Adaptive Production and AI were front and center for The Entertainment Technology Center@USC at this year’s NAB Show on April 10th.  Under the NXT Tech Symposium, 3 sessions programmed by our Adaptive Production director, Seth Levenson, discussed current state, findings, and perspectives.

Preservation in the Cloud
9:00 AM – 10:20 AM

The cloud allows for revolutionary gains in speed, flexibility, and collaboration, but the supposed benefit of “weightless” and “floating” data poses a challenge of preservation. When the infrastructure is no longer under your control, how can you be certain that what you sent to the cloud is what you’ll get back later? This session discussed opportunities and challenges from both a content owner and cloud service provider perspective.

• Andrea Kalas, SVP, Archiving, Paramount Pictures
• Denis Leconte, VP, Technology, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services
• Seth Levenson, Director, Adaptive Production, ETC@USC
• Adam Skewgar, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Azure

Production in the Cloud
10:40 AM – 12:00 PM

Production in the cloud is still in its infancy, yet new capabilities are constantly evolving out of this technology all the time. New tools and features are just part of our future in production. We have begun to re-examine how we view this process at a fundamental level. This session discussed game-changing tools and new paradigms surrounding production in the cloud.

• Bob Eicholz, CTO, Technicolor
• Kevin Kim, Principal Product Manager, Emerging Services, Equinix
• Adrian Graham, Cloud Solutions Architect, Google
• Jim Donovan, SVP, Product, Wasabi Technologies, Inc.
• Erik Weaver, Global Director, M&E Market Development, Western Digital

Quantum Computing
1:30 PM – 2:50 PM

Quantum computing is going to change the landscape of Media & Entertainment. Aside from better AI and faster rendering, it’s also going to replace all the key based security that M&E (and most industries) have relied on to protect our content and systems. This session provided a primer on quantum computing as well as insights on where we are, where we’re going, and how its application will impact the industry.

• Yves Bergquist, AI Researcher/Director, AI & Neuroscience in Media, ETC@USC
• Seth Levenson, Director, Adaptive Production, ETC@USC
• Bibek Pokharel, Director, Quantum Information, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
• Jeff Welser, VP & Lab Director, Research, IBM

Click here for more information.

The Adaptive Production project directed by Seth Levenson at ETC formed subcommittee-style working groups for specialized focuses within the field of adaptive production. Testing implementation and feasibility of specialized projects, these groups, who meet regularly, are comprised of ETC’s current member companies and industry leaders.

The Blockchain working group, co-chaired by Randy Zhang, senior solutions architect at Cisco, investigates potential applications of blockchain in M&E. Specific deliverables include where blockchain is applicable, where blockchain may be applicable with new technology, and where it is not applicable at all. Upcoming projects include crew/contractor identity, “two-factor timecards” (using blockchain for on set/location crew), and supply chain auditing.

Co-chaired by SVP of Archiving at Paramount Pictures, Andrea Kalas, the Archiving working group researches new technologies in the realm of improving long-term storage of M&E assets. This working group will develop the best practices for cloud preservation through defining “fixity” in the cloud, studying self-healing (dealing with a failed health check), and providing transparency to users by requiring reporting from cloud providers. Future projects will look at  DNA/Glass storage as well as best practices for what should be archived.

The Cloud Platforms group has created the VFX Standards Subcommittee, which is chaired by Horst Sarubin, director of production technology at Universal Pictures.  This subcommittee is working on the best practices and delivery standards for VFX including: file naming conventions, asset interoperability, I/O standards, metadata fidelity, and verbal buy-in from the industry. The parent working group explores the next generation of cloud implementations for production and distribution. Future projects include metadata across the production workflow (AI for data normalization), cloud service abstraction (with a focus on storage and file management), and single-source file access (using URLs rather than files as part of the production workflow).