Toluu

The Future of Media

Official blog of the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, a center for cutting-edge marketing innovation.

CES 2009: The future of videoToday

Ubiquitous video to the consumer was the topic of discussion in a Digital Hollywood panel I attended today at CES.  Rather focusing on the publishers and media buyers, this panel was manned by those creating and running the infrastructure that allows consumers and marketers to create, optimize, distribute, measure and monetize video.  The group keyed in on IPTV, cable TV and broadband video channels and shared a variety of opinions and insight that will give a sense of the current and future business of internet connected video.

The video marketplace continues to grow for publishers, technology providers and distributors.  The panelists agreed that the current economy and challenging advertising market have yet to put a serious dent in their business.  While there may be some limited staff reductions and hiring freezes, most participants felt their businesses were able to ride out further challenges because of accelerated growth.  In fact, TubeMogul felt their core offering was particularly relevant to video advertisers looking for more accountability and ROI in this struggling

CES 2009: Yoostar, Guitar Hero for movies?Today

(Yoostar/Universal Pictures' Spartacus)

What if you could star in famous movies, without ever leaving your home? That is what Yoostar Entertainment Group hopes to deliver to consumers with their recently unveiled Yoostar product. Using green screen technology, the system allows users to star in their favorite movie scenes along with famous actors (and their friends)–then share their performances with friends.

I got an exclusive demo  and was impressed with the concept: A small red and black camera device (its ingenius design makes it look a bit like Wall-E), a 6′x6′ piece of green screen fabric, and a software disc that allows for recording onto PC and Macs.  The Yoostar system comes with about 12 clips, and each month users can add to their collection of clips (for a nominal price), choosing from Yoostar’s library such movies as “The Godfather,” “Psycho” and more recent flicks, too.  Using Yoostar’s prototype camera, I got the opportunity to play Barbara Stanwyk ’s femme-fatal character in “Double Indemnity and Grace Kelly’s role in “High Noon.” Don’t try to be a hero. You don’t have to be a hero, not for me!

The Yoostar team was hush-hush about allowing photos or recording demos, but click after

CES 2009: Best in health and wellness productsToday

The Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program acknowledges the most innovative consumer technologies in 34 product categories from audio accessories to eco-design. Sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), products are judged by a panel of designers, engineers and trade. Honorees are announced in the fall and are featured at the show in a special “Best of” display.

Although I’m always blown away by the product designs by many of the Innovations honorees, as the Lab’s Healthcare Director, I’m especially interested in advances in the Health and Wellness category.  We’ve seen amazing advances in this category in the last few years, and here are some of this year’s best:

This year’s health and wellness category winner, the Fitbit “wellness-tracker”, tracks your fitness and sleep activity. It’s super tiny, kinda cute and wireless. You can clip it on your PJs to see if you are getting good quality sleep. Or put it in your pocket to calculate distance walked. Adding a social media element, you can log on to the Fitbit website to join your friends and family in fitness challenges.

CES 2009: Yahoo’s Connected TVToday

Yahoo announced this week at CES that its content and widgets would be made available across a variety of new internet connected televisions from the likes of Samsung, Sony, LG and Vizio.  Users can enable the widgets by just connecting their TV to the Internet and choose from content providers like Flickr, Showtime, MySpace, eBay and others. See a demo here.

CES 2009: Hooking up in VegasToday

What has got me hot and bothered here at CES in Vegas hasn’t been any booth in particular.  It’s more something intangible – something in the air.  Literally.  I’m talking about WiMAX.

At Microsoft’s booth, I saw amazing media offerings like the polished IPTV of 2009.  Next to Microsoft’s section was Intel, showcasing the strength of WiMAX, pulling in over 11 Mbps to their laptops - which is much faster than my home cable connection has ever managed.  Both booths have their stories and their products but the real story is in the potential as the two meet.

At the Motorola booth, the message is more clear – they have Microsoft’s IPTV solution (and a handful of others) set up right next to their WiMAX display.  Talking with the presenter for the WiMAX products, I asked about the viability of a transition from ground connections to wireless via WiMAX, LTE, or any other 4G technology.  Initially, the presenter was skeptical, as broadcast TV sends HD signals at 18 Mbps.  The issue here is an issue of codecs though.  Cable operators largely broadcast via MPEG 2 signals, which are a very old compression technology.  Netflix HD streaming manages over as little as 5-7 Mbps, and actually has better picture quality to my eye, because it uses newer and more efficient codecs.  With these advances in mind, the idea of a transition of both Internet and TV frameworks from landlines to wireless isn’t far fetched.

The WiMAX at CES is being provided by Clearwire, and speaking with Scott Richardson, Clearwire’s Chief Strategy Officer, he highlights another advantage to WiMAX – it’s being built out with growth in mind.

Watch my interview with him here: