This post is symbolic of life’s inexorable march toward digital, and how the blur between real and digital is becoming more and more difficult to discern.  Check out these posts from Gizmodo and a comment regarding the Snowpocalypse on the East Cost over the last few days.  It got me thinking – does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?  Hmmm.

In the Gizmodo video, this car actually landed in this position!

And then there’s the art piece.  Which came first?  Strange days indeed.

I sat down with the kids to melt my brain to Despicable Me, and was subjected to a 3 minute trailer on how great Digital Copy is and how it’s the future of entertainment on the go.

As I watched the sleek and sexy production, I had to go “pffft” (meaning “as if”) when the trailer walked through a few use cases that no one on earth is going to ever do.  They showed a couple at the top of Mulholland Drive in a convertible, overlooking LA, with their laptop on the dash and watching a movie.  “Take it with you where ever you go” was the voice over.   I had to ask, who the hell is going to bring their laptop so they can watch a movie at the top of Mulholland Drive?

And then, it cut to a scene with a mother shopping in the store while her toddler, safely strapped in the cart, watched a movie on her mommy’s cell phone.  “Now moms can entertain their kids any time on any device.”  What?!  What mom is going to give a toddler a cell phone so that they can watch a movie in the store?  Wait a minute – maybe they are on to something!  With Digital Copy, you never even have to make eye contact with your kid since they will be glued to all your devices to watch movies!

OK, I get the point – watch movies wherever you are.  I’m all for it.  But really, what customers really care about watching movies where ever they are?  Aren’t movies best enjoyed at home, with your family or friends, on a screen that doesn’t cause your eyes to hurt, or your neck to ache, or your wrists to cramp?

This is the crux of the issue for all digital entertainment, Digital Copy prominently included, and for the dozens of companies/consortia out there trying to do something about it.  We’ve got to ask ourselves, who really cares?

By the way, Despicable Me was great.  And the best part was watching it with my kids on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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HP streamed the live video in 3D to a huge screen in a room across the way where VIP guests watched. I was impressed with all of the effort HP went to in order to broadcast the event. It took a lot of expensive technology, but it didn’t quite live up to the quality I’d expect from all of that effort. There were ghosts, or secondary images, when I viewed the screen with $3 passive glasses. When I looked with $120 glasses made by Gunnar Optics, it looked much better. But the occasional ghosts were still there.

To date, that is the problem with 3D viewing. As I’ve noted before, 3D is a lot of effort for only a little bit of gain. In a handful of examples, it has paid off. Films like Avatar look stunning in 3D in a movie theater, but are less impressive on home TVs. Nvidia 3D Vision looks cool when you’ve got a three-monitor set-up on a relatively expensive gamer’s computer. The Nintendo 3DS and MasterImage 3D glasses-free solutions look great on very small screens. But the rest of the efforts are falling short. Toshiba’s glasses-free 3D report didn’t really look good at CES.

HP’s Phil McKinney (above), vice president and chief technology officer of the HP Personal Systems Group, said there was enormous potential for 3D in consumer and commercial markets, and it makes sense for HP to develop the technology to make it happen. Researchers from HP Labs have set up a big screen in a lab to test their gear, and they spent a lot of time putting together the large theater-sized screen for the Earth Wind & Fire concert. Over time, McKinney believes that HP can build a “triple wide” screen that is three times as large and can capture all of the action on televised basketball game, from hoop to hoop, in a single wide camera shot. That kind of video could prove very immersive for sports fans, McKinney said.

Henry Sang, an HP Labs researcher (right), showed off a wide-lends 3D camera that captured the concert from the back of the ballroom. The camera (pictured at bottom) had 19 imaging engines to capture the data. It fed the video images to some HP workstations that processed the images live. They sent the images to a dozen projectors, which were synchronized to display a single image on the big movie screen. Users could pretty much see the show from anywhere in the room.

Sang acknowledged that the ghost images were present but he said that HP could improve on its efforts at the show. The answer was to spend about $100,000 more on computer gear to process the 3D imagery to get rid of the ghost effect.

If HP can pull it off and make it tolerable to watch, the applications could be plentiful. Carlos Montalvo, an executive who works for McKinney, said the applications include medical imaging, oil and gas exploration, financial services and other visual data analysis applications.

To get there, HP has to develop a solution that is flexible and can superimpose images on top of each other in real time. It has to scale up to large numbers of projectors and make trade-offs in brightness and sharpness, and it has to have redundancy to deal with failures. Today, the process of taking imagery from a concert and making it 3D is laborious. So HP also has to figure out ways to automate that.

