Brave New Interfaces
Sane interactive models also will come into play within future streaming media user interfaces. I say "sane" because many interactive television models require too many options to be of use in real time or, worse, provide too little pertinent information. As an example of pertinent, timely, accessible information, let’s imagine an orange juice commercial: when the product appears, a verbal command of "view nutritional information" could be used to rotate the product to view an enlarged nutritional content label. Another verbal command of "resume" would return the product to its normal position and continue the commercial. The choice to view the product label is the viewer’s and does not require additional unnecessary screen real estate for a still graphic, since the information may be of interest only to a small portion of the total viewership.
The passive entertainment environment also demands a higher presentation quality in order to push the envelope toward more immersive entertainment. Some analysts expect tomorrow’s entertainment interfaces to incorporate real-time 3D rendering, much like today’s multiplayer video games, and multiple high-definition images, perhaps across several screens for enhanced viewing. Advanced digital audio delivery, through the use of 10-12 channels of audio with on-the-fly programming to accommodate differences between music, dialogue, and spatial depth already are on the horizon. Similar to the home theater experience, in which many homeowners are spending significant money to recreate—or surpass—the cineplex experience, so too will streaming video interfaces move to surpass today’s impressive gaming environments.
Much like the dominant revenue share that the VHS/DVD rental industry now holds over traditional theater-going audience revenues, downloadable movies for the home entertainment market continue to grow in popularity due to the convenience, timeliness, and quality provided by high-speed networks and advanced delivery mechanisms. The ability to exceed today’s DVD image quality should be achieved by mid-2005, especially now that H.264 has been approved for use in high-definition DVD players.
Technologies such as round-tripping, which are found in audio products like the iPod, provide distinct advantages for streaming media service providers, including the ability to offer services that begin within the home (downloading or buffering a portion of the movie) but progress to a portable device such as a laptop, PDA, or cell phone without interruption. Flexibility of place and time becomes an added feature to the experience of convenience and quality that is not readily or easily available in today’s home theater experience.
Future rich media-interface design also has the potential to inject profound changes into the media production process. At the simplest level, media production tools need to begin preserving all metadata inherent in the capture process; today more than 90% of that metadata is lost at the point of ingestion into a non-linear editing system. At a deeper level, too, the way media is produced also will change to accommodate age-specific views. Over time, with the advent of digital cinema, movies may consistently be shot for multiple ratings, from G to R or beyond, allowing a theater owner, parent, teacher, or administrator to configure interface and content views for a specific grade, age, or access level. The cost savings and added upside in retail or rental revenues could, in turn, force media producers to use streaming and security technologies to allow omission of language or other content not suitable for a specific controlled group of viewers, without limiting the overall accessibility to the media as a whole.
Corporate
The same model holds true for the corporate environment in which some portion of a presentation or recording is limited to only those with proper viewing permission. The cost of creating a single presentation with multiple viewing access levels can be more easily absorbed than today’s model, which requires multiple versions of a presentation; the cost savings is especially apparent when the content of each version of the presentation requires consistent updating. In effect, the entire presentation is always available, but access levels provide one form of "editing" the content without forcing the presenter to remove information that may be pertinent for one group but superfluous or out of bounds for another.
Access and viewership levels aside, the corporate setting has its own unique set of challenges. Take, for instance, training meetings. Often, not every desired participant can attend, but those who wish to "get up to speed" by watching the streaming video later often are at a disadvantage, since the presenter may refer to content that is not available to the post-event viewer, even if the viewer is watching an "enhanced" version that contains the PowerPoint presentations prevalent in today’s "advanced" three-pane interface designs. Tomorrow’s interfaces also must have the flexibility of aggregating additional disparate content such as session notes or handouts provided by the presenter, so that remote or on-demand participants have access to information referenced by the presenter.