Entertainment Technology Center @ USC

Prof. Dr. Albert Heuberger, 
Executive Director Fraunhofer IIS
Joins SMPTE Forum Panel “Delivering The Future”

[by Walter Schoenknecht, TV TECHNOLOGY]

For many, references to “the cloud” are all too apt — an amorphous, poorly-defined fog that looks different to everyone who sees it.

But a cross-industry consortium has wrestled the cloud into submission to paint a vivid picture of the ways in which cloud storage will soon benefit content providers and consumers.

Monday’s NAB Show Super Session “Power to the Consumer! Here Comes UltraViolet!” assembled a cross-disciplinary team of interested parties to discuss Ultra- Violet, an initiative of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE).

The system, set to debut later this year, provides common paths, methods and tools for distribution of visual media across a range of devices, media and platforms.

Moderated by David Wertheimer, CEO of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, the session attempted to define and describe the UltraViolet project, a collaboration among more than 60 players from different industries.

One of the first goals of UltraViolet, Wertheimer said, was to deliver content in the ways consumers are most comfortable with. Richard Berger, senior vice president of Global Digital Strategy at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, outlined UltraViolet’s cross-media underpinnings: physical products such as DVD and Blu-ray Disc and digitally-delivered streams and downloads. “The good thing about UltraViolet is that we have something for everybody,” he said.

Wertheimer said consumers still have great affection for physical media, whether to assuage fears of format compatibility or simply to maintain their movie collections. As a result, he said, “digital sell-through” was a difficult task for distributors.

Mark Teitell, general manager and executive director of DECE, UltraViolet’s parent consortium, said consumers also resisted being channeled to a single purchase outlet, preferring to select their retailer of choice. Many were worried that a digital purchase in one specific format might leave them “marooned” if the device or platform faded from public use.

Christopher Allen, Best Buy general manager, described the challenges UltraViolet faces. “There’s still a passion for the entertainment experience; there’s still a passion for collecting,” he said. “But how do you bring the best of that ownership model that people like, and blend that with the best that the Internet and technology can bring?”

Scott Fierstein, senior director for Interoperability Standards at Microsoft, described the “pillars” the consortium chose as the foundation for UltraViolet: interoperability between services and devices; a consistent, predictable usage model across platforms; and a strong visual identity — a logo — that implicitly guarantees compatibility for both devices and content.

Fierstein also said that creating an effective, platform-agnostic digital rights management (DRM) scheme was key. “I think this is the most innovative thing that came out of UltraViolet,” he said. “From the consumer’s perspective, the technology is truly transparent.”

Tim Dodd, media vice president and general manager at Neustar Media, described consumers’ perception of “the right” to move their physical media purchases into the cloud for portable viewing. “I think that, for a while, we’ll be in a hybrid physical/digital environment,” he said. Bill Wheaton, vice president for digital media at Akamai Technologies, said that unauthorized download of content was a concern, but that the benefits of UltraViolet were, in themselves, a deterrent.

See the original post here: http://nabshowdaily.com/2011/WednesdayEdition/119188

Fifty-eight percent of Friday’s shoppers bought some type of consumer electronic product, second only to clothing, according to interim results from the Consumer Electronics Assn.’s Black Friday Survey.

This is up slightly from last year’s Thanksgiving survey, when CEA found that 54% of Americans purchased CE products.

The most popular electronics shoppers purchased this weekend were portable MP3 players; video game consoles and accessories; and computers, including notebooks and tablets.

The interim findings are the results of a Caravan telephone survey completed Friday. The survey consisted of 568 adults, 283 men and 285 women 18 years of age and older, living in the continental United States.

Nearly half of those surveyed had plans of shopping this weekend, with roughly 27% of U.S. adults having already shopped as of Friday. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed shopped at a mass merchant.

Read the full story at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/study-consumer-electronics-rank-clothing-49609

Creating a more efficient process with digital files in post-production has earned Howard Lukk accolades from his colleagues in the entertainment industry.

Lukk, the vice president of digital production technology at Walt Disney Studios, received the first Technology Leadership Award from the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC for his work on the Interoperable Master Format project.

The project is easier to describe then the name may imply.

Simply put, Lukk and his team are creating standards for digital files that can be shared between content creators, studios, and post-production facilities to make one master copy of a film or television show rather than separate masters for distribution into theaters, television, downloads, and for mobile devices.

“With demands for faster content in more channels, we are trying to make the process of getting it out quicker,” Lukk said.

The master format project is just one of several the Entertainment Technology Center is working on. Other projects involve 3D in the home, entertainment and social media, and getting content out on multiple devices.

The center wanted to recognize the people working on these projects because while it is the ETC that gets the credit it is the people on the teams that make the results possible, said center CEO and Executive Director David Wertheimer.

“It is the individuals that make the difference,” Wertheimer said.

Lukk’s name was among the first brought up to receive the leadership award because the work on the master format project would create new efficiencies for the entire industry.

