philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

ABC executive: second screen apps can be a distraction

Second-screen apps used to be all the rage with TV executives just a few years ago, but Disney’s Digital EVP Albert Cheng’s network is moving away from the idea to complement shows with second screen experiences. “It’s not a game that we want to be in,” said Cheng at the Next TV Summit in San Francisco Wednesday.

ABC did a number of tests with second-screen applications that pushed out contextual information for shows like Grey’s Anatomy, and Cheng said that one of the lessons learned during those tests was that it just doesn’t matter enough to viewers. “It was interesting to viewers, but not essential,” he said. What’s more, when engagement did happen, it ended up taking people’s attention away from the show’s story. “Second screen becomes a distraction,” Cheng said.

He acknowledged that second-screen apps can work for some kinds of content, including sports, news, reality programming and awards shows. However, ABC’s main moneymaker is serialized content, so it just didn’t seem like a winning proposition, and monetization through ads seemed difficult. At some point ABC had to decide how to make money with the second screen, recalled Cheng, adding: “The answer is, you don’t.”

See the full story here: http://gigaom.com/2013/09/11/abc-executive-second-screen-apps-can-be-a-distraction/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=128f7f771d-c%3Amed+d%3A09-12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-128f7f771d-99190873

Singapore’s 3D printing industry could be the next big thing

Singapore's Economic Development Board has set aside S$500 million over the next five years to develop the three-dimensional (3D) printing sector.

However, some experts warn that too much available funding in a new venture could risk the formation of another industry bubble ready to burst.

See the full story here: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/singapore-s-3d-printing/809058.html

How Window Glass Is Getting Smarter

Heliotrope Technologies, an early-stage startup currently incubating at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, may have found the key to delivering the first cost-effective “smart window.” The company has developed a relatively inexpensive glass composite with the unprecedented capacity to selectively block the sun’s heat-producing infrared radiation as well as visible light. Buildings equipped with such glass could be more energy-efficient.

Two companies, View and Sage Electrochromics, have taken the lead in the fledgling industry.

The market for smart glass remains minuscule, however, and is mostly confined to niche applications like tintable rearview mirrors in cars. Demand for smart windows is low because the upfront costs are prohibitively high for most potential buyers.

An electrochromic window essentially works like a transparent rechargeable battery. Two pieces of conducting glass sandwich an electrolyte material, and changes in transmittance of the glass occur in response to electrochemical charging and discharging.

See the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/518821/how-window-glass-is-getting-smarter/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130909

When aggregators attack: Techmeme’s headline-rewriting is just part of a larger shift

“While most of the headlines we write will elevate details present in the story, we may on occasion even use a headline we write to challenge, correct, refute, or even undermine what we’re linking to, if we feel that gets our readers closer to the truth as we see it.”

But for me at least, this is just a small part of a much larger ongoing transformation in the way the media industry works, something we and others have been writing about for some time — namely, the rise of aggregators and middlemen, and the shifting balance of power between them and content creators.

Read the full story here: http://paidcontent.org/2013/09/06/when-aggregators-attack-techmemes-headline-rewriting-is-just-part-of-a-larger-shift/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=27ef4e9579-c%3Amed+d%3A09-09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-27ef4e9579-99190873

BSkyB Claims First 4K TV Satellite Broadcast

U.K. pay television provider BSkyB successfully demonstrated what it claims was the world’s first satellite broadcast done in 4K resolution. The event took place Aug. 31 and featured coverage of a soccer game between two British teams, Stoke City and West Ham. The match was linked via satellite to BSkyB’s main office and broadcasting facility located in Osterley (West London).

The action was captured with four Sony F55 cameras and originated from a outside broadcast van specially equipped for UHD production. A 2160 x 3840 resolution was used, with images sent at 50 frames per second. Two UHD video file servers from EVS provided replays and graphics. Content was sent via a Eutelsat transponder, with Ericsson encoding/decoding gear providing four separate HD “tiles” that were used to construct the full 4K image at BSkyB headquarters. Viewing was done on a Sony 84-inch UHD television set.

BSkyB officials made it clear that the transmission was intended only as a demonstration of technology in connection with sports broadcasts, not the launch of a new service. However, Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis did state that it proved that there is interest in UHD sporting events capture and may pave the way for future projects and services.

See the full story here: http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/bskyb-claims-first-k-tv-satellite-broadcast/221273

Online education… and zombies: AMC turns The Walking Dead into a free online course

The companies said the interdisciplinary course will use the show as a lens to examine topics like Maslow’s hierarchy, public health and pandemics and the science of hope.

“Others have focused on specific pedagogical models and approaches… [We wondered] how could we get a course with high numbers of users and engagement?” Instructure co-founder Brian Whitmer said in a briefing ahead of the announcement.  “We decided to see what a pop culture connection does to engagement.”

See the full story here: http://gigaom.com/2013/09/03/online-education-and-zombines-amc-turns-the-walking-dead-into-an-online-course/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=0a29c5a21c-c%3Amed+d%3A09-06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-0a29c5a21c-99190873

4K Ultra and the end of the world

It's too far from April First for April Fool's Day, so it must be getting close to Halloween, because LG Electronics is up to no good yet again.

After scaring the bejeezus out of elevator riders with monitors that made it appear the floor was falling out beneath them around Halloween last year, LG this year tricked job interviewers into believing their city had just been devastated by an apocalyptic meteor strike.

See the full story here: http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/article/218999/4K-Ultra-and-the-end-of-the-world?utm_source=NetWorld%20Alliance&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EMNADST09062013

‘The Optimist’: how Disney Imagineering is bringing alternate reality games to the mainstream

Announced last year, Living Worlds is a sort of Sundance screenwriting lab for participatory and transmedia projects; artists can submit their idea, and if they make the final cut they’ll have the opportunity to have their concept produced by the Imagineering team. "The real goal is to actually develop a community of storytellers that are going to be good at this kind of thing," Trowbridge says, "so what we’re trying to do is to find ways to provide energy, provide momentum, provide a body of experience for storytellers in that space."

Read the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/20/4639110/the-optimist-disney-imagineerings-push-to-bring-alternate-reality

Getty Announces New Program Lifting Restrictions on Use of Digital Images

The Getty announced today that it was lifting restrictions on the use of images to which the Getty holds all the rights or are in the public domain. Getty President and CEO Jim Cuno made the announcement in a post on The Iris, the Getty’s blog.

"As of today, the Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds all the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose," wrote Cuno, citing the new program.

As a result, there are roughly 4,600 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum available in high resolution on the Getty's website for use without restriction...

See the full press release here: http://news.getty.edu/press-materials/press-releases/getty-open-content-images.htm

This bracelet could replace your passwords, your car keys, and even your fingerprints

 Martin's startup, Bionym, is going public with its first device, the Nymi, after research and development that goes back more than 10 years. It centers on a person's electrocardiogram, a measure not of your heart rate but of the electrical activity generated by your heart. A person's ECG is dependent on the size, position, and physiology of their heart, and it's completely unique to every person. It's as unique to you as your fingerprint, and unlike your fingerprint you're not leaving your ECG on glasses or windows or cell phones everywhere you go. That ECG is what Bionym uses to identify you as you.

"We're really interested in how to create hyper-personalized experiences," he tells me, which includes everything from setting the ambient temperature when you walk into a room to remembering your particular settings on the washing machine. Couple that with the rudimentary gesture recognition in the bracelet, and Martin doesn't sound so crazy when he says we'll be able to unlock our car, open its trunk, and start playing our favorite radio station with just one flick of our wrist.

See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/3/4688162/bionym-nymi-could-replace-all-your-passwords