Entertainment Technology Center @ USC

[Press Release - dcinematoday]

The company imm Sound, leader in the new generation of 3D immersive sound, has expanded its operations internationally with the opening of nine new movie theatres in Brazil, owned by the cinematograph exhibitor, Araújo. Concretely, the imm Sound technology is available on screens in Maringá, in the state of Paraná; Campos, in the state of Rio de Janeiro; Guadalupe, in the state of Piauí, and Serra, in the state of Pará.

[Philip Lelyveld comment: wear headphones to experience the 3D audio effect.  The sound should move around your head and up and down your body.   It is a good demo a well established holophonic sound localization technology.]

Listen to the demo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOSHmfjs-lQ

What you should know about ‘Gear for Geezers’…

If you think focusing on seniors means making phones with oversized keypads and “I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up” alarms, think again.

The exhibitors at CES’s Silvers Summit spoke with us about advice for the entertainment industry, based on their experience designing and marketing products for an aging population.

“They are the best customers in the world, but nobody has figured out how to do it right for them,” said Aaron Pollack of cell phone provider Jitterbug.

Boomers pay bills on time, give conscientious customer feedback, and are extremely loyal (witness Jitterbug’s churn rate of 1.5%).  While they may be beginning to have issues with hearing, vision, and manual dexterity, they also have the interest, the income, and the time to enjoy great technology and entertainment.

Some advice from the pros for reaching this valuable demographic:

Stick With Sexy Design
Just because they’re aging doesn’t mean they’re square, exhibitors said. Reaching the key baby boomer demographic means creating products that don’t make them feel like they’re getting old.

“My number one advice is to make it sexy.  In their minds, they’re young and cool, and they’re not ready for the old folks home,” said Curt Stone of the Quality of Life Foundry at Carnegie Mellon University.  “You don’t have to dumb it down for them.  Make tech that is universally appealing but also adaptive to special needs, and you’ll have a winner.”

Simplify, Simplify
While the CES floor is crowded with complicated devices and expanding choices, this population wants it simpler and streamlined.  They’re overwhelmed and turned off by remote controls or set-top boxes with too many or unclearly-labeled buttons.

Swedish company Doro has taken it to the ultimate extreme, with a six-button universal remote control (on/off, volume up/down, and channel up/down) that won’t overwhelm anybody.  That may be going farther than most of the 55+ crowd needs, but the key feature of all exhibitors in Silvers Summit was that they cut out extraneous content and features, rather than adding more.

Focus on Making & Strengthening Connections
This population uses their tech to stay in touch with people they care about, exhibitors said.  Companies that support those goals will succeed.

“People stay connected by watching TV together or talking on the phone, and when they lose their hearing and stop sharing those things with their families their connections unravel,” said Michelle Maher of ClearSounds.  “Use technology to appeal to the emotional side of those family connections, and you’ll reach this group.”

Provide “High-touch” Customer Service
That means no labyrinthine automated telephone directories, no overseas customer service, and extremely patient and flexible reps.

“The relationship that develops is more like a family relationship,” said Chuck Lalonde of MyGait, which offers computer systems for elderly customers with custom hardware, software, and support.  He said people call or email with questions like, “How do I find a good Chinese restaurant in Vegas?” and their reps just roll with it, emailing back links to a Google map with directions.

“It definitely costs more to run a call center out of America than India,” said Pollack of Jitterbug.  “But it is absolutely what these customers want.”

Think Differently About Billing & Privacy
As mobile entertainment takes off, mobile purchasing and billing issues will become more complicated, and many aging customers simply aren’t comfortable with paying for things on the fly.  Reaching them may require some creativity and a range of payment options.

Jitterbug found that many users were afraid of contracts and worried about sharing social security, credit card, or bank account numbers over the phone or the Internet.  So they let them pay the old-fashioned way, month-to-month and through the mail.

“We mail them a bill and they pay on time,” said Pollack.  “We have far fewer problems than you might expect.”  Jitterbug also offers automatic online billing for those who are interested.

There are several exhibitors showcasing “vibro-tactile” audio experiences at CES, including vibrating earbuds and headphones.  But one of the more interesting is VibeAttire, a vest wired with vibrating motors and a small processor that converts audio signals into vibrations and maps them through the vest.

It was originally designed (in part with support from the National Science Foundation) to provide a music experience for the deaf.

It sounds weird, but it was actually a very cool immersive experience.  We listened to MP3s and watched part of “The Matrix” while wearing the vest, and can imagine a 3D movie or game with it on could be awesome.

And hey, if people are willing to wear the 3D glasses, maybe they wouldn’t mind a vibrating vest…

Dolby used CES as a platform to demonstrate how to enhance viewing of 2D or 3D with its audio lineup.  “When you combine HD and 3D, it is screaming for the audio experience,” commented Ramzi Haidamus, Dolby’s executive vp, sales and marketing.

