Digital Hollywood (2015) Overall Review – New VR & AR Gaming & Tidal Lauch Flop Debate
DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD (2015) OVERALL REVIEW – NEW VR & AR GAMING & TIDAL LAUCH FLOP DEBATE – 5-10-2015
So I went to three out of four days of Digital Hollywood Spring 2015 at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina Del Rey and I can say that were two overwhelming themes and that was Virtual Reality Products or VR Gaming is about to explode and the launch of Jay-Z’s new Tidal was the one of the worst tech launches ever. Those two facts were the most dominate aspects of DH Spring. And before I even get into a breakdown of the panels and dinners that I went to I gotta first breakdown my experiences with Digital Hollywood Spring exhibitor Sixense, www.sixense.com, and their full body immersion in virtual reality Oculus Rift powered STEM System for gaming and retail sales. It was the monster hit among all DH Spring attendees who tried the STEM demo.
“The STEM System™ is a wireless, motion tracking platform for video games, virtual reality (VR), and more. It enables players to interact naturally and intuitively with games by tracking full position and orientation at all times, whether at the desktop or throughout the entire living room…This is the next big step in Sixense motion tracking technology – with advancements including longer range, wireless operation, and better tracking performance at all ranges. The STEM System will support up to five wireless motion trackers, or STEMs, for full position and orientation tracking of the head and hands, the entire body, or other configurations”….www.sixense.com
When I first tried Oculus Rift almost a year ago at E3 2014 I gotta admit that I was really blown away by the VR experience playing one of their shooter games where I was dodging bullets being shot by a series of VR generated assassins. But let’s fast forward to me walking by the Sixense exhibitor booth at DH Spring 2015 and I see a Star Wars dual light saber VR game demo and I am blown away. Just watching the game as bystander was fun as you see people wearing the Oculus Rift headset with Sixense’s patented STEM system. The Sixense demo has one on a deck of the Death Star as a floating droid fires lasers at you and you get use two realistic looking light sabers to block the lasers or attack the droid. When I tried the Sixense demo myself I was super charged with excitement because this was the first time using VR that I truly felt lost in a new or another dimension. I could see and hear the attack droid and I really thought I was holding two real light sabers. The feel of the blue or red lightsabers from the STEM system was what put the gaming experience over the top for me. One could literally scratch your name onto the floor of the Death Star with the lightsabers. There was also portion of the demos when one can actually experience a mild sense of vertigo as you try to walk off the Death Star platform and stare at the bottom of a long spiral descent into darkness. Gaming is going to change ASAP now because I was so immersed in the Sixense demo that I could easily see one using it as a cardio device with a Fitbit or Apple Watch to burn off some pounds. I was really jumping around back and forth and waving my arms non-stop as I fought that attack droid.
Sixense also showcased how it’s highly realistic VR experience could be applied to retail shoppers as well. They had another demo where one could go in a virtual store and examine shoes and clothes with your hands like you were right there. I did not get a chance to tryout the retail VR, but from what I could film and observe at the Sixense booth that this will be a big winner, too. And I had to ask Steve Hamsted, Sixense’s Community Manager, about the serious possibility of creating a licensed Star Wars VR video game. Steve did confirm to me that Sixense has already had some preliminary talks with Walt Disney Studios about launching an official Star Wars VR game to coincide with the release of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens in December. Steve also let me know that at E3 2015, which is only a few weeks away, he will have a two player lightsaber VR demo. So one could actually have a realistic Sith vs. Jedi VR battle with the STEM system. That would be so awesome and I don’t care how long the line would be to try that demo out.
I also was very impressed with the NextVR booth as they showed me their VR demo of watching from a courtside seat of a NBA game of the Warriors vs. the Mavericks. NextVR is uses Samsung’s Gear VR headset and it was a very smooth experience using this Oculus Rift powered device. I immediately felt that I could see and feel that the Warriors game was more interactive with my senses than when I watched games on a large screen HD set. And I tried the VR demo for Specular Theory of a nightclub concert and it was also a very realistic and a unique experience that feels more like an enhanced 3-D film.
Google’s Cardboard is a cheap and innovative platform that lets one wrap any cardboard viewer around a smartphone to get an instant VR experience. I tried Mirada’s VR simulation room and it felt like more like a game than real.
