Biz wide-eyed over narrowcasting

CSI creator and executive producer Anthony E. Zuiker, left, and MediaLink chairman-Boss Michael Kassan discuss niche channels at CES. It had not been quite tea along with a madeleine, but last week's Entertainment Matters/YouTube keynote in the Electronic Devices Show conjured remembrances of things past. One factor, anyway.Robert Kyncl, YouTube's Vice president of worldwide content, colored an image of myriad channels customized to narrow interests. Observing you will find 17 million yoga fanatics within the U.S. and two times that worldwide, he stated, "I guarantee inside a couple of years you'll find an excellent yoga funnel online delighting audiences on the global basis and supplying wise, innovative brandholders the achieve of the audience that's incredibly specific and extremely passionate."Within the panel that adopted, "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker stated, "A chance to tell tales on the categorical niche allows not only the way forward for entertainment but probably the extinction of TV as you may know it."Their ideas returned from the previous day's keynote in the Variety Entertainment Summit by Jonathan Burns of News Corp., who stated, "I believe we are at the outset of the recording age," saying growing bandwidth and growing high-quality video screens, including on mobile products, will drive more video consumption. "That's great news for television producers," he stated, "but it is not restricted to TV. I believe we are likely to begin to see the channelization from the web, I believe that will be considered a large 2012 event -- there will be great channelization from the web."I arrived on the scene from the event duly impressed and passionate, however, when i settled along with a hot drink along with a snack, just one word in the depths of memory appeared: narrowcasting.If you are a particular age, that word may appear with you, too. "Narrowcasting," niche programming and niche channels, was the commitment of cable television, remember?In 1972, Dick Burgheim, director of CATV program projects for Time-Existence Broadcast, authored in Variety, "Clearly, the awesome gaps left by American broadcasting could be filled by, to make use of the catchword, cable 'narrowcasting.' Channels is going to be available and production costs will theoretically be normal enough to permit use of all of the interests listed from over-the-air TV."Ethnic groups and also the inner city can talk to themselves in their own individual vernacular. The hard of hearing may use sign language. A guy who isn't wealthy can wage an election campaign. Cable can, in a nutshell, lesson the alienation from the shades of black, the disaffection from the youthful, the sensation of powerlessness and anomie of people."Burgheim was unnecessarily positive about elections, but a lot of that advertise was really satisfied. Today, we've Turner Classic Movies, an array of sport shows including devoted systems for many major sports leagues, Black Entertainment Television, systems in several languages, and much more.However many niche channels on cable happen to be diluted. Syfy has sci-fi, yes, however it attempted a food show and it has a real possibility competition show. The previous Learning Funnel grew to become TLC and it is only vaguely linked to learning anything. A Brief History Funnel a week ago demonstrated "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (Hey, it's set previously, also it is made previously, therefore it is historic, right?). American Movie Classics grew to become plain old AMC and today grows fastest with "The Walking Dead" and "Mad Males." There are many niche programming, but niche channels they are under pressure to broaden in search of rankings.It works out that slots within the cable funnel selection continue to be dear, and it is challenging carriage. Managing a cable funnel is costly, and programming might be cheaper and simpler to create of computer is at 1965, but professional searching programs still don't come cheap. So there is a certain drift from narrowcasting.I looked the range archives for "narrowcasting." The word appears as soon as 1950, as Radio arrived, with similar commitment of niche programming. FM was very niche-oriented if this was new, but it is much less now.Same goes with web video go exactly the same way: niche-oriented when it is new but moving toward broad-aud blandness because it works? Or can we really get our narrowcast channels this time around?I spoke towards the moderator from the panel in the Entertainment Matters keynote, Medialink Boss Michael Kassan, about why narrowcasting might really be realized. He noted the low barrier of entry -- anybody can produce a YouTube funnel free of charge and obtain instant global distribution -- and added, "People like Anthony Zuiker who in the past have labored with much bigger budgets can produce quality content in a reduced cost."And also the gatekeepers are no more the 3 network heads or even the four network heads. The gatekeeper may be the public," Kassan stated. "Allow the consumer decide. The consumer's likely to decide anything else nowadays. Why don't you allow them to decide what they need to look at and what is going to be the 2011 hit, instead of have somebody letting them know?InchKassan added, "There is no limit. At this time we are able to blow these items with techniques we never anticipated within our craziest imagination. I personally don't like to seem dramatic, however i think truly