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Speaker: Christopher Breen
, Author
As digital high-definition TV raises expectations about both quality and content, at least in the living room, IP-based "television" seems to be heading downhill in both quality and content -- millions of odd little videos on YouTube and other webcasts, some of them getting tens of millions of "hits". How and why is this seeming decrease in quality acceptable and even required as media evolves?
Chris will contrast the health of "old" media—TV and radio broadcasters and their networks—with the immediate and long-range potential of IP-based entertainment and information. Much old media is still profitable, although signs of ill health are popping up. Recently, Young Broadcasting, the owner of KRON-TV in San Francisco, was selling for around 5 cents a share.
What are the various iterations of "new media", from webcasting on YouTube to specialized podcats such as our new SMPTE series? What's out there that already breaks the mold?
One of the rules of the Internet seems to be, "You can't charge for content." Who's making money on Net-based new media? If more and more people are going to work for little or nothing, what's the effect on content and production quality? Where's the motivation for content and technical quality?
What are some of the technical issues and challenges of new media? What are the image-quality standards audiences expect through widely varying Internet-based outlets? What will people happily trade for convenience and speed?
Will TV morph into something more closely resembling webcasting, or will webcasting eventually become "million-channel cable TV on steroids"?
Appropriately, this event will serve as a taping session for a series of video podcasts on the future of new media, to be posted on www.smpte.org. We hope you'll join us in making a little of our own SMPTE webcasting history.
Join us on Thursday, the 30th of October at 6:30 PM for drinks and pizza, or at 7:30 for his talk. Our "pizza meetings" always include a freewheeling Q&A session— informative and enjoyable!
Food and drinks are availiable on a no-host basis (means that you pay for yours) from Round Table. There is no obligation to purchase to attend tonight's meeting.
PARKING: The Round Table in Menlo Park has two dozen spaces of its own, plus there's a huge, free municipal parking lot only a few yards from the restaurant, behind the buildings on the south side of Oak Grove Ave.
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