BALTIMORE—CBS Stations has announced that it will launch its 10th cutting-edge Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technology-driven studio at CBS Baltimore (WJZ-TV), on Monday, Feb. 23 at 12:00 PM, ET.

The station group is billing the deployment of the new studio as a “first of its kind in the region” that will use AR/VR to “transform the way Baltimoreans engage with news.”

“The launch of our AR/VR studio marks the beginning of an exciting new era for CBS Baltimore and how we serve our viewers,” said Tanya Black, vice president and news director of CBS Baltimore. “This technology allows us to meet our audience where they are and bring them closer to the stories that matter most.”

The launch follows the inhouse development of innovative AR/VR technologies for CBS stations in the Bay Area and the subsequent rollout of those solutions to other CBS owned-and-operated stations that has been extensively covered by TV Tech. The AR/VR system is currently available at CBS Stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, Denver, Texas, Miami and Atlanta. More AR/VR studios are expected to launch nationwide throughout 2026.

“By combining trusted local journalism with innovative technology, we’re creating more immersive and engaging ways to help our community understand the stories that impact their daily lives, from severe weather to the sports teams they love,” said Kathy Hostetter, president and general manager of CBS Baltimore. “We’re proud to help move the region forward with storytelling that is as dynamic as Baltimore itself.”

The AR/VR studio allows CBS Baltimore to use AR/VR weather coverage that turns complex forecasts into immersive, hyper-local visuals, allowing viewers to see and understand the real-world impact of conditions like flooding, snowfall differences and shifting microclimates – all led by the station’s veteran weather experts: Steve Sosna, Cutter Martin, Rachael Jay, Marty Bass and Tim Williams.

The AR/VR sports coverage also opens the door to more dynamic sports analysis and visual storytelling, led by CBS Baltimore’s on-air sports team, sports director Alex Glaze and sports reporter Grace Grill, the station reported.

ATLANTA—CBS Atlanta has announced the launch of its new weekday morning newscast, CBS News Atlanta Mornings, a one-hour morning newscast will feature hyper-local reporting, immersive weather reporting and national headlines from a state-of-the-art AR/VR news studio.

“Our goal is to meet viewers where they are in their communities and deliver news that helps them start their day informed, prepared, and connected,” said Tom Canedo, president and general manager of CBS Atlanta. “This morning show reflects our commitment to meaningful local journalism, paired with the unmatched resources of CBS News.”

The show will also offer a 24/7 monitor look that offers live feeds from all CBS stations and bureaus around the country.

Using advanced mapping technology and on-the-ground reporting, the team will cover stories that matter most from neighborhood developments to public safety, transportation, education, politics, health and economic impact.

The debut of CBS News Atlanta Mornings is part of a significant investment by CBS Stations in the Atlanta market. Over the past year, the company has expanded its newsroom, launched a groundbreaking AR/VR studio, accelerated hiring across editorial, production, and digital teams, and rolled out new local news and weather operations.

Since launching its local news and weather operations in August, CBS Atlanta has quickly gained traction with viewers, surging with more than 150% in year-to-year growth.

CBS Atlanta’s AR/VR news studio is the first of its kind in the Southeast, the ninth in the CBS Station group. It is also the second fully immersive AR/VR-enabled studio in the station groups that delivers all the news in the AR/VR format. It's Bay-area stations in California were to first to go all AR/VR.

Numerous technologies that help achieve sustainability goals and emissions reduction have been sought after by industry 4.0 enterprises and manufacturers. These include automation, sensor technology, IoT, and wireless connectivity. As a result, entire industries and manufacturers can now generate, collect, track, and analyze the massive amounts of data that serve as the foundation for AI initiatives thanks to these technological tools. Today's businesses and leaders are now effectively using this data and technologies to advance their digital transformation while also supporting their corporate and sustainability initiatives.

AI, IoT, Machine Learning Are Important for Sustainability
As a result of this use, manufacturers are implementing technologies like AI and AR/VR to create enhanced product designs, optimized production planning and logistics, predictive maintenance, improved quality and process control, agile robots, energy efficiency, and minimal waste in their operations. These technologies have proven to help further an organization’s digital transformation strategies through greater efficiency and reduction of costs.