we are watching the beginning of the new trend.InchI am inclined to consider he's right, but we have heard these promises before, and they have never entirely become a reality. I can not help but question if some Variety writer in 2052 is going to be covering the commitment of direct neural connects as well as their capability to bring narrowly customized, niche-oriented encounters to consumers' brains, finally reducing us in the dispiriting sameness of broadcast, cable and Internet programming.Bits & BytesAt last week's Moody Gardens Digital Cinema Symposium, Qube Cinema shown an electronic cinema server delivering 4K three dimensional (that's, three dimensional with 4K resolution for every eye) off just one Digital Cinema Package. It had been the very first public demo of 4K three dimensional off just one server. The setup used two Barco 4K projectors as well as an 80-feet-lcd screen. Demo incorporated content proven at 24, 48 and 60 fps. Testronic Labs is hosting the round-robin test for that Blu-ray industry today and tomorrow at Testronic's Burbank facility. The annual Hollywood Publish Alliance Tech Retreat continues to be looking for February. 14-17 in the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Indian Wells, Calif. Luxurious subsidiary Company 3 and Mumbai-based publish facility Futureworks have pacted to provide commercial clients in India use of Company 3 artists located in Santa Monica, Atlanta or London. three dimensional technology provider Cameron Pace Group has opened up a workplace in Melbourne, Australia. It is the first CPG office outdoors the U.S. Andrew Wight, who created the three dimensional feature "Sanctum" with CPG co-topper James Cameron, will run the brand new CPG office.NewTek has named Carter Holland executive Vice president, worldwide marketing. Holland is really a former marketing Vice president at Enthusiastic. Hollywood Center Galleries has drawn on Jerry Cole as director of visual and broadcast services, a brand new position. He'll oversee virtual production services for webinars, broadcast and television production. Cole was most lately mind of economic development at Hayden Galleries in Culver City.Panasonic has gotten a Technology & Engineering Emmy because of its detachable solid-condition media for camcorder/recorders as well as their development of the P2 video recording format. Cinedeck is shipping its Cinedeck RX rack-mountable recording system with solid-condition memory. All Mobile Video in Gotham has installed the machine. Cinedeck has additionally made changes to the professional team. Alan Hoff leaves the Boss publish, though he'll remain a board member. Co-founder Charles Dautremont is acting Boss. Robert Stacy, Boss and co-founding father of Asia Media Items has become Cinedeck's Vice president. Jane Sang continues to be marketed to director of procedures. The reboot of "Dallas" is applying MTI Film's Handheld Remote Control Dailies.D-Box has introduced a few of the game titles which will make use of the motion-chair tech at the begining of 2012: "The Gray," "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," "Act of Valor," "John Carter" and "The Hunger Games." Cinedigm Digital Cinema has transpired 10,000 screens in the digital cinema deployment in The United States. Eventually it'll deploy almost 1/3 of United States digital cinema screens. Cinedigm has additionally llied with Independent Movie theaters Assn. of Australia (ICAA) for D-cinema deployment in New zealand and australia. D-cinema integrator Beyond All, LLC, has signed instructions of intent with 15 Brazilian participants for digital cinema deployment on about 1,000 screens. The Virtual Print Fee contracts will expedite the deployment of d-cinema. Beyond All's partners include Cinedigm for technical services and MKPE for settlement.The Siggraph computer graphics conference will go back to Anaheim, Calif., in 2013 and also to Vancouver, Canada in 2014. Last year's Vancouver confab marked the very first time Siggraph occured outdoors the U . s . States, and based on the show's parent org the big event broke all conference attendance records. Creatasphere's Digital Resource Management conference is going to be in the BevHilton February. 22-23.U.S.C. has became a member of forces with Vicon Technologies to upgrade the motion capture system in the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. System initially had 20 cameras when set up in 2006. Now it's 46 cameras on the 1,700-square-feet stage. School has already been thinking of getting another growth of the mo-cap facility.E-on software has shipped Vue 10 RenderNodes for Linux, the business's first Linux-basd rendering solution. DreamWorks Animation has already been while using software. Assimilate has shipped version 6.1 of their Scratch digital intermediate finishing tool. Latest version includes support for that new Red-colored SDK 4.2 and Tangent's Element user interface, in addition to a new SDI output architecture.Publish facility Incendio has bought two Image System Nucoda Film Masters with Precision sections for his or her creative color and finishing pipeline. Sky Deutschland's new Sky Sport News HD funnel has outfitted his studio using Vitec Videocom brands for automated production. Internet is applying a robot camea system with six Vinten Radamec Fusion FP-188 robot pedestals and 2 Telemetrics cameras controlled with a Vinten Radamec HDVRC. Studio is outfitted with Litepanels Brought lighting. Contact David S. Cohen at david.cohen@variety.com