/6379-usensecam
The aims of the project is to create an small and practical multispectral array cameras for UAV. This system is composed by 2 to 6 CMOS sensors. Each sensor use an specific wavelength filter to build a multispectral image.
The spectral response of the sensor would be from 400 nm. to 950 nm. The system provides the possibility to select an specific wavelength range by changing the band-pass filter for each sensor.
uSenseCam would monitor the plants reflectance of visible and near-infrared radiation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Plywood Camera Dolly Looks Professional
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/21/diy-plywood-camera-dolly-looks-professional/
While [Ted] was poking around the ‘net, he came across a neat little product called a camera dolly. These are used to add an artistic flair to filming. They are similar to a camera slider but can roll around on the floor or a table and do not need to follow a track.
The extraordinary part of the build is that the angle of each wheel can be adjusted independently. This allows the dolly to do anything from rolling in a straight line to gradually traveling around a curve or even just spinning the camera in place. Each wheel mount has degree indications so that they can be adjusted very precisely
PLYWOOD SKATER Finished
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?40901-PLYWOOD-SKATER-Finished&p=372259&viewfull=1#post372259
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 15 Dollar Camera Dolly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZRTo5rr2M
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Oculus and Cardboard Are Going to Rock the Travel Industry
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-19/how-oculus-and-cardboard-are-going-to-rock-the-travel-industry
As advertisers jump on VR, it may just be a matter of time before you can rack up air miles, virtually
This is advertising on steroids.
Marriott calls this a “4-D” experience, and its one of the latest innovations in virtual reality. Delivered via an Oculus Rift headset inside a special Teleporter station, this experience is part of the hotel chain’s “Travel Brilliantly” campaign. You feel as if you’re in a movie playing 360-degrees around you, all above you, underneath your feet. You don’t direct it like a video game but instead hold on and go for the ride.
It very well might be the future of travel.
“The secret sauce,” he says, “is in 4D, because being on a vacation affects more than just your eyes and ears.” So when you step onto the beach you smell the salty air (via a synced scent release), or when you tunnel through a wormhole you feel the ground shake (via motion signals and a rumbling platform).
Relegated to geeky fantasy for years, VR hardware is suddenly cheap, portable, and there for the travel-brand taking. For his next off-the-record project for Marriott, he’ll be using $199 off-the-shelf Gear VR headsets by Samsung to view a Galaxy 6 or Galaxy Note 4 smartphone running Oculus software.
“It’s a race right now for content. If you’re first, you win.”
Travel companies such as Thomas Cook, Qantas Airways, and Destination BC in Canada are also creating their own promotional VR videos. And they say this is just the beginning.
“We see virtual reality as an innovation that will change the travel business,” says Marco Ryan, chief digital officer for Thomas Cook Group, a U.K.-based tour operator that began testing VR content last year to boost sales. “The closer you get to the destination, the more excited you are to have that experience”—i.e., buy that experience.
VR is not changing what customers actually experience on a trip. At least, not yet.
Currently, in 10 select Thomas Cook store locations in the U.K., Germany, and Belgium, you can strap on a Gear VR headset and try your tour before you buy
The next step, according to Ryan, is to go beyond brick-and-mortar stores and deliver VR brochures into homes.
Together with a VR company called Visualise, Thomas Cook has begun gathering “excursion” videos. They’re filmed with a 360-degree, specially designed rig of GoPro cameras, which the company made itself before Google unveiled its commercial version of a similar 16-camera rig called Jump at last month’s I/O conference.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Eddy Cue: Apple will pay rights holders on a per-stream basis during trial period
Apple Says It Will Pay Taylor Swift For Free Streams, After All
http://recode.net/2015/06/21/apple-says-it-will-pay-taylor-swift-for-free-streams-after-all/
Taylor Swift isn’t just the biggest pop star in the world. She’s also the world’s most effective Apple lobbyist.
This morning, Swift wrote an open letter to Apple – on Tumblr – complaining about the company’s policy of not paying music owners when people try its upcoming Apple Music service for a three-month trial period.
Tonight, Apple media boss Eddy Cue appears to have capitulated. “#AppleMusic will pay artist [sic] for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period,” Cue wrote on Twitter, without elaborating about who Apple would pay, or how much, or any other detail. [UPDATE: There are some details below.]
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Swift to Apple: Pay Me if You Want to Play Me
http://recode.net/2015/06/21/taylor-swift-to-apple-pay-me-if-you-want-to-play-me/
When Apple launches its new music service on June 30, it will let everyone try it for free for three months.
And that’s why “1989,” Taylor Swift’s newest album, won’t be on Apple’s music service.
More specifically, Swift says she won’t let Apple stream her album because the company isn’t paying music owners anything during its three-month trial period.
Those terms are “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” Swift writes in an open letter to Apple that she posted today. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
This is Swift’s second high-profile music streaming dispute: Last fall she demanded that Spotify pull the same album from the free version of that company’s service. When Spotify didn’t comply she pulled her entire catalog from both Spotify’s free and paid versions.
Apple’s upcoming Apple Music service was designed in part to take advantage of the ensuing controversy Swift created: Apple declared, loudly and often, that Swift was right to complain that Spotify’s free version, which offers unlimited, ad-supported on-demand streaming, devalued music. Apple executives argued that music “needs to get behind a paywall,” and promised that their new service would require users to pay up.
But Apple will still have that free three-month trial. And the sticking point with Swift, and at least some other music owners, is that it won’t pay rights owners during that period.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vesper Piezoelectric MEMS Microphone with 68 dB SNR
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4439679/Vesper-Piezoelectric-MEMS-Microphone-with-68-dB-SNR?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20150619&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20150619&elq=c1196fd46039409a9ae525ec87a44afc&elqCampaignId=23534&elqaid=26567&elqat=1&elqTrackId=fa213c80eaf24a60b76a1070b7cfad8e
Usually, when an architecture has reached its limits of performance, some radical new game-changing idea needs to be implemented. A company known as Vesper has been promising just that since I first met CEO Matt Crowley at the MEMS Executive Congress in 2014. Now this projected $5.4B projected market in 2017 has a new player that is shaking up the very high-performance segment of high Signal-to-Noise (SNR) with numbers in the range of 64 dB. Vesper has radically shifted the technology architecture which uses a unique piezoelectric design that will eclipse capacitive architectures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Experimental Facebook Algorithm Can Recognize People Even with Their Faces Covered
http://news.softpedia.com/news/experimental-facebook-algorithm-can-recognize-people-even-with-their-faces-covered-485002.shtml?utm_source=spd_hotlatest&utm_medium=spd_hotlatest&utm_campaign=spd_hotlatest
Yann LeCun, head of the Artificial Intelligence department at Facebook, has presented an experimental algorithm at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference in Boston that can recognize people even if their faces are covered up.