AI can receive and process a wide range of information thanks to a combination of sophisticated sensory devices and computer vision. In comparison to the time required for human analysis, the enormous amount of data can be analyzed quickly. An improved outcome is produced by enhancing the data with machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). Therefore, AI is playing a more significant role in sustainable manufacturing.

How AR/VR Plays An Important Role
For it’s part, AR/VR is also adding even more power to the sustainable business practices mission. Let’s first explain the difference between AR/VR.

Augmented reality (AR) refers to a technology used by manufacturers or enterprise businesses that adds virtual elements to the real world. These virtual elements can appear in the form of text, images, 3D models or animations, for example. They are usually displayed via a smartphone or special AR glasses. AR can be used for various purposes, such as marketing, design/engineering, education, navigation or training.

Virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, refers to a technology that creates a virtual world that enterprise users can enter with the help of VR glasses. In a VR environment, the user can interact, manipulate objects and even perform physical movements. This allows users to interact with the virtual world. VR can be used for various purposes, such as design, simulations, training, or customer site visits.

Manufacturers that leverage AR/VR quickly realize they are helping the planet by meeting consumer demand for sustainable practices, practicing responsible consumption and production, reducing waste in early product design and redesign stages, promoting and teaching recycling practices, and supporting brand transparency. 

As a specific set of examples, aerospace and military organizations that utilize AR/VR training in replace of real-world training save jet emissions in the air. Virtual design and engineering reduces waste on the production floor of physical products. And virtualized customer site visits also reduces emissions from transportation of physical in-person meetings.

Sustainable practices in the creation, distribution, and sale of brands' products are becoming more and more in demand. By purchasing particular products, consumers are voicing their opinions. Even if it costs more, they are choosing to support environmentally conscious, sustainable brands over less environmentally friendly ones.

Multiple sustainable solutions are further provided by virtualized technologies. Live AR events are one such remedy, as they eliminate the need for extraneous travel, excessive printing, and other waste associated with real-world live events. However, connected enterprise experiences are a new trend that many manufacturers are also excited about. 

Here, builders and contractors may scan a special QR code, which triggers blueprints or a digital design of a house or commercial facility where they can see a close rendition of the finished product in a virtual environment, reducing waste and emissions that would have otherwise been produced in a physical environment.

3D & AI Drive Higher Levels of Sustainability
One of the key requirements for AR/VR applications is to precisely overlay on an object its model or the digital twin. This helps in providing work instructions for assembly and training, and to catch any errors or defects in manufacturing. The user can also track the object(s) and adjust the rendering as the work progresses, solidifying the sustainable business practice. 

Most on-device object tracking systems use 2D image and/or marker-based tracking. This severely limits overlay accuracy in 3D because 2D tracking cannot estimate depth with high accuracy, and consequently the scale, and the pose. This means even though users can get what looks like a good match when looking from one angle and/or position, the overlay loses alignment as the user moves around in 6DOF. 

Also, the object detection, identification and its scale and orientation estimation — called object registration — is achieved, in most cases, computationally or using simple computer vision methods with standard training libraries (examples: Google MediaPipe, VisionLib). 

This works well for regular and/or smaller and simpler objects such as hands, faces, cups, tables, chairs, wheels, regular geometry structures, etc. However, for large, complex objects in enterprise use cases, labeled training data (more so in 3D) is not readily available. 

This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use the 2D image-based tracking to align, overlay, and persistently track the object and fuse the rendered model with it in 3D. By utilizing AR/VR in 3D and in conjunction with AI, users can realize a proper outcome and ensure that their virtualized process has led to a more sustainable business practice.

With these technologies in use, manufacturers and businesses can know that their investments in AI, mixed reality solutions, and IoT, among others, will help them arrive closer to their corporate sustainability goals in the years to come.

NEW YORK—While the augmented reality/virtual reality headset market has struggled in recent years to gain traction with consumers, a new analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence argues that Apple’s entry into the business should help the sector see strong growth in upcoming years.   

