Mobile & Wireless Roundup - Innovation & Industry News

The “Watch & Play: New ways to interact with video” session had some interesting product demonstrations. The two that impressed me the most are from the companies Animoto and OverlayTV.

Animoto allows users to upload photos in order to have automatically created a movie. They choose the order, request emphasis on certain images, and then upload an audio track for which the movie will be based around. The algorithms behind the software analyse the audio track, and manipulate the images in time to the beats. Even if you make the video twice, the result will be different. Animoto is entirely web based, using drag and drop AJAX, with a Web2.0 look and feel.

Once the video has been created, it can be shared on which ever social platform you choose.

After the presentation, I had a chance to speak with the founder, and asked him about the possibilities of going mobile. It has been considered in their business plan, however at this time, they are concentrating finalizing the product and increasing the audience.

Overlay.TV is an advertising strategy. It moves away from the idea that commercials are played pre-reel, post-real, or mid-reel. Overlay.TV applies an overlay to the video which contains contextual and targeted advertisements. This approach is designed so that content producers can monetize from their videos. The solution also alows for hotspots for sections of the video to have hot links to product information for example.

Emphasis on the users ability to turn off the overlay was of primary concern. The user should be able to make the choice on if they wish to receive a video untouched, or to receive video that becomes interactive and allows the user to discover content and products they are interested in.

Overlay.TV does not give the content producers any limitations, it is up to them to work out what works for their consumers and experiment with different strategies.

The business model behind Overlay.TV works on an affiliate program, with revenue shared between the content producer and Overlay.TV.

I managed to catch up with Rob Lane, co-founder of Overlay.TV before his presentation, and asked what his strategy for approaching mobile was. In his eyes, he can see enormous potential with touch screen devices and technology, especially the iPhone. With music video, user can discover alternative content, such as ringtones, and other videos, and also have direct access to their MySpace page for example.

I would love to have seen some more developments in the mobile sector with mobile, but perhaps we have to see how successful the web counterparts can be before innovation to mobile in Canada will occur.

The first keynote and panel session that I attended at ICE08 called “Flash Forward: New Canadian Media”, was moderated by Raja Khanna (GlassBOX Television), and featured panelists David UK (Heavy.com), Pary Bell (CanWest Digital Media), and Michael Hennessy (TELUS). It was noted that Canadian carriers are the limiting factor when it comes to innovation, and Raja posed the question to the panelists, should we ask for subsidies from the ISP’s to develop applications and content. TELUS’ initial response was that this would not in fact be legal, but then was quick to say that this would be “like giving creators crack cocaine” which will result in screwups and cause havok in the market place.

I had to disagree with Michaels opinion here, as time has shown, all industries have failures and sucessus. Opening up the doors to a flood of content producers will increase the chances (simple probability) that more great content is produced and gets to see the light of day. I am not saying, give cash subsidies to all who want it, but to have a greater acceptance that great content is available, and to reward those who produce it, more effectively. As ultimately, content is king.

Later during the discussion, TELUS stated that “we are not in the content business” and understands that they need to open up and allow content producers to do their thing.

Correct me if I am wrong, but this seems like a contradiction to the previous statement that was shunning new and aspiring content producers. But maybe, the case he was making is simple. TELUS cannot subsidize the costs for content producers, but do realize their value of keeping them on board. Maybe they can see that markets around the world are taking this stance, and it is about time that Canada (TELUS in this case) follow their lead as to ensure, that their users get Canadian content.

In five years, TELUS expects that the following changes have occured:

• OnDemand TV will be standard. People do not want to watch programes when the schedule states, they want it whenever they want to watch it
• Faster wireless services
• Revenue will come from Access Fees, Data Fees and Revenue share with content producers

Lets hope that all this talk of being “Open” actually does ring true.

After attending ICE08 (Interactive Content Exchange) conference in Toronto, it has become clear that the majority of people in the New Media industry feel that Canada seriously lags behind the rest of the commercialised world. It ultimately comes down to the fact that the Canadian carriers are not “open” to the idea of innovation. We have seen this before in the UK and the USA. Carriers are hanging on to their their classical revenue streams for as long as they can. If they are generating revenue, why quit? In my opinion, carriers (especially Canadian carriers) need to re-evaluate their business models, and accept the fact that consumers are opening their eyes to what “could” be possible on their mobiles, but are too scared to experiment.

Listening to some of the speakers and the panel sessions, some of the questions that were answered didn’t seem to make sense in terms of the conferences objectives. One of the questions posed to the panel of “Moving Experience: Innovation in Wireless” was asking if the carriers are to blame for the stifled innovation that Canada is seeing in the wireless sector. The panel responded with the fact that Canadian content businesses should not let the limiting factors by the carrier effect their business, and to take the business overseas. In my opinion, where does this leave the consumers, they want to be able to access the innovative products that “should” be available to them. This also is taking away the potential custom inside the country that the conference was attempting to promote.

To pinpoint the exact issue that wireless developers face, was also a matter of opinion from the panelists and delegates. But the majority came down the fact that data rates are either extortionately priced or have anti competitive and anti innovational terms associated with them.

One point to note,we (in Canada) have not yet seen transcoding solutions in place at carrier level. I am hoping that they will hold off until a solution has been developed that handles the mobile industry fully.

More to come on ICE08

I will be attending ICE08 in Toronto for the next few days. I expect to be blogging on the latest developments in mobile and new media in Canada. So watch this space…

About the conference
The conference component of ICE is the exchange of ideas in interactive media. Participants will share and acquire knowledge and insights into innovations, hot trends and cool possibilities. Panel discussions and presentations are key parts of the Conference component.