Rich Chernock, CTO, Triveni Digital

of the changes needed to add Mobile DTV capabilities to a station obviously involve the addition or modification of equipment such as encoders, multiplexers, and transmitters.

Basic elements requiring update for Mobile DTV typically include an exciter, a service multiplexer, and an HE-AAC v2 audio/AVC video encoder, which combine to enable U.S. broadcasters to launch mobile DTV services immediately, leveraging their existing infrastructures. With these pieces in place, however, the broadcaster must address a number of other considerations in adapting its operations for Mobile DTV.

Workflow is among the foremost concerns in ensuring that Mobile DTV services can be launched smoothly within existing operations. Within the broadcast workflow, both scheduling and metadata management are critical to effective delivery of Mobile DTV. Much like conventional DTV transmission, mobile delivery depends on the transmission of metadata along with video and audio content. This metadata supplies tuning information, as well as information about the current show, duration, captioning, and other characteristics such as parental control. Rather than create or implement a whole new metadata system to support mobile DTV services, broadcasters can tap into the PSIP (metadata) generator that already supports their regular over-the-air services.

By working with existing PSIP systems, such as the Triveni Digital GuideBuilder, newly enhanced with mobile capabilities, the broadcaster can centralize DTV metadata generation on a platform that already is tightly integrated with the plant’s multiplexers, listing systems, traffic systems, and automation systems. This synchronization and coordination of the generator with other key broadcast systems simplifies operations. The resulting workflow minimizes the added infrastructure and training costs associated with ensuring that the schedule flow is organized and that traffic and automation data are used to match what’s on air, even when last-minute changes are made to the schedule.

As mobile metadata is generated, the facility’s service multiplexer remultiplexes the existing ATSC transport stream and inserts the mobile metadata along with the encoded mobile content, creating an MPEG-2 Transport Stream. The resulting MPEG-2 Transport Stream is output via a standard asynchronous serial interface (ASI) or SMPTE 310 interface to traverse the existing STL link, which allows reuse of an existing, expensive signal path. Broadcasters can upgrade their equipment to support the Mobile DTV standard quickly and simply by inserting the service multiplexer into the existing system between ATSC headend and transmitter. Consequently, neither the existing headend nor its components need be replaced. Multiplexer/Exciter features such as advanced forward error correction (FEC) and improved training signals give the broadcaster the means to optimize the mobile DTV data rate either to offer more services or achieve a higher robustness using the same data rate.

As broadcasters continue their push to provide viewers with localized content, such as news, traffic information, and weather, both when and where they want it, mobile DTV will continue on its evolution path. Interactive and non-real-time (NRT) services increasingly will be supported by the ATSC Mobile DTV standard, requiring even more sophisticated use of metadata. Those facilities that have unified their terrestrial and Mobile DTV metadata management and generation capabilities within a single platform will be best equipped to deploy robust Mobile DTV broadcasts without suffering a significant impact on existing operational procedures.

While the implications of possibilities presented by Mobile DTV still are being explored and understood, broadcasters can take simple steps to ensure that their broadcast plants are fit to provide efficient, cost-effective mobile service delivery that meets viewer demands and expectations.

In an intro, Flynn notes that Apple’s avoidance of Flash has an upside for his company: “Since Apple appears determined to make iTunes the exclusive source of DRMed movies on the iPad, and we don’t use DRM, we’ll be able to sell thousands of films as MP4 downloads that will run on the iPad. Other on-line movie sites can’t because they’re contractually-bound to use DRM. Because we don’t impose technical restrictions on our customers, we’ll arguably have a better offering for the iPad than iTunes for the thousands of films in our catalog.

“Since most big media companies won’t license content for download without copy protection, and Flash has content protection features, Apple wants to keep Flash out so that Apple/iTunes will be the exclusive legal source of premium videos and e-books on all iPads, iPods and iPhones.

In a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone, Apple’s Steve Jobs disclosed what the best minds at his company think about technical copy protection: “We have Ph.D.’s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don’t believe it’s possible to protect digital content.” During the same interview, Jobs also said that music executives are “not technology people,” which makes them “vulnerable to people telling them technical solutions will work, when they won’t.” Not one to miss an opportunity, Jobs went on to brilliantly exploit that vulnerability by using Apple’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, called FairPlay, to help wrest control of the music download market away from the very executives whose business model it was supposed to protect. We all know how that worked out for the music executives. Now Apple is using the same playbook for video, digital books and software.”

In the first few years after Apple launched iTunes, the major record labels consistently required that any download store use DRM. Since Apple refused to license FairPlay, and would not let any other DRM on the iPod, consumers could only legally buy music downloads for the iPod from iTunes, at least if they wanted songs from U2, Bruce Springsteen, or any other artists signed with a major record label. And because the more FairPlay-encrypted music someone purchased, the harder it became to use a different music player, the DRM requirement also helped Apple create switching costs for iPod users. Governments  pitched in to help protect Apple’s monopoly, too. Because laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), make it illegal to circumvent copy protection, you can’t legally make a product that would let iTunes customers easily move their encrypted purchases to a player Apple doesn’t control. So, by giving music executives the DRM security blanket they demanded, which in 2003 Jobs already knew wouldn’t help them, he was able to make iTunes the de facto exclusive download channel for major label content on the iPod.

To read the rest of the article, click here. And then tell us what you think!

The app is aimed at “directors, writers, editors, cinematographers, producers, art directors, animators or storyboard artists looking to master their craft,” says Jimenez. Watch the video below to see a demo of how it works.

In a world of digital acquisition and digital effects, storyboarding is more important than ever. “Enhance your ability to pre-visualize your films before they’re made,” says Jimenez. “Dream lets you experiment with composition, rhythm and emotion. But most importantly, it’s fun to push this great medium into a new frontier.”

Dream features allow you to:
*Add your actors and erase the background. Three actors come included, you you can upload as many as desired. *Add your own sets. Seven come included, but you can upload as many as you want.

*Actors and sets are organized elements that can be recycled across all projects. *2D actors can be moved within a 3D space.

*Create a poster with a single image. Three text inputs are available, for the title, tagline and creator. You will be able to choose the font, adjust size, color and shadow. Or you can upload your own poster created on a desktop PC.

*Write a synopsis, selecting from various genres *RGB color picker allows you to pick from a huge palette of colors

*Write an outline: Create scenes, then pick a set, time of day, add actors and type notes. You can rearrange each scene as desired. *Multicam editing: This intuitive way to create and edit storyboards lets you swipe, cut, delete, play or zoom in and out of the timeline.

*Every shot is automatically numbered.

*Export and email a PDF of your notes and storyboards *Auto-save *Project info: this lets you see, at a glance, how long your storyboard is running, how many scenes are in the project, the number of locations and number of actors.

*When you add, delete, modify or rearrange a scene in Outline view, those changes are reflected in Multicam view.

The iTunes link is: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dream-filmmaker/id348828642?mt=8

Jimenez says the introductory price is $8.99.

For MobilizedTV readers only: use the following promo codes

Frank Chindamo

“At CTIA, the keynote speakers were Bill Gates and Ted Turner,” recalls Chindamo. “They got on stage, and the president of CTIA, Tom Wheeler, stands up with a mobile phone and says, ‘This is the future–video on cell phones.’ And he plays my video, a little spec spot called Love Bytes.”

Since then, Chindamo’s Fun Little Movies boasts a library of close to 2,000 films for mobile phones. His content is on the Google Android platform, iPhones (thanks to media agency Cross Mediaworks), on a top deck channel on Sprint (thanks to MobiTV) and an app on Blackberry (thanks to Metranome). In addition to Fun Little Movies’ availability in North America, the company has mobile deals in India and throughout Asia and Europe.

Chindamo started teaching short film screenwriting in Jan. 2004 at USC. “The course I had designed was shaped around the short films that were playing on the Internet at the time,” says Chindamo. “Up until then, the classes on short films were about writing the first act of a feature film, when in fact, people were only writing features. Mine was about writing a short film to play as a short film. The target for it was that short films would play on the Internet. By the end of that year, I had my channel on Sprint, and so in Jan. 2005, I started teaching short film screenwriting in a way that would apply to mobile and web. Hence I was the first person in the world teaching mobile and web screenwriting. Director Kevin Smith director would go on to teach a class in web screenwriting and web film production, in 2007, at UCLA.”

Here’s more information about the two classes offered this Spring.

UCLA Extension: Starting April 13, this class is about the conceptualization of a great series, and then the writing, shooting, editing and uploading of that series. “This is aimed at both people with production backgrounds and others who bring skills such as writing or performing,” says Chindamo. “By the end of the class, you’ll have posted your first three episodes of a webisode or mobisode.” For distribution, webisodes can be posted to YouTube. For mobisodes, if they’re comedies, Chindamo posts them onto the Fun Little Movies channel. Chindamo has taught this class once or twice a year since 2008.