S&P Global Market Intelligence is predicting that augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) headset shipments are expected to increase from 7.9 million in 2022 to 21.4 million in 2027, a 22.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

“The AR/VR hardware segment found a relatively low ceiling as an extension of the video game market after an initial surge in 2016 and 2017,” said Neil Barbour, associate research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “But a wave of new headsets hopes to find a broader market by emphasizing other popular computing tasks, such as video conferencing, web browsing and media playback. The core value proposition is that AR/VR headsets can merge the portability of a smartphone with the expansive workspace of a multimonitor setup. This marketing message is being championed by Apple, which has a solid track record in emerging hardware segments.”

The analysis also argues that AR/VR headsets will start to develop into a relatively approachable computing platform over the next five years as advanced pass-through cameras and a focus on productivity and communication software opens the technology to a wider array of consumer personas.

The AR/VR market's next push into the mainstream will be spearheaded by Apple, which said it will start selling the Vision Pro in early 2024, the report said in a key finding. However, Apple itself is not expected to drive a substantial number of headset sales in 2024 as both demand and supply will be limited due to its high entry pricing of $3,500 and high-end components, such as OLED screens.

Instead, Apple is likely to drive substantive buzz around the market that will benefit other entrenched vendors, the report said. 

Meta Platforms is most likely to benefit as it builds on its market-leading position with a new headset Quest 3 later in 2023 and a price reset on its existing hardware. 

The S&P Market Intelligence report also is predicting that AR/VR will also be an important tool in accessing and building content for the metaverse. 

More AR/VR use cases are expected to fuel the need for more shared virtual spaces, avatars, and the convergence of digital and physical data, the report said. This will be true in the consumer space (gaming, social) as well as the commercial space (digital twins, training, industrial design). As more headsets are installed, shared virtual experiences are expected to make a more concerted effort to serve those users and vice versa.

The S&P researchers report that there were an estimated 39.7 million AR and VR headsets installed in consumer and commercial settings as of the end of 2022, down 1.2% from 34.2 million in 2021 as user churn outpaced slowing sales. But installed base growth base is expected to pick up in 2023, and over the forecast, the installed base is forecast to grow to 71.4 million.

Apple’s interest in virtual and augmented reality has been fairly clear for a while. It started acquiring companies with expertise in the field at least as early as six or seven years ago, perhaps most prominently the startup Vrvana in November 2017. Whether it’s fair to call Vision Pro a “Vrvana Totem” evolved by Apple’s vast R&D budget is necessarily speculation, but the purchase was certainly part of a trend. 

A few months earlier, the company bought SensoMotoric Instruments for its eye-tracking technology. Apple had owned environment-tracking specialists Flyby Media since the beginning of 2016 and augmented reality startup Metaio since the year before. It’s hardly rare for large companies to make that kind of acquisition, but it didn’t take much to connect the dots even then.

The Legacy of Evans and Sutherland
The concept of head-mounted displays in general dates back to at least the 1960s and the work of Ivan Sutherland, whose later collaboration with David Evans would yield things which are still fundamental to computer graphics. Evans and Sutherland equipment would be key to Tron, for instance. Apple, meanwhile, would quite rightly object to the idea that its Vision Pro device is a mere display. It incorporates several displays, loudspeakers, cameras for conventional imaging, motion tracking and eye tracking, as well as all the computing resources to make those things useful. 

(Read: I wore the Apple Vision Pro — and it's truly amazing (and a bit unsettling))

The company has been particularly keen to emphasize the system’s low latency, with sub-ten-millisecond numbers suggesting that it should be capable of avoiding the lag between real-world movement and display updates which sometimes make devices like this distracting to use. Ultimately, latency in digital imaging affects everyone from video gamers to camera operators watching a viewfinder. Back in the days of analog electronics, the time between a photon entering a lens and another exiting a display was often mere nanoseconds—the propagation delay of a few dozen transistors, but no longer.

There’s an argument that digital technology has made hardware designers too relaxed, waiting for an entire frame to be downloaded from a camera’s sensor before starting work on it. Do that, and the minimum delay is one full frame, or about 17 milliseconds at 60 frames per second. It doesn’t take much for that to become a few frames, which is sluggish enough to risk seasickness in the context of a headset.

This is particularly relevant to Vision Pro, which creates its augmented reality by taking pictures of the real environment, superimposing virtual elements, and then displaying the result to the user. The advantage is that virtual objects appear solid, without the ghostly transparency of augmented-reality devices which reflect virtual objects into the user’s field of view. The disadvantage is that latency must be low, and considering there’s 3D rendering to be done, that’s not necessarily easy.

