1. What is the Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab (AACL)? [1]
2. Why is there a need for the Lab at this time? [2]
3. Why is ETC@USC the right organization to take on this challenge? [3]
4. How does the AACL continue ETC@USC’s overall mission? [4]
5. How is the AACL different than other digital entertainment labs looking at similar issues? [5]
6. Does the AACL perform the same function as a standards body or industry consortium? Is it replicating the activities of other university or corporate media labs? [6]
7. How will sponsors benefit from participating in the AACL? [7]
8. How does the AACL go about selecting and developing projects? [8]
9. What topics will the AACL explore through its projects? [9]
10. What does a typical day at the AACL look like? [10]
11. In what other ways do student consumers provide insight to AACL sponsors? [11]
12. What other goals does the AACL hope to accomplish? [12]
13. When will the facility open? [13]
14. What will the AACL look like when the ribbon is cut on the new facility? [14]
15. Who are the ETC@USC’s current studio and corporate sponsors and whom are you seeking to bring into the AACL fold? [15]

 

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1. What is the Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab (AACL)?

The Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab conducts explorations and develops solutions designed to accelerate the creation, distribution and consumption of digital entertainment. Located within the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, the Lab brings together entertainment, hardware, software and service industries to pool their strengths, tap University resources and identify the opportunities and challenges brought about by digital convergence. To accomplish these goals, the AACL examines the next generation consumer point of view, supplied by University students. It studies student interactions with new content, technologies and equipment, and holds round-table discussions, presentations, and other activities, to uncover the interests, desires and expectations of consumers who want their entertainment at any time, on any device, anywhere they happen to be. The AACL’s explorations result in action plans and technologies that advance the adoption of digital entertainment, based on an understanding of the impact of tomorrow’s consumer on the entire digital entertainment supply chain.

2. Why is there a need for the Lab at this time?

Digital convergence is transforming the entertainment landscape by making available a wealth of new choices for acquiring and viewing content. It is opening new doors, yet creating even more issues and questions. The very future of companies dedicated to entertainment creation, distribution and consumption depends on their ability to maximize the new possibilities brought about by convergence, and to identify and solve the tough challenges that convergence presents.

The AACL provides digital entertainment stakeholders with a forum to come together, collaborate and investigate such critical questions as: What new digital content and devices resonate with consumers? How will consumers of the future find, store and access content? How can the entertainment and technology industries capitalize on new business opportunities, and provide consumers with flexible options and seamless access at the same time? How can they overcome technical roadblocks such as the lack of inter-operability between devices and inconsistent bit rates, aspect ratios and other specifications?

By shining a light on these issues, high-end content producers and distributors; consumer electronics and technology companies; and broadcast, Internet and telecom providers will be able figure out how to deliver high quality content more efficiently and effectively to multiple devices. Answers to these questions will enable the entire digital entertainment industry to move the ball down the field.

3. Why is ETC@USC the right organization to take on this challenge?

ETC@USC is in the unique position of being a neutral, non-partisan organization with one foot in the University and the other in industry. ETC has access to USC’s very large and diverse student body--the school is the size of a small city--which exemplifies the next generation consumer. It can also turn to the University’s internationally renowned faculty to help guide its explorations and validate its findings. At the same time, the ETC board is made up of leading executives from top technology companies and the major Hollywood studios. They provide the organization with a one-of-a-kind window into the fundamental issues impacting the entertainment and technology industries, and offer a wide-range of professional resources, including equipment and high-end content.

4. How does the AACL continue ETC@USC’s overall mission?

Historically, ETC@USC’s mission has been to provide a place for industry leaders to join forces and address mutual, entertainment technology-related problems. ETC’s Digital Cinema Lab played a key role in forwarding the adoption of digital cinema distribution and exhibition by creating an environment that fostered common ground solutions. The AACL continues in the same tradition: it serves as a catalyst for digital distribution and consumption of entertainment content by providing a neutral zone for digital entertainment industry thought leaders to address the issues raised by convergence.

5. How is the AACL different than other digital entertainment labs looking at similar issues?

The AACL is more than just a place to test digital content and equipment. It is both a comprehensive exploration facility at which senior strategists scrutinize the consumer experience, and a forum for developing practical answers to real world problems that exist now or that will likely emerge in the next two to five years. As far as we know, the AACL is the only lab that engages such a wealth of EVP and CTO-level corporate executives and that places consumers at center stage.

6. Does the AACL perform the same function as a standards body or industry consortium? Is it replicating the activities of other university or corporate media labs?

