Future Net TV - Outernet shapes up

Many of the big names in TV manufacturing are now building Internet capability into TVs. Now there's a surprise.

It's the annual fest of TV people in Las Vegas. The other news TV's will become 3d. Extrapolating games culture trends gives some idea how this might work.

The trick, with Internet-TV, is to transmogrify the socio behaviour of lean forward to the big screen. It's been tried before, but didn't much work. I attended my fair share of NET-TV meetings in 1998.

Still have Microsofts strategy document they gave out.

But now, and I recall posting about this in 2004, HD wide screens have been normalised into the home. This IS the Outernet. If you compare this image here in this article, with this one Apple featured from viewmagazine.tv a couple of years, spot the difference

Ipod - a mini culture cannibalising super sizes - is accepted. You place your ipod into a docking station to get surround sound. We might not shirk now at wifiing the cinema screen while still controling the screen from my Mac.

Essentially it could act as an intelligent monitor.

If this does take off, then the televisual feel for websites, not breaking the fold, will be common place. 950 px x500px may not be a daft idea after all.

Er someone called it daft recently.

Does it seem much of a stretch now for video story telling to take on a cinematic feel?

p.s Did you know Slumdog Millionaire was a whisker away from going straight to DVD? This link says US TV dramas are looking to go big time on the internet.

See Trends 2009 posted two days ago

Future spatial navigation - Minority Report

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Now while this looks cool, its the gestures that I'm keen on.

And in time if those gestures can work from speech patterns, then that would be interesting.

Walk into room and tell you pc to give you news on Arsenal, funding and news in brief on international issues on security. And then hey voila!

I spoke to Adam Clayton Powell III some time back, who gave me an insight into the work of his students at the Integrated Systems Center at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of California.

One of the applications, you can see it here, but the sounds not so good.

Students would track buses via satellites. For female students this was immensely desirable as they could stay in doors and see the very moment their bus was drawing up to the bus stop, then calmly walk down stairs.

Jack Bauer - eat your heart out. Actually Powell's students gave 24 the idea.

What's the bet Sky News has this up in a couple of months. Bye bye arcane vid!eo wall huh

Digital Journalist versus Integrated Multimedia Video journalism which one's the future?

It's a fairly provocative statement: Digital Journalist versus Integrated Multimedia Video journalism, which one's the future?

But it sits at the centre of the new debate about journalism and video journalism and in an age of multiplicity, contracted tech changes, journalism's loose footing, and the odd fad, it's worth considering.

To start you could fold integrated multimedia video journalism ( IMVJ) into Digital Journalism - which is a broad church definition, which also suggest Digital Journalism's supremacy.

The future of media is digital as opposed to analogue, so to the digirati, just like Cypher in the matrix, it's all just code, ones and zeros.

Some outfits however interpret digital journalism as video journalism so on a pedagogic level herein lies a crux.


What is video Journalism and how you build a VJ outfit from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Extract from the World Association of Newspapers shot by Robb Montgomery at VisualEditors.com

And then there's the brand name in itself; the word "digital" envelopes a profession, a magazine, a movement and its cutting edge, as in photography.

So where is IMVJ placed in all this? Video journalism is implicit as is multimedia, but the strong ideal is fathoming how they link together in myriad ways.

MTV's Pimp My Car might help explain:

There's the car, a vague name check of its creative team include: the designers, the engine's engineers, the body work specialist, the electrician's hotwiring one function to another e.g woofer bass to indicator, and then the car tester. Does the damn thing work better?

What if you could roll those into one?

We've seen it done in video: the editor, camera operator and reporter have become a single entity.


What is Video Journalism? from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Wonderful succinct deifintion of Video Journalism from a Cairo University lecturer, whilst David was touring hte region

But the 21st cycle of news dissemination embodies more than the legacy of TV.

The web, photography, multimedia, data, mash-up, coding, industrial vs minamilist design, public interfaces, mobile, blue tooth: these are just a few of the things affecting an evolving vocation/profession.

There are many who would argue, "Hey video journalism is difficult in itself where does it stop? "

It doesn't.

