by Walter Schoenknecht
TV TECHNOLOGY
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The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem is looking to bring more media to the cloud.
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For many, references to “the
cloud” are all too apt — an
amorphous, poorly-defined fog
that looks different to everyone
who sees it.
But a cross-industry consortium has
wrestled the cloud into submission to paint
a vivid picture of the ways in which cloud
storage will soon benefit content providers
and consumers.
Monday’s NAB Show Super Session
“Power to the Consumer! Here Comes UltraViolet!”
assembled a cross-disciplinary
team of interested parties to discuss Ultra-
Violet, an initiative of the Digital Entertainment
Content Ecosystem (DECE).
The system, set to debut later this year,
provides common paths, methods and tools
for distribution of visual media across a
range of devices, media and platforms.
Moderated by David Wertheimer, CEO of
the Entertainment Technology Center at the
University of Southern California, the session
attempted to define and describe the UltraViolet
project, a collaboration among more than
60 players from different industries.
One of the first goals of UltraViolet,
Wertheimer said, was to deliver content in
the ways consumers are most comfortable
with. Richard Berger, senior vice president
of Global Digital Strategy at Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment, outlined UltraViolet’s
cross-media underpinnings: physical
products such as DVD and Blu-ray Disc
and digitally-delivered streams and downloads.
“The good thing about UltraViolet is
that we have something for everybody,” he
said.
Wertheimer said consumers still have
great affection for physical media, whether
to assuage fears of format compatibility or
simply to maintain their movie collections.
As a result, he said, “digital sell-through”
was a difficult task for distributors.
Mark Teitell, general manager and executive
director of DECE, UltraViolet’s parent
consortium, said consumers also resisted
being channeled to a single purchase outlet,
preferring to select their retailer of choice.
Many were worried that a digital purchase in
one specific format might leave them “marooned”
if the device or platform faded from
public use.
Christopher Allen, Best Buy general
manager, described the challenges UltraViolet faces. “There’s still a passion for the
entertainment experience; there’s still a passion
for collecting,” he said.
“But how do you bring the best of that
ownership model that people like, and blend
that with the best that the Internet and technology
can bring?”
Scott Fierstein, senior director for Interoperability
Standards at Microsoft, described
the “pillars” the consortium chose
as the foundation for UltraViolet: interoperability
between services and devices; a
consistent, predictable usage model across
platforms; and a strong visual identity — a
logo — that implicitly guarantees compatibility
for both devices and content.
Fierstein also said that creating an effective,
platform-agnostic digital rights management
(DRM) scheme was key. “I think
this is the most innovative thing that came
out of UltraViolet,” he said. “From the consumer’s
perspective, the technology is truly
transparent.”
Tim Dodd, media vice president and general
manager at Neustar Media, described
consumers’ perception of “the right” to
move their physical media purchases into
the cloud for portable viewing. “I think that,
for a while, we’ll be in a hybrid physical/digital environment,” he said.
Bill Wheaton, vice president for digital
media at Akamai Technologies, said that
unauthorized download of content was a
concern, but that the benefits of UltraViolet
were, in themselves, a deterrent.