Editorial

Content Creation, Production, Distribution Is In a State of Flux

“My empathy is creeping towards what I would describe… a contemptuous rage.” –Bella Baxter, Poor Things, Disney, 2023

For an organization, and industry, that is trying to define/redefine itself, NAB 2024 was packed with a lot of great products, services, and technology. It also had just enough touchy-feely of what the industry may look like tomorrow to keep you guessing.

For the time being, let’s focus on the industry in transition. Transition? Broadcast is such a minor portion of the industry today. People at the show make money doing film/show production/distribution and cable/pay-TV, as well as SVOD, AVOD, PVOD, FAST, social video, and a shrinking amount of broadcast. Exhibitors and some attendees told us the answers for the future, they just aren’t certain which are the right questions. 

The first thing we noticed in checking the sessions and walking the halls is that contrary to a popular global donut chain (13,200 locations, 40 countries), the world doesn’t run on Dunkin’. We’d venture to say that the power tool that runs the industry’s hardware, software, and service is made by Nvidia and a few competitors—AMD, Intel, Samsung, Apple, and others. It’s true, and we focused our attention on AI where it makes the most sense for the industry now and in the near future—production and customer content selection—not on the AI that was going to do “everything,” including all your work for you, make you handsome/beautiful, and make you filthy rich. We’ll leave that to the AI techies.



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Thefuture.tv, founded in 2005, is an independently owned organization that explores the future of broadcasting. It features articles, editorials, and interviews on a wide range of topics related to the ever-evolving landscape of media and entertainment. Here are some key areas of focus:

Streaming Services: As streaming platforms continue to reshape how we consume content, thefuture.tv delves into the rise of streaming services, their impact on traditional broadcasting, and the challenges and opportunities they present.

AI and Content Creation: With artificial intelligence playing an increasingly significant role in media production, thefuture.tv examines how AI technologies are influencing content creation, distribution, and audience engagement.

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Latest News

Editorial

AI "Benefits" Come at a Major Cost

 "After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." – Morpheus, "The Matrix," WarnerBros, 1999

We don't think DaVinci Code's Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen) ever bumped into generative AI when he said, "The mind sees what it chooses to see."

We know AI is the savior of the universe; but increasingly, the stuff that gets the most visibility is crap your mind doesn't want to see.

Accounting firm PWC projected that by 2030, artificial intelligence will contribute more than $15.7T to the world economy and boost local economies' GDP (gross domestic product) by 26 percent.

It's going to make everything great, do no harm and make our lives so much easier.

The discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, the industrial revolution, the invention of the computerâ??heck, even the roll–out of the internet pale in comparison.

And if it's used the wrong way, we'll develop laws to ensure it's safe.

Are you S***in us?

Even Elon Musk (and we're far from one of his fans) believes AI "is one of the biggest threats to humanity."

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Storm, a full service post-production company based in Covent Garden, has upgraded its main audio suite to Dolby Atmos.

The IBC Awards are back! | Enter Now (IBC)

 Unique in the industry, the IBC Awards this year bring together under one umbrella IBC’s Innovation and Social Impact Awards to enable a single celebration of different industry advances – creative, operational, social or commercial. 

That. Just. Happened. (NAB Show)

hank you for showing up and bringing your time, your talent and your own unique genius to NAB Show.

IABM Announces BaM Awards® Winners at 2024 NAB Show (IABM)

Outstanding Innovation Across the BaM Content Chain 

The Collision of Gaming and TV | Register Now (IBC)

Join IBC365 on Wednesday, April 24th at 14:00 BST as we discuss how the world of gaming is colliding with television, creating exciting new opportunities.

IBC Launches 2024 Innovation Awards with Nominations Now Open across Five Categories (IBC)

Categories expanded to encompass social advances and sustainability through a unified awards programme and single ceremony celebrating industry innovation

That. Just. Happened. (NAB Show)

We. Just. Did. That. And it was seriously amaaaaziiiing. Thank you for showing up and bringing your time, your talent and your own unique genius to NAB Show. It simply doesn’t get any better than all of you. Attendees. Exhibitors. Sponsors. Speakers. Partners. All of us together in the same place moving the industry forward. Mic drop.

IABM announces BaM Awards® winners at NAB Show 2024 (IABM)

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The winners of IABM's BaM Awards® were announced on 16 April during the 2024 NAB Show. The BaM Awards celebrate outstanding technological innovations that deliver real business and creative benefits

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At the 2024 NAB Show, Riedel Communications announced a significant expansion of the company's RiCapture ingest solutions line with the addition of RiCapture i8, i44, and i84. 

Riedel's Simplylive Production Suite Empowers Lafayette College to Live Stream High-Quality Sports Broadcasts Simultaneously (Riedel)

Riedel Communications announced that Lafayette College, a liberal arts college in eastern Pennsylvania and one of 10 core members in the Patriot League, is using Riedel's Simplylive Production Suite (SLPS) to deliver simultaneous high-quality live broadcasts of its sporting events. 

