Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
Features
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, CEO of DDD Solutions, a post-production specialist in Helsinki, Finland. Read More...
The quest for sound perfection on Blu-ray
In a wide-ranging interview, STEFAN BOCK, Managing Director of msm-Studios and Pure Audio Blu-ray pioneer, shares his belief in a demand for high-resolution audio. He calls for a consumer-friendly standard and the need for a unified marketing approach as conditions for success. Read More...
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 CHRISTOPH SCHMIDT, MD of German authoring and production company DVDesign GmbH. Read More...
Breaking barriers - what does television mean today?
The internet continues to disrupt the world of video and television, and its impact is now permeating all corners of the value chain. Viewers are watching video and TV on a growing range of devices. Content producers are findings new routes to market via online services. Given all these changes it is inevitable that we begin to question the very terms which define the industry, says DAVID MERCER, Principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics. Read More...
The future of TV displays - no time to rest
The TV displays industry in Europe is in a state of flux with manufacturers desperately seeking ways in which to arrest the decline in unit sales and stimulate demand. DAVID WATKINS, Research Consultant at Futuresource, examines the challenges ahead. Read More...
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 ROB AUBEY, Manager, Software Engineering/Blu-ray Technologies at Sony Creative Software. Read More...
Leading the trays business
French company MIP Packaging commercialises plastic trays for Digipack for now 15 years. It has already sold over one billion units in Europe and elsewhere. Its CEO, DOMINIQUE PHILIPPOT, explains to DVD and Beyond editor Jean-Luc Renaud how he steers the company through market realities. Read More...
European video market - resilient packaged media
Europeans are increasingly opting to view movies and TV shows via digital platforms, but the market for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs is still by far the much larger market in terms of consumer spending and transactional consumption, says TONY GUNNARSSON, Analyst with IHS Screen Digest. Read More...
UltraViolet - the Cloud's silver lining if industry gets it right
The message on the pack is unequivocal: "Buy physical media bearing the UltraViolet brand and you automatically own a digital copy that you can access anytime, anywhere and on any device." BOB AUGER, President of Newm?rique, says the industry must learn lessons from history if it wants to succeed. Read More...
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 MATHEW GILLIAT-SMITH, CEO of Fortium Technologies, a content protection solutions provider. Read More...
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. Read More...
DVD and Beyond 2013/14
Welcome to the 15th edition of our annual magazine. A publication, launched at the dawn of DVD, that still offers today food for thought on the present and future of discs, surely is a reminder that, notwithstanding the decline in total consumer spending on packaged media, DVD and Blu-ray Discs continue to be the cash cows of the home video industry Read More...
Blu-ray Disc and the 4K question
The Blu-ray Disc Association is being accused by some of dragging its heels over adding support for 4K but, as BILL FOSTER from Digital Decoded explains, there are several good reasons why launching another format upgrade now could actually risk compromising Blu-ray's future potential. Read More...
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 SARAH BRADLEY, Founder and MD of authoring and post-production house Meedja. Read More...
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 STEVE BROWN, CEO of Cinram. Read More...
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?
(click to continue)... Read More...
