I’ve seen 3D video, used a 3D control room, seen a 3D camera, tried three types of 3D glasses and watched footage from the Olympics in 3D. And since these happen during the dimension of time as well, I’m really watching in 4D when you think about it. I think it’s only a matter of time before Panasonic introduces the Purely-Theoretical-Time-Space-Dimension plasma screen.
It will still look dark and grey to me.
3D isn’t really 3D at all. It’s 2D with some depth. In other words, the people don’t so much look 3D as they look the same as always, only with objects in the distance. When a figure skater turns, she looks more like a cardboard cutout spinning on its axis. You don’t get the feel that you’re immersed in the event. It feels more like you’ve entered, well, a different dimension where it’s very important that things get thrown at you to make you duck.
Maybe it’s because these events are always about “the future” that companies feel compelled to be futuristic. So futuristic, in fact, that they’re not afraid to demo products that don’t work. I saw the mobile TV pavilion where they showed the marvelous gadgets that willenable us to watch television over the air. And if you’re thinking “Steve – we can watch TV over the air right now,” then my answer is “Yes, but not mobile TV.” And if your response is “They just announced a coalition for mobile TV today, and so it really doesn’t exist except in a test market or two,” then my answer is…
I don’t have one.
But that’s OK, because the people demonstrating the mobile TVs were plenty vague on the topic. The particular demo I saw didn’t work. The guy blamed a weak signal. So there you have it: in the future, we will have televisions with bad reception. Spooky.
Still, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about broadcasting. We’re not going to suddenly stop watching TV. Even if TV were to go to 1D, we’d still be sitting there gossiping over whether the dot was dating Kate Gosselin. It’s just… it seems like broadcasters are down to hanging their hats on gimmicks nobody asked for. Even if I can watch “LOST” on my iPad, and even if I can see it in dimensions only perceptible to alien beings, it’s still not going to stop me from using the web, reading my eReader, listening to my iPod and having my sons kill me at some Wii game or another.
“The future of broadcasting” is the title or subtitle or subtext of nearly every panel here. But I’m not seeing a lot of the future. I’m seeing and hearing people who want to keep a hold onto the past. They want to do it in some futuristic ways, sure, but using a template that has passed its expiration date.
What we still need at these conventions are successful examples from outside broadcasting. There’s a lot more to be learned from Foursquare right now than there is from any ad executive. We need our notions to be challenged, not comforted. There is very little innovation happening at the station level, and the station groups have to be held accountable for that. I’ve seen a lot of expensive HD (and 3D) stuff here. I know what stations are spending. And it’s criminal that they won’t invest in the one real place wherein the future lies: distributed media. TV websites remain ugly and useless at worst and content-challenged at best. Even the better-looking TV sites offer little reason to visit.
Maybe they should be in 3D.
Las Vegas is a place where reality goes to die. You have to put yourself several levels of meta beyond your normal experiences when you see things like a wax replica of an Elvis impersonator. So there’s something of a vortex here that changes perceptions.
Still, as the RTDNA winds down its relationship with NAB, I’m a little sad. When I first started coming to this convention in the early 2000s, the discussions were about “the future.” The discussions are still about “the future” except it’s all Back to the Future. 3D. Protecting journalism from the hoards of camera-toting iPhoners. Broadcasting television in a slightly different way. Fundamentally, the discussion may be about the future, but it’s not nearly futuristic enough.
For a 3D convention, the thinking has been oddly one-dimensional.