“There are a lot of cues we use. People have characteristic aspects, even if you look at them from the back,” said LeCun for science news website New Scientist.
Testing the system with over 40,000 photos pulled from Flickr, Facebook reported an accuracy rate of 83%, which is quite impressive for the task it was programmed to carry out.
Potential use cases for this new feature are not only limited to Facebook’s main service, but the newly launched Facebook Moments app as well.
Facebook is heavily investing in AI
Face recognition software is nothing new, being an advanced form of pattern recognition algorithms, tailored to detect specific traits of the human face.
Facebook is not alone in its quest for a better AI, Google only a few days back showcasing an AI system that’s capable of rendering realistic-looking images.
Facebook can recognise you in photos even if you’re not looking
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27761-facebook-can-recognise-you-in-photos-even-if-youre-not-looking.html#.VYk6dEZLZ4A
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google adds free, ad-supported web radio service to Google Play Music in US; available on the web now, rolling out to Android and iOS this week
Google launches free music streaming ahead of Apple Music debut
The company’s great, human-curated playlists are now free (with ads)
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/23/8830629/google-play-music-free-streaming-now-available
As Apple Music nears its June 30th launch, Google is getting more aggressive about trying to sell users on its own Google Play Music service. Today the company is launching a free, ad-supported tier that offers curated playlists (a la Songza) designed to accompany every moment of your day. The handpicked stations themselves aren’t new; Google brought them to Play Music’s paying subscribers last year after its acquisition of Songza. But now everyone in the US can listen; the curated playlists are available today on the web and Android, with an update for iOS also due very soon.
For Google, sticking with playlists was an easier approach to free music than the on-demand, ad-sponsored tier that Spotify offers. The free half of Spotify’s service has been the subject of harsh criticism from musicians who feel the company underpays artists. Google seems confident it can avoid this by going the “music radio” route, and its existing licensing agreements guarantee a big selection at launch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
‘Spotify For Business’ Creator Soundtrack Your Brand Gets $11M From Telia, Spotify And More
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/23/spotify-for-business-creator-soundtrack-your-brand-gets-11m-from-telia-spotify-and-more/
While Spotify has been building up its own war chest in preparation for the battle with Apple and others to win more music streaming consumers, it’s also funding a smaller company that’s focused on building up another side of its revenue strategy: businesses and enterprises.
Soundtrack Your Brand — makers of two services called Spotify Business and Spotify Enterprise that let retailers and others control and stream Spotify music in stores and other venues — is today announcing that it has raised $10.9 million in a Series B round of funding.
Co-founded by former Spotify head of business development Andreas Liffgarden and co-founder of Beats Ola Sars, Soundtrack Your Brand is positioning itself very much as a Spotify satellite.
In its home market of Sweden — the only country where it is live now — Soundtrack Your Brand is working in a number of single-venue businesses; it is also pumping music into McDonald’s restaurants across the country and is now also working on a pilot with Starbucks. The funding will be to roll out those deals and win new business in the wider Nordics before expanding to Europe, the U.S. and beyond.
Currently, the company, which today has 32 employees, exclusively works only with Spotify to supply music, but that could change as it grows “Given my background in particular as a former Spotify employee, there is a close relationship with Spotify not just as a shareholder but as a co-founder of the business,” says Liffgarden. “But it is in 60 countries and some of our customers like McDonald’s is in over 100, so at some point, when they demand we cover everywhere, we will need to serve music in markets where Spotify may not be.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Music Got Free and Creatocracy
What happens when an entire generation commits the same crime?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/22/book_review_stephen_witt_how_music_got_free_and_elizabeth_wurtzel_creatocracy/
Twenty years ago we thought the music industry would disappear and something fairer would take its place, as sure as eggs was eggs.
How did we get a system that’s actually less ethical than an industry that was founded on close links to organised crime, payola, dodgy accounting and monumental waste?
How Music Got Free
Today artists who make the music have lousier choices than ever, while new bands make no money from gigging, live profits are pocketed by ancient wrinkles, or by what are called “heritage acts”. Heritage is a word we used to use for Stonehenge, not Jimmy Page or Paul McCartney.
Stephen Witt’s How Music Got Free: What happens when an entire generation commits the same crime? is a rare thing – a compulsively readable look at its collapse, from someone who was a dedicated pirate.
The book is three extended New Yorker-style features interwoven: one on the development of the MP3 format by German psychoacoustic researchers, another on the pirating operation that sprang out of a North Carolina CD plant, and the third on the career of top music executive Doug Morris.
The earnest Germans at the Fraunhofer project – funded (weirdly) by AT&T and Thomson – had a technically superior format which loses out in the politically rigged standards wars, and then rises again, mysteriously appears as the format of choice for the new pirate underground.
The engineers themselves are themselves no freetards – they want patent licensing revenue – and try to help the trade group RIAA. Which isn’t interested; the RIAA’s audiophile snobs aren’t interested in promoting lossy audio, Witt writes).
Familiar stuff. We all know that for years the music industry didn’t believe in electronic distribution, then tried to do, and did it so badly it was upended by a boutique computer company. Witt is amazed that so much leakage came from inside the music industry’s physical supply chain, and it took so long to track down the bootleggers.
By the time it did, they’d made the “transition to digital” that had eluded the industry. It’s just as astonishing that when the leakers were finally busted, nobody got a fine. Whereas around 17,000 civilians did, before the RIAA halted its “educational” program of suing file sharers.
Creatocracy: How the Constitution Invented Hollywood
To say this is a wind-up is something of an understatement: Creatocracy: How the Constitution Invented Hollywood is a riot, and two groups of people in particular will hate it: freetards and European snobs. For whom it might induce seizures, or possibly even strokes.
