Saturday, June 14, 2008

A Retro View of the Future

Chris Meyer | 06/14- 02:40 PM

We unearth a time capsule and see how predictions for digital television have panned out so far.

Back in the early 90s, I wrote a column on interactive media for Audio/Video Interiors magazine. It was an odd fit; I was writing highly technical, philosophical think pieces, while the magazine was aimed at the most blatant forms of consumerism and instant gratification – but the editor gave me free rein, and it was a fun romp.

I’ve had reason to go clean out my archives recently, and it’s been quite a laugh to read the predictions of what the “future” of television and video would supposedly look like. To give you an idea of the landscape at the time, DVDs were just being developed, HD was but a promise, and the main way of gathering information was to attend lots of conferences and trade shows – for example, it was considered odd that I also had started to use chat rooms on sites such as The Well as part of my research.

One set of predictions I wrote about were made by noted futurist Nicolas Negroponte (co-founder of the MIT Media Lab, founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, and author of Being Digital) on the implications of television going digital. Let’s have some fun and see how many came true:

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Cable Salaries

Scott Gentry | 06/11- 10:40 PM

Raise your hand if you’re in the Cable industry, have a show on Cable TV, work on a show that airs on Cable, or even if you just subscribe to Cable.

Want to know why you don’t get paid what you should be paid?  Why your documentary cost more to produce than you’re earning from airing on Discovery?  Why your Cable bill is so much?

According to MultiChannel News:
With the consolidation of its ownership into one public company expected by the end of the third quarter, Discovery Holding, which includes cable network powerhouse Discovery Communications, filed its first proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing among other tidbits that founder and chairman John Hendricks received nearly $58 million in compensation last year.  I am so in the wrong vocation.

via [MultiChannel News]

Friday, June 06, 2008

Who Will Rule The New Internet?

Chris Meyer | 06/06- 04:36 PM

“Take what man makes and use it, but do not worship it, for it shall pass.”

For those who contemplate issues such as the title of this post, Josh Quittner wrote an excellent article for Time on this subject. (It’s rather long, so be ready to carve out a small chunk of time before heading over to read it.) He doesn’t preach, nor pick winners and losers; he notes at the end “I’m rooting for everyone in this war.” Instead, he gives thoughtful, in-depth coverage of what Facebook, Google, and Apple’s iPhone are up to, along with a bit of a history lesson and comments from top-shelf thinkers such as Marc Andreessen. Find a few minutes this weekend and give it a read.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Dymo Discpainter: First Impressions

Art Adams | 05/21- 05:58 PM

Will a printer that does only one thing save my sanity?

For quite a while I’ve used an Epson R320 printer to label my showreel DVDs, but the end of that era has come. I now own a Dymo Discpainter.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Myth of 1%

Chris Meyer | 05/06- 11:21 AM

When making a business plan, don’t make any assumptions about market share.

There are many variations on this common trap, but the general outline goes like this: Someone hears a report about how much money there is being made in a market segment, such as podcasts or movie trailers or renting out RED One cameras. They then theorize that if they could capture just some small percentage of that market - say, 1% - that they would be rich. And thus, a business plan is born! After all, who can’t capture at least 1% of a given market?!?

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Adobe’s NAB Sneak Peaks

Hart Shafer | 04/24- 03:35 PM

Another NAB has come and gone and it appears everyone at Adobe survived the crazy/great week. Well, I’m at home nursing the traditional post-NAB cold, and my feet took days to get their feeling back, but that’s all just par for the course. It was a great show for us--while overall attendance was definitely down, our booth was packed. I had the opportunity to get to know a lot of customers and partners all at once, which is the ultimate point of going at all.

During the show I had an opportunity to share a little sneak peak of some of the things Adobe is working on in our technology labs. We wanted to pull back the curtain just bit and show a little of what we are working on because it’s important for you to know where we’re going. You obviously choose the tools company you want to work with based on what they have available today. But because you invest a lot of time, energy, and money into adopting a toolset you’re also interested in where they’re going tomorrow. And so when you look at Adobe, you want to know we’re not just committed today, but that we’re thinking about the challenges you’re just starting to face, or will be facing soon.

If you weren’t able to make NAB, or were at NAB and missed my presentation, no worries. We just posted a bunch of our theater demos to the new Adobe TV site and my technology preview can be found in the video pro section. I won’t give away everything I show, but if you’re an editor at least watch until I get to the speech analysis part. Good times. Then again, the last thing I showed was definitely the most popular. How’s that for a tease? Enjoy!

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