An industry executive speaks

In a series of Q&As, frontline practitioners in all facets of the packaged media and digital delivery industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It's the turn of PANOS BISDAS, General Manager of Authorwave in Athens.

Where do you see your company's comparative advantage/uniqueness in this crowded market?

We focus always on the clients and their needs to complete their projects. We stay in top of the technology available in order to offer the latest solutions and, of course, our low prices make these proposition unbeatable.

Amongst the range of services you offer, which one did grow in importance over the past 2 years and which one diminished?

We have been offering for the last two years DCP mastering services among others and we saw a small grow in the indie market as the big studios always sell their content directly to our local distributors. It is a small breath of fresh air if you think how bad thinks are here in Greece. The service that was significantly down was Blu-ray authoring.

Diversification is supposed to be the best way of staying afloat in the face of market uncertainty. How do you see your company's range of services evolving over the next 2 to 5 years?

That is true, especially now as every service must be very profitable as the economic crisis does not allow for big revenues. We have invested in a colour correction suite to provide services to clients that prepared DCP version for cinemas. Here, we cater mainly to indies and students.

One keeps hearing alarmist opinion about the rapid demise of packaged media in the face of online delivery. What is your view as to how long discs will be around? And what could become its main target market?

In our market discs still play an important role, but as things get tighter from austerity measures people are looking for rental or free-to-air solutions.

The ever lower margins on Blu-ray discs makes the economics of BD authoring and replication very challenging. What needs to happen, what features need to be added, to make it a viable business for independents?

The main problem here is that consumers have not been properly informed about the benefits of the Blu-ray format or even the main difference from DVD. As a result almost everyone has an HDTV, but very few know that only a BD disc can offer the HD resolution to optimise the TV.

Do you see the arrival of 3D as the shot of adrenaline the Blu-ray disc format badly needed to progress in the market, or do you think consumers will eventually make a success of Blu-ray irrespective of whether 3D develops?

3D is the same story as BD; people do not fully understand HD and 3D, except in the cinema context. Even though people have a better knowledge of 3D cinema, 3D packaged media and 3D TVs do not register yet in consumers' shopping list.

Do you think the consumer take-up of 3D depends on the arrival of glasses-free autostereoscopic solutions? If yes, how many years do you believe consumers will have to wait for a high-quality glasses-free system to rival the existing active shutter glasses 3D systems?

I think 3D might help BD more that the HD content, but 3DTVs must become glasses-free. Maybe with the arrival of auto-stereoscopic 3DTVs consumers might start investing again in a new technology.

Cloud-based UltraViolet digital copy is making inroads. Do you see it as potentially increasing the sales of BD discs (as the studios intended) or be the death knell of packaged media?

I think the studios' intention is to use packaged media as a medium to involve more people in cloud-based distribution. It's important to take the first step using packaged media and train consumers to enter internet-connected devices to download.

What do you see as the opportunities, but also the pitfalls associated with Digital Copy on a disc?

Digital Copy on a disc might represent a short window of opportunity for transcoding material for post-production houses. In the long term, every movie will be converted by the studios from their inception and placed on a cloud-based platform for global distribution. The only thing they cannot do is to translate in local languages.

How to you see Hollywood squaring the circle between the inexorable fall of high-revenue producing packaged media and the unstoppable rise of low-revenue generating online digital delivery?

In our times it's difficult to sell pricy discs to consumers when they can get the same content for cheaper (of free) online albeit with a lower resolution. Though high bitrates Blu-ray discs may offer the best quality, H.264 divx codecs now offer a very good video quality at lower bitrates. Squeezed by economic hardship, US and European consumers might be fine opting for online delivery with a lower bitrate, but still good HD picture.

How much of a revolution smart TV represents, given that consumers are already comfortable using other screens (laptops, tablets, smartphones) to access Internet-delivered content?

A smart TV, or a TV to be more precise, is the home media revolution. Laptops or tablets or every other second screen is only for information purposes, not entertainment. A large TV screen for cinema will always be what we want as the best viewing experience. So, smaller screens (smartphone, tablet, laptops, etc.) will only have a supporting function.

4,000-line Super HDTV is pointing on the horizon. Do you anticipate this to be the next TV format? If so, could it lead to the arrival of a next-generation larger-capacity Blu-ray disc to deliver this content, given that broadband could be inadequate?

Before packaged media might play a role in delivering higher resolution content to Ultra HDTVs it requires that content be produced in that format in the first place. This make take 2-4 years, which might give enough time for broadband to offer higher speed and bitrates.

If you let your imagination run wild, what system, format, application aimed at delivering content to the home would you like to see implemented in 10 years time?

I think a better version of a WiFi internet TV with a voice recognition software instead of a remote handset will be the best device for me.

Contact: www.authorwave.com.

(30.09.2012)
...

Article Comments

comments powered by Disqus