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.
“I want my Google TV!” That’s the operational mantra these days at the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC). Funded in part by Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, and Warner Brothers—plus a number of equipment manufacturers and vendors—the ETC@USC serves as a dispassionate third-party evaluator of new entertainment technologies. That’s why the facility recently bought a Google TV set-top box and put it through its paces both by ETC@USC staff, USC students, and members of the general public.
Google TV browser
“At ETC@USC, our role is to think about and discover new entertainment technologies and usage paradigms,” said ETC@USC CEO and Executive Director David Wertheimer. “Helping the studios and our other member companies put in context Google’s entrance into the living room is what we do.”
THE BASICS
To “log onto” Google TV, the ETC@USC purchased a $400 Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc player with Google TV built-in. Branded as the NSZ-GT1, this box sits between the TV and the incoming broadcast signal feed; be it off-air, cable, or satellite. The NSZ-GT1 also connects to the user’s broadband Internet confection, either directly or via home network (wired or wireless).
“The Sony box is similar to Logitech’s version—the Logitech Revue—save for the fact that the NSZ-GT1 comes with the Blu-ray player; the Logitech does not,” said Bryan Gonzalez, ETC@USC’s Social & Digital Media Technology Labs Director. “With either Android OS-based box, you can surf the Web; access apps for NetFlix, Twitter, Pandora, and NBA Game Time; surf the Web and watch TV simultaneously; and use your HDTV as a giant digital picture frame.”
One thing you cannot do with Google TV is watch full Web-based episodes of TV shows from ABC, CBS and NBC. This is no technical issue: The Big Three networks are deliberately blocking Google TV access to these webcasts. The three networks are in “ongoing negotiations” to place their long-form content on Google TV, according to TV Technology sister publication, Broadcasting & Cable.
Online video service Hulu is also blocking Google TV access but is also in negotiations to bring onboard the Hulu Plus subscription service, according to the Wall Street Journal.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Before putting the set-top box in the ETC@USC lab—where it can be tested along with other web-based systems by researchers and consumers alike—Gonzalez set it up in his own home.
“The Sony NSZ-GT1 is fairly straightforward to install, in terms of instructions,” he tells TV Technology. “However, after spending 30-45 minutes configuring it, the box asked to download software updates. This I did; resulting in the system rebooting and requiring me to do the install all over again!”
Functionally, Sony’s Google TV system worked as advertised. Gonzalez was able to surf the Web while watching HDTV, access TV programs and music streams online, and generally enjoy the experienced of having both the Web and broadcast TV integrated into a single device. (The NSZ-GT1 comes with a QWERTY keyboard-equipped remote control, to support data entry.)
The Sony NSZ-GTI Blu-ray player with Google TV costs $399.99
His first impression? “Google TV is the type of technology that will appeal to the slightly tech-y consumer,” Gonzalez said. “Early adopters like myself already have separate Web-connected computers linked to their HDTVs. Google TV provides a similar experience, without the need to purchase and install a separate PC. That could appeal to a lot of consumers who want Web access in their living room, as long as it is easy to install.”
IMPLICATIONS FOR BROADASTERS
Wertheimer doesn’t foresee the Google/Big Three standoff continuing indefinitely. “The networks want consumers to view their shows, but need to be paid in some way that covers the costs of the shows being produced,” he says. “When Google and others providing programming can demonstrate a path or model, the networks will be all over it.”
Even when such a model is found, Wertheimer doesn’t expect conventional broadcasting to lose its pivotal money-making status for many years. “These things always take longer than anyone thinks,” he says. “I think broadcast TV will be alive and well for quite a long time, even as creators and distributors deliver on the viewer demand on new platforms.”
In the meantime, the ETC@USC will keep testing Google TV, Apple TV, and whatever other new technologies hit the market. “What Google TV is as a product is just the beginning,” Wertheimer said. “We try to think about how consumers might or might not take advantage of the capabilities of various devices to consume entertainment in new ways. We are especially interested in the intersection between social networking and entertainment—an area which is aided by devices like Google TV, and ultimately the apps that will be built upon platforms like it.”
As we leave Las Vegas and tie a bow around CES 2010, here are some general observations from the ETC reporting team:
The show had a super-dynamic feel. Last year, people were depressed and the event felt a bit empty. This year – despite speculation that the confab would suffer from lack of big announcements and the effects of a limping economy – the high level of energy surprised us. The show was slammed and there was a LOT of optimism in the air… and it was infectious.
As predicted, 3D was everywhere. It was perhaps even a bit more everywhere than people imagined. Last year’s backroom demos were this year’s front-of-booth highlights. DirecTV live 3D feeds and actual 3D Blu-ray discs playing on actual Full-HD 3D displays were in almost every major CE booth. There was also a lot of live 2D-3D conversion around – maybe disruptive or perhaps just a nice parlor trick for 3DTV buyers to show their friends.
