HBO Game of Thrones Season 8 Visual Effects

Tech.

Tech and more tech.

That has been the game in film-making since Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace.

The digital transformation was complete with Episode II three years later as the "film" was shot completely on digital cameras.  Since then we've seen a complete revolution in film-making and the rise of digital effects houses.

This Sunday past we saw it achieve a new pinnacle on television as The Battle of Winterfell consumed tens of millions of people in the United States alone.

This piece over on ArsTechnica is worth reading if you love technology, digital, film-making or Game of Thrones:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/with-its-latest-battle-game-of-thrones-solidifies-its-seat-on-tvs-vfx-throne/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Netflix is the Master of Streaming

... for now.

I have a Netflix account and enjoy some of the original content.  Especially 'Stranger Things'.

What about you?

http://fortune.com/2017/03/10/netflix-video-streaming-market/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

There's no question that Netflix is currently the king of the over-the-top streaming-video providers, with a service that reaches more than 80 million users in over 200 countries, and hit shows that drive millions of those users to "binge-watch" entire seasons in a matter of days.

All this has put Netflix in an enviable spot...

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The Subscription Economy

Interesting read on the shift to steady revenue streams vs. one-time transactional revenue streams. Do you have a Netflix account?  Yeap.  Bet you used to rent from Blockbuster one movie at a time didn't you?

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/subscription-economy-change-price-pay/307966/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Should a customer in New York pay a higher price than someone from Ohio for the same service? And should a doctor in Ohio pay a higher price than a New York taxi driver? Should a Mac user be steered to a pricier hotel when shopping online? Hint: It's already happening.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0228 MLB.com Streaming Video

Best Reading of the Day

The story behind MLB.com and the success of its digital efforts and streaming video is impressive reading.  When you add the recent addition of HBO cutting the cord through this service, and now the news of the NHL coming onboard it becomes truly impressive.

This is your best read of the day:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/4/9090897/mlb-bam-live-streaming-internet-tv-nhl-hbo-now-espn

Here is a snippet from the story:

When baseball’s then commissioner, Bud Selig, created BAM back in 2000, he had relatively modest goals in mind. The unit would be in charge of creating websites for each of the teams and consolidating MLB’s digital rights. By pooling resources, he would prevent the bigger teams from outpacing their smaller market rivals. And to keep the division honest and efficient, BAM would operate as its own company. The teams agreed to contribute a combined $120 million to the venture, $1 million each over the first four years, with each taking an equal ownership stake.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0218 Netflix Redesign

Best Reading of the Day

I've been sitting on this one for a few days since finding it over the weekend.  It is a great read though. Which digital video streaming service do you currently use?  Hulu?  Amazon?  Netflix?  HBO? YouTube?

Here is a great read on Netflix.

What do you do if you design a system that is used by 10 people?  Chat with them and see how it works, maybe make some minor adjustments, and plan on the next big update to help them out.  What about if you have 10 million people using that system, or many more like say 62 million?

That becomes a pretty big challenge right?  Sure is.  Read more here.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/22/8642359/the-science-behind-the-new-netflix-design

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Back in March, a developer named Renan Cakirerk wrote a small piece of code that made a big impact on Netflix. Cheekily named "god mode," it addressed one of the most annoying aspects of trying to use Netflix in your browser: scrolling through the company's ever-growing list of movies. Once enabled, it would simply give you one, big list. Instead of sitting there, holding your mouse in anticipation, you could simply find the title you wanted and get on with watching.

The web lit up with stories hailing it as a crowning achievement of little-guy ingenuity. TechCrunch called it a fix for a "wonderful problem." CNET dutifully noted that it "saves you from the slow monotonous horizontal scrolling." Mashable, meanwhile asked, "Are you listening, Netflix?"

Inside Netflix, though, god mode was old news. In fact, the company had already tried it out on thousands of unsuspecting users years earlier. And it was a total disaster.

