Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
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 PHILIP HALL, Founder and MD of Multi Media Replication, a UK-based content delivery solutions specialist.
Where do you see your company's comparative advantage in this highly competitive market?
While we have over 20 years experience in content preparation and distribution, although we are www.replication.com I'm thankful that, while we have excellent strategic relationships with the best replicators in the industry - we do not have pressure of owning and filling a plant. Instead, we are able to concentrate on adapting swiftly to our customers' disparate data delivery needs.
Amongst the range of services you offers, which one did grow in importance over the past 2 years, which one diminished, and which new service(s) will you be offering in the coming 2 years?
Fast turn short run business, including unique products, has grown. We are excited about supporting major players as they resolve long tail challenges with Manufacturing-on-Demand disc publishing systems. We were proud to play a significant part in enabling Sony DADCs MOD capability. While overall replicated disc numbers/client fell in 2011/12, we are experiencing client numbers rising again. As a service bureau, predominantly in the niche and special interest market, we are steadily growing our offerings to embrace multi-format, multi-device delivery. Our experience of file-based methodologies and copy protection is proving extremely useful as one needs to engage with the client much earlier in the product cycle.
There is a lot of alarmist talks 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?
We believe that disc-based delivery, as we currently know it, will be around for another 10 years. The customer proposition will reverse with online delivery the preferred method, and physical media (including flash memory) as a complementary supplement. As media becomes richer and datasets larger, yet broadband delivery bandwidth continues to lag behind; in many areas the disc remains the lowest common denominator. We may well see Blu-ray become more widely accepted outside of major studio content. Given the continuing attrition rate of companies with unrealistic overheads or whose proposition is solely to undercut on price, we are also growing sales of quality recordable media.
Given the slower than expected take-up of 3D, do you thing 3D is here to stay or consumer interest in stereoscopy is temporary?
Slow take up says it all. We have chosen to invest in meeting iOS, Windows and Android second screen needs rather than 3D capability. Integration between various devices and Smart TVs, most without 3D seems a higher priority.
Do you think the consumer take-up of 3D depends on the arrival of glasses-free autostereoscopic systems. If yes, how many years do you believe consumers will have to wait for a high-quality glasses-free system to rival the existing shutter glasses 3D systems?
I think virtual reality, with the user immersed in the experience will leapfrog most 3D initiatives.
Cloud-based UltraViolet digital delivery has yet to make inroads in Europe. What needs to happen for consumers to embrace this digital service? Could UltraViolet be superseded by large retailers' own digital locker system like Tesco's Blinkbox?
Users need to be able to buy into a one-time, simple, generic, one-size-fits-all, studio- and vendor-agnostic membership system.
Do you think UltraViolet has the potential to increase sales of BD discs (as the studios intended) or be the death knell of the packaged media?
I think it has the potential to increase the sale of BD discs. Packaged media, with associated marketing initiatives, will continue to drive sales of new product.
What do you see as the opportunities and pitfalls associated with Digital Copy on a disc?
The opportunities take out the objections to customers not purchasing physical content as needs evolve.
Ultra high definition 4K TVs are coming to the market. Is it a response to consumers demanding a better quality picture or a push by CE manufacturers who need to introduce higher-margin products?
I fear it is the latter.
Do you think 4K could be the shot of adrenalin Blu-ray needs given that a BD disc is best suited to bring ultra HD content to the home?
It may help redefine and differentiate Blu-ray from Standard definition.
The revival of vinyl points to a renewed interest for high-quality audio. Pure Audio Blu-ray (BD disc with uncompressed audio) is being launched. Do you think there is a sustainable market for it?
Like the UltraViolet dilemma, education on the benefits of Pure Audio BD is the key.
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?
Hollywood and this industry must extol the benefits of a simple multi-platform digital delivery solution.
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?
A one-time, simple, generic, studio- and vendor-agnostic membership system, allowing consumption of content. Standards are the key here, with the user experience apparently seamless in delivered content whether in the cloud, on the home server or on physical media.
Contact: www.replication.com....
On predicting the future
Predicting the future, let alone the future of packaged media, is a perilous exercise, and possibly counter-productive, as the exercise closes doors rather than keep them open, argues JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher. Consider that: Apple was left nearly for dead 15 years ago. Today, it became the world's most valuable technology company, topping Microsoft.
Le cinéma est une invention sans avenir (the cinema is an invention without any future) famously claimed the Lumière Brothers some 120 years ago. Well. The cinématographe grew into a big business, even bigger in times of economic crisis when people have little money to spend on any other business.
The advent of radio, then television, was to kill the cinema. With a plethora of digital TV channels, a huge DVD market, a wealth of online delivery options, a massive counterfeit underworld and illegal downloading on a large scale, cinema box office last year broke records!
The telephone was said to have no future when it came about. Today, 5 billion handsets are in use worldwide. People prioritize mobile phones over drinking water in many Third World countries.
No-one predicted the arrival of the iPod only one year before it broke loose in an unsuspecting market. Even fewer predicted it was going to revolutionise the economics of music distribution. Likewise, no-one saw the iPhone coming and even fewer forecast the birth of the developers' industry it ignited. And it changed the concept of mobile phone.
Make no mistake, the iPad will have a profound impact on the publishing world. It will bring new players, and smaller, perhaps more creative content creators.
And who predicted the revival of vinyl?
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