If you manage to pull out any of the newspaper cuttings from Vj's 1994 entry into the UK, the press and commentators then were vituperative to say the least.

How Michael Rosenblum must be allowing himself the last laugh.

And I don't believe anyone would say Journalism is a dead profession because it's always moved with the times.

Addison and Steele and their equitone language - a renaissance in journalism writing in the 1700s is testament to that.


Journalism's changing timeline
If you look back on Journalism's timeline you can afford a hearty chuckle, because at every bend, every crossroad where change is talked up, there has metaphorically been blood on the floor.

What we're doing now, a debate about what it is and isn't accompanied by civic and the odd perturbative comment is merely to confirm we are

a) creatures of history

b) Nothing's new

c) We indulge these debates; it's part of the learning process.

But as I say all the while in these debates: we have choices.

Future student factual media maker

What I'd like is for one of my ex students to be in a queue of candidates for a job and when his/her turn comes, they exhibit how to integrate, mash- up a single story into multiple strands and have a working knowledge of how the creative systems work.

I have seen many students take the reigns, and Tamer Al Mishall, now working for Al Jazeera is a firm example.

When he arrived from Gaza he'd already had a working knowledge of TV as a BBC producer. But what he took away from our university's program was a rounded knowldge of integrating multimedia and video journalism, and a passion and hunger to continue to learn.

When he left us the term hadn't even finished but he competed for one of the top jobs in the BBC's new Arabic Service, Gaza Correspondent, and piped correspondents and reporters twice his age. Tamer is twenty five.

An IMVJ approach has as part of its DNA a strong emphasis on pushing video journalism - the language - and if you were with us at Camp VJ in Chicago realising there are no rules in this visual medium.

Every single one of them is a guideline meant to be broken by you at some time.

"Tagging and Blocking" perhaps offers the most aggressive form of video journalism, understanding the arc and the subject-verb within a frame.


IMVJ Project

An interview with the BBC's Head of Multimedia News, Peter Horrocks, offers an idea of an IMVJ approach.

Here's the question: you've secured an interview with Peter, what do you do?

Here's my IMVJ approach, which encompassed FCP, After Effects, Dreamweaver, CSS, Photoshop, illustrator, Flash and some action scripting.

Since making this I have since learnt how I can give you more control using a custom made player. ( I'll change that soon)

And there are many many more examples, which I have come across on that awe inspiring site MultimediaShooter - now sadly defunct. I can't say whether the pieces I marveled at were made by one person and if they weren't that isn't ultimately the point.

The IMVJ way suggests an understanding of the work flow enough to comprehend the basics of what the chain is doing.


Specialism 1 vs broad knowledge 0
In 1999 I had lunch with a BBC exec; I had been referred by another senior figure. He mused over my CV and said: "Yes we must get you in".

It never happened, because of one overriding statement that would follow me into interviews: "What exactly do you do?"

In 1987 I started at regional BBC, leaRning to make packages and driving a Mk III desk when presenting.

IIn 1990-92 I was doubling up radio with TV as an AP producing reports.

IIn 1994 -At Channel One I turned to videojournalism and the web, building sites.

IIn 1997 - whilst doing any number of the aformentioned, I started working with an Ad design agency as a creative director creating interactive ads made with video and Flash. Remember quicktime hotspots.

By all accounts to many execs my CV back then was a mess: being a specialist was much more preferable.

Today? Well there's another debate!

IMVJ attempts to roll in disciplines from TV, Video Journalism, Radio, pod making, web writing, print, magazines, motion graphics, web and interface design within the ethos of sound story telling underpinned by fairness, accuracy, objectivity and ethics.

And that's just one part carved out within this expanding realm of digital journalism

The future of journalism from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Extract from The Outernet, David peers into a future of video journalism in this film shown in Berlin

BBC's I player sets the bronze standard for TV

The TV design gate's open and whilst you could argue the BBC's Iplayer sets the gold standard, that's surely yet to come.

The news that the BBC's I player has proved a huge success for programmes watched over the net anywhere, anytime is welcome news for those looking to the net as the broadcast standard-in-waiting.