Lukk and others have been working on the master format project for about 18 months and look to finish by the spring.

Draft specifications have been given to the member companies of the ETC for their input and feedback and some suggestions will be incorporated into the revised specs, Lukk said.

Those specifications will then be turned over to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to create a standard for the entire industry.

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SAN JOSE, CA — 09/27/10 — Bridge Capital Holdings (NASDAQ: BBNK), whose subsidiary is Bridge Bank, National Association, a full service professional business bank headquartered in Silicon Valley, announced today its participation in the Fifth Annual AlwaysOn OnHollywood Technology Conference. This two-and-a-half-day event is being held September 27 – 29, 2010 at the Davidson Conference Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The conference is co-presented by The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University.

“Bridge Bank continues to be a key contributor to all of our conferences, including OnHollywood,” said Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor of AlwaysOn. “We are pleased to work with the Banks’ Southern California Group and all of the Bridge Team to make this conference the best one yet.”

“Bridge Bank is committed to growing in Southern California and we look forward to continuing our close partnership with AlwaysOn,” said James Crumpton, Senior Vice President and Manager of Bridge Bank’s Technology Banking Group in Southern California. “We also welcome USC and ETC as valued partners in making this conference a success.”

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Earthtimes

SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – September 27, 2010) –   Bridge Capital Holdings (NASDAQ: BBNK), whose subsidiary is Bridge Bank, National Association, a full service professional business bank headquartered in Silicon Valley, announced today its participation in the Fifth Annual AlwaysOn OnHollywood Technology Conference. This two-and-a-half-day event is being held September 27 – 29, 2010 at the Davidson Conference Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The conference is co-presented by The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University.

OnHollywood is where innovative technology CEOs from the back streets of Silicon Valley meet the Hollywood digital entertainment and media elite. Five hundred technology, entertainment and media CEOs, studio heads, business development officers, advertising producers and buyers, venture capital and private-equity investors, and leading members of the press and blogging community will attend OnHollywood. Thousands more from over 100 countries will tune into the live OnHollywood webcast. Executives attend OnHollywood to identify and debate emerging trends, build high-level relationships and create new business opportunities.

“Bridge Bank continues to be a key contributor to all of our conferences, including OnHollywood,” said Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor of AlwaysOn. ”We are pleased to work with the Banks’ Southern California Group and all of the Bridge Team to make this conference the best one yet.”

At OnHollywood, the editors of AlwaysOn will honor the OnHollywood Top 100 Private Digital Entertainment Companies. Additionally, up to 30 digital media CEOs will pitch their company’s market strategies to a panel of industry experts in “CEO Showcases.”

“Bridge Bank is committed to growing in Southern California and we look forward to continuing our close partnership with AlwaysOn,” said James Crumpton, Senior Vice President and Manager of Bridge Bank’s Technology Banking Group in Southern California. ”We also welcome USC and ETC as valued partners in making this conference a success.”

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Digitalsmiths Corporation, the video metadata experts, today announced that for the second consecutive year, it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the OnHollywood 100 winners. Inclusion in the OnHollywood 100 signifies leadership among its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing and entrenched Hollywood entertainment.

Digitalsmiths was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz. Digitalsmiths and the OnHollywood 100 companies will be honored at AlwaysOn’s fifth annual OnHollywood on September 27, 2010, at the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC in Los Angeles, Calif.

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Leading Social Network Recognized for Technology Innovation in Digital Entertainment

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – September 21, 2010) – Tagged, the third largest social network in the United States, today announced it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as an OnHollywood 100 winner. Inclusion in the OnHollywood 100 signifies leadership among its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing and entrenched Hollywood entertainment. Tagged was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

“We are honored that AlwaysOn has recognized Tagged as an innovator among social networks,” said Greg Tseng, CEO of Tagged. “Tagged is dedicated to being the best place for meeting new people online and our 100 million members worldwide, combined with winning this award, validates our efforts.”

Tagged and the OnHollywood 100 companies will be honored at AlwaysOn’s fifth annual OnHollywood on September 27^th, 2010, at the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC in Los Angeles, CA. A full list of all the AlwaysOn OnHollywood 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at:

Lambert served as a senior executive of The Walt Disney Company for 25 years. As Senior Vice President, Worldwide Technology Strategy and Development, he was challenged with looking “down the road and around the corner” to help guide one of the world’s most innovative and forward-thinking companies to successfully engage in new business strategies.  Lambert and his team pioneered award-winning digital landscape transitions and strategies in film, television, e-commerce, social media, and emerging consumer media, often partnering with competitors and parallel industries to create new sea-change opportunities.  His group drove innovation in content production and distribution, including initiating the company’s long term successful collaboration with Pixar and the development of a completely new digital film production process which garnered an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

Lambert is Chairman Emeritus of the board of directors of University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center, the 17-company consortium dedicated to entertainment technology futures, and has served as both acting chairman and interim CEO of USC/ETC.

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