“In establishing at the outset that all creative people would be at the mercy of the marketplace, the Framers invented a uniquely American form of creativity, which is commercial, widely appealing, and inevitably the stuff of empire.
“Short of returning to a patronage system – which is pre-American – there is no substitute for intellectual property.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Billboard:
Apple Music signs thousands of independent labels after changing royalty structure during trial period
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6605798/apple-music-signs-beggars-group-merlin-sources
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
You can now watch Periscope replays on the web — Since live streams began taking over Twitter feeds earlier this year, a common complaint has been that they end before you could watch them. Periscope did enable replays within 24 hours after a stream ended, but only on its apps for Android and iOS.
You can now watch Periscope replays on the web
For 24 hours, anyway
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/23/8835947/you-can-now-watch-periscope-replays-on-the-web
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raymond Wong / Mashable:
360fly is building affordable 360-degree cameras for VR, first-gen model will be available in August for $400
http://mashable.com/2015/06/23/360fly-360-degree-video-vr/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Zealand ISPs Back Down On Anti-Geoblocking Support
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/06/25/001212/new-zealand-isps-back-down-on-anti-geoblocking-support
A number of New Zealand Internet service providers will no longer offer their customers support for circumventing regional restrictions on accessing online video content. Major New Zealand media companies SKY, TVNZ, Lightbox and MediaWorks filed a lawsuit in April, arguing that skirting geoblocks violates the distribution rights of its media clients for the New Zealand market.
NZ ISPs back down on anti-geoblocking support
Geoblocking question unresolved after New Zealand lawsuit ends
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/578218/nz-isps-back-down-anti-geoblocking-support/
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Risley / GeekWire:
Amazon begins streaming original shows in HDR to Prime Instant Video subscribers on select Samsung TVs; more content and support for other devices coming soon
Amazon rolls out first-ever high dynamic range shows for Prime Instant Video
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-rolls-out-first-ever-high-dynamic-range-shows-for-prime-instant-video/
Amazon announced today that Prime Instant Video subscribers can now watch select shows in high dynamic range. The original series Mozart in the Jungle and the pilot episode of Red Oaks are both available to be streamed to Samsung SUHD TVs today, with more devices, movies and shows coming soon.
You may be familiar with HDR on your smartphone’s camera; scenes with bright and dark sections are evened out to show more detail. For TVs, it’s the reverse. Ultra-high definition cameras capture a wider range of brightness in a scene, and compatible TVs can play back that deep range. HDR TVs keep pictures from looking washed out and losing details at the edges of the brightness range.
While the HDR-enabled streams cost nothing extra to Prime members, compatible TVs cost nearly $3,500 (on the low end) from Amazon
Tomi Engdahl says:
Polaroid Cube+ brings Wi-Fi to its ultrasmall Full HD camera
http://www.cnet.com/news/polaroid-cube-brings-wi-fi-to-its-ultrasmall-full-hd-camera/
With a new app for iOS and Android, you can use your mobile device as a viewfinder and control this 1.4-inch square camera.
Polaroid got a lot of attention last year for its Cube camera, a tiny square Full HD camera that was little more than a lens with a power/record button.
With a camera this small — it measures 1.4 inches (35mm) square — there is no room for a screen to see what you’re shooting or even just to change settings. If that’s a deal-breaker for you, the upcoming Cube+ will fix that with the magic of Wi-Fi.
The rest of the camera’s features seem to be the same, although the Cube+ can capture 8-megapixel photos (the Cube’s resolution tapped out at 6 megapixels), which potentially means photo and video quality is improved. (The Cube’s video was just OK considering its size and $99 price).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is it Time to Go Mirrorless?
http://www.cnet.com/paid-content/news/is-it-time-to-go-mirrorless/
Pros and consumers alike are taking notice of mirrorless camera models for their lighter, sleeker build, an array of interchangeable lenses, and high-quality image sensors. The infographic below highlights the benefits of going mirrorless.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Swift says her album ‘1989’ will be on Apple Music
http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/25/taylor-swift-apple-music/
Taylor Swift has answered one of the last remaining questions about Apple Music before it launches: her popular album 1989 will be available on Apple Music when it launches on Tuesday. The development follows Swift’s high profile letter to Apple over how artists would be paid during the streaming service’s 3-month free trial. Apple later reversed its decision announcing it would pay artists during the trial.
While the pop star says it isn’t an Apple Music exclusive (like Pharrell’s upcoming release), the album is notably not available on Spotify as Swift removed her catalog last year due to the service’s free tier.
Following this week’s high profile development, Apple Music is set to launch on Tuesday, June 30th, on iOS 8.4 plus Mac and Windows through iTunes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matterport raises $30M for virtual reality real estate tours and more
http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/25/matterport-raises-30m-for-virtual-reality-real-estate-tours-and-more/
Mountain View, Calif.-based Matterport makes a $4,500 Pro Camera that can capture an environment in 360 degrees. It also makes the cloud software to stitch the content into a virtual reality or augmented reality experience. The target market has been realtors looking to show off homes for sale in 3D.
“We’re making very good progress on our applications platform.”
The VR videos are easy to embed in any web site. When someone clicks on it, they see a still image that captures the view from a particular part of a home or tourist location, akin to Google Street View. But you can move on to another point inside the location quickly, just by clicking on the environment.
Over time, Brown hopes to reduce the cost of content creation and eventually enable consumers with 3D-sensor-enabled smartphones to record and publish their own virtual reality visual experiences. A consumer could, for instance, create a virtual tour of their own home.
Brown said that the macroeconomic environment for raising money for a virtual reality company is strong.
“It’s the development of a new medium, and it’s important to establish a position within that ecosystem,” Brown said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ed Christman / Billboard:
Apple may pay 0.247 cents per song streamed during Apple Music three-month free trial period, 0.2 cents to labels and 0.047 cents to publishers
With Music Launch Looming, Apple Still Looking to Sew Up Indie Publishing Deals
By Ed Christman | June 24, 2015 2:56 PM EDT
http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6605845/apple-music-indie-publishers-contract
While the publishing contract included a higher-than-expected rate of 13.5 percent of revenues, split evenly between performance and mechanical royalties, it also contained a number of terms that left publishers concerned, besides the widely disliked expectation — since abandoned — that rights holders would underwrite the three-month trial period by foregoing any pay.