Success stories include Bernie Su’s Compulsions, up for four Streamy awards. Another successful series is a Sam Spade spoof starring store room dummies, Film Noir for Dummies, which is distributed by Babelgum, as well as  Dynamic Change, also on Babelgum.

To sign up for the UCLA Extension course, click here.

USC: The USC class–which takes place July 28 through August 5–is shorter, faster, much more in-depth, says Chindamo, who notes that the course also comes with all the equipment, including cameras, lighting, sound, and editing stations, as well as tutorials on how to use them. This class is also more international; last year’s class had students from Spain, China, Brazil, and Israel. This class meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7 pm to 9;30.

The big successes of this class are the “merry madmen” of 5 Second Films. (Other films that have come out of the class are linked on the USC page below.) As with the UCLA class, students will end up with three completed episodes of a web or mobile series.

To sign up for the USC class, click here.

But skepticism turned to admiration, says McLane, at 3 pm on Sunday when the Oscars Red Carpet began. “It was an impressive feat,” he says. “The thing that impressed me the most was that you didn’t have to download an app.” McLane also kept in touch with friends who were attempting to watch the Red Carpets on their phones: one friend in Manhattan with a Blackberry successfully watched the Red Carpet, while another in upstate New York, also with a Blackberry, was not. Full disclosure: I tried with my Blackberry, also unsuccessfully: I got onto the Livestream site without problem, but couldn’t find the the Red Carpet event. MobilizedTV readers: If you watched–or tried to watch–the Red Carpets live, let us know your experiences.

McLane also noted that he looked for coverage of the after-event parties but didn’t find it. When told that this would be an update through the site’s social networking, he responded he was “only looking for the live feed.”

Which brings us to some of the things that AP Live and Livestream could improve for the next go-round. “The thing that was problematic for me was no one really knew this capability was available other than people who are geeky like me and read MobilizedTV,” says McLane. The link that was provided–www.mobile.livestream.com–was ultimately not the one that McLane

iProgram streams Toy Fair demo video to mobile

used to connect to the event. “The url that I ultimately found was www.mobile.livestream.com/aplive/ and every one of those characters was important. If you left off the last backslash, you couldn’t get on the site.”

McLane also notes that it would have been a smoother process if users would have found a landing page when they typed in the URL. “On a landing page, they could have registered potential viewers, asking them what their email address and zipcode are,” he says. “You  need to track viewers and serve them media in the future. Top Chef and other TV shows do that with text messaging: Sign up, and in exchange for your attention and data, we’ll give you content.  I didn’t see anything like that [on the Livestream site].” Without a registration process, AP Live/Livestream can collect some information–number of streams served, average duration that people watched–but only in a limited way.

Bottom line, however, McLane found the event inspiring. His company has a set-up with a wireless camera for web/mobile streaming. His company has done just that for a variety of events including a press junket with Hilary Swank for Amelia and a remote feed from the Toy Fair, of “the Toy Guy” Chris Byrne demonstrating toys. “The live mixed feed from the satellite truck was routed to compatible phones in 3g2 format as well as Windows Mobile devices,” explains McLane, who says that “this test” was watched on the Palm Treo 755 and Motorola Q.

“Now that we’ve seen what Livestream can do, we’re going to try to replicate it, to Windows Media devices.” And perhaps partner with Livestream for delivering content to iPhones and Blackberries.

“In a nutshell,” concludes McLane, “I think there will be a really impactful niche set up by AP Live/Livestream’s proof of concept last night. Is anyone going to watch three hours of red carpet on their iPhone? No. But if they can’t get on their computer and hear that their favorite designer is exhibiting at Fashion Week and want to see that 10 minutes, yes. As long as the events are short, there will be a real place for this functionality they displayed last night. That bodes well for in-stores and product launches where you can broadcast out to cellular devices.”

To be fair, it’s important to note that AP Live did run this event aimed at streaming to computers, not mobile phones, and therefore downplayed the mobile aspect.  According to Michael Dutton, AP’s global director of entertainment products, Sunday night’s launch of AP Live was a win for the news cooperative and its members. “The Oscars were a fantastic jumping point for AP Live,” he said. “Our aim was to build our viewership, and the actual audience size doubled our expectations. We are eager to start planning for the next big cultural event, with further developments for a truly immersive user experience on both the content and technical fronts, including mobile, on the way.”

We at MobilizedTV look forward to it.