Broadcasting ‘must reinvent itself rapidly'

Broadcasting ‘must reinvent itself rapidly’
Chris Forrester

Mark Selby, VP Multimedia at Nokia, says TV, if it is to survive, must reinvent itself rapidly.

Selby is speaking at the upcoming Broadcasting 2017 conference in London (BAFTA, September 27), which looks at the state of broadcasting ten years from now. Selby continued: “The economic, cultural and political implications of failure would be immense. The reinvention is possible but is the appetite for change sufficient?"

Mr Selby’s extensive background at Nokia perfectly qualifies him to speak on the importance of TV to mobiles. But recent experience shows that not all is well in this sector. The collapse of the British Telecom-backed Movio service which forced Virgin Mobile to curtail its own limited TV offering shows that lessons still need to be learnt. Greater education for the consumer on the benefits of video to handsets is also needed.

Mr Selby will also take part in an all-important revenue panel that contains Patrick Parodi, head of amobee mobile advertising, and Robin Truchy, a director at XBox Live Europe. - (c) Rapid TV News 2007

A Comeback in 3-D, but Without Those Flimsy Glasses

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March 1, 2007

By JEFF LEEDS

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 — A little past the two-minute mark, the music video for Gwen Stefani’s recent single, “Wind It Up,” finds her chained to a fence while a flurry of bubbles and snowflakes float by. Viewed from a certain perspective — that is, through 3-D glasses — it is a dreamlike moment in which the flurry seems close enough to touch.

The video begins with Ms. Stefani yodeling, a homage to “The Sound of Music,” one of the her favorite films. But the idea of adding the bubbles and snow came from an unlikely source: James Cameron, the director behind effects-laden hits like “The Terminator” and “Titanic,” who visited Ms. Stefani’s set last October and shot a separate version of the video with 3-D equipment.

“I had mentioned to the director that any kind of atmospheric effects like snow or rain usually play in 3-D,” Mr. Cameron recalled.

While “Wind It Up” was not initially planned as a 3-D video, Ms. Stefani probably won’t be the last recording artist to follow Mr. Cameron’s lead.

As part of a newly created venture, Mr. Cameron is working with Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of the Interscope Geffen A&M record label, to produce music films, concerts and other content in 3-D to show in specially equipped theaters. Mr. Iovine and Mr. Cameron hope to deliver their first production by summer.

The two acknowledge that they have yet to work out many details: they say they don’t know how many productions will be created or which artists will be featured, but the idea has been discussed with Interscope artists including Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. Many music fans may be too young to recall the last time 3-D was in vogue: the 1980s, when hordes donned flimsy multihued glasses to watch “Jaws 3” and other attractions.

But the latest version of the technology has Hollywood buzzing again, particularly since 3-D showings of animated fare like “Chicken Little” have racked up impressive sales. Mr. Cameron is at work on a $200 million 3-D feature titled “Avatar.”

Mr. Iovine and Mr. Cameron are aware of the odds of changing consumer behavior. They are wagering that fans will be willing to trek to a movie theater and pay perhaps a few dollars more than the price of a regular ticket to see their favorite stars on the big screen and in 3-D. The glasses now resemble standard sunglasses, and musicians may be able to make their own designs.

The venture, led by the film producer Gene Kirkwood, also represents a distinctive take on what both the music-video and the concert can be. If it works, the partners said, fans could experience a concert as if they were on stage next to U2’s guitarist, the Edge, or see the members of Kiss in full makeup perform a pyrotechnic show seemingly right in front of them, all for a fraction of the price of seeing a headline act on tour.

“What it does is put you, the audience, right there with the performer onstage, in their creative reality,” Mr. Cameron said recently during a break in production from “Avatar.” “The whole idea of a concert may change.”

Mr. Iovine and Mr. Cameron have discussed with executives at Harrah’s Entertainment setting up a night club in Las Vegas where visitors would be surrounded by 3-D images and watch 3-D performances, though no deal has been struck.

Mr. Iovine also said that 3-D performances could become a new way for artists to build ties to their fans and generate much-needed revenue for the ailing music business.

“The record industry has to have lots of different revenue streams, and this just looks like one that’s creatively cool,” Mr. Iovine said. “And you can’t download it. You can’t get it anyplace else.”

Universal Studios parks itself in Korea

Universal Studios parks itself in Korea

By Carl DiOrio - The Hollywood Reporter

May 23, 2007

USKOR & Associates has nabbed exclusive rights to develop a Universal Studios theme park in Korea.

