Technology360

C-SPAN Enters the User-Generated Video Arena

Tracy Swedlow writes:

C-SPAN ... is jumping on the user-generated content bandwagon. The channel has tapped Streamload, a provider of online storage and digital media services, to provide the technology for a new site, dubbed "Viewfinder," that allows C-SPAN viewers to upload videos that are relevant to program topics or that offer their personal perspectives on political issues and events. Select user-submitted videos are being incorporated into C-SPAN's regular linear programming, including its live, daily viewer call-in program, "Washington Journal."

Link:  [itvt] News Blog.  Why did I have to find this on a UK blog? [update: see appended comment on location below -- my mistake] Access the Viewfinder page here.  --Dennis

Did you hear what Howard said this morning?

Fred Jacobs writes:

... The fact is that as good as Howard is, environment plays a role in his success.  And with Sirius, his landscape has changed.  He isn't attached to a real radio outlet, his reach has been greatly diminished, and with it, his influence. ...

... 2006 is a very flat to down year for Stern, with none of those telltale "peaks" back in the old, terrestrial radio days.  ¶  We used to see the impact of environment on Stern from radio station to radio station, and market to market.  When he was on a great station with a real format, he tended to have blockbuster numbers.  When he was on a dog station that played music that was much-duplicated in the market, or just not very good, his ratings seriously lagged.  Despite the fact that it was the same show all over the U.S., the Arbitron numbers were far different, depending on the situation.  You can look it up. ...

Link:  JacoBLOG. 

Farting in church department:  Among my responsibilities is a network of 13 public radio stations, so it's been a minor annoyance to have National Public Radio's programming carried on Sirius along with Howard Stern.  Although not alone, sadly, he's IMHO debased the radio neighborhood for years with (uh, searching mightily for the least offensive term) ... juvenilia.   NPR has been running noncommercial promos for Sirius that we carry by contract, and recently they've included something like, "... where you can hear Howard Stern."  So now my stations are telling people there's a strip club in the neighborhood.  Wouldn't it be more effective for Sirius to tell NPR listeners that they can find NPR there?  --Dennis

Mermigas out at Hollywood Reporter

The "What are you, nuts?" department:  My favorite technology columnist in the commercial press, Diane Mermigas, is one of ten editorial employees who lost their jobs in a restructuring at The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.  She'll be missed as frequent fodder for this blog, but I trust that this extremely perceptive technology business writer will be snapped up quickly.  Link: Associated Press via Contra Costa Times.

HDTV department of personal experience

A couple of weeks ago, the falling prices for larger HDTV sets got the best of me and Costco made a sale of a 50-inch Maxent plasma monitor.  We already had a 27-inch Maxent LCD monitor and a 32-inch Panasonic CRT behemoth and a Hisense ATSC decoder (USDTV brand, 4th-gen. chip) to go with the latter.  I bought a new Samsung ATSC decoder (5th-gen. chip) to go with the new Maxent and it does a great job, though because its navigation data aren't displayed when using the S-video or composite outputs, don't get this one to receive DTV on your old analog set.  I also bought a Sony DVD player with HDMI and upscaling (to 1080i).

Here's what I learned:

• The two older sets are really too small given our viewing distance for it to matter much what one feeds into it, but the new one makes cruddy old NTSC look even cruddier.  The HD out of the new ATSC decoder looks very nice on the screen, and even at distances greater than the maximum for HD to be fully discernable, it looks better than NTSC using S-video and a lot better than DirecTV's dumbed down NTSC.
• HDMI connections provide a significantly better picture than component connections (Y/Pb/Pr, the three-cable assemblies with red, blue and green color coding).  But be careful where you buy your HDMI cable.  I bought the Samsung ATSC decoder at Circuit City for a decent price, but they were selling Monster cables for obscene prices -- $90 for a 1-meter HDMI cable and $120 (or was it $130) for a 2-meter version.  I went next door to Costco and got a 2-meter cable in a sort of HDTV variety pack of five others for $85.  I later learned that Wal-Mart has them for $30 and that you can buy them online for $5-$10 after rebates.  But do use HDMI to connect your components together.
• The 5th-generation chip in the Samsung set-top box is significantly better than the 4th-generation chip in the Hisense/USDTV box.  I tried them side-by-side with four antennas (a small UHF Terk log-periodic, an amplified Phillips flat-panel antenna, an UHF corner reflector, and a large attic-mounted VHF/UHF log periodic.  The Samsung got more channels and a more stable picture in every case.  If you're not sure it has the LG 5-th gen. chip in it, buy a monitor rather than a receiver and get this Samsung or other set-top box with that decoder.  You'll save money, too.
• The upscaling/HDMI DVD player does an absolutely amazing job fooling the monitor into thinking it's receiving HD.  The video is very satisfying, and it even does a credible, if less satisfactory job providing simulated surround sound.  It's a mystery why anyone would want to plunk down $600 to $1,200 on a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD when you can have this for $129 and have access to hugely more titles.  I've crossed it off my wish list, though it wasn't too high up anyway since the two competing formats have barely begun duking it out.

