Jerry Pierce asserts that the home needs a makeover, that it is getting too complicated. He introduced his solution to what he sees as a key problem — there are too many remotes, and one needs instructions to use a TV.
He suggested that a successful ecosystem must include live TV, allow time shifting, support packaged media, provide streaming, be easy to use, be compatible with existing consumer devices — and can’t cost $1000 extra. Pierce introduced a one button, easy-to-use remote control that he conceived.
What About Apple? Citing the many rumors that Apple will play in this space, he said, “maybe over time they will evolve into the right solution… A question is if they will play with the wider ecosystem.”
Pierce suggested that keys to a successful ecosystem will include an on -screen control, simple pointer, backward compatability with legacy devices and a real browser. He believes the successful solution requires a new (TV) operating system.
He concluded that this is “an idea waiting for someone to take the ball and run with it.”
How do we bring sell-through content to the home? Citing options including DVD, Blu-ray, UltraViolet, iTunes, Netflix, Redbox, etc., Pierce said: “I’m not in marketing, but this will create fear, uncertainty and doubt… No wonder the market has gone down for packaged media.”
On UltraViolet, Pierce commented: “I don’t think customers need to know the DRM. UltraViolet is too complicated.”
Pierce additionally suggested that studios keep the theatrical window valuable, maintain the packaged media window, and make the online delivery of content simple. “Nothing will ever be as profitable as DVD/Blu-ray sales,” he said, suggesting that a subscription model may be the next best thing.
A 4K camera panel featured Stefan Ukas-Bradley, ARRI, Larry Thorpe, Canon; Edgar Shane, JVC; Michael Bergeron, Panasonic; Stuart English, RED; Yasuhiko Mikami, Sony; and Phillip Jantzen, Vision Research. Mark Schubin moderated the session.
ARRI’s Ukas-Bradley: “We feel 2K currently is still a standard for digital projection and in the DI process. 4K is the exception, not the rule. For the time being that is what we optimized our technology for.”
Ukas-Bradley commented about Douglas Trumbull accepting his Oscar statuette at last weekend’s Sci-Tech Awards presentation: “When he spoke about his current project he mentioned higher frame rates and higher contrast… He didn’t mention resolution.”
Schubin pointed out that NHK is skipping 4K and working on an 8K system.
RED’s English: “The numbers may say 2K is good enough. The 4K image to my eye is far superior… There is no need to skip 4K. There are other reasons for high resolution (than display).” He cited framing as an example.
Mikami: “We have more than 10,000 theaters with the 4K projector. There is no reason not to distribute 4K content.”
How can 4K content be delivered to the home? English noted that “RED is working on that problem. It is more difficult than we though it was going to be.” He cited RED Ray, a 4K playback technology.
Schubin noted that ATSC 2.0 “has provisions that could potentially allow 4K broadcasting.”
AMPAS’ Andy Maltz reports that the next round of IIF-ACES industry trials are in preparation and a collaborative development site has been launched.
“The time to get involved is now with this industry-wide testing,” he said.
Every trial project so far has found some issues, and they all were resolved.
He emphasized that the SMPTE standards are on the way. The RRT release candidate will be available March 1.
Dolby and Image Systems are among the companies that are showing IIF-related demos in the HPA Tech Retreat’s demo area.
Related, Maltz noted that there is no defined digital source master and the Academy “really cares about having a digital archiving standard.” The Academy’s SciTech Council recently released “The Digital Dilemma 2.”
The HPA Tech Retreat opened with Mark Schubin’s annual Year in Review. Schubin, an Emmy Award-winning SMPTE Fellow, has been chairing the Tech Retreat for the Hollywood Post Alliance since 1997.
The following are some of the 2011 highlights:
About 69 percent of U.S. households have HDTV (1/3 with two or more sets).
Five of the 10 highest grossing movies of 2011 were 3D. The U.S. box office continues to decline.
YouTube is the top mobile video channel.
While watching television, people use tablets more during programs than commercials.
From HPA, Mike Rockwell of Dolby Laboratories talks about how the company’s new professional reference monitor fits into a number of high-end workflows for digital cinema production.
Demonstrating different workflows with the Dolby 12-bit monitor, he emphasizes that the monitor provides the full range of what a professional camera can produce: “everything that’s in the shadows, everything that’s in the highlights… all that detail is able to be displayed by our monitor.”
Dolby is also demonstrating the capabilities of a color correction workflow aided by its monitor.
“We feel like it’s an exciting time for the future for cinema,” concludes Rockwell.
Tim Smith from Canon provides a quick overview to the company’s new C300 Digital Cinema camera in this video from HPA.
The camera features a full-size super 35 sensor and is currently shipping with the EOS mount for interchangeable lenses (the PL mount will be available March-April).