For your enjoyment, here’s a YouTube video of Earth Wind & Fire that I took in old-fashioned two-dimensional video. Hopefully by next year’s concert, HP will have better quality live 3D viewing.

Introducing Orange CineHome: VoD, DVD/Blu-ray rental, and catch-up TV, with unlimited content

<Click here for Product Demo>

Orange Switzerland will be launching the world’s latest Over the Top (OTT) IP connected home entertainment service on January 17, 2011. The TV based product, CineHome, offers an impressive content line-up and flexibile viewing options, for a very afforable monthly fee. For just CHF 14, any Swiss household with a broadband internet connection will gain access to a wide range of local and international hits, including: Hollywood block buster films, TV series, and catch-up programming from both TSR (Swiss French regional TV) and SF (Swiss German TV). Orange customers benefit from a reduced price of just CHF 9 per month.

Set-top box for every broadband Internet connection  

The service is accessibile via a set top box that is rented separately and works with any broadband Internet connection of 2 Mbit/s or more. What’s more, you don’t need to be an Orange broadband subscriber to enjoy Orange CineHome. Simply connect the CineHome box to any broadband Internet modem and then link to a TV set (both Scart and HDMI cables are included with the set top box). A broadband Internet connection with a capacity of 2 Mbit/s is enough for standard picture quality. For HD quality (up to 1080 dpi), a 5 Mbit/s connection is the minimum requirement.

Films, TV series and other programmes

The Orange CineHome’s subscription package offers:

• unlimited access to a large catalogue of Warner Brothers films and hit TV series, at no extra cost.

with more than 30 selected films and 90 to 120 episodes of TV series at any one time. Unlimited access is included in the monthly subscription and the series catalogue is updated weekly with numerous new episodes, while the film catalogue is updated on a monthly basis with ten new films each month.

• unlimited on demand access to more than 80 selected programmes from Swiss TV channels SF and Télévision de la Suisse Romande TSR. The range of programmes is updated daily

• access to more than 1,500 films and TV series, on demand, with multi-lingual audio support during viewing, streamed directly to a TV in 5.1 digital audio surround sound, starting at only CHF 1.50 / episode and CHF 3.50 / movie, all at the touch of a button. The range of films and TV series is updated continuously with the latest new releases.

• High Definition (HD) quality films, on demand, starting from only CHF 5- per 48 hour rental.

• access to more than 18,000 DVD and Blu-ray titles that can be easily rented directly from the TV menu with next day delivery by post. The range is updated continuously with the latest new releases.

Sneak Peak at the TV interface

Pricing Overview

  

Comparing this Hergiswil panorama to the below Hollywood vista I recently experienced this December, one can’t help to notice the similarities:

Besides the bad weather (like California, Switzerland isn’t always sunny), both signs have 9 letters, both have neighbouring towns with the same name, and both start with an”H”….Coincidence? Not quite: Hollywood IS coming to Switzerland, and it’s Orange Communications that’s bringing it.

This crafty Orange PR stunt, has not only teased Switzerland’s Entertainment market, it has also signaled the imminent launch of yet another Orange branded Entertainment product before the end of this month - The latest example of Orange’s commitment to become Switzerland’s premiere Entertainment provider.

Stay tuned for more details!

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — Jan. 6, 2011 —Gracenote® today announced its connected TV technologies have been adopted by leading home entertainment brands to bring richer and more interactive experiences to consumers, as well as drive new revenue opportunities for display and media device manufacturers and content providers. These technologies will be announced in new products from Sony Electronics Inc. and LG Electronics at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.

Gracenote’s connected TV technologies – which include MusicID®, VideoID™ and Video Explore™ – are designed to take the consumer beyond characters and storylines to create a “lean forward” entertainment experience that allows users to navigate and interact with movies, TV and music, explore and access related content, and link to commerce services to download and stream media.

Consumers in many markets spend more than four hours per day watching TV, while 22 percent of global online consumers own or have a definite interest in purchasing a TV with an Internet connection in the next year (How People Watch: A Global Nielsen Consumer Report, Aug. 2010).

“With the steady growth of video consumption and the skyrocketing amount of content available, there is a need for a solution to manage it all,” said Stephen White, senior vice president of product and content management, Gracenote.  “With our technology, consumers get a simplified, customized and enhanced experience, while manufacturers and content owners benefit from our ability to steer people to purchase, stream and download content.”

