Trends to Watch: Spreety Asks Avid Technology

By Carolyn Giardina

Traditional TV and online TV are moving closer together, and it is not just about watching TV on a PC, observes the folks at publicly-traded Avid Technology, a leading developer video and audio production technology, as well as supporting infrastructure.

“Increasingly we are seeing TV’s with direct networking capabilities built in,” Bill Roberts, Avid’s market segment director, post production, tells Spreety. “The macro level trend is that as we move away from the requirement to distribute content over the air, more content will be ‘pulled’ over IP networks. For content owners who have had to rely on an indirect relationship with their audiences (relying on cable and broadcast), this can be a new and liberating way to distribute content without having to resort to a physical medium like a DVD.”

Roberts relates that he is tracking industry reports that suggest TV consumption is remaining consistent in the household, but it is being augmented by increased consumption via network and mobile devices.

With an increasing dependence on the Internet, the lines between gathering, structuring and distributing media are blurring. “News is a great example,” Roberts says. “Previously, broadcasters would gather, edit and distribute content once or twice a day. Today, a news story can begin with a series of viewer Tweets from an event, progress to still and moving images from ‘citizen journalists,’ become a news package and ultimately require substantial ‘context’ setting by anchors and professionals – all the while servicing integrated media distribution paths: the Web, TV, newspaper, radio, etc. The challenge here is that news used to be rundown centric and the other media were often subservient. With the online component in the mix, broadcasters have to be ready to distribute on any medium at any time. Avid, like our customers, is working to make the tasks of structuring and distributing content for any medium simple and deeply integrated.”

The use of HD camcorders is among the consumer trends that Avid is watching. Says Roberts: “With increased consumer capture of high quality video, we see an increasing need to structure that content. Also, as people experiment with basic tools there is a desire to improve the quality of their content. We view this as very encouraging as our goal is to provide a wide range of tools for consumers who wish to structure and share their content.”

He’s also watching the level of interest in stereoscopic 3D content. “Some of our broadcast customers globally are testing stereo to the home and with an increasing number of TV’s now supporting stereo display, we think this will be an important trend to watch.”