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[Tuesday at NAB]
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New Devices — the Present and the Future
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by Craig Johnston,
~ April 15, 2008
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TV TECHNOLOGY
Long before they show up in the consumer electronic stores in the mall, researchers study, tweak and then perfect devices that the rest of us will learn about perhaps a decade or more later.
Competition comes at broadcasters from many different directions: new technology, new listening devices and new habits of viewing. This makes it all the more critical that broadcasters have advanced knowledge of what’s coming next, and how to adapt the traditional broadcaster business model to make money serving these new media devices.
It is with those very concerns in mind that NAB will present the Super Session “New Devices, New Opportunities,” today, 10:30 a.m.–noon.
TIGHT SQUEEZE
Few are more qualified to distill the long view of communications technology into a cogent look into the future than keynote speaker Kevin Kahn, Intel senior fellow and director of the company’s Communications Technology Lab.
In addition to helping drive Intel’s communications strategies and policy company-wide, Kahn currently serves on the FCC Technological Advisory Council.
One of the areas Kahn will speak to is the hurdles the industry still faces in rolling out wireless radio.
“As more and more wireless radio technologies gain traction in the industry, for example Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and Bluetooth, there are a number of challenges of integrating all of the available radio systems into small, form-factor platforms,” he said.
“The integration of multiple radios and antennas into pocket-sized mobile Internet devices, and enabling intuitive and easy use of the radios by end-users are particularly challenging technical and usability issues.”
His group at Intel could well play a major role in enabling those barriers to be crossed. From his vantage point as director of the company’s Communications Technology Lab, Kahn is able to see the research, invention and development of technologies of which few of the rest of us have heard.
“Intel researchers are working on multiple technologies to enable ever smaller mobile Internet devices with ever increasing capabilities, connectivity, and battery life,” he said. “We envision a future where people carry their essential computing capability, data, and content everywhere they go in a pocket-sized device that is always connected to the Internet.”
HERE AND NOW
“Yet users should not be constrained by the small screen size and form factor of a pocket-sized device. Through high-speed short-range radio technologies, future mobile devices will adapt to the needs of individual users by discovering and interacting with other devices around them in innovative ways.”
Following Kahn’s speech, an executive panel will discuss new technology strategies that are actionable much sooner.
“The panelists will look ahead to the near future,” said John Marino, NAB vice president for Science & Technology. “They will discuss the challenges and opportunities for creating revenue in a non-traditional, highly mobile future.”
The panel will be moderated by Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer with BIA Financial Network Inc. Others on the panel are Brandon Burgess, chairman and chief executive officer of ION Media Networks; Gary Gannaway, chief executive officer of WorldNow; Jason Hirschhorn, president of Sling Media Entertainment Group; Tara Maitra, vice president and general manager of programming for TiVo; and David Wertheimer, executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.
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