Publishers are concerned over a provision that gives Apple a two-year, 50 percent discount off of the contract’s minimum rates if its streaming service is bundled with a mobile carrier’s phone plan.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the open revolt from indie labels over expecting them to provide their music to the service for free for three months, and Apple’s about-face offer to pay $0.002 per stream during the trial subscription, publishers, who had previously been expected to offer their songs rights for free, now anticipate being paid $0.00047 per stream based on figures giving labels 58 percent of revenue, versus publishers’ 13.5 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix U.S. Viewing to Surpass ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC by 2016: Analysts
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/netflix-viewing-abc-cbs-fox-nbc-1201527442/
If Netflix were a Nielsen-rated TV network, the No. 1 streaming service would, within a year, attain a larger 24-hour audience than each of the major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — according to a Wall Street analyst firm.
To be clear, the analysis by FBR Capital Markets is not apples-to-apples. One major caveat: Nielsen TV ratings cover, at most, up to seven days of VOD and DVR viewing — and exclude online-video views, which networks say are an increasing part of the pie. Moreover, TV networks provide a different blend of content, such as live sports, that Netflix doesn’t. And anyway, Netflix doesn’t care about “ratings” of individual shows, given that it doesn’t sell ads and has steadfastly refused to disclose anything but general data about viewing.
But according to FBR analysts Barton Crockett and Chase White, the comparison is meant to be a barometer of the relative popularity of Netflix to traditional TV nets. The trajectory of Netflix users’ hours spent viewing illustrates the company’s growing market power, not just in the U.S. but internationally, they said.
The data highlights “Netflix’s domestic rise and dominance, bolstering confidence in its ability to grow subs and charge more domestically and to replicate its success in key markets around the world,” the analysts wrote in a research note.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Module permits TI DLP Full-HD 1080p chipset evaluation
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4439744/Module-permits-TI-DLP-Full-HD-1080p-chipset-evaluation?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150625&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150625&elq=f10aeef8dc4e413ba3157058acec9f94&elqCampaignId=23632&elqaid=26678&elqat=1&elqTrackId=2bc7c7d7e83148748f49a63dcb352d21
Complemented by a robust ecosystem, Texas Instruments’ DLP LightCrafter Display 4710 evaluation module (EVM) allows designers to quickly assess the DLP Pico 0.47-in. TRP Full-HD 1080p display chipset for use in a diverse range of applications, including digital signage, mobile projectors, screenless TVs, control panels, and wearables like head-mounted displays. The EVM includes configuration and support firmware, an HDMI cable, a USB cable, and a production-ready RGB LED optical engine to speed the product development cycle.
TI’s chipset comprises the DLP4710 0.47-in. 1080p digital micromirror device, the DLPC3439 display controller, and the DLPA3005 power-management IC and LED driver. Through a simple micro-USB-based graphical user interface, engineers can perform real-time chipset evaluation to assess features and peripherals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Dotan / The Information:
YouTube ad-free subscription service hits roadblocks with creators and networks
http://www.theinformation.com/YouTube-Subscriptions-Stumbles-with-Creators
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Trew / Engadget:
DJI Phantom 3 review: great photo and video quality, easy to use, but lacks advanced flying modes, replaceable batteries not compatible with previous models
DJI Phantom 3 review: an aerial photography drone for the masses
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/26/dji-phantom-3-review/
Almost a year ago to the day, I wrote about the impact DJI’s Phantom 2 Vision+ might have on our skies. Up to that point, drones (or quadcoptors/multirotors, for the purists) had been slowly edging their way into mainstream consciousness. DJI’s ready-to-fly Vision series, with their built-in cameras and easy operation turbocharged that creep into a march. The Phantom 3 Professional is what would have been the new Vision (it’s dropped that branding), and is the first in this consumer lineage to shoot 4K video.
What’s changed in the last 12 months? In some regards, not much. Governments are still figuring out how to legislate quadcopters, while people keep buying them. As for DJI, it’s got a lot more competition, and higher expectations for what a drone should do. I was eager to spend time with the Phantom 3, and get a feel for how the company has evolved, and more importantly, where it’s going — and it looks like taking over our skies is only one part of its plan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Binaural Microphones
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/28/3d-printing-binaural-microphones/
Binaural audio is probably the coolest thing you can listen to with a pair of headphones. Instead of just a single microphone, binaural recordings use two microphones, set inside an analog for a human head, to replicate exactly what you would hear if you were there.
The only way to record binaural audio is with fake plastic ears attached to a dummy head.
The ears used in this microphone setup are taken from a Thingiverse project by [Jonathan March].
The results? It sounds awesome
OpenBinaural
Low-cost 3D-printable binaural microphone.
https://github.com/carlosgs/OpenBinaural
Tomi Engdahl says:
Detecting Nudity With AI And OpenCV
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/105-artificial-intelligence/8731-detecting-nudity-with-ai-and-opencv.html
Algorithmia, the site that acts as a marketplace for algorithms, now has available a convincingly successful method for detecting nudity in color photographs.
The naked body, however ascetically pleasing, poses a big problem for websites that address a general audience. This means that an algorithm that can perform content filtering on photographs and flag those that are likely to be unsuitable and lead to censorship is a welcome resource.
there is a demo site isitnude.com where you can test it out.
The way this works is similar to the Microsoft sites How-Old.net and TwinsOrNot.net
If you use the algorithm in your own app, it returns a confidence interval with its decision.
isitnude uses algorithmic methods to estimate skin tone building on a combination of OpenCV’s nose detection algorithm and face detection algorithm, both of which are already available on its site. .
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Television Won the Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/opinion/how-television-won-the-internet.html?_r=0
Online-media revolutionaries once figured they could eat TV’s lunch by stealing TV’s business model — more free content, more advertising. Online media is now drowning in free. Google and Facebook, the universal aggregators, control the traffic stream and effectively set advertising rates. Their phenomenal traffic growth has glutted the ad market, forcing down rates. Digital publishers, from The Guardian to BuzzFeed, can stay ahead only by chasing more traffic — not loyal readers, but millions of passing eyeballs, so fleeting that advertisers naturally pay less and less for them.