Gracenote’s home entertainment solutions tap Gracenote’s Global Media Database, the most comprehensive music and video database in the world.  To achieve its breadth and depth of information, Gracenote populates its database using direct feeds from content owners, industry-leading content partners, such as Tribune Media Services, as well by creating its own propriety content though music and video experts and top media categorization, genre and schema specialists covering all major regions of the world.  Gracenote also incorporates contributions from community members who use Gracenote-enabled products and services.

Gracenote Video Explore

Searching through a seemingly endless array of video and music can be overwhelming for consumers. Gracenote Video Explore simplifies this experience by enabling more confident and intelligent searches of any video library. The technology filters and sorts information by more than 40 data attributes of hundreds of thousands of feature films, including cover art, cast members, bios, music, imagery, production crew and notes, studio, genre, keywords and language.

For example, if a movie fan is watching a film on Blu-ray Disc, Gracenote Video Explore can take them behind the scenes to read the director’s filmography and view production images. They can then drill even deeper and explore the director’s influences, or learn trivia about the film and the actors.

Gracenote MusicID

Have you ever heard a great song on a Blu-ray or DVD movie and wanted to know who the band was? Gracenote’s MusicID uses advanced audio fingerprinting technology to recognize the sonic characteristics of any song playing on a TV or media source. Within seconds, the artist name, album and track is delivered to the screen.  After identifying the track, consumers can be directed to a digital entertainment service to purchase the song or complete album.  And by providing track, album, artist and genre information, music fans can control their disc and file-based movie and music collection, making it easier to manage.

Gracenote VideoID

Gracenote VideoID is easily integrated into Multi-Disc Changers, game consoles and other video systems. The technology leverages Gracenote’s Global Media Database to identify DVD and Blu-ray discs in the collection, pulling down movie cover art, synopsis and other metadata to improve search and navigation.  With Gracenote VideoID, consumers can easily navigate their video library by key fields such as: Title, Release Date, Cast and Credits. They can then link to other metadata, such as cast and characters or even commerce services.

Gracenote Showcases Home Solutions at CES 2011
Several Gracenote-powered home entertainment products will be demonstrated at CES 2011 in the Gracenote booth No. 31106 in South Hall 3 of the LVCC.  New products featuring Gracenote technology include:

Sony:

• Sony BDP-S380 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony BDP-S480 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony BDP-S580 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony BDP-S780 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony Bravia HX929, HX820, and NX720 series HDTVs featuring Video Explore and MusicID

LG:

• LG BD670 Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID
• LG BD690 Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID
• LG HX996TS Real 3D Sound Home Theater System – Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID

• LG HB906SB Blu-ray 3D Disc Home Theater System – Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID

Gravity Mobile: Multi-screen Applications

Gracenote home entertainment solutions are also available for mobile devices including tablets, as well as for the automobile and desktop industry, and can be fully implemented and launched by customers quickly and easily.  Gravity Mobile, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gracenote and a leading mobile applications and solutions company, will be demonstrating new interactive multi-screen applications in the Gracenote booth at CES.

For more information or to schedule a demo and briefing at the show, please contact Veronica Skelton at 415.342.3435 or vskelton@gracenote.com.



Orange launches its new World Of Entertainment

Orange Communications SA strengthens its market presence as Switzerland’s premier supplier of Entertainment by launching a new website focused on the discovery of content and of its entertainment offerings. Orange’s acquisition and integration of the Citydisc Home Entertainment retail chain is now complimented by a new digital content playground called the World Of Entertainment. 

The World Of Entertainment website highlights Orange’s commitment to offering a 360 degree entertainment experience across Retail, Cinema, Online, Mobile, and Events. Some key platforms are still missing from their product offer, but these are already targeted byOrange with new products planned for a Q1 2011 roll-out.