A site-selection review has been launched, with plans targeting a resort-style theme park development comparable in size and scope to Uni's biggest domestic parks, officials said.

"It has been my longtime dream to establish a Universal Studios theme park resort in Korea," USKOR vice chairman Simon Hwang said. "And the (exclusive option agreement) is an important step toward the fulfillment of that dream."

Universal Parks & Resorts chairman and CEO Thomas Williams said the Korea market boasts several attractive demographics, including a well-heeled consumer public and high entertainment industry growth.

"Korea has ideal conditions for a global theme park like Universal Studios," Williams said.

USKOR will be responsible for arranging full financing for the project as well as obtain governmental and public support, officials said. POSCO E&C has inked a letter of intent to join a USKOR-led consortium as the rightsholder's first strategic partner.

USKOR president Frank Stanek is 4a 0-year veteran of entertainment and theme parks, including various roles in the development of such resorts as Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan.

"In Korea, all the global theme park development projects announced so far have revolved around selection of a specific site before creation of a consensus with citizens, often resulting in the derailment of such projects," Stanek said.

USKORs "open-dialogue-based development approach" will better serve the project by forming investor-group agreement on site selection and other issues, officials said.

NBC Universal wholly owns Universal Studios Hollywood and holds a "significant" interest in Universal Orlando. NBC Uni also maintains licensing agreements for Universal Studios Japan in Osaka and Universal Mediterranean near Barcelona.

License agreements also have been announced for Universal Studios Dubailand in Dubai and Universal Studios Singapore.

Links referenced within this article

Find this article at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/international/news/e3i56be83607abfbbd09614705cd724cbe5

Private equity changing face of film industry

Private equity changing face of film industry By Scott Roxborough and Jonathan Landreth - The Hollywood Reporter May 23, 2007 Complete coverage from Cannes: News, reviews, video and more CANNES -- Private equity has transformed the U.S. film industry. Players like Relativity Media, which invested in slates at Sony and Universal; Dune Entertainment, which is backing films at 20th Century Fox; and Merrill Lynch, which is close to funding the new Tom Cruise-headed United Artists, are underwriting the major studios. But with the U.S. market stuffed with hedge fund cash, equity groups are looking abroad for investment opportunities in the media space. Where and how the big players decide to invest could radically reshape the industry in Europe and Asia. While hedge funds are famously tight-lipped about what investments they are eying, the difference between the international and U.S. markets suggest that private equity strategies will take a different form abroad. "Hedge funds are interested in volume and there is no one company in Europe or Asia that can deliver a slate of $30 million-$40 million pictures," said Brian Gilmore, principal at investment banker house Capitoline Global Finance. "So what you are seeing is funds looking at assets -- companies they can buy and merge with others to get the volume they need." The pre-Cannes fusion of European sales groups Celluloid Dreams and HanWay to create Dreamachine is a deal that is being watched closely by private equity groups as a possible model for future cross-border hookups. "I really like the Dreamachine deal, it looks very smart," the director of film finance at one of Europe's leading national banks told The Hollywood Reporter. "Alone, neither of these companies was big enough to be able to go to the next level, to access financing to do big pictures. Together, they should have the volume to access debt financing, enough to get backing for slates of pictures in the $10 million-$40 million range." Because of the Byzantine system of film financing in Europe -- with complicated national tax structures and state subsidies, many observers see outside equity buying into distribution-based companies rather than production houses. "We've been approached by equity firms that like the idea of a company that has all the separate parts of the distribution chain in house," said Andreas Klein, CEO of German indie Splendid, which bundles theatrical, DVD, TV sales and synchronization duties under one corporate roof. Similarly, in Asia, investment banks and hedge funds are targeting whole companies. With backing by ABN-AMRO, Fireworks International recently paid $50 million for a 36% stake in Taewon Entertainment of South Korea. Fireworks has committed an additional $50 million in various forms to, among other things, help Taewon buy into CGI companies in the region. "Taewon is our Korean partner and our film partner," said David Roberts, managing director and head of Asian Equities for ABN-AMRO, adding that the equity investment is aimed at helping Taewon to become a leader in making Hollywood films with an "Asian feel." That isn't to say no one is investing directly in foreign film slates. The Weinsteins have set up a $285 million fund, with the help of Goldman Sachs, to invest in movies with Asian themes and elements. The fund will be used to finance the production, acquisition and marketing of about 31 Asian films to be distributed by the Weinstein Co. over six years. And at Cannes, principals in the fledgling Hong Kong-based A3 Intl. Film Fund declared their intentions to begin to raise $100 million during the next three months for the purpose of making 30 Asian films with varying budget levels during the next five years. European production companies with a strong track record -- like Luc Besson's Europa Corp. ("Arthur and the Invisibles," "Taxi," "The Transporter") or the U.K.'s Big Talk Productions ("Hot Fuzz," "Shaun of the Dead") could also be targets for big-pocketed funds. "This is all about making quality product that will sell internationally," Capitoline exec Gilmore says. "It's about giving the Luc Bessons or Pedro Almodovars of the world -- who can deliver the quality -- the capital to take it to the next level. Whether that's by buying assets or debt-financing foreign slates is going to vary from territory to territory and company to company."

