The Great Debate UK
Why broadcasters should pay attention to 3D TV
-Mark Grinyer is head of 3D and Sports Solutions at Sony Professional. The opinions expressed are his own.-
Experiences in our everyday lives are becoming richer, more intense, immediate and personal. We are inspired by events around us and encouraged to innovate based on economic, social and technological influences.
The recent budget announcement will force media and broadcast organisations to think differently about how they operate and exist in an evolving ‘Digital Britain’.
Major sporting events, such as the World Cup, can unite a nation in hope but also in outrage over the use of technology in sport. Both in terms of the technology used to bring images to consumers homes and also that used during the match.
This year for the first time the World Cup has been produced in 3D and as a member of the team that is helping to deliver these never before seen images I am immensely excited about the opportunity which 3D presents both commercially and creatively.
3D has become one of the most hotly anticipated technology trends in the last 18 months; it is continuously evolving and is set to drastically alter our viewing experience. The consumer electronics market is getting increasingly excited about 3D, with new televisions and technologies arriving in shops.
However, much of the debate surrounding 3D adoption is not necessarily about the availability of the technology, rather the existence of content that can be viewed on it.
Are mobile networks at risk of a meltdown?
- Steve Nicholson, CEO at The Cloud. -
Five years ago the thought that we could be on the move accessing applications such as You Tube or Facebook, or watching TV or listening to music using our mobile phones was no more than a dream – today it’s a reality.
If we take a step back and assess the journey of the mobile phone over the past few years it has been nothing short of epic. It has progressed from a piece of technology for the modern business person to a must-have item.
A mobile phone is no longer just for making calls or for sending texts. Apple, Google and traditional stalwarts of the mobile industry like Nokia are increasingly adding sophistication and functionality that turns our phones into multi-media entertainment devices – capable of watching TV, listening to streamed music, downloading films and even playing high quality interactive games.
The majority of TV broadcasters are making their TV programmes available via the internet and their iPlayers – thus starting the process of enabling people to watch TV using their mobile phones.
According to both Facebook and YouTube we are viewing over one billion video clips on You Tube each day and over 2.5 billion photos via Facebook each month – with a clear and increasing trend to do so using our mobile phones.
There are many more examples that culminate in a massive surge in our collective demand for bandwidth hungry Internet services that are slowly beginning to outstrip the available capacity on traditional mobile networks.
Do you know what people are saying about you?
-Connie Bensen is Director of Community Strategy and Architecture at Alterian, working cross functionally to provide strategy and best practice in social media. The opinions expressed are her own.-
It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners, terrestrial TV took 13 years, the internet took four years… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users. We are in the midst of a digital revolution that is shaping the way we communicate and these social media technologies are continuing to grow a pace in 2009. Now more than four out of five online users are active in either creating, participating in, or reading some form of social content at least once a month.
While young people continue to march toward almost universal adoption of social applications, the most rapid growth is occurring among consumers 35 and older. Consumer behaviour has always had an effect on the way we do business and this is no different as social media enters the business realm full swing.
It’s not about selling something anymore; that might be the end result, but to get there, you need to work on the relationship. To get it right it is about listening to what your consumers want. Social media is defined as user generated content and has empowered the everyday consumer so marketing departments no longer control distribution and disposition of information about their company, brand, and products – the consumer does.
Your brand’s message matters but more important is the message the consumers are sending about you. Customers are turning more towards digital influencers, bloggers and peers than company “ads” for product information so negative opinions online can be hugely damaging. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, and Twitter have demonstrated the speed with which a company’s reputation can be drastically affected by an unhappy consumer.
Open and real-time dialogue can offer endless opportunities for brands but must also to be approached with a level of caution. For example, there needs to be clear guidelines agreed between personal views and the views of a company for those employees responsible for online interaction. This is to ensure a level of personalisation is achieved, showing the human side of a company, without compromising brand values.
So social media success is about listening, engaging, and measuring. Where are consumers discussing it online? Who are the key influencers? What is being talked about? What is the mood; is it positive or negative? These are the questions businesses need to ask before they act.
“the internet took four years” – And when, precisely, do you believe the Internet came into being? It sounds like you disagree with accepted date of the late 1970′s….
“If you aren’t listening to the noise in the online world” – Noise is noise. If the signal to noise ratio in the online world is a hundred times worse than it is elsewhere, then that’s you’re reason for ignoring it right there. Of course you’ll take a hit until the hoi polloi themselves realise that all they can find on social sites is noise, but I’ll wager it will only be a short wait.