Good stuff.  I like the A/B testing at play there.  Release it to a scientifically controlled sample size with a control group and analyze the results.  Is the impact significant?  If so, in what way?  Does it "help" or "hurt" the user experience?

I'm a user of Netflix after coming back in to the fold recently.  I hadn't used them for years since I previously received DVDs through the postal service.  I like the digital service and am blown away by the 4K presentation of shows like 'House of Cards' on my fancy new LG set.  Good stuff and a fun company to follow.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple Watch - Keynote

The keynote is happening and Tim Cook is onstage right now in San Francisco.  What will be announced today, and what about this little watch thing?

Here is one little story I like that identifies one key, must have, for the Apple Watch.  He has far more experience with wearables than I do so I'll take his opinion with thanks.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-watch-the-one-thing-it-must-get-right-to-be-the-best/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

On the surface, it seems useful for notifications on the smartwatch to show incoming text messages and email. The phone stays in the pocket or bag, and the watch becomes the primary notification system.

The problem is, after only a few weeks the usefulness of the smartwatch turns to annoyance. That's due to the inability to accurately reply to those notifications coming in on the watch. The lack of a keyboard of any kind on the watch means there are only two ways to deal with messages that come in.

Be sure to read the rest of the article to find out what those two methods are.

Here is the running track of the keynote:

Apple TV

The CEO of HBO was on the stage briefly to announce 'HBO Now' at $14.99/month available to stream HBO on any Apple device.  Presumably that means a TV connected with Apple TV, a Mac, iPad, iPhone, etc.  Somehow I doubt you'll be streaming it on to an Apple Watch though.

It appears this will be exclusive to Apple initially.  maybe because of all of the problems we've been hearing about as HBO tries to stand up its digital delivery service?  Love the folks at Re/code:
http://recode.net/2015/03/09/hbo-on-the-web-is-coming-in-april-exclusively-on-apple-tv/

Apple Pay

They finally pointed out the importance of vending machines to Apple Pay.  The emphasis was on Coca-Cola vending machines.  Not much else to talk about.

Healthkit

It seems to me they are queuing up the Apple Watch as a health monitor device by placing so much emphasis here at this stage in the keynote.  We'll see.

Mac

New MacBook that is thinner, lighter, etc.  Main emphasis was on the keyboard.  This may be a differentiating move vs. the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that has gained considerable traction but doesn't have a 'full' keyboard.

Apple Watch

Tim Cook is wearing a conspicuously long, dark sweater, all the way up to his hands.  Is this covering up a new watch?  Yeap.  About 10 minutes in he pulls back the sleave.  It is described as a timepiece and a health & fitness device, with apps.  More to come.  Will there be a "wow" moment, or are we just waiting on pricing and timing details?

Mockup of a 'Topco' app on Apple Watch

I found one moment to be quite humorous as Cook said "It’s not just with you, it’s on you."  If you've seen the movie 'Anchorman' you'll get the reference that made me laugh.

Siri comes up if you press the bezel.  The pre-planned interaction worked perfectly but I hardly ever get good results from Siri.

Looks like a lot of work has been done on apps so far, but who really knows?  Uber is up and running.  I admit I'm really looking forward to Passbook on the Watch as I use it all the time for digital boarding passes.  "We're super excited to see what developers are going to do with this great new platform."

Battery is finally address with '18 hours' and 'all day' as the milestone achievements.  Maybe just good enough?

Watch Collections
Three collections, as we well know by this point, 'Sport', 'Watch' and 'Edition' in order of price.
Sport will be $349 for the 38mm and $399 for the 42mm
Watch will be $549-1049 for the 38mm and $599-1099 for the 42mm depending on your selection of the band.
Edition will be starting at $10,000.  No other word on pricing.

Pre-orders will begin April 10 and the retail stores will have them in stock for selection on that date.  Will be available on April 24.