China Film Group digitizing 2,000 screens

China Film Group digitizing 2,000 screens

By Jonathan Landreth - The Hollywood Reporter

May 31, 2007

BEIJING -- State-run moviemaking giant China Film Group Corp. plans to build about 2,000 digital cinemas in a new joint venture partnership with the country's leading steelmaker, Shougang Steel, company executives said Wednesday.

Dubbed China Film Group & Shougang Digital Cinema Building Co. Ltd., the joint venture, first unveiled to local media last week, believes the use of digital cinema technology will help stem some of China's rampant movie piracy problem.

Last year, about 93% of the discs sold in China were illegal copies, costing moviemakers upward of $2.6 billion in lost ticket sales, according to MPA estimates.

"The goal of our cooperation is to build digital cinemas across the country," Han Sanping, CFGC's board chairman told the official Xinhua news agency. "We will build about 2,000 new digital screens before the end of 2008."

Zhang Wenxi, Shougang's culture department chief, confirmed the China Film partnership in an interview but declined to offer financial details of the deal or detail how the joint venture plans to achieve its goal in a year when Beijing is set to host the Summer Olympics.

A ban on construction in the capital is expected to go into effect before the games begin on Aug. 8, 2008.

China now has about 3,000 modern movie screens, only 124 of which were digital in 2005, according to a recent report from the Nielsen Co. and Screen Digest. The number of digital screens in China rose from just 93 in 2004, with growth led by China Film, with 91 digital screens, and Stellar Film, with 27.

China Film's digital screens account for roughly half of their total 180 screens, a total that makes it the second-largest distributor in the country after Shanghai United Cinema Circuit, the report said.

Both groups began installing digital cinema systems in 2002 once the government's plan to encourage digital cinema began to take shape.

CFGC released 39 digital films in 2006, earning 120 million yuan ($15.38 million) at the boxoffice, company data shows.

In June 2006, China Film signed an exclusive 30-year deal with Archer Entertainment Media Communications to digitize screens across China, the Nielsen report said. As part of the deal, Archer gained rights to redevelop cinema venues and to control all aspects of digital production, distribution and exhibition.

In November, Warner Bros. International Cinema pulled out of China after four years when new government rules limited the company to holding a minority share in the theaters they were building.

It was not clear how the China Film deal with Archer will relate to the new partnership with Shougang, which, according to general manager Wang Qinghai, is expanding into electronics, architecture, shipping, finance, media and culture, Xinhua reported.

The China Film-Shougang deal is not the first pairing of unlikely partners in China's burgeoning media and culture business.

Last week at the Festival de Cannes, JA Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of alternative energy firm the Jian Group, said it will begin shooting its first five feature films this summer (HR 5/20).

New 3D Display Technology - In the O.R.

Thu 6 Sep 2007

New 3D Display Technology

Posted by Steven F. Palter, MD under Technology, Endoscopic Surgery, Visualization, Future, camera, Medical Devices, Device Company, future vision, surgery, HDTV

this sure beats the old system!

Better for Creature Features than the OR

Phillips just demo’d an intriguing display at the Berlin consumer-electronics show. It is an amalgam of 9 x 42-inch displays on a grid creating a 132 inch display that reportedly can display 3D images without the need for glasses.

Why this is so important: 3D display technology is badly needed for endoscopic surgery. In order to see in 3D you need stereo vision which requires 2 separate images taken from slighly different angles and them superimposed. You body does this with your 2 eyes slighly separate on your face. In traditional laparoscopic surgery there is a single telescope and a single camera so all the images are in 2D. Unfortunately, depth perception is lost. How does the surgen operate then? What heppens with training and practice is that your brain picks up and other clues primarily shadowing and touch perception from your hands and the surgeon becomes able to interpolate a 3D space even though all of the visual skills are mising. This is one of the hardest if not the hardest step to learn when I teach surgeons to first perform laparoscopic surgery and some people just have a much harder time than others. Interestingly, with HD displays there is a pseudo-enhancement of depth perception that engineers and visual scientists tell me is due to the enhanced color fidelity and resolution and shadowing which allows the brain to pick up more 3D clues of the space from the 2D image! Still, the lack of true 3D data increases the difficulty of the procedures especially complex ones requiring suturing.

