Las Vegas

The internet is creating a major culture shift in our society. There is a churning of technology going on. What will extra bandwidth (spectrum) that broadcasters have been given be used for? New customer services.

Web Phone: the next big thing? Cell phones have a network connection, PCs don’t (w/o extra effort). John showed a prototype of the new Palm Pilot: you turn it on (lift its antenna), and it’s on the net. The prototype he showed uses a packet radio connection. It’ll probably initially cost $800, but won’t be out imminently. There’s a power problem to be addressed. This is an example of consumer level single-chip devices. This is the year of the move from the single-board to the single-chip device.

Sun Aspen lab has a 2.4gHz antenna which affords a 10 mile radius for civilian transmission – no FCC license required.

Next technology which’ll change everything: IEEE 1384 FireWire home a/v consortium HAVi 400mb/s transfer rate. pass programs across FireWire which describes how to access them.

Explosion in computing devices, connectivity, digital money, sensors and actuators, video imaging, 3D geometry.

It took 10 yrs for the VCR to go to full penetration, but the still PC has long way to go.

Tomorrows big thing: security, embedded devices and distributed computing

Nobody owns these protocols: IP, Ethernet protocol, MPEG prot, SMPTE prot, IEEE 1294, HAVi protocols, Java protocols.

Because of ubiquitous IP (Internet Protocol), combined w/MPEG, there’s a new way of consumers receiving benefit.

Technology Luncheon

Wednesday 12:00PM - 2:00PM

John Gage, Chief Researcher and Director of the Science Office at Sun

Microsystems will present - A Technologist's View of the Future. He will

address the questions: Who will the future broadcasters be? Who will the

audiences be and from what devices will people access content?

As Sun's chief researcher, Gage is responsible for Sun's relationships with

world scientific and technical organizations, for international public policy

and governmental relations in the areas of scientific and technical policy,

and for alliances with the world's leading research institutions and

laboratories.

The 1999 NAB Broadcast Engineering Achievement Awards for Radio and

Television will also be presented. The recipient of the Radio Engineering

Achievement Award is Geoffrey Mendenhall, Vice President - Advanced

Product Development of Harris Corporation's Broadcast Systems Division.

The Television Engineering Achievement Award will be presented to John

Turner, President of Turner Engineering.

Honorees

Geoffrey Mendenhall, Harris Corporation/Broadcast Division Quincy, IL

John Turner, Turner Engineering, Inc. Mountain Lakes, NJ

All-Industry Opening Ceremony

Monday, Apr 19 1999

9:00AM - 10:30AM

The NAB99 opening ceremony sets the stage for the largest gathering of

broadcasters and top professionals in the electronic media industries. Industry

chieftains share their insights on today's convergence marketplace.

State of the Industry

Edward Fritts, Office of the President Washington, DC

Nostalgia is a seductive liar. Don’t’ be like Charlie Brown -- don’t worry that the past is not prologue. The death of broadcasting is front page news. Ten years ago the Wall Street Journal called the networks a dinosaur. The reality is: erosion of market share is not a broadcast phenomenon, it’s a media phenomenon.

More viewers tune into ER every Thursday night than watch the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

Digital: Raise you eyes from your ratings and watch a hundred opportunities bloom, or better yet, make your own opportunity. Consider the value of your brand, which will survive long after portals have gone. The challenges broadcasters cannot be surmounted by accounting departments, it’s the quality of the content that will ensure your survival. The next 18 months promise a strong ad market. Digital TV will offer tremendous opportunities for creating new content. Digital TV will change the world, and continues to overcome obstacles. Not because the FCC says so, but because it has a live of its own. We need to get better to making the actual leap to HDTV, and we need to get better at explaining it. And we need to do it right now. Establish the infrastructure to make HDTV happen. Programming in HDTV must go forward, in spite of the price of sets, etc. Additional spectrum provides more opportunity for local content, commerce. If the broadcast industry retreats from this challenge, it will not recover. Homes will be as connected tomorrow as our offices are today. The TV can be the center of the home’s technology infrastructure. HARVEY home audio-video... ieee1394 will be the standard.

"If you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers

MultiMedia World Keynote

Monday, Apr 19 1999

5:00PM - 6:00PM

Experts agree it is inevitable that interactive services will be deployed to

consumers in the coming decade, and the broadcast media will be a critical driver

for widespread adoption. In his keynote address, Oracle Corporation's CEO and

chairman, Larry Ellison, will share his vision for the future of digital television.

Hear his perspective on how broadcasters can create services which produce

revenue today while transitioning into the fully interactive world of tomorrow, and

how the Internet really does change everything.

Keynote Speaker

Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation Redwood Shores, CA

• interactive content

• links the TV and the internet
• ecommerce: sell products directly on the TV, personalized channels
• Real-time access to viewer behavior.

In Finland, your Nokia telephone will tell you where your bus is, via the internet.

In this country, your PCS phone will get hooked to the internet.

BIB - British Interactive Broadcasting built for Rupert Murdoch, adding 100k viewers a month in the UK

• largest interactive services deployment in the world
• 100% Oracle technology: Oracle Video Server – broadcast, on-demand audio, oracle database, oracle application server, all applications built by Oracle Consulting, works with existing networks today.

Database mining is how interactive TV will bring value to the viewer, thru their preferences and profile. This is why a database company is so interested in interactive TV.

Uses existing satellites and their transponders, existing wiring and internet.

Viewer has a satellite dish and pots (28.8, ISDN, xDSL). xDSL adds Video On Demand to this system.

James Ackerman, CEO British Interactive Broadcasting, demo’ed the system.

SkyDigital set-top box w/hand remote is free to subscribers. Interactive services offered under brandname OPEN.

interactive svcs: shopping, banking, info, games, education, email

Security: several levels

Info: weather, sports, travel centre, film, music

Education: pre-school, infants, juniors, secondary

Email: new mailbox, open mailbox up to 8, password, delete user can access from BIB or PC.

What’s next?

• video on demand a server records all programming broadcast for the last 90 days, so you can watch anything that aired in that period.
• your own personal TV channel
• Oracle has it now: most scalable software in the world, running on most scalable hardware
• all built on open internet standards

Video on Demand demonstration, a really big video server that records everything. allows pause ffw rew

What does all this cost?

Worlds most scalable software

• most portable and scalable video server, Oracle Video Server: nCUBE, SGI

Economies of scale: store all programming centrally. It’s not cost effective to give everyone a Honda generator for AC power. Putting a disk drive on top of every TV set is like this.

Of the 10 largest ecommerce sites in the world, all 10 run on Oracle.

The only good OS is an OS that’s anonymous. OS needs to cease to be visible, particularly for appliances. It’s not about OS, it’s about information.

VOD becomes avail when connection reaches 1.5mb.

Larry speculated about programming that gets more expensive with fewer or no ads.

OPERATION STARS - NAB TV and TVB Joint

Luncheon

Monday, Apr 19 1999

12:30PM - 2:15PM

Las Vegas Hilton, Barron Room

Sponsored by:

Petry Media

This year's luncheon keynote speaker is the colorful and

quotable Ted Turner, who is widely regarded as one of

the great communications innovators of the 20th Century.

At NAB99, he will share his vision of telecommunications

in the new millenium. YEAH, RIGHT!

Ted said "What does the future hold for all of us? competition."

Where does programming come from for all these new stations?

Apparently Ted Turner didn’t read the synopsis of his speech. He only mentioned HDTV once, and suggested that the increased bandwidth would only be used for more channels, NOT for Hi-Def TV. The rest of his 15 minute talk dwelled on anecdotes from the time he was a mere millionaire.

The NAB TV/TVB joint luncheon also features the

induction of All in the Family into the NAB

Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Norman Lear, creator of All in

the Family, and cast members Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers will be on hand to

accept the award.

Hollyweb Live: The Digital Vision Venture

The first high level event that lets the audience brainstorm with industry leaders in an emerging, explosive arena where the future of New Media is promising but uncertain. The style of the event is a combination of round table conferences, vision networking brainstorming sessions and keynote presentations followed by bonding networking gatherings.

9:00 - 10:00 AM

Allison Dollar, chairperson of New Media World @ NAB

likes confluence instead of convergence: rivers of technology whose course together is greater than individual streams.

Allen Brody, founder of Hollyweb, started in 1996,

Broadband will create jobs and opportunities. As a society, we’re TV-centric... once it starts to sport interactive features, everything else goes interactive.

Spotlight Address - New Directions for the New Media Convergence

The new media convergence in Hollywood is supercharging new media's

march into the home. Consumer demand for entertainment and polished

media services continues to escalate. Exciting hybrids are born every day.

Learn where it's all headed.

Spotlight Speaker: Ken Lang, CTO, filling in for Robert Davis, Lycos, Inc. Waltham, MA founded WiseWire

What does convergence mean? it’s not just around the corner, it’s here now!

from Jupiter Broadband content: PROGRAMMING FOR THE FAT PIPE

"Programmers should view broadband as a means of enhancing the narrowband experience, developing content and utilities that take advantage of the convenience of a persistent connection, rather than producing content that exploits faster access speeds."

WiseWire was an intelligent agent that learns your preferences, and brings you those. TiVo product offers this (not yet shipping).

The market is catching fire: online audience is growing exponentially; educate users about secure transactions, as safe as shopping offline; shopping bots and online comparison svcs increase customer confidence; more and more users are realizing the benefits of buying online; convenience is more important to consumers than price; how do we improve the user experience.

LAPD is a group in Lycos: next big killer app keep startup mentality, speed to get off the ground, gain momentum; use corporate muscle to boost product into orbit; integrate widely into Lycos network.

TV internet convergence is read to happen; internet entertainments about to explode; economies of scale are huge; improving products requires deeper R&D; new media is being redefined.

New media redefined as when: marginal cost of product approaching zero; fixed cost/amount of human attention is very low; supply > demand;

Prodn costs and value: TV/movies, hi prodn costs, low quantity of output

The internet/gamepire: lo prodn costs using organic growth of content; hi quantity of output; use technology to emerge the great content out of all stuff being created.

