M+E Daily

By Lyndsey Schaefer

Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro said Thursday the christening of the Ultra HD format showed that Hollywood and the electronics industry could work productively together to benefit both.

“We saw an issue – what do we call this thing? – and we solved it,” Shapiro said at the Digital Entertainment Supply Chain Academy (ESDA) event in Los Angeles. “Ultra HD will be huge – it will sell itself. The content will come, the screens are there. I’m excited about it.”

Shapiro spoke during a morning keynote conversation with CE Daily managing editor Paul Gluckman, where he also discussed his new book “Ninja Innovation.”

“Being a ninja is solving problems as a team, creatively,” Shapiro explains. “The book offers strategies for individuals and businesses – like learning from failure is a positive thing.”

Digital ESCA drew more than 200 executives spanning the home entertainment industry. Now in its eighth year, ESCA   focuses on driving efficiency and innovation in the home entertainment supply chain, including both physical media and digital formats.

This year’s event also featured a technology spotlight from Intel, which focused on UltraViolet, the industry-wide effort to knit together physical and digital video platforms. Intel officials said the company was investing heavily in supporting the technology infrastructure for UltraViolet and is working closely with Walmart-owned VUDU to help bring the optimal UltraViolet experience to consumers.

“VUDU is working with Intel to make the user experience seamless,” Amit Balan, VUDU’s head of marketing said. “Users don’t care about standards and formats – they care about content.”

Mark Teitell, GM of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, which oversees UltraViolet, moderated a panel on preparing content for the digital marketplace.

Panelists discussed the importance of collaboration in developing metadata standards for digital content to help facilitate interoperability, highlighting the work of the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) and the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG).

The afternoon keynote featured acclaimed sports journalist J.A. Adande, an-air personality and senior writer at ESPN.com, who shared his perspective on the changing dynamics of digital media. Adande described how the sports media landscape has changed with the advent of digital technology dramatically changed with the advents in technology. Adande himself, who covers the NBA for ESPN.com said that when covering games, he relies on two TVs as well as TweetDeck.

“Twitter has turned into the great American sports bar. You can stay home and have those same conversations,” Adande said. “Our ESPN.com studies have shown that usage picks up online as people are watching games at home in the evening. How can you use technology to gain an advantage? How can we use technology in our stories to get people to pay attention?”

Twenty-three years ago, while interning at the Los Angeles Times, Adande recalled, focus group showed that readers were more interested in a story if they read the quick summary at the beginning of the piece. Now, he said, he has to hook readers with just a single line of text to get them to click through.

“You have to embrace technology even if it puts your brand at risk. It’s better than not having anybody talk about your product at all,” Adande said. “Twitter is a way to extend my brand. You have to utilize the media.”