Over-the-top Internet-connected devices were everywhere, too. Last year, we saw ethernet jacks in a few TVs from the CE companies and widgets, etc. on some Blu-ray players. This year, it’s gone mainstream. The majority of the sets from the major manufacturers have ethernet, EVERYTHING is connected, Skype is now available in HD for HDTVs and PCs, and even Vizio has a strong play with its huge line-up of affordable, easy-to-use, wireless networked TVs.
All of that said, there was no “Pet Rock” at the show – the single must-have gadget. The Best in Show award from CNET’s Best of CES awards went to Panasonic for its VT25 series of 3D-capable HDTVs…and NetShelter’s Last Gadget Standing top winner was the Boxee Box from D-Link that helps you share Internet content with your HDTV. But as Google and Apple had hoped for, everyone was talking about the Google Nexus One smartphone and the rumored-to-be-coming-later-this-month Apple Tablet, both of which were not at the show.
Tablet PCs, netbooks and e-readers with a wide variety of screen sizes and functionality took on a surprise presence at the show. We were particularly impressed with the enTourage eDGe, the first dualbook e-reader. This cool device flips open to two screens: the first is an LCD screen with the functionality of a tablet notebook and the second is an e-paper screen for reading, highlighting and annotating documents. We’ve just scratched the surface of possibilities with these affordable and increasingly popular devices (just think about the Kindle…).
Before we sign off, we’ve included a part 2 to our parting thoughts, a brief list of things to watch for in 2010. Be sure to check it out.
And it seems only fitting that we include one final video. Carolyn Giardina, one of our roving show floor reporters, wraps up her video coverage of CES by providing a brief overview of this year’s trends – from 3D everywhere to over-the-top tablet PCs to emerging technologies such as 4G networks.
Thanks for reading the blog for this year’s CES 2010. A special thank-you to ETC’s sponsors who make our work possible. We’re Leaving Las Vegas…
KC Blake, Sarah Blake, Carlos Crooks, George Gerba, Carolyn Giardina, Bryan Gonzalez, Frank Irving, Leander Kung, Phil Lelyveld, Edie Meadows, Paula Parisi, Mark Schroeder, Rob Scott, William Sheng, David Wertheimer, Joyce Yi
And our sponsor-contributors/tipsters:
Wendy Aylsworth, Bryan Ellenburg, Bob Kisor, Bob Lambert, Theron Trowbridge
As we hightail it out of Vegas with the desert dust settling behind us, the ETC reporting team would like to recommend a few things worth keeping your eyes open for in the upcoming year, based on our observations of CES 2010:
A revitalized industry-wide commitment to 3D. Fresh on the heels of theatrical successes (congratulations, Jim Cameron…) and the gradual adoption of other 3D screenings involving sports, stage performances, live music, etc. – the CE industry and content providers are tackling 3D for the home with renewed vigor:
– Watch for a slew of new 3D devices promised by nearly every major CE manufacturer, including (but certainly not limited to) 3D HDTVs, 3D Blu-ray players, and 3D-capable gaming systems.
– We’re looking forward to the first wave of 3D Blu-ray titles, especially “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” Sony Pictures Animation’s “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and DreamWorks’ “Monsters vs. Aliens.”
– Attendees at this year’s show were excited to hear announcements of planned 3D broadcasts and new 3D cable channels. Watch for ESPN3D to begin airing in June… and watch for the first 24/7 exclusively 3D channel to debut from Discovery, Sony and IMAX. Also, look for DirecTV live 3D like we saw on the show floor at Panasonic, LG and Samsung.
– In addition to the ongoing efforts we’ll be coordinating at ETC, we were thrilled to hear about new 3D testing facility commitments from the likes of CableLabs in Colorado and Testronic Labs in Burbank. Additionally, CBS is expanding its Television City consumer research facility located at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. CBS and Nielsen are partnering to add 3,000 square feet onto the existing facility, and Sony has promised to provide the initial 3D equipment. We should also mention that the MPEG Industry Forum has created a new 3DTV Working Group, that held its first meeting during CES.
Touch screens, netbooks and tablet PCs were rampant at this year’s show, with speculation and promise of a slew of new products in development. Not surprising, it seems that portability, cost, functionality and connectivity are at the forefront. And with an increasing demographic growing reliant on the touch screens so popular with iPhones and similar devices, we should expect to see an impact on nearly all CE products.