There’s nothing preventing a camera from sending the picture in much smaller pieces, for vanishingly low latency. It’s just rarely done like that. Exactly how far into the weeds Apple has gone on this is something only its engineers know, but it’s no surprise that Vision Pro uses some custom hardware. The semiconductor Apple calls R2 presumably incorporates quite a lot of digital signal processing to handle the eye, feature and gesture tracking from the device’s twelve cameras, but we can guess with some confidence that the whole architecture of the device is designed, wherever possible, for low latency.

Micro-LED
As to Vision’s CPU, notice that Apple recently moved its last computer range to linger with Intel processors, the upscale Mac Pro, to its own ARM-based M-series device. There are both business and technical reasons to do that, but the company has probably been most vocal about reduced power consumption for its laptops. Some promotional hyperbole was inevitable, and when the first M1 CPUs emerged there absolutely were Intel-compatible options with competitive power-to-performance numbers (the surprise was that they came from AMD.) 

Power concerns are less relevant to a performance-centric, mains-powered workstation like Mac Pro, but they certainly are relevant to the M2-based Vision Pro. With the device relying on external power, every joule saved is worth its weight in lithium ions.

The displays being driven by this combination of hardware are described by Apple as “micro OLED,” which is a comparatively recent development. The term “micro-LED” is a more common term for highly miniaturised arrays of LED emitters; essentially a microscopic version of the video walls used for virtual production. Micro-LED is a promising technology that might replace LCD and OLED entirely, offering more brightness and contrast than either, but it exists outside the lab. An OLED emitter, meanwhile, is still a diode that emits light, but it involves some rather different physics. The terms are not interchangeable.

So “micro-OLED” means a very small OLED, possibly based on Sony technology. A lot of head mounted displays use LCD display panels simply because they’re available, and they’re available because of the huge demand for marketable resolution figures in the cellphone market. 

The problem is that even the best LCDs aren’t really what a headset designer really wants. 3800 by 1440 pixels and 500 pixels per inch, as achieved in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, is more than enough for a phone. It’s still too few pixels, and in too large a format, to be ideal for a device like Vision Pro, which wants to fill the observer’s field of view using small, lightweight hardware.

The compromise is between field of view and resolution. Like most headsets, with a 100-degree field of view, Vision Pro does not fill the user’s entire visual field. Vision Pro’s 4K displays are competitive for a current release, but the human visual field is almost 180 degrees wide. That’s a lot to cover considering there are speculative designs which discuss 35 pixels per degree. That’s the number discussed by Pimax’s Reality 12K QLED, which was intended to hit CES 2022, though it’s now projected for 2024. The 12K number, in that case, means one 6K LCD display per eye.

An Impressive Piece of Technology
If 12 cameras seems like a lot, consider that many of them will be in at least stereo pairs. The inside-out motion tracking, which locates the headset by observing the environment, might account for several. The eye tracking requires cameras, and the gesture recognition too. 

Add cameras for general-purpose visible light imaging and it’s not hard to reach a dozen. These will presumably be cameras of the general type used on cellphones, representing another technology which has benefited hugely from advancements in that field. 

Vision Pro is an impressive package of technology. There’s a lot in it and what’s there is high end, as it should be for the price. While it’s a cutting edge VR/AR device, the cutting edge is in rapid motion and it’s certainly not the first such device to be cutting edge at launch. In the end, the success of any computer hardware ultimately depends on what the software does with it. It depends how reliable the gesture recognition is, how accurate the motion tracking is, how well those displays work, and what developers do with them.

Apple certainly knows that the price tag precludes Vision Pro becoming a mass-market item, and that might make success difficult to identify, let alone predict.  What matters is whether the hardware works well enough for the software to be popular and effective. The company has certainly given itself the best possible chance.

NEW YORK—While reaction to Apple’s new AR/VR headset, Apple Vision Pro, has been decidedly mixed, with some commentators comparing Vision Pro's prospects to the failure of the 3D TV set category, a new S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis offers a more positive take. 

“Apple is bound to revitalize the AR/VR market, but it may take some time to find the right price-to-feature ratio that will catalyze mass-market adoption,” according to a blog post by  Neil Barbour at S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.

S&P is predicting that the high price of the Apple Vision Pro, which is set to sell for $3,499 when it launches early next year, will limit sales to under 500,000 in the first year but demand should increase as prices come down. 

Barbour also argues that “we believe that Apple's real goal is selling smart glasses, not headsets. No matter how sexy and slim Apple can make a headset, that headset will still likely occlude eyesight, put extra weight on the skull or mess with people's hair. The mass market is already used to the look and feel of sunglasses and eyeglasses, making the form factor much more palatable.”

The S&P analysis also estimates that the global installed base of AR/VR headsets in 2022 was about 34.7 million, up from 20.6 million in 2020, but barely above the 34.4 million headsets being used in 2018. 

“Apple's announcement was the clearest articulation yet of the idea that AR and VR are not just for gaming or niche commercial settings but can be used in daily life as one would use a laptop or a phone,” he wrote, adding later in the post that Meta is planning to bring some of the innovations featured in Vision Pro to its next generation of the Quest headset. 

The full analysis is available here. 

WASHINGTON—The Consumer Technology Association has announced the publication of its first-ever standard addressing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies. CTA-2069, Definitions and Characteristics of Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies introduces various terms defining emerging consumer technologies such as AR, mixed reality, outside-in-tracking, VR video and VR images, room-scale VR and X reality (XR).

“Our first AR/VR standard represents an important step in addressing key emerging technology areas,” said Brian Markwalter, senior vice president of research and standards, CTA. “The industry created this standard to build upon definitions created by CTA’s AR/VR Working Group that provide consumers insight on the broad range of technologies and experiences available. With this standard, the industry has created a blueprint to more effectively support AR/VR technologies and bring them to a broader market.”

[Read: Oculus Launches ‘Immersive’ Content Hub]

According to this year’s CTA Sales and Forecasts report, CTA projects 4.9 million units will be sold in 2018—up 25 percent from 2017—and generate $1.2 billion in revenues (up 18 percent). Increasing popularity among gamers and a competitive market for AR/VR accessories are among the drivers supporting the growth of AR/VR.

“Standardized, market-centric definitions are an important first step for the industry,” said David McIntyre, senior vice president, strategy and standards, Corporation, and chair of the CTA AR/VR standards group. “I look forward to increased industry involvement as CTA works on other areas of XR standardization in service of the industry and consumers.”

While the CTA’s standard addresses VR terminology, the IEEE is in the process of establishing the technical standards for AR/VR. The IEEE Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Working Group–comprised of device manufacturers, content providers, service providers, technology developers, government agencies and other parties relevant to VR/AR technology advancement–is working on eight IEEE standards projects in a new P2048 standards family for virtual reality and augmented reality.

LAS VEGAS—The parties are over. The booths are packed up. Another NAB Show has come and gone. TV Technology asked a cross-section of show-goers a series of five questions regarding what they considered the main themes, evidence of those, whether or not these initiatives will take hold, and what promising technologies from past NAB Shows did not see daylight. (Possible spoiler alert: ATSC 3.0, IP-based infrastructures and drones. Lots of drones.)

A compendium of their quotes is presented here, with each contributor’s name linked to their full five-question Q&A, in the order they were submitted. We thank them all for playing ball. 

“Central Hall West was literally abuzz!!!” ~ Wendy Aylsworth, past president of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, who has attended around 25 NAB Shows.

“Like everyone else, I have a very hard time seeing into the future.” ~ Mark Schubin,engineer and explainer, (as well as engineer-in-charge at the Metropolitan Opera) who has attended the most NAB Shows among these respondents with a total of 44.

“No doubt—ATSC 3.0, HDR/4K and VR/AR.” ~ Dave Siegler, senior vice president of operations for Cox Media Group, a veteran of 18 NAB Shows.

“Most of the manufacturers have finally agreed that AIMS (2022-6) for video over IP is the direction the industry should move.” ~ Alan Popkin, director of engineering & technical operations at KLCS-TV/DT—35 NAB Shows.

“Anyone who went down to the five-digit booths in the Central Hall had to be knocked out by the insane assortment of video production equipment.” ~ Bob Kovacs, writer, editor, reporter and video producer—30 NAB Shows.

