PermissionTV Blog – August 2008 Archive
Flash Forward 2008 Recap
Good time at Flash Forward this year. The theme was “Passion”. The format was a little different this year with only one presentation going on at a time, giving each speaker only 20mins to present. This allowed for every presentation to be seen although didn’t provide as much time to dive deep.
Some of the highlights consisted of:
Opening keynote by Miha Pogacnik who delivered a passionate performance bringing together music, art and the flash community.
Keith Peters spoke about the progression of Flash over the years as well as some of the new features in Flash Player 10.
Robert Hodgin gave an inspiring presentation showing off some amazing visualizations generated by live music.
Craig Swan gave a philosophical speech delivering the message, do the things you love, experiment and never be afraid to fail. Think less. Do more.
The Adobe keynote the next day was exciting. We heard from Mike Downey, Richard Galvan, and Lee Brimelow who talked about the future of AIR, flash in the mobile world, and Flash Player 10. We also got a sneak peak of CS4, which is going to be geared highly for designers.
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqSYhGhhsYs
Erik Natzke did a great job stunning the crowd with inspirational and intense flash visualizations. 
Hoss Gilfford said, “Nobody ever reads the - manual”. His presentation spoke about design, user experience and the idea that less is more.
David Carlson presented some of his design work over the years showing he was never afraid to break the norm and try something new. Definitely inspiring and even a little humorous.
Overall, it was a great conference that showcased some top minds in the field. PTV had a good time, learned a lot, and met some smart folks. More pictures of the event and the after parties can be found here.
Looking forward to Flash Forward SF
The PermissionTV entourage departs Boston for San Francisco today to attend the Flash Forward Conference. We're excited to attend this event for the second year running. Last year, the conference took place in our home state, where we met a lot of great people and listened to the best minds in Flash discuss what they were passionate about.
This year's event promises to be just as exciting as last year's. We'll be checking out the latest cool technologies from fellow sponsors Electrotank and Xuinet, as well as checking in with our fellow online video bretheren - YouTube.
Mostly, we're looking forward to the group of talented and well-respected speakers lined up this year. A few speakers will be familiar to anyone who may have attended last year in Boston. Can’t wait to see what may be in store this year.Here are a few of what we believe will be the highlights:
>>RE:Discovery, presented by Craig Swann of CRASH!MEDIA
Last year, Craig rocked the stage showing off an amazing series of flash experiments, some of them physical interfaces controlled solely by human interaction. Could this be a glimpse of the future of digital UI?
Beyond the Knowledge: The Art of Play, presented by Erick Natzke
Erick is an Award winning interactive designer who pushes the boundaries of flash to create exceptional visual experiences. Another presenter of last years conference, Erick truly put the audience in awe.
Putting the Flash Back in Flash. presented by Keith Peters
Keith is a flash platform evangelist and native to the Boston area. Flash has come a long way over the years and Keith will be shedding some light on where it’s been and where it’s going with Flash 10. Looking forward to some cool new stuff!
Narrative an Simplicity – RTFM, presented by Hoss Gifford or Marque Creative.
Hoss is presenting a topic that can’t get enough attention, user experience.
The Rules of Graphic Design, presented by David Carson
David is a highly regarded graphic designer, responsible for industry trends. He has been featured in a number of publications and been considered “the most famous graphic designer on the planet”. Enough to be excited to hear what he has to say.
This year, we're coming prepared as an Exhibit Sponsor. Check us out at booth #11, where will be holding a raffle for a $250 give card to the Apple gift store (ooooh). We'll also be giving out free T-Shirts to all the developers that register for our Developer Community as part of our "Pass to Play" event (aaaaaah).
See you soon!
Jonathan Barker, Interactive Desinger & Matthew Mamet, Director of Delivery
2008 Olympics - Defining Moment for Video 2.0 or Opportunity Lost?
Every four years I look forward to the summer Olympic games. It's not so much that I'll sit down and watch the coverage non-stop, but there are a few sports that I look forward to watching and the occasional event that catches my attention by surprise (beach volleyball, anyone?) This year, with so many hours being produced by NBC, I waited in anticipation for what could be the defining moment of video 2.0. Was this going to be the moment in time, where traditional Television and the Web fused together to give us a blended experience like never before? An experience that allowed us to both lean back and watch the NBC drama unfold AND lean forward to self-produce our own Olympic channel? An experience that provided the right amount of live-action coverage, video-on-demand, commentary, tear-jerking athlete profiles, game history and statistics? An experience that makes us stop and say, "Wow, now this is what we've been waiting for”? Don’t get me wrong, the sheer ability to watch over 2000 hours of coverage is great and the lessons NBC learned from the past (see 1992 Triplecast debacle) allow us to watch it all for free. I was just hoping that the 2008 Olympics would mark the turning point for the online video EXPERIENCE.
Instead, we have two distinct experiences a traditional TV broadcast directed by NBC and a website that is a tribute to online video 1.0 – short clips, a cluttered UI and more links than there are stones in the Great Wall of China. Sure, I can watch lots of live streaming video on the web and easily swap between multiple feeds, but there’s nothing inventive about the online experience and there’s no continuity between it and the broadcast feed. To NBC, it appears as if the website is seen as a delivery vehicle for carrying more live video content than what could be handled over the broadcast channels. It gives NBC a way to stream on-demand videos while cramming banners and sponsorships into every nook and cranny of available white space. Hey, I’m not against the ad-supported notion, I even enjoy watching the creative ads produced just for the Olympics. Just don’t insult me by turning off the player options such as “Enlarge Video” while pre-roll ads are playing. Believe it or not, I just might want to watch the advertisement in a larger window or perhaps even in Hi-Def. They’ve even gone to great lengths to recreate a gimmicky TV feature on the website: PIP. I didn’t use it on my TV and I still won’t use it now.
OK, so enough negativity. The sheer magnitude of it all is impressive, but I thought I’d make some specific suggestions on how to improve the Olympic viewer experience.
- Use the on-line medium to enhance the TV broadcast and vice versa. Drive viewers from the broadcast to specific upcoming events and programming on-line. On the website, clearly identify programming that’s occurring on TV.
- Let viewers predefine their ideal Olympic coverage online, then build a personalized, printed schedule so viewers know when and where to tune-in to watch their events.
- To maximize the TV broadcast audience, let viewers vote on what the TV channels will air instead of choosing the coverage for them.
- Let viewers define their sport or athlete “watch list” and automatically build a personalized library of video highlights.
- Invite former athletes or even broadcasting students to provide audio commentary for the on-line videos instead of watching in silence
- To enhance the ad experiences, provide an on-line video library for advertisers to tell their stories in MORE than 30 seconds (not less).
For all the money that is spent on video production and delivery, I just wish a fraction could be spent on transforming the video experience into something more integrated, more personalized, more enjoyable and more remarkable. Perhaps it is a case of funding, where the advertising dollars for the website are dwarfed by those of the broadcast network. Or perhaps it is a case of an organizational divide, where the suits who run the network don’t mingle with the jean-wearing nerds who build websites. Regardless, until viewer needs are put first, we’ll have to put our Olympic 2.0 dreams on hold until Vancouver, 2010.
Matt Kaplan
VP Solutions and Chief Strategy Officer, PermissionTV