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Riedel Communications today announced its collaboration with Interstellar Technologies, a pioneering space transportation company based in Hokkaido, Japan, to overcome communication and video transmission challenges in its operations. 



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Other Articles

The Glitz, Hopes, Promises, Questions Were Back at CES 2024 24-Jan-24

 

Opening Day – This year, Gary Shapiro, CEO of CTA, marked the 100th anniversary of the organization and the opening to a product/information-packed CES 2024.

After all these years, it’s great to get through the holidays and make our annual trek to Las Vegas to see what’s new, what’s exciting and what the **** were they thinking with their techie offerings.

Gary Shapiro, CEO of CTA (Consumer Technology Association) has been opening the CES show and gives folks an idea of what they’ll see and miss during the four-day event spread across 2.5M square feet of exhibit space.

 It’s impossible for th3 130,000 plus attendees to catch all of the business/industry/government keynotes/panel sessions and still have time to visit anything more than a sampling of the 4,000 plus exhibitors, including about 1,200 start-ups that hope to be discovered and sell their stuff or their company. 

AI was in every product, service, promise we saw this year, along with a lot of cool and not so cool products.

AI - A Very Useful Video Entertainment Tool Kit 24-Jan-24

  

Hero image – “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” Warner Brothers

To the logical conclusion… that Blue Fairy is part of the great human flaw to wish for things that don’t exist, or to the greatest single human gift – the ability to chase down our dreams.” — Professor Hobby, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” Warner Bros., 2001

Money has been important in the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike– and you name it strike; but that’s a discussion for a later discussion.

Money was a skirmish … the long-term battle/discussion is intuitive/generative AI and the benefits it is going to deliver for studios, creators, audiences.

It’s the pitch all of the AI experts – Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Clement Delangue (Hugging Face), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet/Google), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Aidan Gomez (Cohere) and hundreds of other VC-funded start-ups around the globe – have given that resonate with bosses … better, faster, cheaper products, services, solutions.

Even Elon Musk, who is an expert in just everything, is in the mix to deliver the definitive AI solution.

At the same time, they’re releasing and promoting the brave new world, 350 experts (including the above) issued a joint statement, “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I., should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Oh, that’s freakin’ great!

First of all, these better solutions are built on algorithms – a process/set of rules to be followed in problem solving operations by a computer.

Okay, that’s the basic premise and they seem to do what you expect them to do … sorta, kinda.

But have you ever written out the objectives/goals of the algorithms you’ve used?

Have you ever written/coded your own algorithm?

We haven’t either but then we don’t understand how to build/fly a plane. We’re comfortable that others did/do their jobs properly.

However, AI is a whole different thing because … we’ve seen the movies! 200l: A Space odyssey, Colossus, Westworld, Alien, Blade Runner, War Games, Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, Matrix, Resident Evil, M3gan, MI: DR and probably 100s created/produced around the globe.

While it’s not technically about AI, we also viewed/enjoyed the start of it all, Metropolis, with Maria’s robot double. Gotta’ tell you, not once did things end up well for the characters that breath, eat, sleep, love/hate, desire/feel.

2024 Has a World of Potential for the Industry 02-Jan-24

“Without the burden of memories, we're a clean slate, we can have a fresh start. Nobody can tell you who you are but you yourself. This world is created by our thoughts. The rules are different here.” – Yan, “Coma,” Big Sky Films, 2019

Don’t know how to tell you but this was not the year we looked forward to this time last year.

Yes, 2020 was close to being a complete disaster, but most of us made it through with bare bones sanity.

2021/22 was all about shaping things up, getting a handle on what the new normal was going to be and getting ready for a year that would knock our socks off.

This was the year that was going to rock!

Okay, the year wasn’t BAD but it was just bad enough to seismically change the course of most of the industry’s plans and goals.

So, let’s see what tomorrow has in store for us.

First, let us clarify our position at the outset … we like to make our own mistakes so, AI? 

No freakin’ way!

After all, we’ve never seen an AI movie that ended well.

However, it’s here/coming, especially in the film/show industry.

It’s going to save time, money,and improve the product.  Just ask the “experts.”

Everyone wants their piece of the action, even though few can describe it other than it’s going to be great.

Dive in … what could possibly go wrong?

Just Business - Entertainment works best when it is professional 02-Oct-23

 

“Cause he's got everything workin' for 'im: timing, touch. It's a great feeling, boy, it's a real great feeling when you're right and you KNOW you're right.” – Fast Eddie, The Hustler, Rossen Films, 1961

We really thought 2023 was going to be the new normal.You know folks going back to work in new ways – some remote, some at the office, things being done in new, different even interesting ways and stuff getting done. The economy in the U.S. and most industrialized countries had stabilized and even improved (slightly, 2.9 percent) even though not as good as 2022 (3.3 percent) and signs are it will slow again next year because of high inflation and tighter money policies. But ordinary folks didn’t care about that because they were still trying to dig out of the pandemic years which put them even further behind. People in the U.S.  entertainment industry has been slightly bothered by that and this was the year they said BS we need to get paid equitably for our creative work – all of it.