“Very clearly, this year’s theme was ATSC 3.0.”~ Dr. Richard Chernock, chief science officer for Triveni Digital—16 or 17 NAB Shows.

“Why do 4K HDR when 1080p HDR would look better than just 4K with almost no additional bandwidth overhead, then upconvert in the TV for 4K display?” ~ Michael Silbergleid, strategic & technical marketing communications guru—27 NAB Shows.

“While I feel ATSC 3.0 is lacking from the sense of how we can actually execute it in say the top 30 markets, I liked the consumer experience areas.” ~ Kyle Walker, vice president of technology at Weigel Broadcasting—20 NAB Shows.

“Interoperability as a business requirement, IP transport, HDR, VR and drones.” ~ Bruce Devlin, chief media scientist at Dalet and governor of SMPTE U.K.—23 NAB Shows.

“Most of the technologies that I thought were really cutting edge when I first saw them have become part of the business now.” ~ James E. O’Neal, retired television engineer and historian—more than 30 NAB Shows.

“Every booth had something 4K.” ~ Ken Aagaard, executive vice president of engineering, operations and production services for CBS Sports—36 NAB Shows.

“AIMS gaining significant traction, Sony and Grass Valley Groups agreeing to work together on I/P connectivity.” ~George Hoover, chief technology officer, NEP, Pittsburgh SMPTE section chair, chairman of NAB’s Exhibitors Advisory Council—around 35 NAB Shows.

“I think ATSC 3.0 was the over-arching theme of this NAB, with lots of sessions and lots of buzz.” ~ Craig Johnston, TV Technology correspondent—33 consecutive NAB Shows.

“4K will no doubt take hold as the distribution business models evolve.” ~ Thomas Edwards, vice president of engineering and development at Fox—14 NAB Shows.

“Tip: Keep an eye on Sony’s TV line next January.” ~ Pete Putman, president of ROAM Consulting—22 NAB Shows.

“We may be beginning to solve the automatic metadata capture issue.” ~ Karl Paulsen, chief technology officer of Diversified—“39 years worth” of NAB Shows.

“I think people who got burned by the 3D fantasy are struggling mightily to jump on the VR bandwagon.” ~ Christy King, consultant—about 10 NAB Shows.

“As late as last year, I heard manufacturers saying that their end users ‘wanted to build a plant with a single vendor’s products, as if that would insure interoperability. I did not hear one manufacturer say that this year.” ~ Clyde Smith, semi-retired consultant at Fox Network Engineering and Operations—36 NAB Shows.

“VR has the furthest to go, but it’s obvious HDR and cloud-based media management/processing are here in a big way.” ~ Richard Welsh, chair of 2016 NAB Show’s Future of Cinema Conference, co-chair of HPA Tech Retreat U.K., CEO of Sundog Media Toolkit—Eight NAB Shows.

“Ang Lee’s film screening was so compelling and ‘buzzworthy’ that you have to believe this technology will be embraced by the movie-going public.” ~ Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of communications for the National Association of Broadcasters—28 NAB Shows.

“It’s great to see the SMPTE DCP finally being adopted by major cinema chains!” ~ Aimée Ricca, director of Marketing and Communication for SMPTE—four NAB Shows.

Bonus round (submitted after initial publication):

“I did hear several people refer to VR as the new 3D, so this will be an interesting question to ask next year after the wow factor dissipates, and we see how hard it is to work in the virtual space.” ~ William T. Hayes, director of engineering and technology for Iowa Public Television—“Frighteningly,” 37 NAB Shows in a row.

“I believe that ultimately the transition to IP instead of SDI is a short-term solution that will ultimately be replaced by completely hybrid cloud solutions.” ~ Simon Eldridge, chief product officer at SDVI—16 NAB Shows.

“Most interesting were the kinds of services that the OTT providers were already so familiar with.” ~Richard Westcott, vice president of technology and digital media for NBC4-LA and KVEA-52, 18 to 20 NAB Shows.

“While much is still to be determined as far as ATSC 3.0, it’s a technology that much of the industry is uniting around, in that it offers new a vastly expanded means for bringing content and services to consumers.” ~ Susan Ashworth, former editor, TV Technology,contributor, NewBay Media Broadcast/Video Group.