Meanwhile, the television industry has been steadily weaning itself off advertising — like an addict in recovery, starting a new life built on fees from cable providers and all those monthly credit-card debits from consumers. Today, half of broadcast and cable’s income is non-advertising based. And since adult household members pay the cable bills, TV content has to be grown-up content: “The Sopranos,” “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Wire,” “The Good Wife.”
Looking for irony? Television, once maniacally driven by Nielsen ratings, has gone upscale as online media becomes an absurd traffic game. TV figured out how to monetize stature and influence.
Television, not digital media, is mastering the model of the future: Make ’em pay. And the corollary: Make a product that they’ll pay for. BuzzFeed has only its traffic to sell — and can only sell it once. Television shows can be sold again and again, with streaming now a third leg to broadcast and cable, offering a vast new market for licensing and syndication. Television is colonizing the Internet.
The latest pseudo-crisis is the flight from the box — cord-cutting — but more people than ever are consuming television, and paying for it as they please on whatever screen. Well-produced, highly structured narrative video entertainment is so profitable that everybody in digital media — frustrated by tumbling ad rates and rising traffic demands — wants to be streaming premium video (i.e., television).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Study: The Internet Has Finally Become TV
http://gizmodo.com/so-many-people-are-cutting-the-cord-we-need-more-intern-1707226252
In the next five years, more than 50 percent of the world’s population will have internet access, and 80 percent of internet traffic will be devoted to video, says a new study by Cisco. But it’s not just billions more dinky YouTube videos that will suck up all that bandwidth. It’s our shifting TV habits.
The number of online videos and and the size of those videos is skyrocketing as more and more of us are ditching the traditional cable package and turning to our internet-enabled devices to watch television. What’s more, we’ll increasingly be streaming really big video files, like the high-quality 4K video needed to play on HD monitors. By 2019, 30 percent of internet-connected TVs are expected to be 4K.
“The cord-cutting household [consumes] more than twice as much data per month as non-cord-cutters,” Cisco exec Robert Pepper tells the Washington Post.
In other words, cord-cutters aren’t only going to change the business of television, they’re also going to dramatically change the amount of internet that we need. Consider this: Global IP traffic is five times as big as it was five years ago, and will triple threefold over the next five years. Next year, worldwide IP traffic will reach 1.1 zettabytes per year (1 zettabyte is 1000 exabytes; one exabyte is one billion gigabytes). That number will go up to two zettabytes in 2019.
We’ve already heard about two potential problems here: We might run out of IP addresses and our internet infrastructure might not be able to handle all that data.
By 2019, traffic from wireless and mobile devices will exceed traffic from wired devices, accounting for two-thirds of all traffic. Right now, wifi/mobile represent 54 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Augmented Reality Helps Blind See the Light
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326979&
Three hundred or so visually challenged people are getting assistance in seeing the world around them, thanks to augmented reality goggles developed at the University of Oxford in England. Smart Specs by Va-ST use 3D mapping and depth sensing to provide object and facial recognition assistance.
Many people who are blind actually have a bit of vision capability, said Stephen Hicks, a research fellow in neuroscience at Oxford University. People that are visually challenge could benefit from augmented reality, much like a deaf person can benefit from a hearing aid, amplifying the ability to distinguish shapes or distance.
Hicks said VA-ST is developing its consumer price point, but hopes the final version of Smart Specs will be less than £1,000.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ONVIF
http://www.onvif.org/
ONVIF is an open industry forum for the development of a global standard for the interface of IP-based physical security products.
ONVIF is committed to the adoption of IP in the security market. The ONVIF specification will ensure interoperability between products regardless of manufacturer. The cornerstones of ONVIF are:
Standardization of communication between IP-based physical security
Interoperability between IP-based physical security products regardless of manufacturer
Open to all companies and organizations
The ONVIF specification defines a common protocol for the exchange of information between network video devices including automatic device discovery, video streaming and intelligence metadata.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Maxwell / 9to5Google:
YouTube introducing new channel cards, improved notifications, creator forum, more
http://9to5google.com/2015/06/29/youtube-new-channel-cards-subscription-notifications-creator-community-more/
Amongst those who regularly publish content to YouTube, the video site is known for picking favorites and being a black box in terms of the communication it holds with the community when it comes to anyone other than the site’s biggest stars. The company has as of late been trying to change that perception, though, by using the YouTube Creators channel as an outlet to recognize and acknowledge the feedback and concerns of its users. Today it published a new video outlining changes and new features coming soon to the video platform.
Brian Marquardt, a Group Product Manager at YouTube, says that YouTube is building a “simple new way to opt-in” from the YouTube mobile app to get mobile notifications whenever your favorite creator(s) publishes a new video. Right now the options for managing email and notification subscriptions are only easily accessible from the desktop website.
Cards on YouTube are a way to add an extra layer of interactivity to a video by, say, including a link to a project on a crowdfunding website from directly within the video player.
YouTube says that they’re working on making it easier to access the subscriptions feed from the YouTube mobile app, so you can quickly get to the new videos from those you care about most.
YouTube Creator Studio is YouTube’s app through which creators can manage their accounts on the go. The app includes the ability to respond to comments, update the details and settings for each video, and monitor channel performance through an analytics section which includes a detail breakdown of how each video and the channel as a whole is doing
One highly requested feature from creators is the ability to easily upload and update custom thumbnails for their videos from mobile, which will likely appear in the Creator Studio app
“We like to experiment,” says YouTube Communications Manager Mariana De Felice. “To see how far we can take the online video experience.” She’s talking, unsurprisingly to some, about 360-degree video. The addition of 360-degree support on YouTube is something we’ve already known about for some time now and was demoed by Google during its unveiling of the Project Jump VR camera. If virtual reality really is the future of entertainment, YouTube is getting in early to make sure it can be a home for this content as it starts to be produced.
