With the proliferation of multiscreen devices, the challenge
for operators and programmers is how to streamline all of that content to be
able to play on such a wide array of options.
"Managing an app pool across these growing set of devices
that these consumers are using is a real challenge," said Tony Goncalves, senior
VP of digital entertainment products, DirecTV. "That's where the consumer
sees the problem."
Goncalves made those comments during the technology
roundtable during B&C/Multichannel
News' On Demand Summit Wednesday. The panel was moderated by Multichannel News technology editor Jeff
Baumgartner.
"You've actually got to build great experiences on
these devices," Goncalves continued. "There are many more devices
this year than last year."
"I think the biggest challenge is actually going
through the supply chain," chimed in Joe Ambeault, chief product officer,
Redbox Instant by Verizon.
"It used to be really easy; we delivered content in SD
and HD to set-top box," added Kelly Delany, VP of marketing, Deluxe
Digital Distribution. "Now we're working with more content." She said
there are now "hundreds of different types of variants and file formats."
"Every screen, every studio has its own nuance and in
order to deliver the type of quality experience," said Delany.
Noah Levine, senior product evangelist, Adobe Primetime,
said he sees the industry "at a little bit of a breaking point" right
now. He argued that it doesn't make sense to build custom applications and playback
environments for all the different devices out there. "As we solve the
mass technical issue that is causing you to do have so many people and resources
and dollars behind each platform as you're rolling it out, there's going to be
a whole new suite of challenges that we find."
Idan Cohen, CEO & cofounder of Boxee, says his primary
concern is trying to beef up the content Boxee customers can watch.
"Moving forward, we want to work with pay TV in order
to actually get their content on our devices as well," he said. "A
lot of the pay TV providers understand that they don't necessarily control the
set top box."
