It's Time to Be Part of the 4K Ecosystem or Be Left Behind posted: 19/07/2015
I want you guys to forget everything you think you know about the games. Last year was childs play. - Haymitch Abernathy, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Lionsgate, 2013
I haven't seen/heard so much finger pointing and buck passing since the EU (European Union) and Greece tried to solve the huge debt imbalance.
I'm talking about something closer to home - 4K content production, distribution, viewing.
It's not happening because:
- No one is shooting/producing in 4K
- Not enough studios/networks have upgraded their infrastructure to offer 4K stuff
- There aren't enough stable production/transmission standards to deliver to stuff
- Not enough pipe bandwidth to handle the workload smoothly, beautifully
- Not enough 4K TV sets sold to send the stuff to
- Consumers couldn't tell the quality difference and they're not willing to pay for our quality (content and delivery). They're ripping off too much of our stuff as it is
Do you hear yourselves?
4K Work
At NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), FCPX (Final Cut Pro Expo) and the Creative Storage Conference; the only thing that was discussed and shown was 4K shooting, production tools and systems.
I haven't visited the network facilities; but down in Hollywood, people look at HD cameras and think they're so old they wonder where the reel crank is.
But even then, you're looking in the wrong place.
If you go to the YouTube, Yahoo and AOL studios, folks of every age and gender are putting the wrap on short shorts, shorts and feature films in 4K and hammering out revenue-sharing deals.
Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are working with small studios that are producing features and series for their pay-for-view customers. Do you think Netflix consumed a big chunk of last year's 59.9 EB of data traffic per month last year with Gilligan's Island and Baywatch reruns?
But the real volume of 4K entertainment is being done every day by thousands of independent filmmakers and production folks around the globe with Blackmagic cameras, MacBooks, Adobe Premiere or FCP and OWC storage in their bedroom or non-descript production facilities.
Volume 4K Production - Sure, the worldwide headquarters of the studio may be a spare bedroom or corner of the living room; but for the thousands of independent filmmakers, it's everything he/she needs right now to produce great 4K content for an eager audience. They don't have to beg pay TV execs for an opportunity; they can reach people by getting it on the Web in a wide variety of ways.
They produce the films with their own money, loans from friends/family, maxed out credit cards or indiegogo funds.
They revenue share with YouTube, Yahoo, Instagram, Facebook, Alibaba, sites in other countries or small/medium distributors.
There aren't just a few hundred hours of 4K content, there are 10s of thousands of hours of broad and narrow interest stuff sitting there waiting to be viewed and being viewed every day.
Upgrade Production Offerings
Yes, Jurassic World and Inside Out are racking up 100s of million in revenues; and they had production, marketing and distribution budgets to match.
Working to stay ahead of Facebook, YouTube continues to improve picture quality and recently announced they'll be streaming videos in 8K. O.K., no PC or TV can display 8K - let alone stream it yet because we're talking about 7680x4320 pixels (16x as much as 1080p and 4x 4K streams); but both entertainment delivery companies are way ahead of the other guys.
8K Coming - There's not a lot of publicly available 8K content (8x crisper, better than HD) but YouTube has already announced they'll be putting up some movies for you to enjoy. The only problem is the Internet can only handle the 4K videos they offer by the thousands right now so I suppose to watch the 2-3 shows available you'll have to go to their offices for a few years.
According to Ampere Analysis, Facebook will deliver two-thirds as many video views this year as YouTube does (2 trillion vs. 3 trillion).
That yields some interesting facts:
- The online services can give advertisers precise viewer data so they can sell more ads and charge equitably for them
- They can give detailed information to some of the TV shows and events that are selling their own ads
- People who get the content free don't mind the ads
Pay TV is still a work in progress.
Maybe because they're not dragging along a legacy of ancient hardware/software, Netflix is delivering (and profiting) content around the globe.
Yes, some of that content is consumed on the big 4K set; but it's also viewed (and enjoyed) with almost any screen they have close at hand. According to Parks Associations:
- About 50 percent view online content
- Less than 10 percent of 65+ year olds watch online
- Millennials get about 40 percent of their entertainment from TV channels, 25 percent online
My Entertainment - Many in the M&E industry still think of the large TV set in the family room and that's true for late millennials and above but the younger crowd sorta' figures if it's got a screen it's for viewing--especially since most PCs, tablets and smartphones are 4K viewing-capable.
Wireless companies, social media people and CDNs (content delivery networks) get it.
They know that the industry has changed since color broadcast TV was introduced. According to Adobe Pass, entertainment is being consumed on connected devices and at times that does mean OTT (over the top) TV. Kids (Gen Zers) use their iPhone (97 percent), all generations use their computers and 50 percent of millenniums use a tablet.
Broadcast folks like the deliver
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It's Time to Be Part of the 4K Ecosystem or Be Left Behind posted: 19/07/2015 
