Facebook is the web for some people. This is one of the many insights shared by Mark Cuban at the Media Innovations Summit this past Monday and Tuesday. His point was that content owners should not ignore Facebook as a distribution outlet, since there are a sizable number of people who use this site as their primary portal to the online world. I had the unique position of viewing the many excellent speakers at this conference from the projection room. Although my notes were sketchy, I look forward to absorbing more of what was said when I edit the hours and hours of recordings we made of this event.
Prior to Media and Innovations Summit, I spent some time working with the folks from datavideo and OpenTV to create an interactive audio/visual experience that would emulate the theme of the conference. In this video, I provide an overview of the datavideo part of the configuration, while a future video will look at the OpenTV portion of the set-up. If you are interested in more details on the set-up, please join me at the Local Content Workshop that will be held in conjunction with the Minnesota Telecom Association’s Video Group. Click here to view the video.
Telecom Carriers Discuss Innovation Needs With Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs by Alan Weissberger
Everyone is aware of the carriers' dilemma: To meet the exponential growth in data traffic, mobile carriers must spend ever more money to finance the build out of their wireless networks (both access and backhaul). Yet this spending and plant upgrade must be done while carrier data revenues are growing much more slowly (estimated at only 3% annually) than the increased data traffic they must support. Tiered pricing, new business models with revenue sharing (e.g. eReader downloads over 3G networks), new apps and services (e.g LBS, health monitoring, etc) have all been suggested But with their often stodgy corporate cultures and bureaucracies, can carriers innovate on their own and execute promptly? Is collaboration and investment in start-ups a better solution for telcos to grow revenues and fund network expansion? Click here to read the article.
Help On Demand – Online and On TV
HDTV calibration is another innovative way SureWest Communications is adding value to its bundled service offering. They are doing this through a series of on-demand videos that help people calibrate their televisions. The videos provide an easy to follow along tutorial on how to adjust contrast, brightness, resolution and color. What is amazing about this concept is that the output signal of the set-top may rival that of broadcast test generators in years back (about a year ago, I saw on-demand test patterns from a generic set-top that provided an amazingly accurate output). Click here to read the rest of the article on this innovative way of providing customer support. photo credit: Kaiban
Music for the Living Room and Beyond – A Look at MOG
Does technology drive us apart? This was an interesting question posed in a Rockline interview with the Wilson sisters of the rock band Heart. With MP3 players, game devices and smart phones, people may be connected, but, as Stephen Stills might say, not necessarily connected with the ones they are with.
The timing of last night's interview with Ann and Nancy Wilson was impeccable, as I have been reviewing MOG for the past couple of weeks. MOG, an on-demand, subscription-based service, is looking at bringing social back into the music listening experience. The Heart interview gave me the perfect excuse to, once again, test MOG’s claim of 8.5+ million songs under license. Click here to read more.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts
- Get a quick summary of the Media Innovations Summit by checking out the real-time Twitter feed that was generated by OpenTV's technology as part of the interactive element of the conference. More on this in a future post. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed working with the folks from OpenTV and Leslie Ellis.
- "Concurrent Accelerates Video Content Delivery Vision with Technology from TellyTopia"- Reinforces the importance of local content, particularly in a VOD play. Could provide a real competitor for Clearleap.
- Ironic-Recent filing to the FCC says new Nicktoons show is an ad, while, on the same day FCC intros web site to help parents protect kids
The Korner – 2020 Vision with Gary Arlen
For as long as there have been conferences, panelists have been making predictions about technology and its adoption. Gary Arlen of Arlen Communications has seen and made his share of predictions both on panels and as part of his consulting practice. At the Media and Innovations Summit, Arlen moderated a couple of panels and coaxed predictions from his panelists regarding interactive television. He also showed off his latest button that sums up his philosophy on predicting the future; and the button even comes with a user guide!
Click here to watch the video.