Despite being highly impressed with all the VR and AR exhibitors and panels at DH Spring 2015 the only other dominant theme I encountered was the total disdain, disrespect or dismissal of Jay Z’s new over-hyped Tidal HD music streaming service. I went to several Music Next panels at Digital Hollywood Spring and it did not matter whether I asked the question or it came on its own amongst the panelists there was always a consensus that Tidal sucks and its launch was an absolute failure. Now the reasons for Tidal’s troubles were too numerous for me to list. But I’ll start with Ian Roberts, Cofounder & CEO, Hive who was greatly upset that Jay-Z was trying to sell a $20 high fidelity sound quality offering lossless (non-compressed) audio/music. Ian said it was absolute bullshit that the average young music consumer ever care or could easily distinguish with their crappy earbuds between listening to Tidal’s premium sounding service and their more expensive HiFi one. My personal opinion is that Tidal should have started with the regular 320 kbps AAC sounding service and then later let its subscribers upgrade to a “supposedly” better sounding one. Also, is Tidal HiFi really worth another $10 bucks.
There seems to be a serious tension or suspicion from Silicon Beach or Silicon Valley digital music experts that Jay-Z is trying to bully or BS his way into their world without paying any dues like Spotify or Pandora. I read an article at DH that Jay-Z blamed the lackluster response to Tidal record Industry conspiracy. And Hova blamed Tidal dropping out of the top 750 apps on the Apple App store to Apple intentionally sabotaging how it worked on iPhones and iPads. So by what I heard at DH Spring Tidal is DOA and Jay-Z has started a PR tech war against geeks with Tidal that I do not think he can win.
Digital Hollywood Spring 2015 Exhibitors & Attendee Photos:
Digital Hollywood Spring 2015 Highlights & Photos Of My Favorite Gaming, Music & Technology Panels I Attended:
The Strategic Sessions – Let’s Get Started!
Monday, April 27th
12 Noon – 1:00 PM – Marina Vista Room – Live Webcast from this Room
Artists in Hollywood – Actors – Writers – Performers – Directors – Producers Summit
The DealMaking Process: Producers, Showrunners, Actors, Directors, Agents, Lawyers – Who’s in Charge Here!
Steven Hein, Vice President, Fox Digital Entertainment, Fox Digital Studios
Adam Reed, EVP, Thinkfactory Media
Jesse Sisgold, COO, Skydance Productions
Harrison Kordestani, President, Main Street Films
Harold Brook, founder, The Point Media, Entertainment Law
Darrell Miller, Partner/Chair, Entertainment Department, Fox Rothschild LLP
Melisse Lewis, Entertainment Attorney, Moderator
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM – Track III: Poolside Tent II
Viral and Social Media Experiences in Entertainment, Media and Advertising: Creativity & Monetization Challenges
Lia Navarro, Sales Director, Entertainment Strategy, reddit, Inc.
JR Griffin – Vice President of Digital Brand Partnerships, FremantleMedia North America
Bladimiar Norman, SVP of Marketing, Skydance Productions
Adam Wilensky, Executive Director, Mobile, Fox Digital Entertainment
Kirstin Benson, Editorial Director, WhoSay
John Montgomery, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Threshold Interactive
Alan Wolk, Senior Analyst, tdg the diffusion group, Moderator
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM – Marina Vista Room – Webcasting Live from this Room
Packaging, Funding and Distributing: From Reality TV & Specials to Web Series and Indie Film Making
Mark Ordesky, Executive Producer, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Jane Fleming, Producer/Executive Producer, The Quest (TV), The Frozen Ground
Hayley Dickson, Vice President, Television Acquisitions & Development – Global Content at FremantleMedia International
Uri Fleming, Partner, Kleinberg Lange Cuddy & Carlo
Craig Ross Jr., Director (NCIS, Bones, Blue Hill Ave)
Gary Goldberger, Law Offices, Gary G. Goldberger, Moderator
Artists in Hollywood – Actors – Writers – Performers – Directors – Producers Summit
3:45 PM – 5:00 PM – Track IV: Marina Vista Room – Live Webcast from this Room
The TV/Film/Video – Developing Strategies and Partnerships – Developing Hollywood Content as Brand and Franchise
Troy Byer, director/writer/executive producer, “I Really Hate My Ex,” writer, “B*A*P*S*
Mike Rotman, New Media Producer, TV Writer, “South Park,” “The Simple Life,” Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher”
Courtney B. Vance, Actor, “State of Affairs,” “Masters of Sex,” “Revenge,” “Law & Order”
Charles Como, CEO, Underground Network
Gary Benz, founder, GRB Entertainment (Princes of Malibu, Alter-Eco with Adrian Grenier, A&E’s Intervention
Brandon Schultz, President, Street Legends Ink
Kimberly King-Burns, Partner, convergenz/solutions, Moderator
6:15 PM – 8:30 PM – Ballroom Terrace, Live Webcast From T his Room
An Evening Honoring the Leaders in Health Media and Technology: An Industry With Purpose: Technology and Media that Save Lives
Dr. Bruce Hensel, Chief Health, Medical and Science Editor/Correspondent for NBC4 Southern California, Moderator
Kate Langrall Folb, Director, Hollywood, Health & Society, USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center
Matt Paxton, A&E’s Hoarders
Sandra de Castro Buffington, Founding Director, Global Media Center for Social Impact, UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health
Patrick Vogt, CEO and Director, HealthiNation
What was interesting the most about this Digital Health dinner was learning the whole backstory of how Matt Paxton had hit rock bottom doing drugs and alcohol after losing his dad, step-dad and grand dads in one year. Matt was so desperate he had to clean houses of disturbed people who he later realized were Hoarders. Matt soon created A&E’s hit reality TV show Hoarders which not only helped people, but also helped cities and mental health experts realize Hoarding was legitimate mental disease. Matt had accidently created an entertaining reality show also helps Hoarders deal with their personal problems and issues.