Smith explains that the camera is “spectacular in low light” with ISOs up to 20,000 and the battery life lasts up to three hours on a single charge with an internal battery.
“It’s probably the biggest thing Canon has ever done for the cinema community,” claims Smith.
Cost: $16,000 with monitor, handles, charging system and batteries.
Apple may be making a smaller iPad model to challenge competitors as the tablet market heats up. According to a person familiar with the matter, Apple is working with Asian suppliers to test a device with an 8-inch screen, breaking away from its current 9.7-inch screen standard.
The sources say that the smaller device will have a screen with a resolution of 1024 x 758, very close to the display on the current model. According to Engadget: “This jibes with what we’ve heard about the iPad 3 toting a Retina Display — unless the smaller unit is aimed at budget buyers.”
The Wall Street Journal notes that this doesn’t mean anything for certain: “Apple, which works with suppliers to test new designs all the time, could opt not to proceed with the device.”
Thus far, Apple has remained committed to the current standard size, which Steve Jobs declared in 2010 as the “minimum size required to create great tablet apps.” However, with their iPods and iPhones, the company eventually provided offerings of various shapes and sizes.
In early March, Apple is expected to announce its new iPad, which will reportedly have the standard screen size and be 4G LTE capable.
The market researcher IDC found “the iPad represented more than 60 percent of worldwide tablet shipments in the third quarter,” reports WSJ.
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards attracted 39.9 million viewers making it the second-largest Grammy audience ever. Additionally, the event was significant in terms of social and digital measurements.
“According to Bluefin Labs, the Grammys earned 13 million social comments. That breaks the record from last week’s Super Bowl and absolutely dwarfs every other entertainment event from the last year,” Mashable reports.
The Grammy Live second screen experience saw 1 million viewers across the Web, iPhone and iPad.
The post tracks the overall social sentiment throughout the programming. Social comments peaked when Adele’s “21” was awarded Album of the Year.
Sony is developing new power outlet tech that is capable of identifying users. The outlets have an IC chip built in and can authorize users by sending information over the power line.
Sony expects the technology to be used in cafes, restaurants, airports and other public places for “managing energy usage in large buildings, device theft prevention, and — yes — the potential for paid access to power,” reports The Verge.
The IC chip is based on Sony’s FeliCa standard that millions of people in Japan currently use for mobile payments. For users to access the power outlets, authentication information would be transmitted by a IC chip built in the plug or using an NFC-equipped device or card.
The Verge suggests “with the technology still in developmental stages, we imagine it’ll take a while to catch on. Docomo’s Qi-powered inductive charging solution Okudake Juuden is already rolling out across Japan, and while support is still limited, it has the distinct advantages (to consumers, at least) of being both wireless and free.”
However, according to Geek.com: “Ultimately, this power outlet is probably bad news for consumers. It affords an easy way for power to be charged for in public areas, and most companies focused on making a profit aren’t going to pass up an opportunity to generate more money from its customers.”
The Verge post includes a concept video from Sony.
HTC will be the first smartphone manufacturer with Sony’s PlayStation Certification, allowing its devices access to the cross-platform gaming network PlayStation Suite.
Originally, the PlayStation Suite was only available on Sony’s smartphones, but that business has been struggling — and expanding the PS Suite to HTC expands the customer base for Sony’s software.
The service will work to make HTC smartphones more appealing to gamers, but may hurt sales of Sony’s PlayStation Vita.
According to Mobiledia: “The Vita’s primary competition is smartphones. Casual gamers, one of the fastest-growing segments in the market, are highly unlikely to spend big money on a dedicated portable gaming system when they can play games on a device they already own, and even some hardcore gamers are getting their fix on their iPhone and Android devices. The PlayStation Suite pays particular attention to this audience, allowing users to play classic console games of the past on a device that’s already in their pocket.”
Bram Cohen, the developer of BitTorrent, has developed BitTorrent Live, a peer-to-peer live-streaming technology that has been modeled to serve a million peers.
BitTorrent Live uses the torrent theory and applies it to a live stream. All one needs is an executable file for Windows, Mac or Linux that has been pointed to a site running BitTorrent Live. The result is a low-latency, high-reliability stream that has a 4.5 second delay for up to one million peers.
The technology will be rolled out later this year and include an SDK and a website. A freemium model has not been confirmed.
“Live streaming is a big challenge that people have been trying to solve,” says Cohen. “We’re hoping that this is a fundamental technology that will change how people use the Internet.”
“Libraries age; we have to become advocates for the library,” urged Sara Duran-Singer, VP studio operations at Disney during an HPA Tech Retreat panel on remastering and restoration.
“In a perfect world we would be scanning everything at 4K,” she said. “The reality is there are budget constraints.”