Will time prove that Google and Apple were wise not to debut the Nexus One and Apple Tablet (whatever it will be called) at CES? Google’s new Android smartphone marks the company’s first foray into hardware and could wind up protecting the company’s dominance in online advertising. But will its self-proclaimed “superphone” with speech recognition take on Apple’s iPhone over time and help expand Google’s reach from the PC to the mobile world? And what impact will the Apple Tablet have, if any, on the array of tablet PCs showcased at CES? We’ll be watching this race carefully this year.
Over-the-top connected services will take on a new dynamic. When this theme emerged at last year’s show it was little more than a conversation, but by CES 2010 things had really taken flight with Net-connected TVs and widgets from the likes of Vizio and LG, among others. By next year’s CES, we expect it will be difficult to find a TV or device that doesn’t connect to the Internet via ethernet or wireless. And the number and types of over-the-top products and services that begin to crop up in 2010 should be really interesting to watch.
Gestural interfaces still had a presence at this year’s show and may integrate with a new direction in CE devices. Last year, we saw the first gestural interfaces from pioneering companies such as PrimeSense. During 2009, we saw Microsoft announce and demo to universal acclaim “Project Natal”, based on PrimeSense’s chipset. And if the Wii has revolutionized and democratized games by providing two points of information (from the IR controllers), gestural interfaces potentially bring millions of points of information into the equation without asking people to have a remote control. Watch this trend… It’s going to be big.
Keep thinking about LTE and 4G. Even though they didn’t have an enormous presence at the show, these are technologies that should start to play out in the next 12 months. For example, ZyXEL showed its fixed LTE router for the home. The router will enable operators to offer high-speed Internet service to the home via cellular networks with data rates up to 50Mbps throughput. There were several other LTE/4G products on the floor including products from LG and Samsung. In addition, Sprint, Verizon and AT&T have all announced network upgrades to support these systems. This is a big trend to watch for 2010 and you can bet that next year at the show LTE/4G will be a hot topic.
Better Organization, Search and Discovery. The myriad over-the-top services cropping up at the show this year creates a double-edged sword for consumers. So many ways to get content (now on your TV), so few ways to easily find it. The explosion of over-the-top and new access-enabling options (e.g. DECE and KeyChest) will highlight a void and an opportunity for companies to make super-simple search, discovery, and access to all your digital content. This should begin to be a major theme in 2010.
And finally, keep a close watch on multifunction AV data cabling. Probably not the sexiest theme at the show, but one that will be paramount to a new generation of connected devices. Intel garnered a lot of attention when it touted its Light Peak high-speed optical cable technology that can achieve data rates of 10GB per second. And if you thought HDMI made connections simpler, wait until you see HDBaseT… The demo we saw from an Israeli company called Valens was of a single Cat-5 ethernet cable carrying power, uncompressed 1080p video, ethernet, and control data. Very impressive.
We’re sure there will be a few surprises in store for us in 2010, but these are the technologies and trends this year’s show has us excited about as we start the new year.
Thanks for reading the blog for this year’s CES 2010. A special thank-you to ETC’s sponsors who make our work possible. We’re Leaving Las Vegas…
KC Blake, Sarah Blake, Carlos Crooks, George Gerba, Carolyn Giardina, Bryan Gonzalez, Frank Irving, Leander Kung, Phil Lelyveld, Edie Meadows, Paula Parisi, Mark Schroeder, Rob Scott, William Sheng, David Wertheimer, Joyce Yi
And our sponsor-contributors/tipsters:
Wendy Aylsworth, Bryan Ellenburg, Bob Kisor, Bob Lambert, Theron Trowbridge
In a post entitled “LG hits 3D, Connected Displays, and More“ on January 9, we mistakenly reported that “LG has the only booth on the show floor displaying a live DirecTV 3D broadcast.”
Since DirecTV was broadcasting live at multiple locations during the show through a partnership with Panasonic, the correct description should have read: “Like Panasonic and Samsung, LG was showing a live DirecTV 3D broadcast.”
We caught the error in time to correct the blog post, but neglected to change the wording in the ‘excerpt’ field that feeds to our daily email alerts and public site. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
Sling Media is showing a number of new products designed to support and enhance the remote content viewing experience.
The company is offering through the Dish Network a 15-inch Wi-Fi monitor that can be carried around the house. It receives content through the consumer’s home Wi-Fi network. A complementary device, the Sling Receiver, uses the consumer’s in-home wireless network to “sling” content to rooms that don’t have wired network connections.
The Sling Touch Control is a remote control with a built-in touch screen. It allows the user to access all of the Slingbox menu capabilities, from programming the DVR to searching for content, without the need to display the menu on the primary TV screen and disturb the other people in the room who are watching TV.
TDVision is highlighting technology for acquisition through display of stereoscopic 3D.
“It’s gratifying to see that we are heading for a massive adoption of 3D in the home,” said the company’s chief marketing officer Ethan Schur. “We have to movie forward responsibly with compatibility and choice.”
Key announcements from TDVision include:
– Magnum Semiconductor teamed with TDVision Systems to launch a realtime 3D encoding and decoding system. It uses Magnum’s DXTPro chips to encode a pair of 1920×1080 streams into the H.264 format, and Magnum’s DXT chips to decode and playback video streams up to 1080i/1080p60.
– CyberLink’s PowerDVD video player software, which is integrated with TDVision’s 2D+Delta decoding technology, offers full HD 3D video decoding capabilities.
LG is showing a number of 3D content types in its booth’s ‘3D aisle.’
Like Panasonic and Samsung, LG was showing a live DirecTV 3D broadcast. They were also showing one of the first Blu-ray discs — Disney trailers encoded to the new BD 3D spec. Conference-goers can have their photos taken with the Fuji 3D still camera and see them immediately displayed on a 55-inch 3D LCD display.
A small theater in the back of the booth is demonstrating the CF3D, a single lens 3D projector good for home theater and business applications (MSRP ~$10,000). Behind the single lens are 6 LCOS chips, two lamps, and two engines. A camera sensor on the front of the unit monitors the projected image and automatically adjusts the brightness and alignment of the left and right eye images.
All LG displays 32-inches or greater will be IP-enabled. LG is demonstrating a Skype videoconferencing system that will be built into some displays and be an add-on option in others.
Displays with the Magic Motion user interface allow the user to navigate menus and play games using a simple motion-tracking wand remote. Some of LG’s Web-connected displays will access AccuWeather and adjust their menu background to reflect outside weather and daylight conditions.
LG has agreements with DivxTV, Pandora, YouTube, CinemaNow, GraceNote, Vudu and others. All of their Blu-ray players will access those services.
ZAGG (“Zealous about Great Gadgets”) is previewing its ZAGGbox, which a company rep described as a sort of Slingbox, DVR and AppleTV in one. It is a single device that essentially serves as a digital media center/aggregator with 1 TB hard drive that can record, store, and play media.
Intended to operate as a universal remote, it can hook up, for instance, a set-top box and Blu-ray player.
The ZAGGbox automatically reads and transcodes any video codec into two formats at one time—one for television viewing and one for the iPhone/iPod.
An iPhone app provides control on the iPhone platform, and ZAGG is developing similar apps for other mobile devices.
Future features include the ability to use the ZAGGbox for home security systems, door locks, or lighting. It is slated to ship during the first week of April for under $1,000.
With all the emphasis at the show regarding connected televisions and over-the-top 3rd party services, it stands to reason that cable/satellite operators are beginning to rethink their offerings.
Enter GooMe, a small company we found in a whisper suite showing off a slick white label interface called mcube that acts as a central management system for creating a unified user experience across multiple platforms.
The system allows users to seamlessly switch between digital broadcast channels, VOD, Web content, home media and interactive games while providing personalized experience for specific users. They were also touting their ability to provide direct advertising and content recommendations based on user profiles. The functionality was impressive and the interface was quick and intuitive.
GooMe is hoping to license its technology for use in operator provided set-top boxes. For more info, visit GooMe.com or contact Moshe Zimmerman at moshe@goome.com
ETC has a variety of other sponsors, including Dolby, LG, Master Image, Panasonic, RealD, Technicolor, Thales, Singapore IDA. Click Here to learn how to join!
This information is for private use by the members of the ETC and
is not for publication. The opinions expressed on this blog do not
represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of any of ETC's
sponsors, people, institutions or organizations that may or may not be
related to the ETC.
No Comments » | 
3D News, Blog, David Wertheimer, Digital Content on TV, Distribution, Events, NABShow | 
Permalink
Posted by Phil Lelyveld
The show had a super-dynamic feel. Last year, people were depressed and the event felt a bit empty. This year – despite speculation that the confab would suffer from lack of big announcements and the effects of a limping economy – the high level of energy surprised us. The show was slammed and there was a LOT of optimism in the air… and it was infectious.
A revitalized industry-wide commitment to 3D. Fresh on the heels of theatrical successes (congratulations, Jim Cameron…) and the gradual adoption of other 3D screenings involving sports, stage performances, live music, etc. – the CE industry and content providers are tackling 3D for the home with renewed vigor:
Touch screens, 
In a post entitled “
The company is offering through the 
All LG displays 32-inches or greater will be IP-enabled. LG is demonstrating a 
Intended to operate as a universal remote, it can hook up, for instance, a set-top box and Blu-ray player.
Enter 
