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NAB2007: The Year of the YouTube Effect by Deborah D. McAdams, ~ April 16, 2007 Deborah D. McAdams is the Managing Editor of TV Technology Magazine. Ask vendors to characterize this year’s NAB convention, and it’s all about hi-def, or file-based workflows, or bit-rates, compression; cell phones, 5.1 audio, IPTV, the DTV transition deadline, or YouTube. Especially YouTube. “I’ve been suggesting for years that the organization consider changing its name to the National Association of Mediacasters,” said Rush Beesley, president of RushWorks, an automation outfit in Carrolton, Texas. “Radical? Yes. Timely? Probably. The bottom line is money, and with companies like YouTube selling for well over $1 billion ... there has to be an exciting sense of ‘hey, I can do that!’ And ‘that’ can be done with a trivial investment.” TALK OF THE INDUSTRY Of all the events over the last year that resonated within the broadcast industry, the sale of YouTube, a user-generated video-posting site, to Google for $1.65 billion, got everyone’s attention. This was in a year when Congress set a loophole-free end date on analog broadcasting, phone companies launched fiber-optic TV service, and companies like Wal-Mart started selling movies online. YouTube nevertheless was the game changer. It represented a watershed acceptance of both amateur productions and Internet video in general, which will have far-reaching consequences across the A/V equipment industry. “We’ll certainly be responding with an Internet ‘automation appliances’ in the very near future,” Beesley said. Cameron Francis, CEO of Norwegian router maker Network Electronics U.S. division, said the rise of Internet video will drive improvements in compression schemes. “People will eventually expect to see a similar quality over the Internet as they do on their flat screens,” he said. Teri Zastrow of Ikegami envisioned the same demand for quality driving HD acquisition. “Quality is paramount here,” she said. “The better the quality of the original video, the better it will look after it’s been edited, compressed and passed through the Internet.” For Mark Gray, the YouTube effect represents an opportunity in retro media. Gray is president of SAMMA Systems, a New York-based media preservation firm. “There is an infinite amount of broadcast content sitting on analog tapes that needs to be transferred onto digital files to be monetized, and that’s what we do,” he said. In many cases, the YouTube effect is driving companies along their more-or-less traditional trajectories. For instance, storage and traffic aren’t significantly different across various distribution platforms, said Steve Krant, vice president of sales and marketing for Sundance, the Dallas-based automator owned by Avid. ACROSS PLATFORMS “It still requires digital storage of content and reliable means to catalog, retrieve and play-to-air — or whatever — and report back to the billing office,” he said. “That’s what broadcast automation does for a living.” Similarly, Vizrt, the graphics gear company in Bergen, Norway, is simply adapting to the medium. “Our approach is to enable higher quality content on more platforms while retaining the same creation process for content producers,” said Dr. François Laboirie, vice president of product marketing at Vizrt. “This includes Internet video content.” Ascent Media Network Services is already hip-deep in IP distribution and content repurposing. Internet video just adds to the momentum, said Ascent Senior Vice President of Technology Stavros Hilaris. Even companies with products that have no direct contact with the Internet are feeling the YouTube effect. Mayville Products Corp. is a rack maker in Mayville, Wisc. “Internet video is a driver for our overall business,” said Dan Eder, president of the company. “More servers, either at the ISP or broadcaster means more rack and cabinet needs.” Maria Porco’s company, X2O Media Inc. in Montreal, Quebec, makes digital signage. “We have had requests from customers wishing to display Internet video on screens,” she said, “so it’s definitely having an impact.” Even at CoolTouch Monitors in Marina Del Ray, Calif., Vice President Cian de Buitler does not discount the YouTube effect. “As an LCD manufacturer, only a small portion of our business is with streaming media, and even less can be correlated with Internet video,” he said. “However, indirectly, it will eventually make itself felt for us. If the traditional broadcast market does not adequately adapt to the rise of Internet video and positively leverage its advantages of an increased content pool and unprecedented delivery opportunities, it will inevitably lead to lower engineering budgets due to competition.” Quelle: NAB Daily News |
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| aus der Diskussion: | VIZRT - Infosammlung |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | troi7 (16.05.07 21:26:57) |
| Beitrag: | 10 von 80 (ID:29350470) |
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