Tuesday, April 28th
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM – ThinkTank I, Poolside Tent I
Silicon Beach Strategies: Accelerate, Incubate, Crowdfunding, Start-ups & Angels
Brian Mac Mahon, Chief Community Officer, Pay it Forward Labs & Expert DOJO
Andrew Heckler, founder and CEO, Hone nb
John Shiple, founder, FreelanceCTO.com
Addison McCaleb, Founder and CEO, MediaHound
Andrés Diana, Managing Director, SeedInvest Los Angeles
Victoria Silchenko, Ph.D., Chair of Global LAVA, Los Angeles Venture Association, Moderator
10:45 AM – Noon, Live Webcast from this Room – The MusicNext Forum Track: Marina Vista Room
Moneyball, Music & Commerce – Digging into the Stats: What Facebook, Mobile Technology, YouTube, Spotify, Twitter, Pandora, Rdio, Social Media, Charting, Ticketing and other Stats Mean
Marc Ruxin, CMO. Rdio
Jason Feinberg, Head of Artist Marketing, Pandora
Ethan Kaplan, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Music, Gracenote
Michael Drexler, Executive Director, Business Development, Digital Licensing & Strategic Development, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
Cheryl Lucanegro, Vice President of Advertising Strategy and Sales, SoundHound
Dean Serletic, Head of Marketing and Licensing, Zya, Moderato
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM – Track III: The Plaza Room
Investment, Funding Strategies and Deal Flow: Digital Media Venture, Investment and Funding: New Business Models in Entertainment, Media and Technology – From Funds to Crowdfunding
David O. Higley, Managing Partner, Bond Lane Merchant Bank
Jonathan Skogmo, Founder and CEO, Jukin Media
Greg Akselrud, Partner, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
Muizz Kheraj, Director, FocalPoint Partners, LLC
Sun Jen Yung, Managing Director, Headwaters MB
Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator
2:15 PM – 3:30 PM, Live Webcast –The MusicNext Forum Track: Marina Vista Room
Music Programming Concepts – TV to Mobile – From the Vision, to the Brand Relations to the Cross Platform Dealmaking
Danielle Salzedo, Vice President of Music, MTV
Keith Clinkscales, CEO, REVOLT Media
Kelly G. Griffin, Senior Director of Programming, Black Entertainment Television
Tim Quirk, Founder and CEO. Freeform
Brent Imai, Executive Director of Content Development for U-verse, AT&T
Ayiko Broyard, VP/Group Account Director, Walton Isaacson
Kelli Richards, President & CEO, The All Access Group, LLC, Moderato
This panel had a lot of heat between BET’s Kelly G. Griffin and Tim Quirk of Freeform as they debated whether music consumers need less choices and more curation/programming that Kelly strongly advocated or Tim’s view that fans need a wide variety of choices and automated curation can accurately predict music people want to hear. Ayiko Broyard of Walton Isaacson talked about how McDonald’s used Justin Timberlake to push their “I’m Lovin’ It” theme music, but Justin just hummed it and never had to say “I’m Lovin’ It” in his music because the McDonald’s theme music brand identity was so strong. She said “But that could have happened with any artist if that had been correctly by a numeric brand well enough in advance to make that connection between the personality of the brand and the personality of the song or the artist.” Keith Clinkscale, CEO of Revolt, then said, “We find in our situation that music is one of the best ways to express authenticity. That’s the beauty of music. So if you’re able to work with brands. And pay attention to their brand values. A lot of time they will come a long for the ride because you are working with artists that want to do the same thing. They want to go ahead and get their message out. And if you work with them they’ll do things for you sometimes that they wouldn’t do for you if they were just working for the paycheck. A lot of time they have a project they want to get out and they have ways they want to make things happen. And it does not take a lot of math to see how much a well-played commercial will give their song airplay and awareness.
