Gazing at faded black-and-white photos from the first CES, which occurred 50 years ago this week in New York, it’s tough not to laugh at the antiquated gear that was considered cutting-edge at the time—fat tube black-and-white TVs when 23 inches was considered “big screen,” giant wood console cabinet TV/record player/radio combos, “portable” TVs that […]
Archive | Digital Tech Consulting
Hungry Mobile Video: Will Next-Generation TV Feed the Beast?
Bandwidth-hungry video is viewed as an insatiable beast by those who are delivering it over crowded networks. Better compression and mobile network advances have relieved some congestion but the flames of UHD and virtual reality are licking at the heels of cellular networks. TV broadcasters think they can help relieve some of that congestion with […]
Apple Makes Play for Video’s Future at WWDC 2017
The big news out of Apple’s recent developers conference wasn’t the new, more powerful iMac Pro or refreshed Macbooks. It was the news that Apple was embracing HEVC compression across its product lines. (OK, it was big news if you’re a video compression junky!) Apple threw both of its arms around HEVC at its World […]
Emerging Markets Have Different Ideas about the Latest Video Tech
Many of the new video-tech tools are delivering the latest premium viewing experience (Ultra HDTV) to consumers mainly in developed economies. You’d be forgiven for assuming that the latest compression technologies’ sole purpose is to enable the delivery of UHD video to high-end TV displays. This application of the new technology gets all the attention, […]
Amazon Is Building a Video Empire to Crush All Rivals
Amazon is a rather unique public company. Rather than redirect its profits (when there are profits) to shareholders, its founder and president Jeff Bezos famously prefers to re-invest its huge cash inflows into furthering the business and taking bets on the future. One of Amazon’s biggest bets is video. This year, the company is likely […]
Why Automation Fears Are Misplaced
To my utter astonishment, every nook and corner of the internet seems to be suddenly swarmed with hand-wringing reports sounding the alarm about how “automation”—robotics, AI and machine learning—will replace humans and otherwise cause job loss, or how automation will adversely affect or impact businesses and/or society. These adverse automation effect admonitions have even emanated […]
The Smart Future of the Security Camera
Fans of any good spy drama know the scene well. Our hero is out in the streets, frantically chasing down some goons. Back at headquarters, an army of analysts sit at their consoles monitoring security camera feeds and offering real-time guidance to our hero as she navigates the cluttered crossways. In the dramatic telling, it’s […]
Next-Generation TV: What’s Next?
Next-generation TV (aka ATSC 3.0) got top billing at the recently concluded U.S. National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) event and for good reason. The need for broadcasters to adopt a next-gen system—especially one that incorporates a blending of terrestrial broadcast and IP—is obvious especially since everything “television” (more and more an amorphous term) is getting […]
Different Looks at AI, Security/Privacy and eSports
Each year, the fine folks at IFA bring in journalists from around the globe (including yours truly) for a preview of the annual IFA confab in Berlin (1-6 September) and to take in a series of presentations from prognosticators and product makers. Nearly every trending tech topic is discussed. Among all the industry forecasts and […]
Roku Makes Big Advertising Leap
What do you think of when you hear the words, “hit TV series?” When it comes to linear TV, the meaning of that phrase is pretty concretely anchored in actual audience metrics. A “hit” series is one that the networks are reasonably sure many viewers are tuned into. Indeed, networks have a fairly strong handle […]