What is available today: Currently there are some attempts to address this limitation. They have required the use of head mounted displays with separate displays for each eye and separate imaging chips or lenses on the scopes but these have been heavy and cumbersome to use. Others such as some of the robotic solutions have immersed the surgeon’s head in a remote 2-panel display station but this also is a very complex solution. For years I have seen many many attempts at no-glasses 3D displays from various companies but all suffered from narrow viewing angles or poor resolution or other design issues.

2d

How this solution works. This is a display technology that they call 2D + depth. In order to generate a 3D image, the display requires a regular 2D representation of the image and a depth-map. This depth-map indicates the distance between each pixel and the viewer. The 2D image and the depth-map are used to create images on the screen, and these images are then merged by the viewer’s brain into a 3D sensation.

Lenticular Screen: The system works with lenses on the screen that provide a slgly different view for each eye (without the red-green glasses of the 50’s). A sheet of transparent lenses, is fixed on an LCD screen. This sheet sends different images to each eye, and so a person sees two images. These two images are combined by our brain, to create a 3D effect.

I’ll have to get ahold of one of these displays to see if it holds promise for the OR…

3-D-ready screens popping out all over - Aug 16, 2007

3-D-ready screens popping out all over

By Carolyn Giardina

Aug 16, 2007

The Walt Disney Co.'s October rerelease of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3-D digital cinema proved a success, playing in 168 theaters and grossing $8.7 million. It even ran in some venues until New Year's Day.

On Oct. 19, Disney again is rereleasing the film, but this year the studio is planning for a four-week run in about 600 theaters.

The 3-D-ready screens then will be needed to accommodate the debut of Paramount Pictures' 3-D "Beowulf" on Nov. 16, says Chuck Viane, president of distribution at Disney. "I would say within 12-18 months the marketplace will take care of itself," he says. "While the initial (3-D) installations are going on, you have to be quite cognizant of what is available to you in 3-D."

This shift could mark the arrival of a new stage in the 3-D digital-cinema movement.

Big titles are driving installations. Paramount estimates there will be 1,000 3-D-ready screens for "Beowulf," but that figure is skewed as it counts film-based Imax screens as well as digital installations from Real D and Dolby Digital Cinema. For digital 3-D releases, 3-D provider Real D is more optimistic, saying that it expects to exceed 1,000 screens in the fall. Dolby, which announced a 3-D digital-cinema system in March at ShoWest, is testing its technology in theaters and plans to roll out in time for "Nightmare" and "Beowulf." The company did not yet have screen-count figures.

Says John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners: "We are very bullish on 3-D and digital cinema. But filmmakers and distributors have to be realistic about the pace of integration when scheduling their movies for release."

This topic caught some attention recently when DreamWorks Animation's 3-D "Monsters vs. Aliens" was scheduled to open May 15, 2009 -- one week shy of Fox's James Cameron-helmed 3-D feature "Avatar." But this is not the only example as 2009 might see about 10 major 3-D digital releases.

"I think the biggest challenge is how quickly (2-D) digital cinema is going to roll out, that appears to be on a good track right now," Real D president Joshua Greer says. "As we get closer, I believe release patterns will work themselves out."

Adds Paramount president of distribution Jim Tharp: "So far (screen count) has not impacted our release date decisions. It would be a huge concern if there were movies coming out (in the same time frame) this year -- then it would not be adequate."

In the fall, National Geographic's "Seamonsters 3D" and "Lions 3D" are actually expected to open, but according to Real D, these would run during the day. Real D predicts there will be five or six 3-D openings in 2008, including "U2 3D" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

Predicts Viane: "2009 has more than its share of announced 3-D titles. Then you will see the digital revolution take over. Instead of everybody having one 3-D screen in a building, you will start to see theaters put in two, possibly even three, auditoriums that are 3-D capable. They will be able to hold over successful 3-D while still opening new 3-D. When you hear people like Robert Rodriguez talking about 3-D, they are not pipe dreams; their films are going to be made. (Exhibitors) are going to want to accommodate that product. They aren't going to want to give up those products early."