Duran-Singer noted that Disney has three levels of remastering processes for its library titles, and the highest category of films will be restored and remastered in 4K. She noted that in addition to uses such as Blu-ray and broadcast, Disney has also converted some of these titles to 3D. She cited as examples the 3D conversions of “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Before-and-after clips of 4K restorations of “Lawrence of Arabia” (from Sony Pictures Entertainment) and “Pollyanna” (from Disney) were screened as part of the session.
“There are tools that make the sum of the storytelling process potentially better,” said Garrett Smith, commenting on the protection of the vision of the filmmakers.
He proposed an API that would “track the filmmakers vision and plug it into the database of the future.”
Ron Burdett, GM, DI restoration and mastering at Technicolor Cahuenga, moderated the session. Lou Levinson and Josh Pines additionally made presentations.
During the wrap-up of the day — dedicated to the topic of “snowflake” workflows — members noted that take-aways include the fact that moving data is a key technical challenge and the iPad is becoming an increasingly important tool in production, perhaps “more popular than the craft service truck.”
Sean Cooney of Warner Bros. introduced an R&D project — dubbed “The Metadata Project” — which is exploring how to efficiently integrate many systems, including scripts, asset management and editorial.
The studio is working with various vendors. Its prototype system relies on API integration and incorporates a cloud component.
It is also developing prototype field apps including “DP Room,” a collaboration with the ASC.
“To create a flexible system that others can plug into — everybody wins,” said Kirsten Thayer, product manager of Final Draft, which is involved in the effort.
“I got tired of writing the same information on set,” said David Stump, ASC. ‘This is finally the tipping point that I hoped we’d get to — turning ‘metapaper’ into metadata.”
He added: “People are going to say ‘how did we ever make movies without this?’”
“Success would be centralizing the data,” allowing filmmakers to focus on the creative process rather than the technology, said Steve Cronan, CEO of 5th Kind.
Summed up Stump of what such a metadata project would mean: “No film is ever finished — but we can abandon them a little closer to finished.”
The 2012 HPA Tech Retreat kicked off today with a full-day session on “snowflake” workflows — the name referring to the fact that is seems no two are alike.
“We are caught up in the blizzard,” said HPA president Leon Silverman. “Nobody in film uttered the word ‘workflow.’ Nobody needed to… Digital cinema led us on the path to these new digital workflows.”
“We need to capture dynamic range, bit depth…and (know) that it can be consistently used without compromise across the entire workflow. So if it never stops snowing there is a way to enjoy the winter.”
Citing the promise of IIF-ACES, Silverman noted that there is still work to be done so that the industry can “embark on the digital age without creating the digital ice age.”
The first speaker of the day was Light Iron CEO Michael Cioni, who noted that with changing IT, the industry needs to avoid complacency and challenge the status quo.
Cioni believes that among the changes are it is no longer “who” you know, rather “what” you know; “rental houses are starting to know more about post than some post houses;” and black boxes and secret sauces are no longer unique selling points.
He suggested that snowflake workflows require a unique approach with one person dedicated to overseeing the entire process. “I believe snowflake workflows are a liberating way to customize…and raise the ceiling,” Cioni said. “Creatives don’t like to feel restricted. Workflow needs to work with them.”
Cioni believes challenges to the current way of working are happening on the camera maker side more so than the post production side of the business. He cited as examples Sony with its F65, but also Peter Jackson’s workflow on “The Hobbit.”
Looking ahead, he introduced some concepts including: Totalcode (“the idea that we take the original idea of timecode and integrate it into the motion picture industry”); Geosync Clocking (“we need a single source”); “Triple-System” Capture (camera, sound and metadata); Tablet Dailies; Improved Fidelity (“I believe we’ll move toward higher sensor technology”) and The Cloud.
Cioni urged service providers to stop retrofitting, and instead create something completely new.
In its latest annual mobile data traffic forecast, Cisco predicts an estimated 10 billion mobile connections by 2016.
The company expects the majority of these connections to come via cell phones, but also foresees a significant rise in tablets. The forecast does not include Wi-Fi-only models; Cisco will release Wi-Fi traffic in a separate forecast later this year.
“If the market does indeed swell to 5 billion cellular-connected tablets, that would represent a 25 percent jump over today’s global figure,” explains Engadget. “Moreover, Cisco estimates that by 2016 21 percent of those 5 billion tablet owners will be relying solely on mobile data to get their Internet fix.”
“All told, whatever the mix of smartphones and tablets, we’re going to be chugging down an insane amount of data: 10.8 exabytes per month, worldwide, or 130 exabytes annually,” indicates the post. “4G will account for only six percent of mobile connections by 2016, but is expected to generate 36 percent of mobile data traffic.”
Jerry Pierce asserts that the home needs a makeover, that it is getting too complicated. He introduced his solution to what he sees as a key problem — there are too many remotes, and one needs instructions to use a TV.