All Done

I'll get on board with one of these.  Time for a new watch and time to enter the wearables arena.  Likely the 'Watch' version in some form as I'm not too sporty.

What didn't we hear about?  The rumored iPad Pro is said to be delayed, though not officially confirmed.  Nothing on Beats music as some thought.  Now, will we see another of these events every year at this time?  Maybe.  Apple loves to get the spotlight and is locking in a cadence of products and product updates to all of its millions of customers.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

CORRECTION:  A previous version of this incorrectly listed the HBO product as 'HBO Go'.

Twitter Video and HBO's Video Streaming Struggles

Two more stories are interesting news to read over.

First up is Twitter providing mobile video.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/social-networks/19722.html

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Twitter hopes the introduction of native mobile video will boost the number of people who use its service, supplementing its new search partnership with Google and other moves aimed at broadening its appeal.

With its recent rollout of native video, which allows users to capture, edit and share videos within the Twitter mobile application, Twitter is taking its cue from Facebook, which is pressuring YouTube as the go-to destination to upload and watch video.

Next is a piece on the struggles of HBO to go to a streaming service model.

http://recode.net/2015/01/29/hbo-tech-executives-leave-ahead-of-internet-launch-as-networks-strategy-changes/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

The original plan discussed by the network’s top executives was to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a sophisticated streaming platform that would make HBO, one of the best-known premium channels in the United States, capable of challenging streaming video services from Netflix and Amazon head-on. Berkes, who was also a cofounder of Xbox, was a key part of that ambitious project — he had been hired by HBO in 2011 to set up a new office in Seattle, initially hiring 80 engineers with plans to grow much bigger.

The idea was that the technology would support not only HBO but potentially other Time Warner offerings, such as Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Netflix and DVDs

Around the office I've been performing informal polling of folks as to their path to content such as movies and television.  A lot of the twenty-something have only a streaming service such as Netflix.  A few have a Blu-Ray playing device (maybe a PS4) that can play DVDs.  Then the older folks, the Boomers or Gen X'rs typically only have a DVD player.  Interesting.

Meanwhile my entire collection of DVDs is basically worthless.  Season 1 of 'The Sopranos' starts at one penny used on Amazon. Basically deemed to be worthless.

So why is Netflix still in the business of shipping DVDs?  The money of course.

Good read here from Bloomberg:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-21/netflix-and-dvds-still-together

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Cable TV Transformed

Huge news has been hitting the last two days.  After years of denying interest, and in spite of a phenomenally successful video streaming app called 'Go', HBO is now making the move to directly compete with Netflix:

http://recode.net/2014/10/15/hbo-says-its-going-to-start-selling-on-the-web-next-year/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

HBO CEO Richard Plepler, speaking at an investor presentation hosted by HBO parent company Time Warner, said the company will start selling in 2015 a digital version of its service that won’t require a pay-TV subscription.

Plepler said the company will go “beyond the wall” and launch a “stand-alone, over the top” version of HBO in the U.S. next year, and would work with “current partners,” and may work with others as well. But he wouldn’t provide any other detail.

CBS is following suit in a fascinating move:

http://recode.net/2014/10/16/now-cbs-is-selling-web-subscriptions-to-its-shows-too/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Yup, CBS: The broadcaster is also getting into the digital video subscription business, with an offering that will let users watch almost any show it airs, live or on demand, on a variety of devices.

And like the HBO plan, this one doesn’t require users to have a traditional pay-TV subscription: All you need is an Internet connection and $6 a month.

But there are several big differences between CBS’s Web video service and the one HBO talked about yesterday.

For starters, CBS is selling access to shows that are technically available for free to anyone with a broadcast antenna. And unlike HBO’s service, this one isn’t theoretical: CBS is selling “CBS All Access” right now, via its CBS.com site and its mobile apps.

Needless to say Netflix shares tumbled in trading as it failed to hit its public mark for new user adoption.

I cut the cord from cable TV last year and haven't looked back thank you very much.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant