BURBANK, Calif.—Amid growing studio interest in Web3 experiences, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced that it is working with content blockchain provider Eluvio to release the Superman Web3 Movie Experience on June 9. 

The release of Superman Web3 Movie Experience follows the 2022 first-of-its-kind Web3 entertainment offering The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) Web3 Movie Experience.

The Superman Web3 Movie Experience is available for preview at https://web3.wb.com and opening for purchase on June 9. 

The studio explained that the Superman Web3 Movie Experience is a multimedia NFT that allows fans to own and to engage with the 1978 Richard Donner film starring Christopher Reeves. Through dynamic menu options based on iconic locations from the film, owners can watch the film in 4K UHD on desktop, mobile, tablet or TV, access special features, view image galleries and artist renderings by notable DC artists, discover digital easter eggs, as well as sell the experience in a community marketplace. 

Warner Bros. is offering the Superman Web3 Movie Experience in standard and premium editions:

• Standard edition ($30 for 1 week from 8:00AM ET on June 9 to 7:59AM ET on June 16) includes an interactive location-based navigation menu, Superman: The Movie Theatrical Version, previously released special features and an image gallery featuring stills and behind the scenes galleries.
• Premium edition ($100 for 24 hours from 8:00AM ET on June 9 to 7:59AM ET on June 10) includes 3 different variations available for purchase separately, Truth, Justice, and Hope, each featuring an illustration of Christopher Reeves’ Superman from one of three DC artists - Ivan Reiss, Ben Oliver, or Bill Sienkiewicz. Each variation includes an interactive and explorable location-based navigation menu and 3 versions of the feature film – Superman: The Movie Theatrical Version; Superman: The Movie Expanded Director’s Cut; and Superman: The Movie Extended TV Edition - along with previously-released special features, and image galleries featuring costume and detail images from the Warner Bros. Archive and stills and behind the scenes galleries.

The Superman Web3 Movie Experience will include a free voucher code for a DC3 Super Power Pack: Series Superman from the DC NFT Marketplace, offering 3 randomly selected Superman comics with rarities from Common to Legendary. These packs are time-gated, open edition drops, limited to one per account. There will be new themed packs launching every few weeks, the studio said.  

The magic just gets more involved. What “magic” you say? And one answers “all the magic”... which infers that the “magic” is still being defined, developed, and experimented with.  

As the title of this article infers, this “magic” consists of elements in Web 3.0 (which claims to empower creatives and users—both—to share in the value they create). The values, summarized in the introduction to Shelly Palmer’s Metacademy, provide businesses (whether new or existing) the knowledge and linkage into communities associated with these new entities including blockchain, NFT, and the metaverse. 

So how does this fit into your needs or interests in cloud-based activities?  A good example is blockchain, which is like “information carved into stone.” Such information (e.g., a contract or copy protected media) is configured as permanent, unchangeable, and ambiguous as to what you’ve written that data into.  Cloud-centric services can properly handle such configurations because the data lives on a distributed network across a large number of computer-based systems (servers) as in a mesh or a peer-to-peer (P2P) environment. 

Because the information is essentially “permanent” one can easily tell if anything associated with that information has been altered. Although you can “add” to the blockchain, you cannot modify the existing data set—thus rendering a protected value that can be recognized for its authenticity for eternity.  

Immutable Cloud via Distributed Data
Blockchain uses a cryptographic hash algorithm as a one-way function which is derived from the original data. Altering that data (even a date-code or GPS coordinate) generates a new unique functional representation, which can be compared against the original authenticated data and signifies that the original data and the current data are different.  

This original data is “hard-and-fast”—otherwise called “immutable”—which means it is unchanged over time and is unable to be changed. Thus, blockchain, in this described context, is protected and cannot be modified. Blockchain is extensible across any cloud service as an inalterable contract that is safe and valid irrespective of where the data is stored or sent to/from.

Sometimes called a distributed ledger, blockchain uses a digital file which is continuously growing via an encrypted transaction (the “blocks”) which are copied to a P2P network of distributed computers. Here, each computer (node) accesses information on a computer that serves information to its clients (i.e., other servers). Nodes on this P2P network create a consensus, i.e., an algorithm which is used to resolve conflicts and to ensure the accuracy of the blockchain. 

Distributed and decentralized ledgers are what power the system. P2P networks are very stable because the information is replicated in a multitude of places, irrespective of the scale of the system. This makes such applications perfect for a cloud-based environment, since the cloud (in theory) can function at any scale.

Hashing as Sequential Records
As the name implies, blockchain is a set of records that are linked—or chained—together sequentially using an index, a series of timestamps, a listing of each of the transactions, a “proof” and the hash (algorithmic set of mathematically derived data) from the previous block.  Alteration of any one block changes the hash of all downstream successive blocks which are unrecoverable or reversable.

A hashing function (Fig. 1) simply takes a variable number of characters (the ”message”) and converts it into a string with a fixed number of characters—referred to as the “hash value.”

Cloud Computing and Blockchain
The blockchain is a set of unchangeable and decentralized data sets (the blocks) which utilize a shared database. In cloud computing the system is orchestrated for delivering computing services.  

It is comprised of servers, databases, storage, and associated activities. To increase data security, cloud computing will use blockchain peculiarities. Due to its scaling capabilities, the cloud can provide on-demand computing resources for blockchain operations.

Secure, Unique, Adaptive and Semantic
Security is often thought of as “the elephant in the room” with most people having only limited familiarity with it. The goal of the new “Prime Web 3.0” is to change that perspective with examples which include ubiquity, decentralization, artificial intelligence, blockchain-security, and connectivity.

Web 3.0 is meant to be a bottom-up design with decentralization, open to everyone, and built on top of blockchain technologies and developments in the Semantic Web (Fig. 2), which describes the web as a network of “meaningfully linked data.” 

The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) vision of the Web 3.0 is conceptually about linked data. The Semantic Web employs technologies that enable the creation of data stores on the Web, to build vocabularies and to manage or write rules for handling such data. 

Web 3.0 is empowered by technologies such as RDF, SPARQL, OWL, and SKOS, which has linked data within an internet framework that employs understandable machine-readable data. Web 3.0 is machine-interpretable, structured and interlinked, with open access sets of data repositories utilizing globally edited adaptive information resources composed of unique web resource identifiers for every bit of information. The concept is a bit like a media-based GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) whereby each table data cell of a table has a unique identifier.

The current World Wide Web is more than sufficient, but as a tool, many feel they need much more from “the Web” (i.e., the original Web 1.0 and today as Web 2.0). The term “Semantic Web” is an extension to the current Web proposed a decade ago by the “father of the web” Tim Berners Lee, known as TimBL, who conceived and developed it in the late ‘80’s while working at CERN.  

Why is the Semantic Web Worth Having?
The current Web of linked documents can present a tremendous amount of human-understandable Web pages from a single search through lexical marching of the search keywords with similar or exact words found in the documents available on the web. 

This information is vast and mostly irrelevant to the user (especially after the first pages of the search result). Moreover, users have to scan through individual search results to make meaning out of its content. Such machines store and present the web documents knowing nothing about their content.  

On the other hand, a Web that can store data in documents that are both human as well as machine readable opens up a whole new experience of human-machine interaction. Allowing computers to understand Web 3.0 content allows one to only submit basic data or answer a single query before an entire transaction is carried out efficiently by a machine.  

Shared Digital Reality
Contrary to the decentralized Web 3.0 and blockchain concepts (the technology behind bitcoin transactions), the rather new and still somewhat confusing term, “the metaverse” is a shared digital reality enabling users to connect with each other, build economies and interact in real time. The metaverse doesn’t care who owns the data or its information.

Web 3.0 brings the internet into the future—noting that we’re still in Web 2.0, which was developed two decades ago and emphasizes user-generated content, collaboration, and social networking. Web 3.0 further allows users to “manage and claim ownership of their works, online material, online personas and digital assets.” 

Currently, many businesses only concentrate on the development and delivery of their goods and services. So the evolving Web 3.0 evolution tends to overcome some of the drawbacks or flaws in the previous Web 2.0 internet era by addressing and administering crucial concerns including data ownership, control and management.  

The “metaverse is a global 3D network of virtual reality worlds” according to some and further to that “the metaverse is a hypothetical version of the internet” which is confined to a uniform, global virtual world using VR and AR headsets in a near science fiction, futuristic working environment. 

Examples include the use of avatars as personal representatives, interchange costs or sales through digital currency exchanges, and complete purchases or acquisitions in its own in-world currency. Users thereby travel aimlessly through the “metaverse” in a means not heretofore used or found practical.

Browsing (the internet) now becomes navigation of a virtual world which mirrors parts of the actual (“real”) world now known affectionately as “the metaverse.” Thus, users now create and enable a new virtual economy, without the transactional limitations of (previously) modern living conditions.

Not to be Confused
Here is where the actuality vs. practicality and the goals of the Web 3.0 experience seem to collide. Gamers understand this new reality—they embed themselves in these interactions which value immersive, interactive, and social platforms to extend their VR/AR/AI experiences without boundaries.

Web 3.0 users and its community have decentralized (i.e., unconnected) ownership and control over the Web. The metaverse, on the contrary, is a shared, digital environment focused on the ability for people to communicate, create their own economy (i.e. the use of bitcoin) and engage in real-time interaction without ownership concerns or knowledge of the “real” owner.

The cloud is essential for this to occur since it knows no boundaries and serves no limitations. It may indeed take decades to see the many wonderful values of the metaverse and its intrinsic differentiations in the evolving Web 3.0. Advancing, aggressive technologies are critical to these foundations… so watch this evolution carefully—they are not easy to fully comprehend, but certainly command an unexpected eye-opening set of changes in our world. 

STAMFORD, Conn. & LOS ANGELES—WWE's new NFT marketplace, Moonsault, will debut its first official NFT collection in advance of the annual WWE premium live event "Hell in a Cell". 

On June 3, the  WWE and Fox Entertainment’s Blockchain Creative Labs (BCL) are releasing 10,000+ “NFT Flips” for “Hell in a Cell,” each featuring a WWE Superstar tied to the "Hell in a Cell" event. In the days after "Hell in a Cell", each NFT Flip will transform to reveal a 10-20 second video highlight of the featured Superstar. 

The NFT Flips will be sold on “Moonsault” in “Cases” of three, randomized at minting, for $30 per Case. “Moonsault” will be powered by Eluvio’s eco-friendly Content Blockchain.

WWE and BCL launched WWE’s official NFT marketplace, “Moonsault,” this past Friday, May 27, during Smackdown on FOX, and promoted the debut across WWE and Fox media platforms, as well as on WWE Discord. The first 10,000 fans to create a wallet on the platform received a free Moonsault Genesis NFT, all of which were claimed within only a few hours.

In the future, more limited-edition Cases of NFT Flips, and other video highlights and digital collectibles centered on WWE Superstars and iconic moments from the company’s history, will be dropped on “Moonsault,” timed to major WWE premium live events throughout the year.

"Hell in a Cell" streams live this Sunday, June 5, on Peacock.

STATE COLLEGE, Penn.—AccuWeather has announced that it has made a wide range of weather data and insights available for blockchain applications via Chainlink. This marks the first time a major weather brand has arranged to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment for weather services, AccuWeather said. 

AccuWeather's official Chainlink oracle node delivers critical weather data to blockchain applications to create new products and markets, such as weather predictions, hedging markets, and dynamic NFT art and games based on current weather conditions in localized regions, the company announced.

The AccuWeather node on Chainlink broadcasts data across leading blockchains and cryptographically signs it, allowing users to know definitively that it originated from AccuWeather. Utilizing Chainlink as a universal gateway to blockchains, AccuWeather is extending the reach of its premier weather data into emerging markets, as well as support for the next generation of weather-related applications, the company said. 

"Launching our official Chainlink node begins a new era of AccuWeather supporting blockchain-based markets, opening up increasingly sophisticated and globally accessible applications, spanning weather-related insurance and more," said Kurt Fulepp, AccuWeather global chief product officer. "We look forward to seeing how hybrid smart contracts using AccuWeather data will create value for everyone from farmers to businesses, and organizations around the world."

Will Janensch, director, data providers at Chainlink Labs added that when “combined with smart contracts, AccuWeather's expansive collection of datasets can be used to power parametric insurance models across numerous global industries and securely optimize weather-dependent supply chains. Chainlink provides the time-tested oracle infrastructure that AccuWeather needs to enter blockchain-based markets and provide its premium weather data on-chain to accelerate smart contract innovation." 

Chainlink is a decentralized blockchain oracle network. Chainlink oracle networks provide smart contracts that reliably connect to any external API and leverage secure off-chain computations for enabling feature-rich applications. 

Chainlink currently secures tens of billions of dollars across DeFi, insurance, gaming, and other major industries, and offers global enterprises and leading data providers a universal gateway to all blockchains, the companies said. 

Developers interested in accessing AccuWeather data on blockchains can find more information here.  

NEW YORK and BERKELEY, Calif.—Fox Corporation has announced that it has invested in the Series A round of funding for Eluvio and has said Eluvio will provide the underlying technology platform for Blockchain Creative Labs, Fox Entertainment’s and Bento Box Entertainment’s recently launched NFT business and creative unit. 

As part of the investment, Paul Cheesbrough, chief technology officer and president of digital for Fox Corporation, will also join Eluvio’s Board of Directors. 

Terms of the investment were not disclosed but Fox Corporation’s investment marks the completion of Eluvio’s Series A round at a valuation of $100 million.

The investment comes at a time when a number of studios and content creators are exploring the use of blockchain technologies for distributing and monetizing content. 

Launched in 2019, Eluvio is led by Emmy Award-winning technologists, Michelle Munson and Serban Simu. It’s customer’s include Fox, MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, and others. 

The company offers Eluvio Content Fabric, an open protocol blockchain network built for owner-controlled storage, distribution, and monetization of digital content at scale. It provides live and file-based content publishing, transcoding, packaging, sequencing, dynamic and static distribution, and minting of derivative NFTs–all backed by blockchain contracts providing proof of ownership and access control. 

It also offers Eluvio LIVE. Powered by the Eluvio Content Fabric, Eluvio Live is a multi-tenant turnkey platform for publishers that provides 4K streaming and ticketing of events with media marketplaces. 

As part of the investment, Fox said it hopes to accelerate the adoption of Eluvio’s technologies.  

“At Fox, we believe that the blockchain, and the overall shift towards a more decentralized web, is providing creators with a wealth of opportunities to reach consumers with exciting new experiences,” said Cheesbrough. “Michelle, Serban and the Eluvio team are the best in the business when it comes to the software and scalable infrastructure required to power live, decentralized experiences across the blockchain and our investment will help bring this technology to a wider market of content creators, media partners and advertising clients.”

“We believe there is great opportunity in tokenized media on the blockchain, which represents a new era in how technology and entertainment will drive one another forward,” said Scott Greenberg, CEO of Blockchain Creative Labs and co-founder and CEO of Bento Box Entertainment.  “The Eluvio team members are pioneers in the digital arena, and this strategic investment in Eluvio brings Fox and Blockchain Creative Labs an indispensable partner with whom we will build this business as we together chart the future for the NFT market.”

In May, Fox Entertainment and Bento Box entered the NFT business with the formation of Blockchain Creative Labs and a $100 million creator fund to identify growth opportunities in the space.  

Blockchain Creative Labs plans to launch a dedicated digital marketplace for Emmy-winning creator Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated comedy, "KRAPOPOLIS," marking the first animated series to be curated entirely on the blockchain. The company will manage and sell digital "KRAPOPOLIS" goods, including NFTs of one-of-a-kind character and background art and GIFs, as well as tokens that provide exclusive social experiences to engage and reward super fans.  "KRAPOPOLIS" is fully owned and financed by Fox Entertainment and will be produced by Bento Box. 

From enterprise IT to finance, manufacturing and everything in between, it’s no secret that blockchain is set to dramatically transform a host of industries. New blockchain-based applications and use cases are constantly emerging as the technology continues to extend beyond cryptocurrency and usher in a new era for the internet.

Simply put, blockchain refers to a distributed database that can be shared by multiple systems contributing to the same body of data, creating a shared system of record among those who have the required access privileges. One of its great strengths is that the data can’t be tampered with—i.e. it’s immutable—because every transaction is recorded chronologically and validated by other members of the network.

As such, blockchain networks establish trust through a combination of transparency, traceability and state-of-the-art cryptography. Relevant parties are granted visibility into the history of every single transaction through intelligent access control mechanisms, so users can be sure that the data is both secure and accurate. When thinking about the media industry specifically, it’s this trust—combined with enterprise-grade security and authentication capabilities—that will be essential to the technology’s future success.

Of course there are still some hurdles that will need to be overcome as the technology develops. But, blockchain’s inherent transparency and security benefits make it ideally placed to provide a fresh and innovative approach to content distribution and monetization. Add to this its ability to autonomously execute smart contracts, and the massive potential impact of blockchain in media is clear to see.

BLOCKCHAIN IN M&E

So, what’s driving all the excitement around blockchain in the media industry? Despite its relative infancy, several foundational solutions and use cases are starting to showcase blockchain’s immediate potential and pique the interest of media organizations.

One such example is blockchain’s role in verifying the provenance and pedigree of assets to enable collaboration across the industry. Digital assets are exchanged between multiple parties throughout their lifecycle, traversing many hosted services and multiple IT solutions in multi-cloud infrastructures. This presents a significant security challenge. Parks Associates estimates that video piracy will cost pay TV and OTT providers $9.1 billion in lost revenue this year, and that number is expected to grow by 38% to $12.5 billion by 2024, meaning media organizations have to secure this exchange of content to avoid leaks and unauthorized access.

However, this security often comes at a price. Aspects such as data transfer performance and speed of asset exchange can suffer as a result of increased security measures, highlighting a need for technology that’s both secure and performant. Only then will it truly add value to these collaboration and asset exchange processes.

Read more: Need to Know: Blockchain

The good news is that blockchain meets these needs, offering the ability to: establish trusted networks through an immutable chain of custody; build an additional layer of security around assets; enable forensic auditing; and reliably execute commercial contracts over the internet. In practical terms, this means a global registry of assets could be created, providing an interconnected network of metadata and integrations with different databases and systems. This would enable media organizations to take any registered asset and gain access to data around who has come into contact with it, what corrections or VFX techniques have been applied to it and who has the rights to it—providing full and accurate visibility into the asset’s lifecycle.

Having this infrastructure in place would then let members of the media community set up ad-hoc networks between relevant participants for specific projects, offering a secure, auditable and transparent way for organizations to manage collaborative projects.

Such a future isn’t far away, as multiple disparate frameworks based on blockchain technologies are already in development today. However, it has become apparent that concerns around blockchain networks being too open and potentially compromising the confidentiality of high-value assets are holding the industry back, with many members of the media community yet to be fully convinced.

For real progress to be made, organizations need to be given the confidence to embrace a blockchain-powered future. This is where a combination of standardized frameworks, open source tools that can be examined and adopted by any developer, and integration with standardized IT tools (such as high-speed transfer software) comes into play.

STANDARDS NEEDED

What many in the media industry have realized is that a standardized framework that clearly lays out blockchain’s role in enabling the movement of assets through many different entities and participants in an ecosystem needs to be in place before blockchain can go mainstream.

Vendors, customers, content producers and standardization bodies will have to come together and reach an agreement on how these new networks should work. This will enable the industry to move away from disparate systems and create a global network that people can use to identify and track assets through their lifecycle.

Moving forward, users will benefit from various enterprise-grade security and privacy capabilities as these standardized networks grow in size for larger content production and distribution workflows. For example, smart contracts could be used to negotiate the secure exchange of encryption keys through integration with modern key store services, as well as enabling use cases like watermarking, which creates unique assets to mitigate piracy and leakage.

When it comes to blockchain, media organizations have to remember that the ability to build trust is a key aspect of blockchain technology—hence why we call it a “trust network.” Trust has the ability to reduce both overheads and frictions in collaboration, making it a precious commodity in the media industry where businesses are dealing with extremely valuable data, assets and intellectual property.

There is undoubtedly a huge opportunity for media organizations to leverage the power of blockchain to securely identify and distribute content and broker transactions. It all comes down to the standardization of tools and a solid technical foundation to encourage organizations to take the leap. With this in place, the media industry will be ideally positioned to be a technology leader and a pioneer for all in its use of blockchain.

James Wilson is director, IBM Aspera Hybrid Cloud,IBM Aspera.

LAS VEGAS—PBS has announced that it is working with Eluvio, a developer of software for managing and distributing large form content and GrayMeta, a provider of AI/ML technology, on a proof of concept for a dedicated blockchain environment that could allow PBS member stations to optimize their collective connective resources and utilize machine learning, metadata and microservices to create more efficient workflows and services. PBS made the announcement at the 2019 TechCon in Las Vegas.

“We’re working to create a blockchain fabric that stations would be able to opt into and utilize it in a dedicated environment within the PBS member station community in order to efficiently use various services,” said Renard Jenkins, vice president PBS Operations, Engineering & Distribution, adding that such services could include transcoding, datamining and excess resource sharing, for example.

Jenkins said PBS has been working with Eluvio and GrayMeta on the proof of concept for the last six months and that Eluvio CEO Michelle Munson presented various ideas and possible use cases during her keynote at PBS TechCon.

“We showed station representatives what we are working to architect and present to them for their input so we can move forward together,” he said.

At the conference, PBS officials updated attendees on its efforts to develop a new media supply chain that uses advances in cloud, networking and datamining to help them better manage the creation and distribution of content to multiple platforms. Jenkins and his team have spent three years planning and developing new workflows that will take advantage of the cloud as well as the move towards virtualization, and microservices enabled by SaaS (software as a service).

PBS’s relationship with its member stations is different than the relationship between a network and its affiliates or a commercial station group and its member stations. While a commercial station group may adopt a common platform from a single vendor for all of its stations, PBS’s stations are more like a federated structure, with each station its own entity with its own solutions.

“Even though we have different systems and different problems that we’re trying to solve, we are all essentially in the same boat in regard to what we have to do,” Jenkins said. “But what we do, we’re all marching along the same road together.”

Jenkins and his team examined every element along the content creation process from acquisition, editing, QC and transcoding to delivery and broke it into three phases:

Media Gateway, a cloud-based single point of entry for all media that also allows for other processes such as transcoding and compliance within the cloud. Media Bus, which is the “orchestrator” that controls and manipulates the movement of content; and Media Distribution, which would cover linear playout, OTT, B2B and B2C delivery out of a single plant.

PBS reviewed 339 proposals for the media gateway and media distribution segments and will announce the final vendors at the NAB Show, according to Jenkins. “We’re still in the design phase for media orchestration,” which he said will probably be announced in the fall. Jenkins expects to launch the gateway “within the next two to three months.”

MODERN DAY MEDIA COMPANY

Duane Smith and his staff at Oregon Public Broadcasting have also been working on new digital workflows for the past three years. Their goal, according to Smith, who is the vice president of technology for OPB, was to transform their network from a broadcast-centric facility to a facility that addresses the new multichannel, multiplatform world of today.

The planning was “part of a larger strategy about, how do we organize ourselves to be a modern day media company and not just a broadcast company, because a lot of our limitations derived from the fact that our entire infrastructure grew up around the broadcast world, and while that’s really good for over the air, none of those systems play in today’s media consumption landscape,” Smith said.

Smith’s task is to unite OPB’s nine production units around a standardized workflow flexible enough to handle the increasing myriad of tasks in the content creation process.

“The heart of our system is the media asset management system,” Smith said. “All the content is going to be registered there, all of the editing, all of the metadata is going to be added as required. And for all of those distribution points, we figured out how to abstract them down to a ‘checkbox.’”

The goal, according to Smith, is to create a workflow agile enough so that when new content creation methods are added, they don’t have a negative impact. “We didn’t want to have to disrupt our internal workflows to get content to a new platform,” he said.

The project consists of five “milestones,” according to Smith. “We’re about a month away from the end of milestone one, which is all the integration; the asset management system is being integrated with our CMS, our television automation and radio automation,” he said. “I think there’s 17 integrations we’re dealing with right now.

“Every aspect of content creation in our organization is going to be completely different,” Smith added. “There’s not one person or one process that is not being adjusted and standardized in a way that streamlines the process because a lot of our workflows and processes are left over from the days of analog.”

[Read: PBS Adopts Spec To Streamline HD Delivery]

Smith expects their new system will go live in phases starting in August and hopefully wrapped up by the end of September.

PREPARING FOR NEXT GEN TV

At Arizona PBS, CTO Ian MacSpadden has been working with the Pearl TV Group in the Phoenix Model Market project to test ATSC 3.0. As a member of PBS’s ATSC 3.0 engineering advisory committee, he and other engineering directors and CTOs from PBS are learning how to best educate broadcasters on the potential benefits of the Next Gen TV format as well as recommend best practices on how to implement it.

The promise of 4K/UHD over the air via ATSC 3.0 is one of the most attractive benefits of the standard. MacSpadden and his staff at the Phoenix-based PBS station were among the first stations in the area to shoot in 4K for their local programming. This gave the Pearl TV Group a valuable trove of high res content.

“We were one of the first stations in the market shooting and mastering, experimenting in 4K production, mastering in 1080p with HDR,” MacSpadden said. “So the Pearl Group was very interested because all of the rest of their participants were news stations and none of them are shooting in 4K.”

Handling such data-intense files though presents its own set of challenges, according to MacSpadden.

“What we’ve learned is that even though we’re shooting and mastering in 4K sometimes just getting that content to a station for air can be a challenge,” he said. “Our editors were trying to figure out how to do an HDR downmix and save it off into a file from their edit platform in a manner that the folks at the Pearl TV stations could read. We eventually found a commonality in that they were using the AJA KiPro Ultra 4K record and playback device.

“We’re still trying to work on tweaking a file to do a direct export and this will be a challenge for whatever platform stations use,” MacSpadden continued. “These are all things we are learning along the way as we figure out how to create ATSC 3.0 content through the entire production chain.”

Developing new content for devices beyond the living room TV set has prompted MacSpadden and his staff to more carefully plan ahead before production.

“This year, we’re actually trying to say, ‘OK, we’re also targeting the digital end when looking at the components of when we go out to shoot these shows; how do we put together digital sidecar content that will be these minute and a half to four minute exlusives that will be available on the web, to subscribers, or other distribution chains we decide to have available,’” he said.

MacSpadden compared learning a new content creation workflow to a new exercise routine.

“You have to get the muscle memory in place,” he said. “I need to make sure I’m covering all my bases and exercise all the muscles that I need.”

VENICE, CALIF.—The future of advertising on television and video needs a reality check. Privacy breaches, fraudulent metrics, fake reviews, questionable data analytics, loss of trust between the platforms and the brands—the complexity of advertising on TV and video content continues to gain momentum in 2018 with very few points of light in the chaos. It’s not news that the current digital media ecosystem is rife with these problems; a landscape heavily marked by a confluence of players, not just the creators and viewers, but also by the middlemen and their respective financial interests.

Since data has become equal to currency in the media environment, there has been a shift in society’s outlook on privacy. With eyes on the proverbial prize of user data, a marked decline in regard for user privacy has come to the forefront—a fact that has led to a culture with little or no regard for audience privacy.

EROSION OF USER CONTROL

We’ve all seen this movie before. Say you’re looking at an online forum for weight loss. Consequently, and paradoxically, you’ll be the first one targeted by junk food companies who are going to assume you have been, or will continue to be, a major consumer of their products. While users often give consent by checking a box, it is not really “informed consent.” They’ll say “yes” to get to the next screen or to download the new app, but they probably don’t fully understand the degree to which they’re sacrificing their privacy. This creates an ecosystem where users have little control over their own data and how that data is used and monetized.

Fortunately, there is a solution to the erosion of user control. Blockchain technology can be leveraged to safeguard user privacy, thereby restoring trust between viewers, advertisers, and content creators. I’m certainly not saying that you can simply take a jar full of blockchain and just smear it on everything to fix the problem. However, just as blockchain is being employed to transform the healthcare industry by eliminating the middlemen, the correct use of the best technologies available can do the same for the media landscape by utilizing tokenization.

By creating direct relationships between the advertisers and the viewers, tokenization can support the formation of direct avenues for data and value exchange between advertisers, consumers, and content creators. The elimination of intermediary platforms means that all parties can retain more value, because no percentage of transactions is being captured by third parties. Additionally, such peer-to-peer interactions are drastically more streamlined than the complex webs of media players seen today. In a win-win, advertisers earn greater return on their investments while users gain more control over their data.

The process of tokenization, or the monetization of trackable actions, takes the evolution of this ecosystem one step further to include viewers among those benefiting economically. In other words, users can make money simply by watching and engaging with their favorite TV and video content.

HOW DOES THIS WORK IN PRACTICE?

During a show, viewers are prompted with a call to action to participate in some way with the content they are watching. Viewers can respond to the call to action directly on the device on which they are watching the content or, if they are viewing on their TV, through the app on their phone. Once viewers sign up to begin earning rewards, they can interact with specific elements of the show or commercial and accumulate tokens, provided by the advertisers, for their time and attention. These tokens have real-world value and can then be used to buy other goods and services within the ecosystem, most importantly connecting viewing habits directly to purchase data.

The fact that on-screen graphics containing tokens can be applied to any TV or video content on any screen means that, not just the viewers, but all participants in the media ecosystem, including ad agencies, TV networks, and brands can benefit from tokenization. A particular viewer may decide to keep her medical and financial records private but make information about her favorite hobbies available to advertisers. By allowing advertisers to see that she enjoys travel and cooking, she’s not only likely to see more relevant (and less annoying) ads, but with tokenization, she will earn rewards for her loyalty and engagement.

Historically, brands and content providers have needed to sort through multiple disparate data sources to make conjectures about which TV and video content led to purchase and ROI. By employing tokenization, content providers would no longer need to guess about what is working and what isn’t, as tokens boldly connect the dotted lines between viewing habits and product purchases.

If employed effectively in the TV and video industry, tokenization of content built on blockchain technology could form the foundation for a new digital order wherein all parties benefit from improved efficiency, transparency, and security.

Gavin Douglas, the CEO of iPowow and the HIT Protocol, is an award winning media producer and TV format developer with 20 years experience in TV content production and new format development. iPowow is an established leader in interactive TV and is launching the HIT Protocol to tokenize linear television and VOD using smart contracts and blockchain technology.

LONDON--The annual IBC2018 media, technology, and entertainment show is now in-sight, and those that register before June 8th qualify for a special launch rate. At this year’s high-profile trade show—taking place from September 13-17 at the RAI in Amsterdam—attendees will have access to a wide range of sessions, panels and presentations examining cutting-edge developments shaping the future of the media and entertainment industry.

IBC show organizers promise to inspire show-goers with “fresh inspiring conference themes that focus on innovative new platforms, audience engagement and interaction/immersion, as well as a wide-ranging exhibition that will encompass the latest technologies from artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) to advanced cloud-based workflows.”

For the first time ever, the IBC Conference will feature “The Global Gamechangers,” chaired by Edith Bowman, who will host industry-leading business, creative, and technology talent, including Peter Salmon, Chief Creative Officer of Endemol Shine Group, and Deborah Turness, Head of Euronews for NBC Universal.

This year’s IBC conference tracks are designed to illuminate emerging topics, such as:

“NextGen: Interactive & Immersive Experiences,” a panel discussion—featuring Hammer Films Joint CEO Marc Schipper and other immersive industry experts—exploring AR and AI, among other immersive techniques.

[Read: IBC Announces Keynotes, New ‘Global Gamechangers’ Stage]

“Audiences: Engage. Influence. Grow” will delve into GDPR and machine learning and reveal ways to engage niche and evolving audiences. Rob Koenen, President, VR Industry Forum (VRIF) and an MPEG leader will showcase “Cutting-edge Tech Innovators,” exploring where AI, VR, blockchain and other immersive media technologies could take the industry.

Several sessions will focus on maximizing advertising and targeted marketing opportunities. Former Channel 4 Chief David Abraham, now of Wonderhood Studios, will examine how video consumption business models are changing, and the impact these trends could have on studios and content creation. On a similar note, “Advertising: The New Attention Economy” will explore new ways of maximizing targeted marketing and revenue in the age of big data and blockchain.

IBC will host three invitation-only Executive Forums: The Leaders’ Forum, Cyber Security Forum and the Telco & Media Innovation Forum, convening the industry’s most influential and visionary people to discuss key trends, opportunities and disruptors impacting the industry and its future.

As with previous IBC shows, the exhibition—from September 14-18, 2018—will feature products for every stage of the workflow from content creation through distribution. The Future Zone Theatre will present curated sessions exploring the impact of new technologies like virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (MXR), and The Big Screen will showcase the latest in cinema projection and sound technology.

According to IBC, the show attracts roughly 60,000 attendees from more than 170 countries and representatives from over 1,700 industry leading suppliers.

To register, visit the IBC Show website. 

Editor’s Note: Welcome to NewBay’s inaugural edition of Need to Know, where we explain complex topics and how they apply to each industry we serve, on our websites and in our magazines. Keep coming back for future topics, to include 5G, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and more.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the media industry in the same ways that the internet did 20 years ago. In its basic terms, blockchain technology encrypts data in an open, unsecured “decentralized ledger” environment, allowing a more direct path for transactions between users that are not tied to the traditional banking/credit industries. Bitcoin, the most well-known type of blockchain technology involves the use of “cryptocurrency” to initiate financial transactions, while “ethereum” uses several exchange methods, including bitcoin, but also offers “smart contracts” that expand the use of blockchain beyond just monetary transactions.

The television and media industry as a whole, can benefit from using blockchain technology in several ways — through advertising, distribution and content creation and verification. Whether the goal is better security and customer privacy or more flexibility, the end game is the same: eliminating — or at least lessening the impact of — the “middleman.”

See our full Need to Know for more facts about blockchain.

Blockchain is already a reality for many advertisers in the media industry. Later this year, Comcast plans to launch its new Blockchain Insights Platform, in collaboration with NBCUniversal, Disney, Altice USA, Channel 4, Cox Communications, Mediaset Italia and TF1 Group, which, according to the company, is aimed at “better ad planning, targeting, execution and measurement across screens.” The company says its service will help advertisers better target audiences by enhancing reporting and attribution metrics and that the “decentralized ledger” characteristics of blockchain encryption technology will improve subscriber privacy.

BATTLING PIRACY

On the distribution side, some pundits are predicting that blockchain could mean the end for what many consider the “ultimate middleman,” the pay TV (cable and satellite) industries. Whether that will happen is up for debate, but for the immediate future, media companies are looking to the protocol to help battle the incessant piracy that comes with digital distribution. According to Phil Gomes, blockchain leader at Edelman, “I personally believe that a lot of piracy comes from friction in the legal distribution mechanisms. Blockchain technology can enable more frictionless monetization of content to better compete with pirates.”

Media companies are also looking to blockchain to enable more secure rights payments. An example of this is the Open Music Initiative, which includes more than 200 members, including Sony Music, Warner, YouTube, Netflix and Spotify, with the goal of improving royalty payment transactions. The OMI recently disclosed that it is considering using blockchain “to radically simplify the way music rights owners are identified and compensated, resulting in sustainable business models for artists, entrepreneurs and music businesses alike.”

Blockchain could also be used to combat “fake news.” In a recent column for the Wall Street Journal, Mounir Ibrahim, vice president of strategic initiatives for Truepic and a former U.S. foreign services officer noted that blockchain encryption methods could be used to hold politicians accountable in an environment where artificial intelligence can be used to create realistic videos of individuals saying things they never really said.

“The ability to authenticate the provenance of digital media could do more than enable documentation of atrocities,” he wrote. “It could help international efforts to monitor elections, fight fraud, audit supply chains and enforce anticorruption methods. It could also provide a defense against new technology that lets users manipulate and doctor videos in a way that looks real.”

SMART CONTRACTS

By now, we’re familiar with the concept of crowdfunding new projects, companies or products through such services as KickStarter. But blockchain can play an important role in expanding the role of such services in the future. Through the use of “smart contracts” enabled by ethereum, participants can arrange transactions that would allow contributors to go beyond just donating to development of new programming to becoming active investors. Proponents claim that this methodology could help break the stranglehold that large movie studios have on what gets greenlighted in Hollywood.

A recent example of this type of project is the use of ethereum to crowdfund the new movie “Braid.” The film’s producers recently told the Huffington Post: “It’s definitely been interesting going this road of essentially breaking ground, and breaking the studio system by putting more power into the audience themselves. Giving them a choice to be able to participate and be involved in the process as a whole. It’s like uncharted territory.”

While the immediate impact of blockchain technology is being felt at the larger corporate levels of media, it may not be long before the benefits of the protocol are felt throughout the media distribution chain.

See our full Need to Know for more facts about blockchain.

Need to Know More?

Have a burning question about blockchain — or maybe request for a different topic you’d like to see us tackle? Email us at needtoknow@nbmedia.com and we’ll put our top minds on it!

Other Industries

• Blockchain and Media [Multichannel News]
• Blockchain and Video Production [Creative Planet Network]
• Blockchain and Radio [Radio World]
• Blockchain and AV [AVNetwork.com]
• Blockchain and Residential Integration [Residential Systems]
• Blockchain and Pro Audio [Pro Sound News]
• Blockchain and Education [Tech & Learning]
• Blockchain and Retail [TWICE]
• Blockchain as a Platform [Sound & Video Contractor]

Editor’s Note: Welcome to NewBay’s inaugural edition of Need to Know, where we explain complex topics and how they apply to each industry we serve, on our websites and in our magazines. Keep coming back for future topics, to include 5G, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and more.

From using an app to order your morning latte to reading an eBook before bed, we’re living more of our days — and our lives — online. As digital footprints grow and cyber infrastructures mature, more industries are exploring potential uses for blockchain. Blockchain is shared ledger technology for recording transactions and protecting the integrity of digital information.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Imagine having a ledger book and inputting all relevant data about a purchase. Instead of sliding that ledger onto your bookshelf, you make it public and give a tiny piece of it to hundreds of others. The ledger can be seen as a data, but it is secure due to its advanced encryption. Blockchain is that distributed ledger, and it is not housed on one server. No one person or one server contains it. It is fundamentally decentralized.

Blockchain and Television
Click here to find out what blockchain means for the television industry. 

Let’s say you want to buy a new track from your favorite band. You’d buy the digital file online using your Visa card. Visa would store that transaction, and the place you are purchasing the music from would store it. It would then be housed in two locations. On a blockchain, the transactional information doesn’t live in only two locations, it lives in hundreds, thousands, or even millions of places — living on the peer-to-peer computers running the blockchain encryption. A blockchain system replaces human guesswork and vulnerability of digital transactions with algorithms and advanced cryptography. It’s harder to hack. It’s a whole new way of thinking and a brand new method for securing digital information.

To recap: Blockchain creates a permanent record of digital transactions; it stays secure because the data is verified and encrypted. Blockchain operates on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, and its model is scalable. The blockchain’s digital ledger can be viewed and distributed, but it cannot be altered.

SECURE AND TRACEABLE

In a time when even SSL-protected environments are breached, blockchain’s transparent, decentralized approach to cybersecurity is increasingly attractive, according to Mike Walker, research director at global intelligence firm Gartner Research. Walker views blockchain as a “potentially transformative digital platform.”

Walker, also an author of Gartner’s “Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2017,” explained that blockchain’s traceability is another element of its growing appeal. “The Honduras government will use blockchain to secure land titles,” he said. Other use cases for the digital ledger include blockchain-enabled voting machines, online music payments, asset transfer, and cloud storage. Samsung SDS blockchain technology will work to bring more transparency to the city of Seoul. From to charity giving to insurance markets, any industry using all-digital assets is poised for disruption by blockchain.

WHO’S ON BOARD?

The technology was created to support the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and its peer-to-peer model is best suited for similarly digital-only ecosystems.

“First-order applications for blockchain are purely digital,” explained professor Christian Catalini, founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The reason we see it at scale in the financial sector, supporting online banking and accounting, is because “blockchain is good at digital verification,” he said.

WILL ALL INDUSTRIES BENEFIT?

Beyond the financial sector, blockchain is a candidate for any application that relies on digital value transactions. New sectors embracing blockchain are supply chain management and logistics, “file storage, data storage, bandwidth, and even electricity grids,” according to Catalini. “File storage online is easy to meter and measure,” he explained, and therefore an appropriate application for blockchain.

Gartner Research suggests that the “blockchain revolution promises to touch every industry,” but the realities are nuanced. While we see this technology being embraced to support auditable voting, currency, software, and digital data transactions, the all-digital nature of these ecosystems is why blockchain is both feasible, scalable, and makes economic sense. Where there is mix of physical data and digital data, however, requiring users to port information stored offline into an online system, blockchain’s adoption will take more time. Sectors such as education and healthcare are increasingly interested in blockchain — deploying pilots and experiments — but the evolution will be slower.

Established heavyweights and startups alike are exploring ways to leverage this technology to solve problems. Dell EMC Global CTO John Roese said that blockchain has "forced us to rethink how we deal with sharing technology and how we develop database architectures.” Google, IBM, Cisco, Bosch, and Oracle are a few notable examples of companies who have joined blockchain alliances, pilot programs, or are pursuing proprietary solutions of their own.

ONE CHAIN TO RULE THEM ALL?

Blockchain is available in open-source platforms and it offers quantifiable benefits for all-digital environments, but don’t mistake it for the panacea, warned a 2017 report from Tractica, a market intelligence firm that focuses on human interaction with technology. In that same report, Tractica analysts urged businesses to “avoid jumping on the blockchain bandwagon and instead view blockchain as a series of technological modules and concepts to selectively choose, apply, and/or complement other emerging technology trends.”

Blockchain also has limits beyond the digital-only prerequisite. A diversity of nodes will help defend against the so-called “51 percent” attacks that could compromise blockchain-supported data. A “51 percent attack,” according to “Coindesk” author Frederick Reese, “would find a single entity introducing a version of the blockchain that it controls and is accepted as valid.” But on one small college campus or in one building, is therequired physical diversity of blockchain peers possible? What makes it an ideal platform to scale may also limit it for smaller use cases.

NEW PARADIGM

While blockchain is already disrupting the financial sector, perhaps its greatest promise is how it radically reimagines a digital information infrastructure. With its decentralized, broadly distributed model, the immutability of its transactions, and vetting of online identities, blockchain builds trust into the very architecture of its system.

Blockchain may not be the right fit for every industry, nor is it an immediate answer to the question of how to safeguard digital information, but its paradigm shift is already inspiring next-level innovation.

Margot Douaihy is a content director with NewBay Media.

Need to Know More?

Have a burning question about blockchain — or maybe request for a different topic you’d like to see us tackle? Email us at needtoknow@nbmedia.com and we’ll put our top minds on it!

SOURCES AND MORE INFO

Catalini, Christian and Gans, Joshua S., “Some Simple Economics of the Blockchain” (Sept. 21, 2017). Rotman School of Management Working Paper No. 2874598; MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 5191-16.

Coindesk

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2017

Practical Blockchain: A Gartner Trend Insight Report

Tractica: Three Myths About Blockchain

Understand the Fundamentals of IBM Blockchain

Blockchain and Television
Click here to find out what blockchain means for the television industry.

 Other Industries

• Blockchain and Media [Multichannel News]
• Blockchain and Video Production [Creative Planet Network]
• Blockchain and Radio [Radio World]
• Blockchain and AV [AVNetwork.com]
• Blockchain and Residential Integration [Residential Systems]
• Blockchain and Pro Audio [Pro Sound News]
• Blockchain and Education [Tech & Learning]
• Blockchain and Retail [TWICE]
• Blockchain as a Platform [Sound & Video Contractor]