Convergence barriers: the cycle: broadband access/infrastructure, what is the killer app? content

Maximizing available bandwidth: how to give the consumer a great experience what their level of bandwidth? answer: IBSC Integrated bandwidth-scalable content: Low: chat/community/text/interactivity medium: images/video clips/music high: full-definition show, video conferencing

the active-passive spectrum: Active: applying the internet’s resources to solve problems Passive: TV/movies Convergence: the Big Opportunity Gap

Working the full spectrum: called Gamepire active: building/creating passive: watching in the middle: playing/exploring/socializing

What/s gamepire like? part Myst, part SimCity, part homepage builder, part America’s funniest videos, part streaming media, part MUD/MOO/chat community part TV/movie/marketing machine, part interactive e-commerce. Gamepire not yet released.

The new multiplatform product:: movie, TV show, CD-ROM or video game console, merchandising, book/magazine, Gamepire: the online organic extension of the Product’s World.

Conclusion: mass-market convergence is ready to happen now, Lycos products and technology are ready to extend traditional media products online aggressively, Gamepire is the missing Killer App for convergence.

Partnering with traditional media (film studios, etc) to create the organic extension.

Q: what will Lycos look like in 3 yrs? Immersive environments

higher bandwidth and people having their own cameras to upload mpegs are 2 enabling technologies.

Q: impact of hi-def and DVD on Lycos and Gamepire. A: internet will supply interactivity, big files fed from DVD or CD-ROM

10:15 - 11:30 AM

NetStorming Round 1: New Models for New Media Convergence

Hollyweb Players: Leveraging Premium Entertainment Brands

How has Internet distribution and interactivity changed the production and

marketing process for high-end entertainment products? What models

work in the integration of linear and nonlinear entertainment formats? How

have revenue streams shifted and studios adapted?

Moderators: Allison Dollar, A Dollar Strategies, Severna Park, MD; Alan

Brody, Tech Marketing, Scarsdale, NY

Host:Jim Banister, Warner Bros. Online, Burbank, CA

Experts:

Gordon Paddison, New Line Cinema, Los Angeles, CA

Leveraging Premium Entertainment brands through technology

Interactive media has the ability to show a conversion rate, therefore it will be held to a higher stand. As a result of this higher standard, newspapers and other media will be asked to produce quantifiable results or budgeting will shift to interactive media

Global focus groups in real time: applying research methodology to brands in real-time

Community Shift: no longer will individuals form communities around content. Indiv content will segment and own users by leveraging community, clubs, customer acquisition via traditional media. Then content with highly qualified subsets of users will be attractive to brands that use the power of the web to close the loop w/trackable...

Consistent message thru all media placements is prequalified by demographics

Interactive has the ability to psycho graphically segment the base. Using interaction with content, these users can then be grouped into subsets for additional action:

DVD/DVD-ROM broadband in the palm of your hand. allows consumers to be active participants. builds the consumer relationship.

How have revenue streams shifted? movies going to digital distribution, no longer film prints.

most startling: Viral marketing: where a user creates something that keeps getting passed on – Ally McBeal baby. DVD blows set-top boxes away, people are putting on computer, not TV.

Pay-per-view won’t be mature for 2 to 4 yrs. DVD for home viewing has penetrated the market much more rapidly than VHS. 3-5 yrs for digital transmission to theatres, easier if building new screen than retrofitting existing screens. Jay says 10-20 yrs, because you have studio executives dictating emails, and one said last year that ‘the internet is just the CB of the nineties’ a passing fad that’ll go away, like the CB.

though Disney just announced a format for digital distribution 2 weeks ago

Q: why are home PCs so slow to get adopted in Japan?

A: small residences there don’t have room for a big computer!!! Hello?!!!

challenge is 3-fold: technology, business model, government issues

Technology: backhoe issue will slow down broadband deployment

Business Model: this is the real challenge. record company, music studios had no idea who their customer was. sold to retailers, not customers. challenge is to make it customer focused, since historically it was not. Rolling Stone is the brand, not EMI.

Government: laws follow technology by 20years. Intellectual property must be respected internationally... more difficult with the internet. The entire record industry will disappear if we don’t figure out how to protect intellectual property. i.e. mp3.

18-25 yearolds buy most music, movie tickets. example: animalhouse.com launched last year, grown to over 2500 campuses, created by each school’s students. markets to 18-25.

most startling example: homemaker posted some thoughts to graduating class, Australian recording artist put to music, became a hit. Homemaker gave up all rights to community paper for $85, and paper now collects mega-royalties for the hit song.

How about artists who have totally circumvented record companies?

SDMI secure digital music interchange a consortium of 110 companies

Live streams from thousands of clubs around the world, so you can follow your favorite acts as they tour. Do-able now.

Cindy Johanson, VP PBS online, Alexandria, VA

How has change affected PBS producers

PBS online started in 1995 not just a web-site it’s a digital channel

65k pages of content. 180 member stations. integration of local/network content.

Programs are beginning to be introduced on the web, prior to rollout on TV.

The audience can shape a story: Inca ice mummies, Nova expedition up Mt. Everest.

R&D is efficient and cost effective

Programs have a long life span

There’s an immediate feedback loop

We have one-to-one marketing opportunities, via newsletters

We’re identifying new revenue streams

Convergence is all about connecting two great portals: TV is the ultimate push technology, the web-portal is pull

We cross-promote heavily. on air tags, on air markets, promo spots, embedded URLs (for webTV), next: digital delivery One URL makes it easy pbs.org

The TV program is an executive summary of site We-re advocates of parallel production (TV and interactive web-site). Full content, outtakes (from cutting rm floor) is available on site.

Multiple media is part of program conceptualization

Audiences extend the story with their feedback – viewer/users – vusers

Video can be on demand just introduced yesterday for $24.95 a live teleconference on the web.

Even more opportunities with enhanced digital TV

Revenue streams: new forms of sponsorship, contextual transactions, licensing opportunities

Lessons to be learned: while there have been great changes as we reinvent the program experience, we need to learn more about: consumer behavior 3-ft vs 10 ft); prodn process (produce once...); rights acquisition; business models; technical delivery and receivers.

PBS Online: the technology is finally catch up to our mission!

most startling: we talk allot about next generation of computers, but we should consider next generation of users – it’s perhaps more important.

11:45 AM - 1:00 PM

Enhancing TV with the Internet

What works when you integrate TV and net programming? What are

consumers willing to pay for, what services do they need that do not

exist? How does advertising and sponsorship fit into the mix?

Here’s where the rubber meets the road.

Experts:

James Aguilar, WebTV, Palo Alto, CA

It’s all about delivering a deeper, richer experience.

Introducing a new category of products: Personal Television

a satellite broadband product ships next month, partnered with EchoStar.

webTVplus product partnered w/NBC.

Interactive advertising will replace traditional advertising, because it gets advertisers closer to the holy grail: impression --> purchase

says 1999 is the year of interactive TV deployment

Stacy Jolna, TiVO, Sunnyvale, CA personal TV service

time-shifting gives viewers what they want, when they want it. Tivo is not an internet product. It’s just a time-shifting front end for traditional TV. sold on tivo.com working w/Phillips, DirecTV just started shipping.

TiVo Central: now showing

Welcome to the TiVolution.

captures 30 hours of TV programs, FFW, REW, PAUSE on remote.

thumbs up/thumbs down buttons allows TiVo to learn your preferences.

gives you your own instant replay, pause, rollback, slow-mo. It simultaneously records live broadcast to be able to do this.

TiVos suggestions lists programs 14 days in advance, based upon your prefs.

Headend-based systems don’t scale like distributed (locally cached) systems.

Anthony Wood, Replay Networks, Inc., Palo Alto, CA

time-shifting Personalized TV believes that most TV viewers LIKE the passive nature of TV, and want to do less while watching, not more. Has a skip feature which jumps ahead 30 seconds (skips commercials – sounds like the death of TV ads to me).

commercials may not die, but they’ll just have to do more – find other ways to get watched, possibly with ecommerce or something else.

Allows creating of custom channels (like the Larry King channel).

Sheldon Safir, ICTV, Los Gatos, CA

Interactive Television: delivering on the promise of broadband.

delivering to the largest mass of viewers with the least infrastructure changes. St. Joseph MO is where the service is currently deployed.

ICTV Recap: first and only hispeed internet access and CD-ROM content to cable TV in deployment; broadband access >100 times taster than standard modem speeds; full, pre-configured set of plugins; centralized ‘smart headend’ architecture.

Benefits to cable operator: controllable investment; guaranteed revenue stream; diverse content sources, includes internet, games, edutainment; insulate subscribers from tech.

content delivered to TV sets, no PC, at cable modem speeds. net content integrated w/>60 titles in CD ROM library. Operator receives first $8 and 50% or $16

Two svcs: Arcade, any cable-ready TV $6 for 3 hrs, games, ref mtrl only

Complete: set-top equipped TVs $10 for 5 hrs, full internet, email, CD-ROM content, includes parental control

User’s usage: hi speed internet 89% email 86% CD-ROM educ 56% CD-ROM games 25%

79% of subscribers do not own a PC, only 21% plan to purchase a PC within 1 year.

Lower income households are biggest customers.

Coming enhancements: commercials behind banner ads, sponsorship of content areas, video on demand, ICTV player tournaments.

takeaway: the TV is a marketable alternative to a PC for Internet access and game play, it’s a family medium, involving multiple family members.

enhancing TV with the Internet

largest provider of broadband today, uses cable modems. service today on the PC, but plans to focus on TVs in the future. Recently combined assets w/Excite: all band, all devices, all the time.