The company will soon be launching an official forum for finding collaborations and sharing advice with other YouTubers, and providing direct feedback to YouTube.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
VR startup Jaunt unveils 360-degree Neo camera for high-end VR movie production, will lease the device to partners starting in August — Jaunt unveils a high-end camera setup for virtual reality movies — Virtual reality games might have taken the center stage at E3 earlier this month …
Jaunt unveils a high-end camera setup for virtual reality movies
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/30/8867603/jaunt-neo-professional-virtual-reality-360-degree-video
Virtual reality games might have taken the center stage at E3 earlier this month, but film could still be a major draw for the medium. And Jaunt, one of the frontrunners in VR video, is trying to perfect the technology that would require with a 360-degree professional camera. The Neo, as it’s unofficially named, is a wheel studded with wide-angle cameras. Together, the images they produce form a sphere of video that filmmakers can put viewers inside. That could be anything from a traditional narrative film to a stadium rock show — Jaunt sees concerts as especially fertile ground for VR.
This is the two-year-old Jaunt’s fifth generation of camera, and it’s far from the only company to be working on 360-degree video.
Samsung has introduced a VR camera array, the rugged Giroptic is meant as a 360-degree competitor to GoPro, and GoPro itself is working in virtual reality; it designed a 3D-printable, 16-camera stand for Google’s VR YouTube initiative.
Jaunt, however, is operating on the extremely high end — it’s not releasing a price or even planning to sell the Neo, opting to lease it to partners starting in August. “The camera is a very bespoke camera, and it’s going to be produced at low volume,” says CTO Arthur van Hoff.
The production cost, he says, is so high because this is the first camera Jaunt has built with custom parts; it’s previously tried everything from bulky, non-portable camera cabinets to its own printed GoPro prototype. Making a custom design has supposedly let Jaunt add marked improvements, like better low-light performance and synchronized shutter sensors. In its off-the-shelf prototypes, says hardware engineering director Koji Gardiner, there were slight differences between when each separate camera would start capturing a frame. If the filmmaker recorded something speeding across multiple cameras, it would end up misaligned in the final video. (Gardiner says this was also a major problem with concert strobe lights, which could end up flashing out of sync.)
Neo should also give filmmakers fine-grained control over its settings and integrate with editing software like Maya and Adobe Premiere. And it supports 3D light-field video, a cinematic version of the impressive refocusing trick that Lytro introduced people to a few years ago… and some other VR setups are using to create a greater sense of realism.
If spherical video takes off, people will end up spending more time with setups like GoPro’s, but they could see the results of something like the Neo in Hollywood-level VR.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Hulu reaches deal to distribute its ad-supported content on Pluto TV’s website, which presents online video in a TV-like programming grid
Hulu to Deliver Free TV Shows, Movies via Pluto TV Service (Exclusive)
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/hulu-pluto-tv-free-tv-shows-1201532321/
Startup Pluto TV also reaches deals with Jukin Media, Shout! Factory, YouTube’s Devin SuperTramp and other partners
Under the pact, Pluto TV has access to everything Hulu makes available on its free, ad-supported website. That includes current-season broadcast fare from ABC, NBC and Fox such as episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (pictured above), “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Saturday Night Live”; older TV shows like “Seinfeld,” “Star Trek,” “Cheers,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Happy Days”; and anime and cartoon shows.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Pluto TV CEO Tom Ryan said Hulu will be serving up the ads for the content.
The idea behind Pluto TV, which last year launched the service with more than 100 curated channels, is to present Internet video in a menu that looks like a traditional cable TV guide. With many of its “linear” channels, Pluto strings together video segments presented in a continuous, TV-like stream — the theory being that it gives users interested, say, ’70s TV shows, latenight television or “cats 24/7″ a familiar way to discover and watch new content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Chicago’s 9% cloud tax now applies to “electronically delivered amusements” like Netflix as well as “nonpossessory computer leases” which could include AWS — Chicago’s ‘cloud tax’ makes Netflix and other streaming services more expensive
Chicago’s ‘cloud tax’ makes Netflix and other streaming services more expensive
Old city yells at cloud
http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/1/8876817/chicago-cloud-tax-online-streaming-sales-netflix-spotify
The past five years have seen a huge shift in the way we consume media, as brick-and-mortar stores shift to digital subscriptions. It’s been a valuable tradeoff for some, building billion-dollar companies and unlocking huge libraries of music and video for relatively paltry subscription fees, but it’s also been a challenge for cities that rely on those businesses for revenue. Now, Chicago wants to take back those missing taxes, and the way it’s retaking them has some lawyers up in arms.
Today, a new “cloud tax” takes effect in the city of Chicago, targeting online databases and streaming entertainment services. It’s a puzzling tax, cutting against many of the basic assumptions of the web, but the broader implications could be even more unsettling. Cloud services are built to be universal: Netflix works the same anywhere in the US, and except for rights constraints, you could extend that to the entire world. But many taxes are local — and as streaming services swallow up more and more of the world’s entertainment, that could be a serious problem.
Although the tax is technically levied on consumers, some companies are already preparing to collect it as part of the monthly bill.
The result for services is both higher prices and a new focus on localization. For the web services portion, the most likely effect is simply moving servers outside of the city limits — and, where possible, the offices that use them.
Once implemented, streaming services will also have to keep closer track of which subscribers fall under the new tax, whether through billing addresses or more restrictive methods like IP tracking, which is already used to enforce rights restrictions.
But while the law may seem onerous, it’s also a response to an increasingly difficult reality for cash-strapped cities, particularly as online services start to take a bite out of the businesses in the urban center. Twenty years ago, the same albums and movies were consumed at video rental outlets and music stores — which paid local property taxes, potentially paired with municipal sales taxes and other brick-and-mortar duties.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Micah Singleton / The Verge:
Facebook has held early talks with the major music labels, future plans may involve the company’s video platform
Facebook is talking with music labels, but why?
http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/1/8842025/facebook-music-rumors-video-platform
The social network is looking to get involved in music, but what that means is still undetermined
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Horwitz / Quartz:
Apple Music costs far less than $10/month in some countries, just $2/month in India
Apple Music is just $2 per month in India—80% cheaper than the US
http://qz.com/442296/apple-music-is-just-2-per-month-in-india-80-cheaper-than-the-us/
Apple tends to not care much about price competitiveness. Without telco subsidies, which typically occur only in rich countries, consumers looking to buy an iPhone 6 in Asia will have to shell out as much as $600.
But the company is taking a different approach with Apple Music, its new music streaming service. Over a hundred countries will get access to the service today, but whereas prices for iPhones tend to stay high even in poor countries, in the case of Apple Music they’re lower—indicating the company is serious about courting emerging markets with digital media.
In the US, Apple is charging monthly fees of $10 for an individual Apple Music account, and $15 for a family account that can be shared with up to six people. In poorer countries, the pricing is much lower. In India, for example, the monthly fee is $2 for individual and $3 for family plans. In Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand, it’s $5 and $7; in Hong Kong, $6 and $10; and in Singapore, $7.50 and $11 (in US dollars).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Facebook to begin sharing revenue with video creators like the NBA, Fox Sports, and Hearst from ads in Suggested Videos section; Facebook takes 45% — Facebook Unveils First Way for Video Partners to Earn Ad Revenue — Social giant testing ‘suggested videos’ with video ads; partners include NBA …
Facebook Unveils First Way for Video Partners to Earn Ad Revenue
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/facebook-video-ad-revenue-partners-1201532366/
Social giant testing ‘suggested videos’ with video ads; partners include NBA, Hearst, Fox Sports, Funny or Die, Tastemade
Facebook is finally introducing a way for video publishers to reap advertising bucks from the billions of views the social giant serves daily — a move that will put new pressure on Google’s YouTube.
Over the last few weeks, Facebook has conducted a small-scale test of a “suggested videos” feature in its iPhone app: When a user clicks to see videos related to one in his Newsfeed, he’s presented with a string of related content culled from all the video that’s posted to Facebook. (YouTube has done this for years.)
Facebook soon will add something else to “suggested videos”: in-line autoplay ads that appear between the clips. Facebook will keep 45% of the revenue from those ads, divvying up the other 55% with partners whose videos are viewed in the suggested-video window based on time users spend viewing each clip. YouTube’s standard ad rev-share terms for most partners also is on a 45/55 split.
“We’ve heard consistently from media companies and other video creators that if they were able to make money from their videos, they would publish more,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 4K Promise Land: Why HEVC 4K Video Will Be a Revenue Differentiator
http://blog.kontron.com/blog/hevc-4k-video.html
Despite all the industry naysayers and complainers, all the technical and business roadblocks and ‘missing pieces’ to the puzzle, production grade 4K service roll-outs are well rolling. Why? Even after a disappointing 3D TV hype blip, consumers clearly are willing to pay (up to a point) for a more immersive viewing experience.
In addition to movies and specialty TV programming, the most immediate driver for ultra-high definition (UHD)/4K are live sporting events. Case in point, this week Ericsson and BT just announced an agreement to launch three new sports channels this summer, including one BT Sport UHD – the first for the UK – to broadcast soccer matches from the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
4K content and revenues are growing and it is more a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’
OTT players are getting in on the action too with their own 4K file-based content and services such as from Netflix, Sony, M-Go, Amazon, Comcast, and YouTube.
nterestingly, the revenue is between 2x and 3x more than that of HD content, according to Avni Rambhia, Principal Analyst Digital Media, at Frost & Sullivan, during a Streaming Media panel session this month. And the subscription costs are around $25 to $40 for 4K live VoD for pay per view sports and cultural events.
There are few different roads to the 4K promise land but one of them is via high efficiency video codec (HEVC) which technically delivers higher resolutions at lower bandwidths
what is stalling the ROI is the lack of 16+Mbps (25 Mbps is ideal) bandwidth to end users outside modern urban areas. But perhaps this too will change.
At the recent NAB Show, Kontron demonstrated a live 4K HEVC demonstration with partner StarTimes, a digital TV broadcaster, using their HEVC implementation in combination with the Intel Media Server development kit to achieve two(2) 4K streams @ 60fps on a Kontron commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) 2U platform (SYMKLOUD). While this was based on the Intel Core i7-4860EQ with the GT3e Iris Pro processor, the next gen Xeon® processor E3-1200 v4 series, with integrated Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics P6300, should bump this by another 20%.
All this to say that, as the industry looks to transition SDI to IP where it can, moving a video provider’s operations to an IP infrastructure based on x86 Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) equipment changes the choice in suppliers and a cost structure that improves from an economy of scale that is way better than what was previously offered.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BBC to cut more than 1,000 jobs in cost-saving push
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/02/bbc-cut-more-1000-jobs-cost-saving-push
Managers and back office functions to be cut to make up for a funding shortfall of £150m largely due to the faster-than expected switch to online viewing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Glenn Peoples / Billboard:
Apple Music’s Goal: Some Subscribers Now, Lots of Hardware Sales Later — Will Apple Music turn around the record business? Will Apple Music help Apple sell more iPhones and laptops? There are some guesses but little certainty to both questions.
Apple Music’s Goal: Some Subscribers Now, Lots of Hardware Sales Later
http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6613181/apple-music-goal-subscribers-hardware-sales
Will Apple Music turn around the record business? Will Apple Music help Apple sell more iPhones and laptops? There are some guesses but little certainty to both questions.
But there could be a financial payoff down the road. Apple is investing in the iTunes brand and trying to stay relevant in digital media. The iTunes Music Store is losing steam and streaming is both the present and future of entertainment. Moreover, what Apple does now influences the company’s performance down the road. iTunes is a “key ingredient” to Apple’s continued success, as Daniel Ives, managing director and senior analyst at FBR Capital Markets, told CNBC.
Hardware, not software, is Apple’s ultimate goal, and music has always been a successful complement to Apple’s mobile devices and laptops. “Apple Music matters because music broadly is fundamental to the mobile phone experience,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told CNBC after the service was introduced June 9.
Bob Lefsetz / The Lefsetz Letter:
Apple Music: too much hype, not enough focus on usability, and requires a credit card up front
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2015/06/30/apple-music-2/
Apple Music will have an impact, it will gain customers. The brand will get people started, but only word of mouth will make it primary. The truth is many people don’t have subscription streaming services and a great proportion of them may not even be aware of them, or how they work. So, despite Spotify’s penetration, we’re not that far from the starting line.
But when you make it hard to install and want me to give my credit card up front…
You look like a sleazy American company, like a hated cable operation, and you make people reluctant.
This is no way to launch a revolution.
