Audio Video News

At the DVD Production '98 conference last week, the International Recording Media Association (IRMA) released sales forecasts for the growth and worldwide expansion of the international DVD marketplace. The numbers are part of a study on the growth and direction of the world optical-media marketplace.

Public awareness of HDTV has almost doubled in the past year, according to a survey recently conducted by the <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org/">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A>. Over the week of July 6-14, CEMA interviewed 1000 adults, selected at random, to find out how far the coming television format has penetrated into the American consciousness.

The new holy grail of the media business is video-on-demand (VOD)---the ability to make high-quality video, audio, and Web content available on customers' TVs when they want it, not according to a broadcaster's schedule. When you add shopping-on-demand supported by live video and sound, you have the makings of a new media empire.

Currently, a relative handful of people worldwide subscribe to Internet-on-TV services. However, according to a recent study by <A HREF="http://www.sriconsulting.com/">SRI Consulting</A>, a research firm based in Menlo Park, California, the number of Net-TV subscribers will mushroom to over 12 million in less than four years, and the cable industry is in the best position to serve these new customers.

If the early numbers are any indication, HDTV will have plenty of support from the broadcast/production end of the media business. According to a recent survey conducted by <A HREF="http://www.scri.com">SCRI International, Inc.</A>, more than 40% of broadcast and production facilities around the world have already purchased and/or expect to purchase HDTV production/broadcast equipment by the year 2000.

The Internet is "more than a marketing medium---it's a revenue stream," says <A HREF="http://www.newlinecinema.com/">New Line Cinema</A>'s Gordon Paddison, one of a growing army of Hollywood promoters who are using the Internet to build interest in current films as well as those that are about to be released. Paddison has run several promotions on <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo.com</A> that have lured thousands of customers into theaters to redeem coupons available only on the Web.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.mvis.com/">Microvision, Inc.</A> announced that it has successfully conducted its first demonstrations of a laser-projection television display. The company claims that the full-color 17" image projected by the prototype system has the resolution of a VGA computer monitor and provides full-motion video. With additional development, the company plans to increase the size of the projected image and improve the resolution to extremely high levels that "exceed high-definition television (HDTV)." Prototypes are planned to be unveiled later this year.