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[Monday at NAB]
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Content — Ready, Set, Show!
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by Susan Ashworth,
~ April 14, 2008
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TV TECHNOLOGY
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There aren’t many sure bets in Las Vegas’ casinos. But if you ask a broadcaster, “What’s the single most important asset in your facility?,” you’ll likely get the same answer, each and every time.
That answer, undoubtedly, is content.
Broadcasters from around the world are flocking to the NAB Show to figure out how to get it, how to save it, how to sell it, how to send it.
Just how does this get accomplished? By knowing more than just the basics.
To effectively compete in today’s marketplace of sophisticated repurposing, broadcasters must walk the tricky paths between content creation and management, understand the ins-and-outs of content commerce, hone in on the best method of content distribution and delivery, and perhaps most importantly, push that precious content out to the end user through the most effective means of content consumption.
START AT THE BEGINNING
Content Creation — The newest solutions start with that very first step: the actual creation of content.
The NAB Show will showcase the myriad learning opportunities available for content creators with conferences like the three-day Post|Production World Conference, a training event for content creators; as well as the co-located RTNDA@NAB conference, targeted to radio and television news directors.
Likewise, much thought has been put into the technologies that broadcasters use to acquire content, and it’s evident that many new technologies keep in mind the twin goals of easing and simplifying the everyday realities of acquiring content.
New technologies have hit the market in recent years to eradicate the physical burdens of heavy handheld camera accessories with the introduction of lightweight models, from companies like Canon, Fujinon, Bogen and more. When it comes to simplifying the process of storing content while in the field, the industry has seen the introduction of solid-state memory cards from companies like Panasonic and Sony.
GETTING ORGANIZED
Content Management — When it comes to content management, the market offers a host of technologies that address media management issues. Solutions like those from OmniBus Systems address the end-to-end content process, as well as technologies designed to mange shipping and duplication duties, like solutions from ScheduALL or Xytech Systems.
“The move to digital media and subsequently to file-based media has changed the rules on how content is acquired, managed and tracked throughout its life,” said John Wadle, vice president for technology for OmniBus Systems. The company’s OPUS Content Suite is a collection of tools designed to track content from acquisition through play-to-air.
“The need to know where the media is located, now becomes ‘on which devices is the file stored?’” he said. As a result, tracking the status of that content — which previously had been annotated on a tape label or in a tape library database — is now part of the metadata associated with a logical item in the content management system, he said.
“Since physical media and annotation are no longer available, the content workflow becomes completely dependent on the content management system’s ability to keep track of this information,” Wadle said.
Content Commerce — Knowing the best ways to buy and sell content goes a long way toward strengthening the bottom line, whether that involves brokering new content deals, buying and selling assets, connecting distributors and programming owners, or shoring up new partnerships.
Attendees at the show will get a chance to do that and more with conferences such as Telecom2008: Building Your IPTV Business; a keynote address from Mark Shapiro, president of Six Flags, who will discuss the new interactive media venture, Six Flags Media Network; and a new commerce area designed to facilitate partnership opportunities.
Content Distribution — As more viewers demand to see repurposed content on mobile phones and handheld PDA devices, the content distribution and delivery arena has seen explosive change over the last 12 months. A host of new technologies are set to address this issue, like monitoring systems from Volicon, which enable broadcasters to capture and repurpose content in a variety of formats, and systems like those from FOR-A, which allows users to uniformly manage different media files so content can be repurposed.
“From camera master to edit, from archive to broadcast, today’s video content lives in a variety of compressed video formats in addition to baseband video,” said Susumu Hotta, president of FOR-A. “Our … products offer a gateway for many file formats to and from baseband video as well as conversion between file formats … [to make] broadcasters’ jobs just a little easier.”
Content delivery is also making headlines as attendees prep for the switchover to DTV. The industry is working to solidify a mobile TV standard to allow local broadcasters to send TV signals to handheld devices via the digital spectrum. Attendees will get an update of this progress in sessions like the Mobile TV and Video Summit, produced in partnership with iHollywood Forum, and the Podcasting Summit: Mobile Media for a New Audience, produced along with Future Media Concepts.
Content Consumption — When it comes to consumption of HDTV programming, the NAB Show marks a key milestone: this show is the last NAB convention before the full-power stations switch off analog over-the-air broadcasting. With HDTV sets in nearly 40 percent of U.S. homes, the technology has certainly found a loyal following. It was estimated that more than 2.4 million HDTV sets would be sold in anticipation of the 2008 Super Bowl in January, generating nearly $2.2 billion in HDTV sales.
As such, one of the most important links in this interconnected content life cycle comes at the very end: who is actually watching all this content we create? Technologies at the show, such as solutions from XOrbit, are designed to give content originators a chance to determine if that precious media made it to that last mile into the viewer’s home.
To top things off in the content arena, the show will feature a keynote address from author Alvin Toffler, who will touch on content delivery technologies, as well as host a new content theater with Q&A sessions and panel discussions. The convention even is debuting a new tagline — “NAB Show: Where Content Comes to Life” — to prove that, from top to bottom, this year’s convention is putting a brighter spotlight on the content community.
“The new theme brings into focus what the NAB Show has been for a long time — the leading venue for content creation and distribution across traditional and emerging platforms worldwide,” said Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president, Conventions & Business Operations. “It’s the premiere event to showcase content to those who buy, re-purpose, deliver and distribute content across every possible medium.”
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