P.S. Yes, the first three months are free. But, right up front you commit to paying when that runs out, you link to your iTunes account, which has a credit card attached.
P.P.S. We do live in a mobile world, so desktop functionality is secondary. But those most prone to subscribing are the Luddites, and they start on the desktop machine.
P.P.P.S. Apple bought SoundJam to build iTunes and cleaned it up to be easier to use, as well as adding functionality. If you don’t think Apple Music looks just like Beats Music, you never used Beats Music. Except there’s more clutter and it’s less intuitive. Makes me think you should keep techies and music business people separate. As in Jimmy Iovine can hype, but he can’t code.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook is talking with music labels, but why?
http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/1/8842025/facebook-music-rumors-video-platform
The social network is looking to get involved in music, but what that means is still undetermined
Facebook has held talks with the major labels about “getting into music,” multiple sources tell The Verge. Facebook has spoken with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group about its interest in music, but to what extent the social network wants to get involved is still up in the air — while the popular assumption may be a streaming service, sources say that Facebook hasn’t yet decided precisely what it wants to do.
But why would Facebook be interested in any kind of music service? Engagement. People already spend a ton of time on Facebook — over 40 minutes a day in the US — but those numbers would dramatically increase if your musical existence was tied in any meaningful way to the service.
One source suggested that Facebook’s video platform may play a role in its plans, as The Information first reported. The company wants to do something “unique” according to sources, but how that will manifest is yet to be determined.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft: Stop using Microsoft Silverlight. (Everyone else has)
Says websites should switch to HTML5-based playback as netizens snub plugins
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/02/microsoft_silverlight/
Microsoft is encouraging companies that use its Silverlight media format on their web pages to dump the tech in favor of newer, HTML5-based media playback systems.
“The commercial media industry is undergoing a major transition as content providers move away from proprietary web plug-in based delivery mechanisms (such as Flash or Silverlight), and replace them with unified plug-in free video players that are based on HTML5 specifications and commercial media encoding capabilities,” the software giant said in a Thursday blog post.
Similarly, Redmond observed, browser makers are moving away from supporting media plugins. Google plans to drop support for the outdated Netscape Plugin API (NPAPI) later this year, while Microsoft Edge, the new browser that will ship with Windows 10, was designed not to support plugins from the get-go.
One reason is because vulnerabilities in media plugins often become vectors for web-based attacks, something to which Silverlight fell prey last year.
Instead, Microsoft and others now recommend that web developers handle video and other media playback via a number of new protocols introduced in the ongoing HTML5 standardization effort.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix Is So Hot Because It Gives Us What We Want: TV
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/tv-obsessed-americans-will-jump-buy-netflix-stock/
We love TV. Like, really, really, really love TV. And we watch an awful lot of it.
We crazy American TV obsessives love TV so much that we consume 2 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds of TV on an average day—more than any other leisure activity. We watch sports. We watch news. We watch shows. We watch movies. It matters, sort of, but it also doesn’t really. We watch stuff. And we love it.
So, it should come as no surprise then that we also love when companies make it cheaper and easier for us to watch more stuff. No ads? Bring it. Lower prices? Where? We want it, we want it now, and we want it better than before.
Which is pretty great for this one multi-billion dollar company that has capitalized wholly and completely on our one—very true—love for watching more stuff. That company is Netflix.
Since its IPO more than a decade ago, Netflix has grown significantly, and so has the company’s stock price.
It wasn’t always obvious that Netflix would be such a huge success. Even a year ago, investors worried that Netflix wouldn’t be able to continue significantly growing its subscriber base.
Those concerns proved unfounded. Netflix continued to grow, hitting 40 million paying US customers and 20 million abroad, according to the company’s latest numbers, thanks in part to huge push for original programming that yielded some critical success.
Netflix also faces hefty competition from both traditional cable and broadcast networks—as well as some scrappy (and some not so scrappy) upstarts. There’s Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Showtime, and, ahem, every cable and broadcast network in the world. But according to Nielsen, more than 40 percent of American homes pay for an on-demand video subscription service, and 36 percent of those households subscribe to Netflix, far outpacing Amazon Prime (13 percent) and Hulu Plus (6.5 percent).
‘It Just Works’
“Why is Netflix winning consumers’ time and attention? It’s really simple,” says Richard Greenfield, a media industry analyst for BTIG. “They’ve put the consumer first, giving them what they want, anytime they want it, and on any device.” Netflix offers consumers lots of content with no commercials, he says. Sounds simple, right? But seriously, what more could we want?
“They have invested a lot in technology and content,”
While cable and broadcast networks may be trying to get in the streaming content game, Netflix has still maintained its dominance when it comes to Internet TV. “The mistake potential OTT alternatives make is, ‘Hey, we can just throw up our content and compete with Netflix,’”
“But [Netflix is] spending north of $3 billion just on content.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the company won’t face challenges in the future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK TV is getting worse as younglings shun the BBC et al, says Ofcom
Religion, formal education, classical music? What’s that?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/03/ofcom_psb_report/
If you thought that British TV drama was getting cheaper and there was less of it, Ofcom has just confirmed your hunch.
Ofcom reports that UK broadcasters spend a fortune on original material, which is good for the UK economy, creating thousands of jobs. But that number has declined since its peak in 2004, when around £3.3bn was spent on programmes.
Original programming is defined as UK-first run material. The BBC accounts for just over half of this.
Newcomers such as Amazon and Netflix have started to invest in original material, but it’s mostly not UK specific and doesn’t match the PSB spending.
It also notes concern that hardly anyone produces original children’s TV that isn’t animations or foreign imports, except the BBC.
Viewing hours of TV by the 16-34 age group fell by 29 per cent between 2008 and 2014. The next age group up, 34-44, also saw a fall in live TV viewing greater than the fall across all age groups.
Broadcasters should get get down with the kids. “Short-form video or online-first content could potentially be a powerful way of delivering key PSB purposes such as informing understanding of the world and stimulating knowledge and learning,” it said.
However, it may be futile. Instead of watching any kind of AV material, more people are grazing on the internet. If this continues, with “a rapid shift to VoD and other non-AV online content, away from linear TV, led by non-UK companies” then UK PSBs would be “increasingly irrelevant”.