IoT will be next silver screen, says media exec
The event aimed to bring media producers together with Silicon Valley chip and software developers. All sides agreed entertainment is in rapid transition driven by mobile and Internet technologies.
For example, MIT researchers are working on creating a giant display based on a massive swarm of tiny drones each carrying an LED, hovering over a stadium. Others have created interactive walls and green screens such as one now in Times Square, New York.
“The notion of what’s the platform we can play on interactively is about to bust out,” said Peter Hirshberg, a long time entertainment executive speaking at the event hosted by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. “When we think of IoT and a world full of sensors and displays, the materials available for telling stories changes,” he said.
TV and other traditional media are already adapting to embrace new media such as social networks, said Hirshberg who talked about transmedia that will someday include so-called augmented cities.
“A key takeaway here is how do we continue to foster this dialog between content creators, technologists and engineers because we are living in a time of transformation and huge new opportunities,” said Fred Fuchs, a veteran movie and TV producer.
Co-creators and hashtags
Consumers need to be invited to become part of the team, said Ann Greenberg, founder of Sceneplay, a startup that shows viewers how to record and upload video that can become part of a larger work that includes content from broadcasters and celebrities.
“I’d love to see us incorporate the idea the audience is not just receiving the programming, but participating very deeply, creating content including large video files,” she said.
Carl Rosendahl, an entrepreneur turned academic, said the technology needs to play a deeper role too.
“One of my frustrations with computer animation is it is using computers to do something bigger faster than we can do anyway, but what computer can really do is change things in real time,” said Rosendahl who sold his animation startup to Dreamworks
Hirshberg and others agreed that the future of entertainment is in harnessing emerging smart systems and software.
“The hashtag was so successful that now Twitter is building a whole ecosystem around it,” Hirshberg said. “It was a tiny bit of code that became very useful and now everyone is trying to evolve it,” he added.
One huge downside is the flood of media is undermining traditional ways of making money, Rosendahl noted. “It’s almost impossible to make a living as a professional photographer because cameras are everywhere now and everyone is shooting t stuff and they are willing to work for free,” he said.
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