Expanding to TV/set-top delivery (instead of PC): assets for Interactive TV: over 20 strong MSO relationships w/65M exclusive homes in NoAmerica, Europe & Japan; financial strength to move aggressively, approx. $25B market cap; worlds largest and highest performance broadband network, 500,000 worldwide broadband customers today; Excites award-winning internet portal; growing team of 50+ people dedicated to turnkey interactive TV services platform for our MSOs; a cable modem in every advances set-top: Installation and ‘free trial’ just got cheaper. Your cable operator will be giving you a 300mHz processor and cable modem built in.

In a great position to combine TV and internet.

Enhanced TV key considerations: video experience4 is central; the data can’t be distracting – it must fit in (sports, finance, music videos, game shows); don’t break up storytelling (avoid entertainments, movies, etc); use ‘local caching’ to allow pausing of broadcast

Speed: enhanced TV has to move fast.

neither Replay or TiVo can do simultaneous 2 program recording, but if you’re watching TiVo playback, you can simultaneously record a live program and watch it later.

MPEG-4 timeline. safir y2k, aguilar and the rest all use mpeg-2, aren’t’ interested in anything newer.

1:15 - 2:45 PM

New Media or Now Media: Face Off Between New & Conventional

Join roundtable discussions with experts offering a variety of corporate

perspectives. Discuss how they would plot for the future and how to

integrate across media platforms. Network with your tablemates, choose

your partners in netstorming to eventually build a business plan to present

for the Star Award on Sunday afternoon.

Experts:

claims to be ‘the smart network’ nbc.com is entertainment, msnbc is news and sports, CNBC is business and financial (launching a new site in near term), tnbc is teen programming which is more interactive than others.

Old –vs-- New media not really competitive, but complementary instead, people are multi-tasking, they don’t turn off TV so they can go to the internet, they leave both on.

Scott Woelfel, Sr. VP, Editor in Chief, CNN Interactive, Atlanta, GA

Does your website cannibalize the traditional product? Yeah, so what. It’s more important to better serve customers than to worry about cannibalism.

some news is covered better by website than TV. i.e. election coverage, ongoing crisis in Kosovo, non-English language alternatives ( 5 others) is easier to deploy on web than live-programming.

Tim Nye, Sunshine Interactive Network, New York, NY

SonicNet, interactive music, converged content, first killer app. originally created to be a music portal, now a music online magazine. Sold.

Now creating convergence content today. wants down and dirty convergence now – by watching TV and having your PC on at same time. 25 million users do this now. Believes that this scenario works today.

Larry Kramer, CBS MarketWatch, San Francisco, CA

CBS was the last of the majors to get into the internet. Sports and financial news are the main thrusts. Internet is the ideal medium for financial news, it turns out. marketwatch is the largest financial site, even though it was just launched 18 mos. ago. Not trying to put TV or radio on internet. They have TV and radio for that. Don’t put streaming video and audio on your site just because you can. Most users of marketwatch don’t want that content on the site. Ads are a good usage of these rich media, but don’t try to force news there if it won’t go. This guy’s kindof a dinosaur... doesn’t put allot of stock in interactive TV – sees different roles for each. He’s very skeptical about cross-pollination.

3:15 - 4:00 PM

Spotlight Address - Who Will Win

Top ten picks for 2000. Who is going to emerge as the next Bill Gates?

What will drive this industry: product, content, infrastructure, distribution?

Which products will be the most robust? Which companies will adapt

quickly to outside forces? Who is creating the coolest, most engaging,

most innovative content? Which brands are positioned for the long haul?

Spotlight Speaker: Jan Steenkamp, CEO OpenTV, Mountain View, CA

over 2 million users in Europe, rolled out for 2 years there. internet doesn’t transfer to TV without problems. Jan’s company is TV-centric.

OpenTV is:

software company, end-to-end solution for digital ITV (set-top boxes), deployed on 12 networks w/4 pending (TPS 1/97 BSkyB 10/98, first North American Network win (EchoStar’s DISH network launch fall 99). Sweden has adopted OpenTV in satellite, cable and terrestrial media.

Digital TV is being introduced in a very aggressive manner; strong differentiator (competitive advantage); brand new svcs; cost savings (bandwidth is far less for computer generated weather instead of video 200k –vs- 4meg); revenue generating opportunities (ecommerce, advertising; a better TV.

Picking the Winner: evolution of communication:

• cave paintings
• drums
• printing, writing
• pony express
• telegraph
• telephone
• radio

• TV most powerful yet, now transitioning to digital

More info is required; info can be received in more places; digital is being introduced on copper, terrestrial and cable; digital info accommodated with conventional info svcs.

Where are we going? Communication Information:

lo speed internet, hi speed internet to PCs; TV info via satellite, cable to set-top boxes; cellular info to cell phones.

but hispeed internet is avail only to a limited few (over next 5 yrs), not a mass market like TV.

Leaders in race for space (branding is key)

• Software companies Microsoft, Netscape
• Hardware companies Sun, Compaq, Dell, Cisco
• Content/Services Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Amazon

Winners in Hi Speed modem

• cable service companies (new breed of sites taking advantage of hi speed)
• hi speed modem companies
• PC Software companies
• Niche content aggregators (owners)
• download of software

The TV space: How does it differentiate from Internet?

• very high speed forward path
• not point to point by nature of service (point-to-multipoint)
• mass deployment
• undergoing migration to digital
• entertainment focused (movies and sports)
• marriage of content and e-commerce
• most cases lo speed return path

OpenTV set-top box is < $200 takes care of conversion of digital back to analog for backward compatibility

Bring the compelling content to the home (using the 6mb of TV), raise the emotion (internet bandwidth will not have enough bandwidth to raise emotion), provide opportunity for people to buy interactively (using web for fulfillment, since an 800 number isn’t nearly as effective).

Results:

• a new environment will emerge
• capitalize on hi speed forward path
• use emotions and advantage of television
• focus on television environment and experience

Leaders in TV

• a new breed of interactive TV software companies
• television broadcaster w/foresight to adopt technology early
• mass market consumer goods companies
• digital: set-top boxes, TVs, DVDs
• e-commerce companies
• off-line transaction processing companies (no other way of handling 3 mill transactions in 30 seconds – so user wouldn’t even know that it wasn’t a live transaction... it’d be stored in the set-top box until the transaction processor became available on the net)
• fulfillment companies

OpenTV has licensed 20 set-top box manufacturers to use their middle-ware: Nock, Sony, etc. In Europe, the standards are Java-based.

What about DSL? no problem, just haven’t ported to a large customer yet.

NetStorming Round 2: Picking the Winners

What has worked in the past and how it will evolve in the near future.

Panelists will address these and related issues, then name their personal

top ten picks of companies creating the most innovative integrating

product, service, or content. The audience will subsequently be invited to

vote, ballots will be tallied and winners will be presented at the end of the

conference on Sunday.

rm 202 Experts:

Kamran Elahian, PlanetWeb, Mountain View, CA

consumer software company, 3 yrs old.

Planetweb vision: take advantage of transition form analog to digital; provide easy to use internet software for consumer electronic devices.

strategy: run directly on the metal – no OS required

Planetweb client software: pwSYS operating svcs, pwMachine: Java Virtual Machine; pwAPP application environment

Planetweb Browser, pwLiveletter: multimedia email.

Internet appliances will prevail

Liveletter: live messages: images, audio, animation and Java applets

Michael Robertson, MP3, San Diego, CA no show

Thom Kozik, WavePhore Inc., Phoenix, AZ

TV will never replace the PC as complete access device in the home. The PC may be come a hub or home server. Consumer definition of ‘interactivity’ is segmenting. No consumer is ever going to balance their checkbook with a TV app. They’ll use the PC for that.

Simplify, simplify, simplify

You’ve go less than 2 seconds to grab their attention: you’re competing w/full motion people.

Design for 9 feet away, no keyboard, tab-key navigation.

Use a set-top box to test UI, not a PC.

TV is not competing with the web, it’s what’s 2 channels away on the TV remote.

Soap Box: a compelling TV based experience need not be 2-way, nor fully broadband.

There’s no difference between ITV, ETV and Internet TV. all have same device constraints.

99% of web sites cannot translate to the TV.

Top ten:

@Home, WebTV, WebTV for Windows, Intel Intercast, The Fantastic Corp, Intertainer, WaveTop TV, Wink, 9 & 10 haven’t seen ‘em yet.

1^st 2 are in business model of carrying TV programming in their interface.

1^st 4 are conventional TV advertising driven

Fantastic & Intertainer are sponsor driven

Best devices will overlay TV programming, not mortice into a smaller window. Not convinced that consumers will want to read text on their TV screens. TV wasn’t designed for text.

Mainstream will occur when a killer app happens, and when Advanced Television Engineering Forum ATFEF defines standards for HTML on TV.

Brad McKee, WebSurfer, Markham, Ontario, Canada

What criteria makes for a useful, winning product? (software model)

• usability
• affordability
• reliability computers notorious for failure, crashes says winning TV products will not have a hard drive, but quality connection and fast processor (Pentium class)
• compatibility, or standards based html 3.2 compliance, OS, ability to support current and future enhancements, such as plugins
• does it solve any need in the home

simplicity of interface should be point and click, keyboard wireless w/icons on keys, should be as easy as a VCR to operate

$300 incl. keyboard

flash memory technology

online upgrades, download new enhancements, such a video conferencing and voice recognition.

User environment should lend itself to community.

Barbara Lopez, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA no show

Experts: Tim Carruthers, Webcasts.com, Pacific Palisades, CA;

Peter Ohnemus, The Fantastic Corporation, Zug, Switzerland

MPEG stream set-top box this guy formerly with Sybase

Larry Namer, Steeplechase Media, Santa Monica, CA

Experts: Jonathan Taplin, Intertainer, Culver City, CA; David Becker,

Uproar, Inc. New York, NY; Farhan Memon, Yack.com, Emeryville, CA

Sunday, Apr 18 1999

10:00AM - 6:00PM

104 The Sands

10:00 - 10:45 AM

Spotlight Address - Envisioning the Future: Creating Paradigms for

There are businesses, and then there are businesses. Those with vision

and the right model are destined for big things, perhaps even greatness.

What will make the difference between a profitable business and one that

becomes a household name?

Spotlight Speaker: Mark Cuban: Broadcast.Com, Dallas, TX

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Netstorming Round 3: Vision Ventures

Now the fun part. In these breakouts, attendees will come up with a vision

for a new business in their chosen sector. The groups will be competing

against one another, determining what part of the industry will lead the

way!

Breakout: Product Venture Team

Host:Mike Weiss, Webradio.com, Woodland Hills, CA ; Laura Tyler, GEO

Interactive

Facilitator: Michele James, Korn/Ferry International, New York, NY

Breakout: Service Venture Team

Host: Keith Kocho, Digital Renaissance, Toronto, Canada

Facilitator:Ken Papagan, iXL, Los Angeles, CA

Breakout: Content Venture Team

Host:: Vince Thompson, AOL, San Mateo, CA

Facilitators: Tony Winders and Alan Wallace, Interactive Agency, Santa

Monica, CA

1:00 - 2:45 PM

Secrets to Success: Rocket Marketing

How did they do it? In this roundtable, executives reveal brand-building

tricks that catapulted their companies to the top. Discussions will address

cross-promotion, live events, opt in email and more.

Question: how does a production facility migrate from supplying traditional broadcast ad agencies to interactive ad agencies. OR

what do you look for in an audio supplier?

Razorfish says: Digital will find a way.

Scott Mednick, X-ceed Inc. CEO, Studio City, CA

All following companies are becoming IPOs , and are in quiet period. Convergence is happening, consumers are in control. Be hardware/software agnostic. It’s not about tools, it’s about the experience. Develop tools allowing your people maximum collaboration: extranet, etc. But the Bottom line is: if you do not deliver quality, you will not succeed.

Kevin Wall, iXL, Los Angeles, CA

digital business solutions to Fortune 500 companies. eTV or convergence group reports to Kevin, who has a TV background. strategic modeling, GUI design for the TV industry. Big revolution right around the corner in the TV industry. Problems: Forced navigation –vs- Forced TV guide viewing. Hi-Jack of eyeballs, fear of cable companies that viewer will bypass cable and go straight to advertiser (whose customers are these?). Turf wars: Up till now, Ford doesn’t own customers, dealerships do. What happens when customers go direct to Ford?

Chris Needham, agency.com Creative Director

interactive relationship management: creates ‘gee, that’s brilliant’ moments between large companies and an audience of ONE. We create interactions around relevant things to do rather than things to watch, or listen to. Interactions that massively exceed the audiences expectations. We reorganize companies, shifting then from the broad to a personal focus.

As long as any media (moving image, spoken word, broadcast, html); any platform (computers, phones, Lego); and any service (cable, wireless, lots of wires); as long as these communications tools build...

don’t just hit the URL, go do something there.

adtools.com claymation animation software for Brisk Ice Tea

couponing on the web.

So it’s not about the media, or the platform. It’s not about online vs offline, It is about exceeding expectations, leveling playing fields, talking clearly one on one, about earning your business, and building close relationships with one customer.

Richard Titus, Razorfish Managing Director, Venice, CA

digital change management: vision: everything that can be digital WILL BE

414 people in 8 countries Big market opportunity in transitioning companies into new market spaces... not an ad agency. don’t do media buys. Digital will find a way.

Choose great clients, turns away about 50% of prospective clients. Convergence is all of us sitting around talking about convergence. There will never be a black box that solves all.

3:00 - 5:00 PM

Digital Discovery

Down to the wire! Those participating in the Vision Venture competition will

meet in closed door sessions to finalize their business plans

Spotlight Address: Creativity Is King

Thomas Dolby treats the audience to his vision of how convergence will

open the door to innovation and imagination in interactive programming.

What does it mean for the creative community when the Web and TV

experience becomes inextricably intertwined? How will the visionaries

create new models that work for established brands and

advertising/distribution principles?

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Spotlight Speaker: Thomas Dolby, Headspace, Inc., Founder & Chief Beatnik

San Mateo, CA

Part I: How the Web will get "Sonified"

Why ‘sonify’ a web site?

beatnik 2.0 player included in Netscape 4.5 dynamic HTML triggers music events in browser, so virtually no download time.

Why is the web still silent?

What companies like Beatnik are doing to fix it

"Macromedia DreamWeaver is best authoring tool I’ve seen" very clean code.

intel.com has Thomas Dolby’s Pentium III web page. behaviors lets you add sound to objects.

get Beatnik music button in DreamWeaver goes to beatnik.com and gets music clips. music plays across page changes as next page is loading. Flash movies and Java applets can be sonified as well. Music stays in sync regardless of connection speed. Real Audio file doesn’t correlate between visual and audio.

see demos in Avid, Digital Origin and FirstCom demos 11am and 3pm daily at FirstCom booth giving away a few thousand free CDs including the Beatnik tools.

Part II: How NLE workstations will access stock music libraries via the internet

David Hoffman, Independent film maker

Beatnik has come to agreement with Avid, also the former Radius software editor (didn’t get name). Avid goes out to Beatnik.com to get music. Launching later in 1999.

I have some questions for Thomas: does this undermine audio studios? what is price point for direct delivery to avid client?

Overview:

Why Beatnik.com?

David Bowie’s website davidbowie.com allows remix of ‘FAME’ David bowie’s hit from 70s

400k download of custom samples, which beatnik then sequences spec is RMF file (rich music format) which is encrypted.

Q: how will broadband effect your capabilities in beatnik? I try to be independent of hardware. Beatnik client is totally software. WebTV includes beatnik engine. Over time, broadband will reduce the need for as much local vs streaming, Intel carPC has beatnik engine. the beatnik engine is a management tool, and this will still be necessary even with hi bandwidth.

There is a beatnik SDK which will allow 3D animators to write to the beatnik engine.

Just released a beatnik extra (plugin) in Director 7.

Composers can use MIDI sequencers to link to the beatnik editor, behaves like a sampler, then use sequencer to compose. import midi file into beatnik edit tool, then make it into an RMF file which includes watermarking and encryption.

4:30 - 5:30 PM

Digital Storytelling

New media convergence means new kinds of storytelling. Does this mean

existing narrative forms will be reinvented or does it mean that the ultimate

point of this media may be to create our own personalized forms of

immortality?

______ Harper, Rolling Thunder, San Francisco, CA

Gregory Panos, Performance Animation Society, Long Beach, CA

Josh Harris, Pseudo Programs, Inc; New York, NY

Nicholas Butterworth, SonicNet, New York, NY

Owen Lansbury, Oven Digital Solutions, New York, NY

5:40 PM

HollyWeb Live! Awards

The future is here! The 3 HollyWEB Live! teams will pitch their vision plans

for the convergence future; Who will win Product, Service or Content? Help

pick the Star award winner as we glimpse the players' popular C/NET

Central TV Show host Daphne Brogdon.

Judge:Gary Arlen, Arlen Communications, Bethesda, MD

Digital Video Solutions

Saturday, Apr 17 1999

9:00AM - 5:00PM

This track will provide practical techniques, solutions and insights to

professionals involved in digital production and post-production.

Harry Mott, Otis College of Art & Design

Los Angeles, CA

Jim Feeley, Miller Freeman Inc

San Mateo, CA

Kim Reed, Miller Freeman Inc

San Mateo, CA

Paul Young, New Media Hollywood

Hollywood, CA

Bob Barnshaw, Media 100 Inc.

Marlboro, MA

Dimitri Chernyshov, Mercury Computer Systems

Chelmsford, MA

Frank Black, Discreet Logic, Inc.

Montreal, Canada

Gus Stone, Immersive Technologies

Los Angeles, CA

Heather Lyon Weaver, Bay Area Video Coalition

San Francisco, CA

Jay Ornellas, IBM

Los Angeles, CA

Jim Casabella, KGO -TV

San Francisco, CA

Sardy Bernard, CNN Interactive

Atlanta, GA

Taz Goldstein, Built-D Media

Santa Monica, CA

Tom Ohanian, Avid Technology, Inc.

Creating Cutting-Edge Digital Content

Sunday, Apr 18 1999

9:00AM - 5:00PM

This track will bring broadcasters and digital content creators up to date on the

alternative, emerging approaches to digital content production and delivery.

Internet-Based Streaming Media Architectures

Moderator

Ben Waggoner, Journeyman Digital Portland, OR

Q1: what is successful today in streaming video?

Q2: what’s broken and needs to be fixed?

Q3: where’s broadband market going?

Q4: what are business models that are going to drive convergence how are we going to make money? Here’s a dilemma: more affluent users can afford technology to click-away from commercials, leaving those viewers who can’t afford this technology as the only ones seeing the ads (and they can’t afford the products advertised).

Q5: architectures: where’s it going?

Q6: which have you tested, which is best?

NetShow got renamed Windows Media v.4.

Panelist this guy’s a dud

Bruce Cox, CNN Interactive Multimedia software development manager Atlanta, GA

produce 30 streaming videos a day, 15 hrs of content. biggest hurdle is turnaround time – get news out as quickly as possible. produce 28.8 and 80k streams

A1: use live encoding, edits w/Media 100, outputs to analog, then goes thru streaming encoders.

A2: streaming infrastructure can’t handle live streams. e.g. Monica Lewinsky testimony release overloaded the streaming servers big-time. Quality is sorely lacking at 28.8 and always will be. Synchronization between audio and video is also a problem. CNNSi wants streaming sports events, but this is a huge problem. Unfortunately, talking heads-moving lips is the only thing that really works w/current technology, but that’s the most inappropriate use of the internet... a still would have been better.

A3: CNN doesn’t provide a broadband stream. objective is a 320x240 frame that looks as close as possible to broadcast – not there yet. Bruce sees a converging of broadcast and streaming 10 yrs out.

A4: very few streaming companies making money. news doesn’t make money. advertising will.

A5: if you had to choose only 1 format, consider what best meets your needs. Apple not there yet. Hopefully mfg.’s will standardize and integrate.

Panelist

David Barrett, R/com Inc. CEO Corona Del Mar, CA

focuses on streaming media: combining audio and video w/other delivery platforms. focused on educational application, combines content on CD-ROM, web server, local disk for education. what you need on streaming server and how to create content. ‘How bad is good enough’ in streaming video?

A1: FireWire 2-8 gig drives, size of pack of cigs, you can edit video on a laptop while flying around the country. Prodn techniques are changing, and content is becoming more useful. Now a $1k digital camera and an $8 tape can produce fabulous image quality.

A2: MetaData is what makes internet video different from a video tape (embedded URL or watermark). Protecting internet video hasn’t yet been addressed by the technology. Next set of issues is production workflow. 90% of people producing streaming video produce on Mac encoding with QuickTime, then have to get to more common Windows ASF format for release.

Production process: technologists –vs—creatives. content gets left out of this competition. Adult material drove the VHS into the home... Adult content drove the web... content needs to be addressed. Compelling story needs the focus.

A3: 10 wks out audience will drive this they want to see it when they want to see it.

In 5 days, 5 million copies of Apples QuickTime trailer of StarWars were downloaded, and 80% of downloads were the hi-res huge version. Sees streaming content not browser dependent after it’s downloaded. Shouldn’t have to launch browser to hear a music or movie clip.

A4: concept of revenue tied to streaming is critical. In entertainment, NYPD Blue has the most focused audience, yet those people only see 60% of show. Web content must become more customer solution oriented. Profiling on web ads will drive advertisers to it.

A5: producer and client don’t care about brand, but they just want quality. Simplification of prodn workflow, implementation of easy distribution. The simpler it is, the better it is. Streaming architecture needs to be totally cross-platform. Wants 1 plugin that supports everything on the web.

A6: real NetShow QT likes QT as best solution allows delivery of stream unique to bandwidth. 50 million users. host of development tools. QT has been selected as starting point for MPEG-4, so it enjoys popularity.

Panelist

Matthew Brown, Encoding.com Chief Engineer Seattle, WA

encoding lab, post production house, totally internet focused. in business 1.5 yrs. internet audio and video. works w/Real, MS, LiquidAudio, ATT challenge is to integrate these manufacturers products into an automated batch-encoding process.

A1: video on the web isn’t really successful yet, but audio is definitely further along. Biggest clients are labels having them rip thousands of CDs into streaming formats. Audio has MetaData elements more in place, such as watermarking.

A2: Real Video and NetShow still rinky-dink. Captures full frame, uncompressed video and manipulate offline with software.

A3: pessimistic about how quick quality streaming (broadband) will roll out to mass market. It’s not just software, not just codecs. It’ll take awhile for ISP, cable ops and telcos etc to collaborate to bring this about.

A4: short films with streaming teasers, allow users to buy them.

A5: concerned about tools, APIs. Manufacturers focus on middle-tier to lo-end. Matt is looking for more professional tools that will mesh better with pros. Looking for a more total solution for broadcasters and prodn facilities. Probably about a year away from more integrated solution. Manufacturers have to realize that the competition is destructive, and standards need to be adopted.

A6: tested everything, puts in what clients want. customer drive.

Ken Van Meter, Celerity Systems, Inc.

Knoxville, TN

Ralph LaBarge, Alpha DVD LLC

Gambrilis, MD

Steve Wiedemann, Henninger Media Service

Arlington, VA

Alexander Stevens, Discovery Network

Bethesda, MD

Graham Jones, Harris Corporation

Alexandria, VA

John Sprung, Paramount Television

Hollywood, CA

Jonathan Taplin, Intertainer

Culver City, CA

Mark Shaszberger, IMAKE Consulting, Inc.

Bethesda, MD

Patrick Barry, Warner Bros. Online

Burbank, CA

Peter Black, Xiphias

Los Angeles, CA

Randall Dark, HD Vision Inc.

Irving, TX

Richard Diercks, Simitar Entertainment

Minneapolis, MN

Savage Bell, IBM Interactive and New Media Services

Atlanta, GA

Suzanne Stefanac, B3TV

San Francisco, CA

MultiMedia World Reception

Sunday, Apr 18 1999

6:00PM - 8:00PM

What DVD means to Multimedia

Monday, Apr 19 1999

2:00PM - 3:30PM

DVD means never having to switch discs in the middle of a program. Or does it?

What else does so many gigabytes of disc space do for you? Get a glimpse of

the future of multimedia at this information-packed, yet visionary session.

Co-produced by IICS.

John Sands, IPC Communications Services Foothill Ranch, CA

Blaine Graboyes, Zuma Digital New York, NY

The broadband experience Advantages of the DVD

• professional quality of formats

broadcast quality digital video, encoding systems allow simple baseline quality (advanced encoding tools and techniques), MPEG-2 provides a robust standard for delivery (scalable compression formal allow various applications). Prev digital formats could not deliver professional quality

• playback compatibility and connectivity

compatibility: consumer set-top DVD players, future universal players, industrial players, portable, automobile, laptop, current and future hybrid PC/CE devices.

connectivity: same disk can go into each of above players, perhaps with separate capabilities in each.

• advanced interactive capabilities

graphic menus, global variables, context sensitive buttons; scripting, multiple video, audio and subpicture tracks, parental control. DVD-Video and DVD-ROM allow customization of sequence, not just linear playback. allows custom sequence to be created, saved. Highly interactive

• storage capacity and durability

replicated:

dvd-5 4.7g 2 hrs MPEG dvd-18 17g 8hrs MPEG

rewritable:

• ease of replication and distribution

essentially the came as CDs, less disks is less expensive, universal physical disk format 12cm. supports PAL and NTSC.

Broadband interactive possibilities: video enhances presentation, interactive video kiosks, new distrib for broadcasters, interactive educational, hybrid DVD/web.

Music Products: Producers are in a position to become some of the most innovative developers of DVD Mocean Worker single sold for $8 on DVD entirely produced on a Mac with DV camera output.

David Bloom, Moving Images International L.L.C Atlanta, GA no show

Authoring process: DVD is the most successful format ever 30 million units world wide by 2000

majority of players are connected to PCs, which are connected to the web.

Recordable (burners) down from $18k to $5k and dropping fast.

Anything that is video-based will be delivered on DVD. Title demand is increasing.

2 different DVD markets: hi-end prodn and publishing: interactive alternative to tape, integrated into NLEs.

Sonic DVD Creator: complete DVD prodn tools: audio prep, encoding, authoring, proofing and formatting. expandable from singles systems to workgroups.

Sandra Benedetto, Pioneer New Media Technologies Director Upper Saddle Riv, NJ

Pioneer makes an industrial DVD player with PS2 serial mouse port on front panel for navigation.

Why should I want to use it?

What does DVD offer the professional and business markets?

DVD video: Powerful, yet simple. It’s a hot format, consumer sales better than expected, everyone is a consumer, it’s associates with hi-quality, a lot of new capabilities are available: 2 hrs per side, cheap replication.

a lot of talk about video on PCs: when to use DVD Video or DVD-ROM?

re-writable DVD format wars; development tools are expensive; encryption, region code confusion; internet, as usual, is the panacea video on the internet???

Why DVD Video? hi capacity for video and audio: >2 hrs video, 1-8 audio streams

studio quality video delivered on an inexpensive player platform, very high value equation, spectacular multi-channel sound

Contains many segments and only the segment required is activated.

More is NOT always better, requires key sales and mktg strategies, evaluation of perceived market value.

DVD can be one-offed Pioneer DVR-S201 burner

stable format, no OS conflicts for hard drive failures, does 1 thing and 1 thing well: plays DVD Video disks. Portable: plays both on players and properly configured PCs. Can be mixed format, contains video partition and ROM partition.

DVD can interface directly with touch screen – no computer necessary. also supports keyboard control and barcode.

Multi-angle feature

Tuesday, Apr 20 1999

9:00AM - 12:00PM

Electronic Commerce: An Emerging Multi-billion Dollar Industry will

address e-commerce from a variety of unique perspectives including

WebTV and future Internet appliance platforms.

Steve Perlman, Co-Founder, CEO and President, WebTV Networks is a

pioneer in the fusion of multimedia, video and telecommunications

technologies. He is the original developer of the WebTV Networks' concept

of bringing the Internet into homes worldwide via conventional television

sets.

Mitchell Kertzman is President and CEO of Network Computer, Inc., the

leading provider of software for information appliances. He has global

responsibility for expanding NCI's information appliance software products

into the enhanced television, enterprise and embedded systems market

segments.

In addition, a panel of industry professionals led by Julius Adams, senior

consultant, IBM, will provide insights and ideas on what role E-business

will play in the future of broadcasting. The panelists include: Greg Smith,

Western International Media; John DiFronzo, CBS Inc.; George Dallas,

McCann-Erickson New York; Bernard Gershon, ABC News Radio; Michael

Langley, Belo; Bob Phillips, Talus Solutions, Inc. and William J. Moses,

IBM and Bob Howard, DG Systems.

Keynote Speaker

Mitchell Kertzman, Network Computer, Inc. Redwood, CA

E-commerce as it applies to convergence business model difference from WebTV. NCI sells software to mfgrs of set-top boxes, does not offer a service like WebTV. Last year Mitch spoke of the importance of standards in convergence. Embraces

is the standard applied to convergence. watching a web page whose background is the broadcast program. overlaid menus and ads. when any of these are clicked, TV program goes down small. All HTML and standard web-commerce server based.

Direct Response advertising: US west markets a speaker phone which dials the 800 number that comes up at the end of a spot. The ATVEF signal contains this, and the box dials the number for you, and you do hands-free conversation.

Q: What level of equipment is required at the user end? Broadband? minimum is a dialog analog box. or WebTV ATVEF is agnostic of bandwidth. cable modem is not required.

Set-top box adds a new element to broadcasters. VCR was the same thing, it required the consumer to buy another device. Consumers will embrace this. WebTV will be sold integrated with new TVs end of 1999. Thompson Electronics has it.

Q: What happened to the original Network Computer? It’s alive and well in Java. Part 2 was to eliminate the satanic PC from the face of the earth. That didn’t happen. What did happen was that part 1 extended the PC, it didn’t replace it. Just like the PC didn’t replace the main frame... it extended it.

Q: how can mom & pop stores tap this new technology? since it’s standards based, it should be just as accessible, but it’s still early to provide local access methodology to specifically empower local commerce.

Keynote Speaker

Steve Perlman, Web TV Networks, Inc. Palo Alto, CA

Benefits of ITV: audience acquisition and retention, deepens relationship w/TV audience; new revenue opportunities

Basic Interactivity: The TV remote control was actually the beginning of ITV as soon as you could surf away, TV became interactive. Electronic program guide, proprietary response network (OpenTV and Wink) augmentation only

Enhanced TV (the internet meets TV) Internet on TV, Internet with TV, Interactive TV programming

ATVEF standard for ITV

Personal TV (the disk meets TV) TiVo, Replay TV, DishPlayer digital video recording, virtual channels (cherry-picked shows use broadcast programming already there, a smart VCR), TV on Demand (6 yrs out, Terabyte drives, stores 1k hrs video, may transmit the entire week’s programming on Sunday night, except for live stuff).

telco, satellite, cable, terrestrial will remain the primary carriers of programming

network operator, internet

service operator – webTV, AOL, @Home, Roadrunner

internet, email, chat, simple overlays, response network, offline web pages, interactive bdcsts, VCR programming, TV listings, TV pause, digital video recording, video games, audio on-demand, video on-demand. Personal TV combines all these services.

WebTV growth: 800k active subscribers, avg. 2.2 users per subscription. Surge in WebTV adoption 200k new subs in last 6 weeks

Aggregate online hours per month in top 5 US online services

AOL 10mil home users

WebTV

CompuServe

MSN

AT&T WorldNet

Internet usage on WebTV 71% do not own PCs 58% no prior internet experience, avg. age 43, users 50/50 male/female.

Gary Arlen, Arlen Communications, Inc. Bethesda, MD

What does local broadcaster have to do to get into this? A website, some tools and VBI insertion equipment, like for closed-captioning. Investment is modest. Skills development is the major obstacle. Training the sales force to sell interactive ads instead of static spots.

Julius Adams, IBM Telecomm. & Media New York, NY

Forces of change: merger mania, increasing ad prices vs decl9ining shares, digital conversion requirements, continued audience fragmentation, new digitally enabled entertainment mediums

Common need of key market players require new technologies to meet demands: meet viewer/listener/client wants and needs.

The impact of interactive media on the traditional single channel broadcast delivery model demands an effective response.

What can help? what is e-business? not JUST the internet. It’s the use of technology throughout the enterprise and across the industry, value can be a means of making a company: quicker to market, more responsive,...

ebusiness will grow to $1.3 trillion by 2003

Critical ebiz technologies enhance the ability to obtain, collect, and respond to market data and close the loop w/customers.

ebiz technologies used along the tradl bdcst value chain will support maximization of the core asset – advertising time.

In an ebiz environment the bdcst value chain could be redefined such that the central asset focal point is the consumer, requiring continuing balance between infrastructure and services offered.

ebiz will be utilized thorough the media industries for communication, asset mgmt,...,

Ad time inventory could be offered thru the web to sell unused slots.

An industry extranet of interconnected databases using web technology.

web based intranet connected to a consolidated ad sales and traffic system, w/real-time inventory control and financial data. can provide stations groups w/access to real-time station performance stats and currently unrealized efficiencies.

ebiz technology can prepare content and interactive commercials for distrib, ensure copyright protection, store it, merch track it and clear it for use.

250 million people will be tuning in to webcast programming by year 2000.

ebiz will allow broadcasters to break boundaries between tradl media. targeting based on interests and willingness to pay. value-added svcs, linkage bet interactive media, consumer access directly to advertiser.

in a web centric world, flexibility in offering targeted content and value add svcs meeting needs can be leveraged in attracting new customers.

Questions: how will your core audience want to interact w/you? how will you project a unique strength or image?

What I want, when and where I want it.

Bernard Gershon, ABC News New York, NY

Internet Radio Opportunities

The E-Future of Radio: Current - cheap and ubiquitous to hear, expensive to own major market stations

Future – internet delivered to home, office and mobile: cheap to produce, customizable, niche formats

Mid-day listening is prime time for internet radio, doesn’t steal from morning drive traditional radio or evening TV prime time. Driven by hi-speed connections at work.

Strategies for survival: extend brand to web, radio is a powerful billboard for the internet, develop internet-only sales team.

Some specifics:

• content internet only, variety at low cost create a few hours and loop it
• website couponing
• commerce site affiliate programs
• simple ecommerce of branded merchandise

RealPlayer G2 demo is a slide show, streamable over 28.8 modem good example of where we have to move.

Don’t forget the obvious: internet is a lo friction, cluttered marketplace, internet biz that builds a strong brand can cut thru that clutter

The reverse: the so-called dot-com category is growing faster than any other segment

Future: more formats, competition, branding key to success in new media, be digital prepare for broadband

Bob Phillips Talus West Vancouver, Canada

Revenue Management is: selling the right product, to the right person, at the right time, at the right price, through the right channel with the right pitch...

who is going to pay for all this new technology. driven not by cost savings, not by coolness of technology, but by the additional revenue it can generate.

Purpose of revenue mgmt: gains go right to the bottom line, because expenses have already been met. improves market share and competitive advantage.

ads will become increasingly more narrowly targeted and focused.

What is impact of business: complexity – more channels, market fragmentation, advertiser choices. Need for tools and processes to support the real-time pricing of goods and svcs sold via the internet

Broadcasters need to avoid a commodity market for spot TV, product definition will become more complex and more narrowly targeted to specific advertisers, continue adding value to differentiate your station.

Increasing complexity will drive Rev Mgmt evolution, more emphasis on accurate forecasts of demand at micro-market level, pricing /bid-price optimization systems to support all channels of distribution, optimal placement tools to allocate advertiser demand to best available supply on spot TV and website clicks. automation will be a necessity, not a luxury.

Bottom Line: as ad dollars get split among more and more channels the issue of reaching the right mkts at the right time w/the right message through the right channels becomes more and more critical. This will force revenue mgmt to take center stage.

George Dallas, McCann-Erickson Worldwide Sr VP New York, NY

EDI and sales: media growth trends, EDIs or EDIsn’t, issues, future

Network TV: is it still the place to be? shares are down, prices are up, from 3 to 6 networks, competition from cable, internet, DBS, other?

Cable looks like the place to be. 500 channel universe or 3000 channels and not a thing to watch. 87% of all spots and growing.

Network Radio barely growing,

Spot Radio and TV: lots of growth. flexible, immediate, cost-efficient, digital verification is desperately needed, spot cable is growing, we

Issues for EDI to address: eliminate paper-based, clerical tasks

cut down on discrepancies avg is 60% now

speed up the process: reconciliation and payment clearance (agency)

pay faster (stations)

increase productivity, but who gets the productivity gain?

industry standards or defacto standards? coming up w/agreed upon way of exchanging data

taking business direct: when it’s a client dictate, but agencies not anxious to do this.

alternate current business practices

bodies for bytes mentality: people who are controlling the money want to be shown the return, and the return is more long-term than immediate (hello Janet Hughes)

what does EDI cost? what should it cost? transaction based or flat fee (fat fee)

audit issues? auditors need to understand need for elimination of paper

serialization? each spot in the universe has a unique identifier for booking, traffic, payment, etc.

where does process start? EDI kills the sales process, so don’t start there, but the paper based part of that should be done w/EDI

should anyone ‘own’ the process? lots of fear here... should be an open standard

do we even know what the process is?

who’s driving the train? who should/can drive the train?

who is the ‘client’ anyway?

EDI process players: agencies, stations, reps, peripheral vendors: advalue vendors, etc.

electronic commerce will not have 100% penetration in our lifetimes, but it’ll be in the 90 percentile.

So, how do we get all this done? agencies must push stations harder: enlist group owner support, NAB/TVB support, stations and networks must bear the cost, agencies do want to pay for getting an invoice on a product they’re buying. an agency no-paper position will help.

Greg Smith, Western International Media Los Angeles, CA

John DiFronzo, CBS Studio Center Shelton, CT

Technical challenges to converting to ecommerce.

CSP commerce service providers help clients build their ecommerce capability.

ecommerce infrastructure must be built up, and is more complicated that just throwing technology at it. Requires addressing of many basic business issues. It’s a long-term commitment. Requires a fundamental change in the way a company does business.

Web-based procurement is a hot area.

• First, establish a presence on the internet. mass market approaches

• Stage Two, personalization and customization of operations, frequently for internal staff use.
• Stage Three: more costly and challenging extranet to provide for direct contact with customers. EDI transactions, electronic invoicing, backoffice svcs
• Stage Four: most expensive and challenging. full customer integration with databases, services. i.e. buying and selling of advertising with the web.

companies which do 1 to 1 marketing with the web will be the successful businesses of the future.

Michael Langley, Belo Honolulu, HI

Robert Howard, DG Systems San Francisco, CA

Linking communities of interest with e-commerce to serve our clients

Today’s internet tools:

• more standardization of parts
• easier to link business systems together
• transactional basis for purchases
• personal medium

specialized infrastructures: data files to satisfy client requirements are huge (audio, video files), need industrial strength networking to do this

Speed and responsiveness are critical for last minute changes.

3000 advertisers, 7000 stations, 450 prodn studios

Community of interest using a specialized network is a great strategic weapon. Convince your customers that you can use this capability to assist them in their strategic plan.

William Moses, IBM Telecomm. & Media New York, NY

Interactive TV: Where Are We Headed and Who Is Winning?

2:00PM - 3:30PM

303 The Sands

The TV and PC are converging, the questions are how will it happen and

how will this convergence affect everyday media. Representatives of the

major players transforming the way we receive and interact with

information present their case for the champion. Co-produced by The

Association for Interactive Media (AIM).

Ken Papagan, iXL Worldwide Los Angeles, CA

Allan Thygesen, Wink Communications Almeda, CA

Bill Samuels, ACTV New York, NY

Clinton Wolf, Interactive Channel Dallas, TX

Gerard Kunkel, WorldGate Communications Bensalem, PA

Jan Steenkamp, OpenTV, Inc. Mountain View, CA

Joseph Poletto, Web TV Networks, Inc. Mountain View, CA

The Virtualization of Hollywood

Tuesday, Apr 20 1999

1:00PM - 5:30PM

Some of Hollywood's most exciting, cutting-edge studio projects will be revealed

by world class experts in the emerging field of real-time human simulation, virtual

set design and interactive 3D prop building tools. Demonstrations of their

pioneering work, experimental projects and visions of the future will be presented

over the course of the afternoon.

Gregory Peter Panos, founding co-director of the Performance Animation Society,

will kick off this exciting three-part super session with a pioneering, all-star cast

of digital teleproduction technology developers and creative producers.

The session is co-produced by the Performance Animation Society, the world's

premier special interest group dedicated to the field of performance animation,

virtual theatre, digital puppeteering and motion capture. The session will address

the new breed of Hollywood studio productions and what future benefits synthetic

actors, virtual sets and digital props will bring to HDTV, DVD, broadband Internet.

1:00 PM

Virtual Actors

Hollywood has long been pondering the dawn of the age of the Virtual Actor.

Pundits have struggled to coin terms to define and describe the existence of

synthetic beings that only now are taking shape in our media. Virtual

stunt-doubles, simulated crowd scenes and fantastic morphing characters have

begun to push the envelope of visual simulation technology to the next level.

Digital game shows hosts, the resurrection of beloved actors and the eventual

photo-realistic anchorperson of the future are efforts well underway. Can

humankind resist the opportunity to recreate itself and set it upon the world?

During this session you'll hear from the pioneers in the exciting field of virtual

actors, performance animation and human simulation and learn how the future of

broadcasting and interactive media can never be the same.

Moderator: Gregory Panos, Performance Animation Society, Long Beach, CA

Presenters:

Brad deGraf, Protozoa, San Francisco, CA

Steve Tice, Quantum Works Corporation, Los Angeles, CA

Matt Elson, X07 Inc., Los Angeles, CA;

Julian Corbett, MEDIALAB, Beverly Hills, CA

Mike Fusco, Simgraphics Engineering, South Pasadena, CA

William Plant, Pacific Title/Mirage Studio, Hollywood, CA

3:00 PM

Virtual Sets

Recent advances in real-time environment simulation and high-definition rendering

technology have begun to offer the media and broadcasting industry a new palette

of tools to create virtual spaces for their shows and productions. Camera

tracking, artificial intelligence based scene analysis, digital compositing and

rendering are coming together to play a role as a means to this end. The

generation of believable, navigable spaces for real and virtual persons in the virtual

worlds and studios of tomorrow is the Holy Grail. Learn how some of the world's

leading virtual set designers and developers are working to create and control the

future of 3-dimentional space and hear their thoughts as they move us into their

brave new worlds.

Moderator: Gregory Panos, Performance Animation Society, Long Beach, CA

Presenters: Greg Petroff, StudioDVP, Hollywood, CA; Diana Zimmerman,

Creative Meeting Services, Los Angeles, CA; Douglas Trumbull, Entertainment

Design Workshop, LLC., Sheffield, MA; Bill Bohnert, Beverly Hills, CA,

4:15 PM

Virtual Props

Today a myriad of innovative and evolving options bombard the creative media

designer in the area of object, character, and scene creation. 3D modeling,

rendering and animation systems abound with features that boggle the mind of

even the most savvy artists and technicians. Polygons, NURBS, meshes,

isosurfaces, metaballs and an infinite array of programs, plug-ins and techniques

are evolving to win the favor of today's digital artisans. Learn how master

developers have participated in the incubation, direction and evolution of these

21st century tools and techniques. Listen while they ponder on the new ways

they hope to shape and simulate worlds within worlds with all the realism and

fantasy that a creative mind can conjure.

Moderator: David Blackburn, Virtual Ventures, Inc., Manhattan Beach, CA,

Presenters:Walter Noot, Viewpoint DataLabs, Inc., Orem, UT; Mark Sylvester,

Alias\Wavefront, Santa Barbara, CA; Jim Giliberti, Kinetix, a division of Autodesk,

San Francisco, CA

Wednesday, Apr 21 1999

Where is Wall Street Finding Value: Broadcasting, Multimedia, Satellite/Telecommunications

8:30AM - 11:30AM

Pavilions 1-3 Las Vegas Hilton

Here you are at NAB99 marveling at the way broadcasting, multimedia and

telecommunications are converging - broadcasting is on the Internet,

digital multimedia is everywhere and telecommunications companies are

moving information faster and faster. With all the new technologies and the

unprecedented number of corporate mergers and acquisitions, have you

ever wondered how Wall Street determines the value of a business?

No matter what your business, you will benefit from this interactive

session hosted by analysts and investment bankers who will talk to you

about the future - maybe providing insight on how you can position your

company for the highest value.

FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth will give opening remarks,

while Mark Cuban, president and co-founder, Broadcast.com will give the

keynote address.

Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican, was chief economist for the House

Committee on Commerce before being sworn in as an FCC commissioner

in 1997. Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com (formerly AudioNet) in 1995.

When the company went public in 1998, Broadcast.com was one of the

hottest IPOs in history.

This NAB99 Wall Street Super Session will focus on how Wall Street

determines the value of converging electronic media industry segments -

broadcasting, multimedia, satellite and telecommunications. A panel

moderated by Harry Jessell, Broadcasting and Cable magazine and with

representatives from leading companies including: Randall Mays, Clear

Channel; Mary Frost, ICO Global Communications and Jimmy Hayes, Cox

Communications will discuss how their companies are positioned in the

converging marketplace and how they demonstrate their value to Wall

Street.

A second panel lead by Diane Mermigas, Electronic Media and with Wall

Street analysts including: Tom Wolzien, Sanford Bernstein; Jessica Reif

Cohen, Merrill Lynch and James Marsh, Prudential Bache will provide

insights on how the market will evaluate these industries.

If you want to grow your business or sell it for a handsome profit, this

session is a must-see event.

Special Presenter

Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Federal Communications Commission

Washington, DC

Markets that are affected by the FCC, and the role of regulation

• generation of intellectual property: programming, ads, writing, creative activities NO REGS
• wholesale mgmt and distribution of intellectual property: studios, publishers, networks "
• retail distrib of intellectual property: local bdcstrs, cable distrib, music & bookstores "
• transmission of information: FCC does quite a bit of regulation under Title 2,3,4 telephony, wireless, satellite, broadcast
• retail distribution of info: local telephony, wireless, satellite, broadcast "

• management of govt property: the spectrum "

technological advance and market fragmentation: convergence invokes an idea that is misleading – that there are atomistic and highly distinguishable products & services. Instead, there are lots of highly splintered mkt segments that are part of a larger mkts. If you don’t want to participate in one market fragment, you can participate in another fragment. But most of these fragments are integrally related.

Broadcasting is NOT a separate market – it has activities and elements in each of the above 6 markets that in each case, is competing with businesses that are described as being in other industries. Why is this important? Regulation at the FCC is not uniform. A greater degree of regulation is applied to the broadcast industry. Children’s TV broadcasts are highly regulated, but competing industries are not tethered by such regs. Public interest obligations, EEO, for example, are regulated in broadcast, but not competing business.

Economic perspective of ‘why regulate in the first place?’ Paradoxically, if you look at the communications act, one finds very few instances of specific requirements to regulate the broadcast industry. Regs are issued not because FCC is required to, but because FCC chooses to. To make a case to have industry-specific regs for broadcasters and not for other industries, broadcasters are rarely in a market by themselves. So why does FCC choose to regulate broadcast? Net result is that a little bit of economics @ FCC could go along way toward reducing regs. Harold is a strong advocate that, when benefits of regulation does not exceed the cost, that regulation should not be done. The FCC has come to a position of picking winners and losers in the markets, by handicapping the broadcast industry but not its competitors. Broadcast industry suffers a heavy burden from this regulation.

Keynote

Mark Cuban, broadcast.com Pres/CoFounder

His company currently ranked 15^th in terms of reach. AudioNet evolved into broadcast.com

Creating Value: look for change agents. Therein lies opportunity. Areas where significant change is happening:

Moderator

Diane Mermigas, Electronic Media Chicago, IL

Harry Jessell, Broadcasting & Cable Magazine Washington, DC

James Marsh, Prudential Securities New York, NY

Jessica Cohen, Merrill Lynch New York, NY

Jimmy Hayes, Cox Communications Atlanta, GA

Mary Frost, ICO Global Communications Washington, DC

Randall Mays, Clear Channel Communications San Antonio, TX

Tom Wolzien, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc. New York, NY

DTV Audio Workshop

Wednesday, Apr 21 1999

9:00AM - 12:00PM

Everyone always talks about the fantastic quality of digital video - but what about

the audio? In order to attract and hold on to a new generation of digital viewers,

the audio must offer as much or more than the video. This session will feature tips

on how to engineer the surround sound environment for realism and excitement.

Presentation schedule for this session.

Chairperson

Andy Butler, PBS

Alexandria, VA

since ATSC is a transmission standard that deals with the pipeline, it doesn’t address preliminary production and processing. see Mic technique

A 12 Channel Digital Audio Interface

Birney Dayton, NVISION, Inc. Grass Valley, CA

Proposed and standardized in SMPTE 12 linear 24-bit channels delivered on 75 ohm cable for routing and interconnection of MultiChannel pro gear.

discreet surround: 6 channels L,R,C,LFE,LS,RS

also stereo, 8 channels minimum, may need more channels for other services (multi-lingual, visually impaired)

Multi-channel phasing: audio image must be maintained, keep differential delays to a minimum

Must be cost effective, simple to operate.

Limitations: VTRs don’t have enough channels, separate audio machines difficult to sync, multi-channel phasing: multiple frame slips between pairs are likely across VTRs. Stereo Phase OK

The audio framing problem: channels from different machines (sometimes even from the same machine) may be framed differently due to relative incoming phase. Looking for machines w/more channels.

Distribution approaches: compression, embedding, multiLayer AES, Multi-Channel single carrier (doesn’t carry video signal)

This open proposal has been submitted to standards committee, should be published in next month or 2. Manufacturers are in no hurry to implement yet, they’re waiting for standard to be issued. Cable length shouldn’t need equalization for reasonable runs. several thousand feet.

The ATSC Digital Audio System

Craig Todd, Dolby Laboratories Inc. joined 15 minutes in

Dynamic Range Control:

we don’t actually alter the coded audio, it’s delivered untouched, a control signal is included in the audio data, and applied in the decoder.

Different types of programs may benefit from different DRC characteristics.

Where should DRC be done? best determined in the post studio where proper audio monitoring exists, not at the transmitter. We need MetaData pathways.

How to get started: run your existing 2ch audio into the AC-3 encoder. Tape the audio prior to any existing audio processor which feeds the NTSC audio; determine what value of dialnorm is consistent with your existing operation practice, set on the ‘AC-3 encoder.

ATSC service types: complete main, music, effects and dialog,

visually impaired, voice over elements with a dynrng control (to pull back main level)

Dual stream decoding status: not included in early receivers, don’t use dual stream modes in early broadcasts, some new silicon in including the feature, WGBH will do some experiments with CM+VI

Audio Processing for DTV

Robert Orban, Orban San Leandro, CA

3 important Dolby Digital MetaData elements of ATSC:

• dialog normalization
• line mode dynamic control
• range dynamic control

1 - dialog should be comfortably intelligible

2 - commercials should not be loud (it’s against FCC rules to broadcast loud commercials)

Broadcasters will use processors which sample the relative loudness of program material, and when it exceeds a threshold, the level will be reduced.

CBS loudness metering and 5-band re-equalization may be auditioned at Orban suite.

A MultiChannel Audio Infrastructure Based on Dolby E Coding

8 channels of audio + MetaData transported down AES/EBU pair.

ATSC audio system: the Dolby Digital part combining the MetaData from encoder and the user input on decoder indicating number of speakers, etc completes delivery.

• MultiChannel/multiprogram
• must carry MetaData (provides a wrapper for the group of channels and their usage)
• multigeneration performance (must survive multiple encode/decode passes)
• clean edits (audio follow video) blocks of Dolby E frames match the video frames vertical interval switches
• compatible with existing equipment

Syncframe data and transport actually uses 20 bit audio

Simplified contribution and distribution signal path: use Dolby E DP571 encoder has sync and timecode inputs, as well as 4 AES/EBU pairs. Dolby E DP572 decoder DP569 Dolby Digital Encoder does AC-3 encoding for transmission.

production truck > satellite truck > satellite > down link site > color studio > network origination > sat > post house > sat > affiliate station > master control

v-fade replaced by gain-words in MetaData creating a virtual v-fade, without having to decode and re-encode for such a simple operation.

Microphone Technique and Monitoring for Digital Television

Tomlinson Holman, TMH Corporation Los Angeles, CA

developer of THX, designed SkyWalker Ranch, author of Sound for Film and Television

Standard techniques previously used will need to evolve

Stereo recording technique 4 methods:

• spaced omnis
• coincident direction mics
• dummy head (binaural)
• constructed sound fields (stereo artificially created by panning mono mics and using reverb)

Snow’s curtain of sound. 3 mics reasonably simulate an infinite number of mics.

Spaced omnis phasiness generally considered a defect can be a pleasant defect: disadvantage: mixdown results often not good since spaced mics have random phase and adding them produces comb filtering that varies w/angle of the source (time delays). reasonable well suited for 5.1 recording, but no consideration for combined stereo or mono

coincident mics by Blumlein better than spaced approach uses 2 figure 8 mics at same point, with a 90 degree angle between axes. very much like pan-potted mono, no time difference, but an amplitude difference

SRT coincident and near coincident 110 degrees M-S good thru perfect mixdown compat, also good on Dolby stereo compat, as mics move apart, mixdown gets worse, but is still manageable compared to spaced omnis. disadv: must use pressure gradient mics (not great lo-end, and proximity effect) no simple way to make

second order gradient mics more directional than hyper-cardioid (doesn’t exist yet)

Constructed space principally mono. close miking multiple sources, panned into position, space made w/artificial reverberates

Hybrids virtually every film sound mix is a hybrid. include mono dialog and Foley panned into position, w/MultiChannel verb returns, MS stereo sound effects, spaced omni sound effects (especially suited to trains passing, etc)

London ‘tree’ music recording sweetening mics/ambience mics digital console a huge improvement here. a tympani close mike can be delayed so ‘thwack’ happens with or slightly after ambient Mic.

Mic technique 5.1

dialog always mono, comparison mics or measure mics are: lab-standard mics placed on the set -- omni on-axis w/deliberate top end rise. shotguns improved w/EQ curves applied to bring mics closer to comparison Mic. Lavs are more dramatically improved

general spec in Rec. 775

center spkr above, below or behind behind is best.

surround 110 degrees +- from front center elevated OK, no limit on elevation except as surround becomes more mono as left and right can’t be distinguished

Bass mgmt: can extract lo bass from 5 main channels, alternatively 5 wide-range plus sub.

speaker directivities: side wall reflections controllable: use mirror trick and place absorbers there. Surround spkr shouldn’t be point source, film theatres use arrays to confuse localization.

Fibre Channel Workshop

State of the SAN (Storage Area Network)

Fiber Channel Association 90 companies that make Fiber Channel products.

Creating end user interest groups.

Emf provides marketing and educational aspects of Fibre Channel, for 10yrs.

A SAN is a hi-performance managed network connecting store information assets. In the video/broadcast world we know them as the network connection that enables fast digitized image delivery and non-linear editing. Fibre Channel connected disks and tape. The term SAN was introduced in 1998 by the computer storage industry. Reality Check: the film/video/broadcast industry has been using SANs since 1994.

Collection of stored assets: servers, clients, SCSI storage devices. Multiple protocols: SCSI, IP

Span great distances: 100km no real upper limit

Migration and co-existence: switch w/system mgmt creates the SAN, then hubs and other switches fan out to LAN FC_Loop. Ethernet, video, SDI, etc connections still present for specific purposes.

Accomplishments in 98-99

• total industry sales of over $3.5B
• FC new port installations > 2M with > 500K non-disk drive ports
• Continued growth of film, video and bdcstg installations worldwide
• String growth of the European market
• Microsoft support and participation in SNIA management

Good news: growing fast Bad news: there’s demand that hasn’t been satisfied

Marketplace growth will drive capability up and prices down. Projected $20B industry in 2003

Needs: multi-platform file systems: Celestra, Transoft, Mercury (SANergy), Veritas

Unix, NT, Mac

Challenges for 2000: provide open systems solutions, improve quality and usefulness of the file systems software, develop competitive solutions at higher rates -- real time digital HDTV and quality of service (guaranteed bandwidth).

SAN Interoperability and Management

SAN is typically referred to as the network behind the servers..

DO’s make things work together by: conforming to standards, consistent error recovery, consistent device addressing, common terminology, common management.

DON’T’s harm another, de-grade performance of another, terminology: same term different meaning.

Fibre Channel Architecture: operates at 1062 and 2134 Mb/s

Complexity: host bus adapters: physical layer, firmware, drivers & software (error recovery, device addressing)

Hubs: physical layer, management

Switches: physical layer, routing, management

SAN Ready initiative attempts to insure interoperability

Systems to: configure, monitor, control and service the complex SAN environment in an automated way.

Objectives: lower TCO

Disciplines: asset mgmt – discovery, configuration, usage accounting, software updates

Operational mgmt – performance monitoring, fault isolation, events, change

Security mgmt and Policy mgmt

The Management View: Logically centralized administration, workload monitor

Future: today, you can’t manage the complex environment from each box. Need common model that depicts enterprise (LAN SAN & WAN) systems and devices. Referred to as CIM common information model

The Road to a Heterogeneous SAN

Ajit Dandapani, SGI, Mountain View, CA

Production Workflow

Rein Taul, Forefront Graphics Inc., Toronto, Canada

Distribution company.

You’re not using your Father’s editor, so Why are you still using his router?

Dimitri Chernyshov, Mercury Computer Systems, Chelmsford, MA

The Impact of Fibre Channel on Discreet Logic’s Networking and Storage Infrastructure

Sequences of digitized images, range in size from a few 100k to multiple mBytes

Need to be manipulated uncompressed, highest quality

Current stream on NTSC = 30Mb/sec, uncompressed HDTV = 186 Mb/s, scanned film = 250 Mb/s a feature film contains multiple terabytes of data. Need to share frame stores for collaborative workgroup(s).

Support shared storage devices, support multiple framestores, in the form of sets of striped sets

Support a FC switched environment provides higher bandwidth than a shared loop

Support heterogeneous hosts Unix, PC, Unix, Mac

Support for file sharing, distributed file system mgmt, concurrency protocol

Problems: how to handle bandwidth requirements in the workgroup . share? reserve?

Bandwidth needs to be managed. Hard mgmt and Soft mgmt strategies.

Hard provide a mechanism to dedicate a full path (host-to-storage or host-to-host) for a certain period of time. This is simple.

provide hard quality of service guarantees via the communications themselves

Soft all apps play by the same soft bandwidth mgmt rules, provide a central point of authority, for arbitrating bandwidth.

Grant a dedicated path, handle soft requests for bandwidth by under-subscribing the link, restrict bursty traffic, inform other participants sha