M+E Daily

By Lyndsey Schaefer

At yesterday’s third annual Hollywood IT Summit (HITS) at Pepperdine University in Malibu, 450 of Hollywood’s thought leaders convened to discuss the latest IT trends and innovations facing the entertainment industry.

The morning of the Summit kicked off with two panels of prominent CIOs and CTOs representing the major Hollywood studios, who discussed the overlapping challenges they face at a time in the industry when both technology and business models are evolving rapidly. Among the subjects they touched on was the blurred lines between studios’ IT and business groups, and the digital supply chain, and the importance of working closely across departmental lines to achieve mutually beneficial goals. At Fox Filmed Entertainment, John Herbert, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer, says that he works very closely with Fox’s CTO Hanno Basse to find ways to address challenges and drive value for the studio.

Following the CIO panel, a discussion among key studio CTOs focused on the evolving technology driving the studio ecosystem, both at the production end of the pipeline and at the consumer end. Among those are changes in the production workflow to accommodate new techniques such as high frame rates and 4K video, and cloud-based distribution models.

“As I said in our discussion at CES, higher frame rates will just become another tool in the toolbox to tell the story like 3D and 4K,” says Chris Cookson, President, Technologies, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Asked by an audience member whether Blu-ray Disc will evolve to accommodate 4K video, Fox’s Basse said moves to get 4K on discs were inevitable. “If there is another step in the evolution of physical media, it has to be integrated with our digital strategy,” he added.

For all the changes in the technology of moviemaking and distribution, however, Steve Dahl, Senior Vice President Operations/Supply Chain, Walt Disney Studio Operations stressed that some things haven’t changed: great storytelling, the basic processes of marketing, sales and fulfillment, and the overall viewing experience.

Technology is also changing the world of televised sports. Manish Jha, General Manager, Mobile, NFL, shared with the HITS audience how the league tries to serve the NFL fan in a post-PC world, noting that 70%-80% of NFL fans are engaged with a second screen while watching football on TV.

The NFL’s “Draft Xtra” app created a second screen experience surrounding the NFL draft with enhanced content.

Jha also discussed the NFL’s experiments with leveraging location to connect fans. NFL Mobile shows users where they can watch the game with other fans and lets users “check-in” at different venues to create value for merchants.

In the afternoon metadata panel, moderator Eric Iverson, Vice President, Information Technology, Worldwide Networks, Sony Pictures Television appeard dressed in medical scrubs to lead the discussion on what it takes to deliver “healthy, happy metadata babies.” From content and descriptive metadata to technical and business metadata, every child has its own DNA, said Susan Cheng, Vice President, Supply Chain Planning and Data Governance, Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Panelist David Kohl, Lead Program Manager, CIMM TAXI Cross-Platform Asset Identification Program shared that TAXI has the potential to enable or accelerate an estimated $2.5 billion in annual economic benefit within the content and advertising supply chain once adopted across the M&E sector.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t monetize it,” says Clyde Smith, Senior Vice President, New Technology, FOX Network Engineering and Operations. Smith also urged attendees to ask their QC vendors for a test profile for each one of their customers.

Following the metadata panel, a group of top television studio executives addressed the unique challenges and opportunities posed by the rapid expansion of the “TV” ecosystem to include a wide range of connected devices, including issues of security, cost and efficiency. The group has announced that the industry has been working together behind closed doors on a solution to help address some of these issues.

“We all share the same problems, from motion picture to television production,” says Ivan Gueron, Divisional Chief Information Officer, Sony Pictures Entertainment. “What are the needs across our industry?”

Gueron introduced a reel teasing the group’s collaborative efforts, “Concept2Camera,” so that the industry can all refer to the same framework. Stay tuned for more updates from this group in the coming year.

For the latest news on everything related to the Hollywood IT Society, click here: https://www.mesaonline.org/communities/hollywood_it_society/