But with that news comes a mild spat between the Beep and ISPs claiming their networks are suffering under the weight of video downloads

Not our fault says the BBC's Dir of New Media and Technology, Ashley Highfield, in a response that suggested that you lot should be grateful since we at the BBC have added something tremendously useful to spawn broadband growth.

But the BBC has done even more than that, which should all become apparent soon.

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the new team boss at the BBC's futures department taking over the launch of the Iplayer last year: a true big hitter with huge credentials from Microsoft.

But that's not the point here.

The Iplayer version 1, should at some point soon be replaced in time by version 2 and so on. It's the silicon way of thinking - which the BBC's futures department will no doubt have adopted. [there's quite a few valley thinkers in there now]

Meanwhile there will be teams of outside techs deconstructing the player to refine their own releases. The BBC and others not wanting to lose the intiative will have to up the ante their end.

One question is will the BBC share the technology as an open source and in future license the player, with a sure fire guarantee of its programmes being one of the core bouquet of programmes or will it protect its new toy - shades of IBM versus Microsoft here, and the rest there as they say is history


The holy grail of broadcasting
A makeshift Iplayer in various arcane incarnations has seen the light before. In the late 90s Microsoft made a lot of hoopla over its web tv and you only have to look at the market now for alternative playes e.g. roo, Mavern Brightcove.

But where perhaps the BBC has had the upper hand is its's both technologist and premium content provider. It may not be getting viewers by the tens of millions any more but the long tail of downloads will do nicely thank you. My my what an interesting debate to be had at the end of the BBC's current license charter.

The news will bolster the network, project Kangaroo as it has been dubbed, being created by the BBC WS, ITV and Channel 4 and who else to see of outside competitors eating into their market share - be away with you newspapers!

With everyone now potentially a content maker, owning the transmission route and content will never be so crucial.

In I have a dream on the gadget zone Damian peers into the future. Its a shortish quick read and chimes with views being talked about by the likes of BT.

HD will rule - getting that over the web with nominal 8mb bandwidth is what the techs will be trying to solve.

Stand up Duncan Whiteman, whom I'll be bringing you a video of pretty soon. Duncan as previously mentioned in posts has cracked some of the gordian knots bedeviling the Network content flow providers.

At a recent meeting in Soho, his presentation left some heavyweight producers looking aghast. Jon Staton, formerly head of TV at Saatchi and Saatchi who runs his own successful agency, called Duncan's invention: the holy grail of braodcasting

But will technology of the kind released by the BBC truly yield new formats in programme construction.

I'm referring here to video with inbuilt hyperlinks, so you can jump from one video to another at set points, or second shift aesthetics -programmes that distinguish between made for terrestrial and online.


Winners and Losers
So great winners, but where are the losers?

With the demise of appointment-based what role will be played by the classic commissioner?
Will the future of TV revolve around making TV-based programmes first and fixed screens second?
Will hollogram and 3d based Tv have any room to squeeze into our conscious?

And how soon before an internet based programme network challenges the hegemony of existing broadcasters.

Last week I had breakfast at the Front Line Club with some very clever people who asked the same question.

With BBC layoffs, what would happen if half of those leaving got together with VC money to launch an alternative network.

And if you think that's absurd, Channel One TV 18 years ago, which I worked for, ran a 24 hour station with a handful of staff - everything was either automated or staff were multiskilled.

I'll post about 10 minutes of Channel One for you to judge.

Many years on we're no longer reliant on cable, which Channel One was, as an alternative to terrestrial and Satellite.

The Net is now truly coming alive. The BBC's Iplayer will have imperceptibly shifted a generation, whom previously will have seen little use for watching TV on the web. And with that the gates are well and truly open.

David Dunkley Gyimah will be speaking at the World Association of Newspaper Forum in Sweden on Digital media training for the new newsroom.

Four hundred editors from all over the globe came to the 14th World Editors Forum in Cape Town in June 2007, the largest meeting of its kind anywhere. We hope that an even greater number will join us in Göteborg, Sweden, in 2008.