In addition to traditional mobile entertainment services such as caller ring back tones, mobile gaming, and VoD clips, Orange is providing innovative products not common within the Swiss Telecommunications industry. Most have been integrated into the new entertainment site, including:

• Unlimited, subscription-based Gaming accessible online from any PC. This service offers three different subscription packages and over 450 digitally distributed titles, many available within 3 months of retail release, and catalogue games from casual classics, such as Plants vs. Zombies, to action based megahits like Bioshock. The product is exclusively offered by Orange; however, it is a true Over The Top service open to any internet connected consumer. Jeux PC (French) / PC Spiele (German)

• Orange TV: High quality subscription-based mobile and web TV with access to over 50 free and pay TV channels (with complimentary VoD content) under a single subscription – Not only is national and international programming offered, but premium priced bouquets of themed content are also available. Additional PVR functionality is provided, allowing for the recording and playback of content from the customer’s mobile, PC, or tablet

• Orange MusicStore: Full track downloads for PC and Mobile-based consumption. Close to 5m titles are on offer with individual track and full album purchasing capabilities. All content is DRM free and in mp3 format, offering Orange customers maximum flexibility with their music and seamless monthly mobile bill integration

• Orange CineDay: 2 for 1 Cinema tickets every Tuesday. Orange provides its customers with a free Cinema ticket (an $18 value) for every purchase of a full priced ticket

• Orange brings key musicians, bands, and films onto the Swiss entertainment scene with sponsorship of major events such as concerts, shows, and summer music/film festivals…check out the current line-up of Events

The site only soft-launched on December 14, 2010, so Orange is still optimizing the site’s look & feel, performance, and functionality with numerous additions and improvements planned for Q1 2011.  Since this is a soft launch, any comments and feedback are welcome so please provide!

Stay tuned for more developments in 2011 as Orange Switzerland continues its expansion into the Entertainment space.

Stephen White on DMC Panel

Colin Dixon, a senior analyst & IPTV practice manager for The Diffusion Group , chose an interesting way to kick off the Digital Media Conference in San Francisco last week.  He presented a picture of a group of people all huddled around a TV.  It used to be that when it came to entertainment content, he said, we would need to go find it, gather together, and watch it together where and when the broadcaster wanted us to watch it.  He then showed a slide that illustrates what it’s like today, and it painted a much different picture:  now, consumers are sitting pretty in the center, and content providers are on the outside.

In fact, Dixon’s research on the Top Digital Media Trends shows that by 2020, we will watch as much video from the Internet as we do from television broadcasts. “And we won’t know where it’s coming from, nor will we care,” he said.

Consumers Have Control

It’s clear:  consumers now have control in today’s digital economy.

It was a theme that resonated throughout the conference, which brought together decision-makers from media, entertainment and technology businesses, investors, and policy-makers involved in the digital distribution of media and entertainment. One conference session addressed “Content in the Cloud: What Does the Future Hold?”, included panelists from Ascent Media Group, BitTorrent, Rovi and Stephen White, senior vice president of product and content management at Gracenote.

According to White, because of consumer adoption, there is more flexibility by the music industry than ever before in terms of embracing cloud-based music services.  And in Film and TV, there is more involvement by studios to create their own services.  “We are starting to see new blood injected into entertainment companies, and a more rapid licensing time period,” White said.  “There is a new breed that seems to have a mandate to make these new models go.”

Does a Magic Jukebox Exist for Music Services?

Claude Tolbert of BitTorrent says, “the Magic Jukebox is out there – it’s called the Internet.”   And the repository is going to continue to grow, and will be about recommendations, according to a music fan’s taste.

But will consumers embrace cloud-based music services when so many are used to buying albums and tracks and storing them locally on their devices?

White believes that there are paths these services will take to make it more compelling to users and ease the transition, including combining local and cloud content with unified UIs, as well as providing playlisting and recommendation capabilities. “Technology and licensing won’t be the barrier anymore,” said White.  “By 2013, your car will be connected, and your home will be connected without a bunch of wires because your TV is going to have a wireless connection. Now it’s about educating consumers and delivering compelling services that make adoption worthwhile.”

What do you think it will take for consumers to embrace the cloud?

Last week at the Digital Hollywood conference in Los Angeles, some of the brightest minds in home entertainment gathered to discuss “what’s next” for connected TVs. One conference session titled “Four Screens to the Consumer” dove into the topic of Multi-screen TV applications. Panelists included executives from AT&T and Sony, as well as Noah Hurwitz, founder of Gravity Mobile (a Gracenote company).

What is a multi-screen TV application?  The panelists explained that the growth of smart phones and tablet PCs offers opportunities to extend the entertainment experience beyond the primary HDTV screen to other devices, making TV programs more fun and interactive.

How does it work? Hurwitz provided the following example. The broadcaster watermarks the content, allowing the TV show to communicate with the viewer’s phone or tablet PC, triggering interactive features specific to each episode or scene.  For instance, if you are watching an episode of Sex and the City (an example only), an App on your iPad could challenge you with a trivia question, display actor bios or even sell you a pair of Carrie Bradshaw’s Manolo Blahniks.