The AACL is the only lab of its kind based at a top university in the heart of the entertainment and entertainment technology industries. It benefits from the participation of a wide range of digital entertainment stakeholders, but is not a consortium devoted to a particular cause, nor is it a standards body for establishing digital media protocols. Rather, the AACL is focused on creative problem solving with the goal of advancing digital entertainment distribution and consumption. There is a possibility, however, that the Lab’s findings could influence future digital media standards in the process of elucidating convergence issues. Finally, because of its collaborative nature, the AACL’s work complements, rather than duplicates, studio and corporate research sites, which tend to focus on a specific goal or product line.

7. How will sponsors benefit from participating in the AACL?

The AACL is an invaluable resource to all entertainment, hardware, software and service companies involved in creating and delivering high-end digital entertainment. Sponsors see their equipment, services, content and technologies used by their target audience in a true-to-life setting. They gain insight into how their solutions work within the digital entertainment continuum, how they hold up in a no-bounds setting and how they compare to the competition.

Through the interactions with next-generation consumers and the CxO Roundtables, AACL participant companies will together uncover new forms of content and new types of products that meet the growing consumer demand for choice. They will also benefit from expert evaluation of these proposed solutions for quality, robustness and interoperability. Most importantly, sponsors will walk away armed with the information they need to immediately improve their offerings, and to develop new solutions better suited to the anywhere/anytime consumer marketplace.

8. How does the AACL go about selecting and developing projects?

Ideas for AACL projects bubble up from USC students, who represent the next generation of digital entertainment consumers, and from professionals immersed in the entertainment and entertainment technology marketplace. These initial concepts are refined, shaped and prioritized by the ETC@USC board, which is comprised of executives from the organization’s top-tier sponsoring companies. Once a project idea is solidified, a cross-industry, technical advisory board of experts in the subject is assembled. This advisory board works with the AACL staff to develop the project, design questions and testing procedures, evaluate results and uncover trends.

9. What topics will the AACL explore through its projects?

The AACL will examine many of the pivotal topics facing the digital entertainment and entertainment technology industries today. They include barriers to mobile content adoption, managed services to the home, new advertising solutions for digital entertainment, a day in the life of the digital entertainment consumer of the future; collaborating and standardizing digital content metadata; transcoding procedures; product and service directions and other customer communications; online digital broadcasting services; strategies for media archiving and more.

10. What does a typical day at the AACL look like?

At the AACL, we examine consumer interests and behaviors to understand their ramifications on the flow of digital entertainment content from creator, to distributor, to consumer. On any given day, the AACL hosts a variety of researchers and student consumers who interact with the Lab’s high-tech equipment; participate in focus groups; and engage in creative explorations, all designed to clarify the issues pinpointed during the project development phase. Sponsoring companies debate the results of this research at regularly scheduled meetings to clarify issues and develop solutions for further evaluation and testing at the Lab.

11. In what other ways do student consumers provide insight to AACL sponsors?

The AACL holds regular symposia in which students present their thoughts about top-of-mind digital media issues and trends such as social networking, DRM and digital profiling to AACL sponsors. It is a unique chance for Lab members to explore the concerns of tomorrow’s consumer, and to partake in a give-and-take dialogue that exposes variables and subtleties not available through standard quantitative research.

12. What other goals does the AACL hope to accomplish?

Historically, ETC@USC has actively involved the creative community in its problem-solving efforts and the AACL is no exception. We are reaching out to content creators--to directors, writers, cinematographers, game developers and interactive designers--to bring their needs and skills to bear on developing new creative opportunities and solutions in the anywhere/anytime space.

ETC has also maintained strong relationships with entertainment and university communities around the world. The AACL will continue this tradition of global outreach by collaborating with synergistic, overseas programs.

13. When will the facility open?

Now. The AACL is being built in phases, and our team is already doing valuable work at the Lab’s initial facilities in our offices adjacent to the USC campus. Our goal is to build a full-scale, self-contained AACL in the future, and we are currently signing up new sponsors, gathering equipment and working with architects to make it happen.

14. What will the AACL look like when the ribbon is cut on the new facility?

The full-scale Lab will feature leading edge products, services and technologies in a modular, warehouse-style setting. It will have the latest of everything: content, consumer electronics devices, distribution networks, etc. We are designing the space to be as flexible as possible, so that if a room needs to be adjusted for a particular test, it can be done in an instant. The world is changing so quickly and if we erect permanent structures, they could be out of date before the paint dries.

15. Who are the ETC@USC’s current studio and corporate sponsors and whom are you seeking to bring into the AACL fold?

Current ETC@USC sponsors include the USC-School of Cinematic Arts; the major Hollywood studios: NBC-Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom/ Paramount Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.; Lucasfilm Ltd.; Cisco; Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc; and Thomson. Every company in the content creation, delivery and consumption space would benefit from being apart of the AACL. As such, we are talking to numerous candidates in the IT, mobile and consumer electronics sectors to bring in the full complement of voices.