An industry executive speaks

In a series of Q&As, frontline practitioners in all facets of the packaged media and digital delivery industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It's the turn of METTE BONO, Founder and MD of DDD Solutions, a content delivery turnkey solutions in Helsinki, Finland.

Where do you see your company's comparative advantage/uniqueness in this crowded market?

Probably the ability to adapt to changes and rapidly offer new solutions to the local marketplace.

Diversification is supposed to be the best way of staying afloat in the face of market uncertainty. How do you see your company's range of services evolving over the next 2 to 5 years?

The key is to manage any new technical solution in the most time- and cost-effective way, alongside with implementing new, innovative ways of exploiting all the exiting possibilities they offer.

One keeps hearing alarmist opinion about the rapid demise of packaged media in the face of online delivery. What is your view as to how long discs will be around? And what could become its main target market?

I honestly believe there's still a demand for physical media for many years to come, but the decrease will be in the number of titles worth releasing. The focus should be in high quality - both in content (sound, picture and added value) as well as packaging.

The ever lower margins on Blu-ray discs makes the economics of BD authoring and replication very challenging. What needs to happen, what features need to be added, to make it a viable business for independents?

One could think of joining forces in order to compete with the pricing advantage a major studio has gained through volume.

Do you see the arrival of 3D as the shot of adrenaline the Blu-ray disc format badly needed to progress in the market, or do you think consumers will eventually make a success of Blu-ray irrespective of whether 3D develops?

It should be the boost. Again, I see the lack of awareness as the problem, not the quality and advantages of the product.

Given the apparently slower than expected take-up of 3D, do you thing 3D is here to stay or consumer interest in stereoscopy is temporary?

Seeing is believing, and I don?t think the potential of actually showing what the consumer is missing has been explained fully, especially in the hardware stores. Many consumers don't even know that a BD player can play DVD as well - not to mention how little more they would pay for the same 3D home theatre equipment compared to the 2D version. Of course, 3D content is still lacking - at least in our local market. I am putting some hope in broadcasters to bring 3D forward.

Do you think the consumer take-up of 3D depends on the arrival of glasses-free autostereoscopic solutions? If yes, how many years do you believe consumers will have to wait for a high-quality glasses-free system to rival the existing active shutter glasses 3D systems?

This is one of the problems faced by the current format. Good quality glasses-free 3D is still years away, but the hype around it makes consumers think it's just around the corner. So, they hold back from embracing today's perfectly good frame sequential 3D solution. 3D glasses are getting ever more comfortable nowadays.

Cloud-based UltraViolet digital copy is making inroads. Do you see it as potentially increasing the sales of BD discs (as the studios intended) or be the death knell of packaged media?

I am a big fan of Ultraviolet, if implemented as intended. Underestimating consumers' need for flexibility to watch our content is one of the biggest problems we as an industry have created. UltraViolet is a very good step towards gaining the consumers' trust. I may be an optimist, but I do believe UV will spread the digital use of legally consumed entertainment on all platforms.

What do you see as the opportunities, but also the pitfalls associated with Digital Copy on a disc?

To me Digital Copy on a disc is a waste of disc space that should be utilised to provide actual physical content quality. Any digital copy should be cloud-based. This will also serve as a step towards enticing the consumer to adopt to UltraViolet.

How to you see Hollywood squaring the circle between the inexorable fall of high-revenue producing packaged media and the unstoppable rise of low-revenue generating online digital delivery?

I do believe that all is not worth releasing on a physical support. Let good quality replace quantity.

How much of a revolution smart TV represents, given that consumers are already comfortable using other screens (laptops, tablets, smartphones) to access Internet-delivered content?

Smart TV is a logical step towards the future way of consuming when, what and how you want. There is certainly a screen for everything, Smart TV being the 'big screen' and the heart of family home entertainment, while tablets, smartphones, laptops perhaps represent more the personal, individual screen.

4,000-line Super HDTV is pointing on the horizon. Do you anticipate this to be the next TV format? If so, could it lead to the arrival of a next-generation larger-capacity Blu-ray disc to deliver this content, given that broadband could be inadequate?

I certainly hope so, I love my bitrates!

If you let your imagination run wild, what system, format, application aimed at delivering content to the home would you like to see implemented in 10 years time?

UltraViolet is a good way. I want to see my blockbusters with maximum sound channels and bitrate, be it 4K 3D BD, and my favorite TV series on a tablet in the background. Flexi-glass-screens sounds like a great new way to wallpaper your living-room!

Contact: www.ddd-solutions.fi.
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