While some critics claim that this type of interactive experience takes away from the on-screen storyline, Hurwitz and other panelists at Digital Hollywood believe this type of application (when done right) enriches the entertainment experience and builds greater loyalty to TV franchises and brands.

What do you think? Are you ready for a Multi-screen TV experience?

Stay tuned for more news about multi-screen applications from Gravity Mobile and Gracenote.

Richard believed that in order to survive, the CBC had to produce entertainment that was on par with what the US produced. He believed it was possible. He was committed to entertainment as one of the keys to achieve a certain financial independence. He viewed CBCNews as an extension of this entertainment strategy. He believed the CNN version as the future. This didn’t sit well with the old-school news department who still, almost a year after relaunching CBCNews, have not embraced the new CBCNews strategy – a strategy that could have allowed the news department to change the news paradigm. Instead many of them bury their heads in the sand, wishing for the clock to go back to a time pre-Richard.

CBC Radio is far from suffering. Under the little-appreciated tenure of Chris Boyce, CBC Radio One has revitalized programming, and the highest ratings in its history. Richard (and a host of other senior team leaders) realized that CBC Radio 2′s classical audience wasa DYING. It’s an audience that is not replacing itself. As numbers dwindle, year after year, they believed it is a public broadcaster’s responsibility to change and adapt, and in the process, re-invent the classical music service, while trying to find a new audience for its musical offering. Many people inside the CBC were against this move. And many still believe it was a mistake. But any broadcaster who ignores audience research studies and the feedback from hours of focus groups is behaving irresponsibly. The writing was on the wall there too. I don’t believe they are “there” yet, but Radio 2 is the ONLY Canadian radio station (excl. CBC Radio 3) that is FULLY committed to airplay for Canadian singers and songwriters. Isn’t that the mandate?

It’s not surprising to see Richard’s critics hovering over his dying legacy. Hubert’s commitment to the CBC is a populist one. But I wonder which segment of the population is now driving the future strategy of the CBC? CBC itself will not be objective enough. Under Richard’s watch, the CBC was slowly growing a much needed younger demographic – don’t forget, the internet may end up being the future of all broadcasting. And that 18 – 39 demographic is not watching traditional television. And they are not watching nature documentaries. I respect the opinions of his critics. Richard ruled the CBC like a petulant king. His senior management team was described as a “wheel-less spoke”, with each spoke a division that was deliberately not connected to the others. His management style was brutal. His demeanor cold. But still, I hope time is kind to his legacy, because I worry that one day, the reign of King Richard will go down in history as the CBC’s last shining moment – the final days of broadcasting camelot.

Richard Stursberg, head of CBC’s English services, is leaving after six years in the position.

CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix announced his departure Friday in a statement to employees.

Lacroix gave no reason for Stursberg’s departure, which is effective Friday.

“When Richard was appointed executive vice-president of CBC Television six years ago, he brought with him a revolution that shook the foundation of the organization and eventually of the whole of our English services,” Lacroix said in his statement.

“He challenged every premise, attacked conventional wisdom, and uprooted whole parts of the internal culture. Six years later, the institution is better off than it was. I want to acknowledge his success in turning CBC Television around and thank him for his contribution.”

Kirstine Stewart, currently general manager of CBC Television, is to take his job as executive vice-president of English services on an interim basis.

Under Stursberg’s leadership, the CBC integrated its English-language services — radio, TV and internet, in an attempt, he said, to make content more broadly available across more platforms.

He was executive vice-president of CBC Television during the eight-week lockout of CBC employees in the fall of 2005. In his most recent position, he oversaw a downsizing of the CBC workforce in 2009 at a time when the public broadcaster faced a $171-million shortfall.

Stursberg also was controversial for his more commercial approach to TV programming, including the introduction of factual entertainment TV and the addition of American shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune to the CBC schedule.

He also fought for more flexible and generous financial terms for the public broadcaster from the federal government.

Bill Chambers, CBC vice-president of communications, said CBC is a very different corporation than it was five years ago, largely because of Stursberg.

Chambers declined to say whether Stursberg had been fired, saying the change is “not about where we are” but “all about the future and the way we are going forward.”

He referred to Lacroix’s statement that said CBC and Radio-Canada are developing a new strategic plan over the next five years.

“This is the opportune time to bring new leadership to English services and to ensure alignment of the senior team on the future of the public broadcaster,” Lacroix said.