Blog

3-D – coming to a TV near you soon

Valerie | 21 Aug 2009, 08:00

Getty Images

Much has been made of HD technologies in the film and gaming industries but as a recent article in the Wall Street Journal illustrates, the next big thing to hit our screens will be 3-D – but not as we know it.

This might conjure up images of watching blurry films through coloured spectacles but if the hype is to be believed, a spate of new films to be released in the format this year are heralding a new age of cinema and a rebirth of 3-D technology.

Led by the imminent release of James Cameron’s eagerly anticipated science fiction blockbuster Avatar, which was unveiled at the Comic-con International Convention in San Diego last month,  the surrounding hype has already been likened to that of the first Harry Potter film. Other films to be released this year in the 3-D format include Ice Age 3 and GForce. So is all the hype justified?

According to this BBC article, the technique has come a long way since the first experiments in 1915. Although, it was not until the 1950s that Hollywood tried it out on audiences threatening to be kept away by their televisions. The technique then made a comeback in the 70s and 80s, possibly as a reaction to falling audiences at the time when home video was becoming popular.

But it seems that the technology is much more sophisticated than in the past - the installation of digital projectors in cinemas means sharper and steadier images. And as the Times reports, ten British cinemas a week are upgrading to the digital projection systems necessary to show the 3-D films to their full effect.  Rupert Gavin, chief executive officer of Odeon cinemas, says the new 3-D technology is the breakthrough film fans have been waiting for.

And it seems that 3-D is reaching beyond the projectors to our TV screens, with the recent announcement from Sky that it is preparing to debut a 3-D television channel in the U.K. next year that will require specially-equipped TV sets. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sky plans to film and deliver its own exclusive 3-D content using existing HD set-top boxes used by more than 1.3 million of its pay-TV customers in the U.K in a venture that may be the most ambitious yet toward a large-scale 3-D television rollout, which remains absent from most big markets outside of Japan.

The 3-D onslaught won’t come without challenges – like the upgrade to 3-D cinema projectors, some programme including Sky’s will require expensive 3-D-ready television sets.

As this blog argues, it’s perhaps all too easy to believe that 3-D is being used more to hamper pirates than it is to thrill fans - few of the 3-D films of the recent era use the technology to enhance their storytelling power. 

Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of blockbuster hits from Bad Boys to Transformers who has been experimenting with 3-D echoes this point:
“You can have all the technology and special effects you can afford, but in the end it’s a story that captures the imagination and characters you love or hate that count.”

Is Wikipedia on the wane: what do the web’s demographics say to c&binet?

Andrew | 14 Aug 2009, 13:18

The agenda for October’s inaugural c&binet forum is announced today amid a flurry of recent headlines that should give delegates food for thought. 

Wikipedia approaches its limits, the Guardian says, reporting that statistics released by the sites own analytics team point to stagnation for the people’s online encyclopaedia and control falling into the hands of an editorial clique.

This comes hard on the heels of headlines – all in the last week or two – that Teens abandon Facebook as silver surfers flood in. Or alternatively, More young people flocking to Facebook. Or, as Timesonline interpreted last week’s Ofcom report, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify are killing the family get together in front of the TV.

‘Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable,’ as the old saying goes. Figures are open to interpretation, so is what we’re seeing quite as sensational as the headlines suggest. Or do they obscure what is actually a natural maturing process?

Younger people are instinctively restless. They will always be first to dip a toe, then move on, seek new things. By doing that they provide the momentum for creativity. In their wake, older people can bring experience, stability and perspective for the longer term.

In defining trends, the importance of authoritative, trustworthy intelligence cannot be overstated.

Creative businesses need good information on which to base sound strategic decisions, especially amid all the noise surrounding the creative industries in tough economic conditions.

With representation from, among others,  Microsoft, Spotify, the Walt Disney Company, Wired, Cisco Systems and the BBC, October’s c&binet forum will be bringing together the people who can maximise intelligence and minimise sensationalism to the advantage of the creative community as a whole.

Facebook vs. Google Has the new search war begun?

Valerie | 12 Aug 2009, 07:19

In a week that has so far been dominated by social media stories, most significant perhaps is the news that Facebook has acquired real-time feed aggregator FriendFeed in what industry commentators believe is a direct challenge to Google.

The deal is largely perceived as a move by the world’s largest social network to boost its social technology, specifically real-time streams, conversations, social media aggregation and search and move further into territory currently held by Google and Twitter.

Founded in 2007 by four former Google employees, FriendFeed has gained a devout following of more than a million users with its all-in-one approach to social networking. According the Guardian, it allows members to interact with a variety of different websites from a single place, plugging into popular sites like Blogger, Facebook, Digg and YouTube.

New features unveiled include being able to find out what friends and strangers have posted online by searching within a friend’s profiles for comments they have made within the last 30 day.

Commenting on the news, influential media blogger Robert Scoble and one of Friendfeed’s most popular users with nearly 46,000 subscribers said:

“FriendFeed has in effect been the R&D (research & development) department for Facebook for some time now.

“They have the best community technology out there and Facebook should continue to use them to try out new features and test them out before transferring them over to Facebook.“

According to Mashable, the timing is no coincidence. On the same day, Facebook also announced the launch of a new real-time search engine, which allows users to see the latest status updates and shared content from both friends and all users who have made their profile open to everyone.

This blog perhaps best sums up the significance of the two announcements, highlighting that whilst Facebook is making public timeline search available for the first time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously indicated that the future of Facebook lies in a hybrid public/private sharing model.

It may be too early to tell whether Facebook can leverage the social graph in providing more relevant search results for time-sensitive or research-related queries, however the news marks an important step in Facebook’s evolution and could reshape the way in which consumers access digital content. By bringing its vision of social search closer to reality, it could increasingly threaten Google and Microsoft’s search dominance.