Dolby is talking Dolby Volume, including use with new Motorola digital set-top boxes.

Dolby also showcased new devices and media that support Dolby Digital Plus high-definition audio, including VUDU.  The service uses Dolby Digital Plus to deliver 5.1 surround sound.  For Blu-ray, it supports primary 7.1-channel audio as well as multichannel secondary audio support.

Dolby reported that Dolby TrueHD, a lossless compression technology developed for HD disc-based media, has been used for more than 560 Blu-ray Disc movie titles, including Paramount’s “Star Trek,” which was highlighted at CES.

The company also featured Dolby Pro Logic IIz, the company’s matrix decoding audio technology that supports 7.1- or 9.1-channel audio.

When asked about 3D video for the home, Haidamus said Dolby was in the R&D phase.

Ravon Audio has a nifty audio device that not only docks your iPod or MP3 player, but is Wi-Fi enabled to stream music and podcasts from a computer – as well as regular FM radio. What makes this device really interesting is its ability to record Internet or podcast programs; it features SD and USB slots so you can record from any of those sources to a flash or external drive.

The unit will be available in the US during the first quarter and is expected to retail for around $350.

Some of the best designed products at the show belong to Edifier, a Beijing-based firm with North American offices in Canada.  The company’s sleek audio systems can stand on their own as object d’art – the fact that they also sound pretty great is icing on the cake.

All of the items are conjured up by an in-house design team, proof that China might be viewed as more than just a source of cheap labor.  (Indeed, here at CES the consensus seems to be the country is poised to become the “next wave” CE giant, following in the footsteps of Japan and Korea.  At least according to Jack Wayman, who founded the Consumer Electronics Show in 1967 and was here browsing the wares this year.)

Edifier won a 2010 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award for its $299 Luna 5 Encore iPod/iPhone dock, that has enough room in its rounded shape to fit five speakers, including a 32-watt subwoofer and four others powered by 20 watts.

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The Fraunhofer Institute, credited with the development of the seminal MP3 coding algorithms, was showing off their new MPEG Surround format on the show floor at CES.

MPEG Surround allows for multi-channel audio to be compressed into a stereo stream that is fully backwards compatible with existing receivers. The encoding process creates a stereo downmix of the a 5.1 or 7.2 source that includes a metadata stream that describes to the decoder how to fold back out the surround channels. This results in a very low bit-rate representation of high quality, multi-channel signals perfect for Internet broadcasting. They played several demos that sounded as good as one can expect on the show floor and also had a prototype MPEG Surround iPod Dock with an optical output.

Looks promising for the future of surround audio for Web distribution.

San Diego-based chumby announced its plans to deliver personalized Internet content to connected devices including digital photo frames and TVs.  In its booth the company is streaming chumby content of over 1,000 widgets in 30 categories such as news, entertainment, music, sports, Internet radio and online video clips.

Chumby – which is open source and a fave of hackers – has come a long way from the cute little beanbag-encased design of previous shows…

They’re showing prototypes and reference designs for digital touch-screen photo frames with embedded cameras for viewing and sharing content.  Chumby’s media partners include CBS, MTV, New York Times, The Weather Channel, AOL’s SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks.

Chumby also announced a partnership with Samsung for a reference design built on Samsung’s application processor for Web-connected frames that offer drag-and-drop photo and video sharing, social networks, multimedia messaging, games, Internet radio, animation, video, RSS feeds and more.

Additionally, chumby announced a collaboration with Marvell.  By leveraging Marvell’s application processor and Wi-Fi chipset, chumby explains that OEMs “will now be able to offer consumers powerful Internet connected devices that deliver rich media experiences.”

G4TV offers a video report.

Where to see it:

• Central 14448

Most attempts at subscription music have failed miserably, and pundits have assumed that’s because consumers aren’t interested in subscription audio.  A little company called Slacker may be proving that assumption wrong – it’s all about the consumer experience, and what consumers don’t like is lame consumer experience.

We’ve had the new Slacker G2 in our lab for a couple of months, and it’s very compelling.  This week at CES, Slacker announced a FREE (to consumers – ad supported) version of Slacker radio that works on BlackBerry phones.

Songs are streamed or cached on your phone for playing offline.  We’ve been using the private beta, and the BlackBerry app, though a little rough around the edges is great.  It also helps you see a potential for similar services in video, which is why we’re watching it closely.

In addition to the news regarding Slacker Mobile for the BlackBerry, FlyCast announced a client for the Android/T-Mobile G1 and desktop players for Windows PCs and Mac.

Where to see it:

• BlackBerry: South 4 36206