Later on Keith greatly expanded his thoughts and smoothly broke down how music was still a big influencer on today’s TV: “If you look at this show on Spike…“Lip Sync Battle”. Took that show and made it into a virtual reality show. Uh, you see it like all these stars like The Rock and Terry Crews signing songs. It’s creating engagement and experiences. We’ve been through the “American Idol” and Voice and you see how great that programming is…And the biggest show of the year “Empire” is a music show. And that Drip Drop song I still don’t have the answer to it. And then I got to hear it across all different type of platforms. Download it and things like that. I think you’re gonna see more opportunities with evocative music working as part of a medium or working in tandem of it. And I think you have to pay attention to this Millennial audience. Because this audience does not work on genres. What I learned the hard way from doing Revolt. Genres! That’s not them. They set their own goals. And they like doing that. Because they have the control, the power, the intellect and they have the insight to do so. And that’s what they are doing.
3:50 – 5:00 PM, The ThinkTank, Poolside Tent I, MusicNext Forum
Investing and Funding in Music & Music Technology – Looking at Venture Capital, Private Equity and Crowdfunding
Fred Goldring, Co-Founder and Chairman, Aficionado Media
- Hale Boggs, Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
Harry DeMott, General Partner, Raptor Ventures
Reza Rassool, CTO, Kwaai Oak
Dick Wingate. Principal/DEV Advisors, President/BHi Music Group, Moderator
Wednesday, April 29th
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM – Track I: Salon II – Live Webcast from this Room
Innovation in Video Advertising: Enhancing Brand Experience – Maximizing Revenue in Syndication, Ad Insertion and Live Streaming
Neerav Shah, Vice President & General Manager Multiscreen Video Infrastructure, ARRIS
Steven Harnsberger, Vice President, Global Business Development and Strategic, Partnerships, Imagine Communications
Alon Golan, Head of Strategic Accounts, Americas, INNERACTIVE
Ross McCray, co-founder and CEO, VideoAmp
Yuval Fisher, CTO MVPD, Imagine Communications
Lauren Cole, President, Cole Media, Moderator
10:45 AM – Noon, Live Webcast – The MusicNext Forum Track: Salon III
The Business of EDM – Reaching Millennials – The Power of Music and Brand – The Power of Lifestyle
Gary Richards, CEO, HARD. Destructo, reknown DJ
Jeff Shaw, Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances – Electronic Music Lead, Live Nation Entertainment
Mac Clark, Head of Electronic Music, CAA
Richard Bishop, Manager, Electronic Division, Red Light Management
Senthil Chidambaram, Founder/CEO, Dancing Astronaut
John Boyle Chief Growth Officer, Interim CFO, Insomniac, Moderator
2:15 PM – 3:30 PM – Track III: Poolside Tent I
Venture Funding, Investment & Mergers – Leadership in the Entertainment & Technology Space: Broadband, Social, Mobile
Steven Masur, Senior Partner, Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP
Pilar Stella Ingargiola, co-founder & Managing Partner, Alchemy P4 Fund
Renata RA Akhunova, Partner, Formula VC, Venture Fund
Juston Brommel, Founder, Advisor, CEO, CMTO, Free(dom) Agent
Monica Dodi, Managing Director, Women’s Venture Capital Fund
Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator
3:50 PM – 5:00 PM, Poolside Tent I – The MusicNext Forum Track
Music Apps, Social Media and Technology: The Explosive World of Music Engagement
Brad Sphar, Vice President, Sony Music
Madeline Nelson, CEO/Managing Member, Heads Music
Heiko Schmidt, CEO, Parasongs
Rami Perlman, VP Music Talent & Influencers, theAudience
Anthony Shannon, Cofounder & CEO, TuneStars
Ian Roberts, Cofounder & CEO, Hive
Damian Hagger, co-founder and Marketing Director, SixString.com
Nick DeMartino, Principal, ND Consulting, Moderator
Rami Perlman, VP Music Talent & Influencers, theAudience, said “One thing I will say is that management companies. Uhm, are paying a lot more attention. So you have in whether it is departments or people on teams that day to day who really need to know this stuff backwards and forward. Whether you like it or not the way you may have heard that world music track probably came from the Facebook page of that world music artist whether you know it or not. And that’s how your friend found it to listen to it on Spotify and then to go to you to put it on your playlist. So at the end of the day it is all originating from there [Facebook] it’s the most accessible platform. And to your point [points at Heiko Schmidt, CEO, Parasongs] how many business people are artists. You know and there aren’t that many…But I’m just saying it’s something where you are totally right that problem [discoverability] exists. But as an artist all they want to do is play on the main stage at Coachella, but they are actually sitting in their room. They actually have the opportunity whereas for me when I was growing up. I’m a bit older. I gotta move to LA. I gotta find my way into an event like this and me the right person. You know as opposed to I’m just gonna Tweet at that person and they might get back to me…It’s different access.”
David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • [email protected] • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart
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