--Dennis

HDTV screen size vs. viewing distance

Back in September, I posted on HDTV viewing distance, screen height and it's become a very popular bit of search engine fly paper.  Here are four more that provide pertinent information:

Carlton Bale, 1080p Does Matter - Here's When (Screen Size vs. Viewing Distance vs. Resolution).  Link:  carltonbale.com.

Matt Burns (pointing at the above, but adding some helpful comments), 1080p charted: Viewing distance to screen size.  Link:  engadgetHD.com. 

Carlton Bale, Home Theater Seating Distances: Field-of-View vs. Resolution.  Link:  carltonbale.com. 

Carlton Bales, Home Theater Calculator.  Link:  carltonbale.com.  --Dennis

Satellite Radio Wars

Twin Falls, Idaho is the 192nd television market and, for many years, had only one station.  A good friend of mine with a long commercial television history once described it as a place where one station would do well, but two would starve.  His remark reminds me of the satellite radio industry, which has had Wall Street woes over the past year, fueling talk of a merger (see Analyst Asserts: Strong Chance of XM-Sirius Merger in Next 18-Months).  In my view, satellite radio faces its own disruption from Internet radio -- perhaps through a HDR-IPR hybrid that could make terrestrial broadcasters into direct competitors.

Daniel Gross thinks both companies could lose.  Writing in Sirius Pain: XM and Sirius Could Both Lose the Satellite Radio Wars, he follows a good economic analysis of satellite radio with:

... The business models of expensive talent, discounted subscriptions, and heavy marketing clearly aren't sustainable for too much longer. And so it's not surprising that analysts have begun to speculate about a potential merger. A merger of equals is certainly possible, though not likely given the egos involved. More likely is a situation in which one falters significantly and the other pounces for an acquisition. A third possibility, which analysts seem unable to contemplate, is that both could fail, and somebody else could end up with both of their carcasses. ...

Link:  Slate.  Thanks to John Proffitt (KAKM/KSKA) for a tip on the Slate article.  --Dennis

Gridcasting

One problem faced by those of us who are streaming media over the Internet is that the more successful you are, the more bandwidth you consume.  It's as if the electric bill on your transmitter went up incrementally with each new listener or viewer.  As streaming grows in popularity among listeners -- and it has been growing rapidly -- this problem is going to increase proportionately.  There are technologies to mitigate this, such as IP multicast, and the NAB Radio TechCheck publication has carried a report [PDF] on an interesting new one called gridcasting developed by the Danish company, Octoshape.  The European Technical Review has published an article on a test using the Prix Europa concert:

... For the full copy of the EBU Technical Review article on the Prix Europa concert stream, go to the EBU Web page at www.ebu.ch/en/technical/trev/trev_308-prix_europa.pdf. An article on Gridcasting, also published in the EBU Technical Review, is at www.octoshape.com/press/pdf/papers/0507ebu.pdf. Another article about Gridcasting, presented at the 2006 IBC conference, is available at www.octoshape.com/press/pdf/papers/IBC_paper.pdf.

--Dennis

Google Opens Audio Ads Beta

Zachary Rodgers writes:

Google has taken the next step in its conquest of traditional media with a new beta test of Google Audio Ads. A group of 20 advertisers have already begun buying ads on terrestrial and satellite airwaves under the experiment.  ¶  Google Audio Ads are sold on a CPM basis through the AdWords platform, and advertisers can target on factors like geographical market and time of day.  Reporting functions disclose which stations ran ads and when, and real-time air checks are available, a bit of a novelty for interactive marketers who have grown used to not seeing their non-search executions. ...

... Approximately 700 stations are taking part in the test, a number Google hopes will grow into the thousands in the coming year. Some radio stations are reluctant to jump in, however, especially those boasting effective sales forces that are able to get rid of most or all of a station or network's ad inventory. ...

Link:  ClickZ Network.
 

Advertising Goes Off the Radio

Catherine Holahan writes:

The radio industry won't want to hear this. Advertising dollars are shifting online faster than analysts anticipated. In fact, advertisers will soon spend as much money on the Internet as they do on the airwaves, according to a newly released eMarketer study. On Dec. 6, the New York research firm increased its estimate for 2006 online advertising spending by $500 million, to $16.4 billion. ...

... By 2007, online advertising will bring in 6.8% of the total and, by 2008, it will bring in 8.1%—putting it well over radio. By some estimates, online ad spending will overtake radio even sooner.  ...

Link:  BusinessWeek.

Karmazin Looks Forward to Sirius TV

P. J. Bednarski reports Mel Karmizan's (CEO, Sirius Satellite Radio) Credit Suisse media conference with analysts:

... Karmazin told analysts he looked forward to Sirius TV, a planned service that will mainly air kids video, and is slated to begin next year. Sirius is targeting family vehicles with TVs in the back seat. With an antenna "the size of a hockey puck," Sirius will be able to stream video to those sets. But he said that, neat idea aside, it's not a business he expects will be a big game changer for Sirius.

Link:  Broadcasting & Cable.