Hasta La Gadget!

3D television has effectively been a failure, the BBC has conceded, revealing that it plans to take at least a three year break from creating 3D content after a current two-year pilot finishes at the end of 2013. “I have never seen a very big appetite for 3D television in the UK” Kim Shillinglaw, the BBC’s 3D chief, confirmed to the Radio Times, despite the UK broadcaster experimenting with various types of entertainment, sport, natural history, and more in 3D.

According to Shillinglaw, viewing figures for some of the highest-profile 3D content the BBC has broadcast have been middling at best. The Olympics Opening Ceremony, for instance, was expected to be a 3D draw, but in fact only an estimated 750,000 people watched it in the newer format, or around half of 3D TV owners in the UK.

Even that could be considered a success in relation to other failed 3D projects. The broadcast of the 2012 Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day in 3D pulled in under 5-percent of the total potential viewers, the BBC 3D chief admitted.

According to Shillinglaw – whose normal job is head of science and natural history, the department responsible for Walking with Dinosaurs 3D – the issue with 3D TV is that it’s simply too much hassle for too little in the way of rewards.

“Watching 3D is quite a hassly experience in the home. You have got to find your glasses before switching on the TV” she theorized. “I think when people watch TV they concentrate in a different way. When people go to the cinema they go and are used to doing one thing – I think that’s one of the reasons that take up of 3D TV has been disappointing.”

Other UK broadcasters, such as Sky, are yet to comment on their longer-term 3D plans, though Shillinglaw suggests that the overall impact of the recession could have limited the number of TVs in the wild. How that fits in with low viewership figures among even those who have the necessary technology remains unexplained.

3D was, following the “High Definition” gold-rush, the TV industry’s next big call-to-upgrade; however, it has failed to have the same impact as 1080p. Last month, ESPN announced it would be shutting down its 3D channel after a lack of adoption. Next up is Ultra HD, the new buzzword in home entertainment, though manufacturers will have to bring prices of the high-resolution sets down before the mass-market will consider them.

VIA The Next Web

3D failure: BBC abandoning 3D after broadcast trial meets viewer apathy is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony is shipping its Bravia X9 line of 4K TVs in the UK this week, and it wants to convey the advantages of all those extra pixels. The solution? Advertising that’s as finely detailed as the screens themselves. It’s putting micro ads on the fingernails and uniform of tennis player Anne Keothavong as she makes her way through Wimbledon, showing how the extra detail pays off. Few of us will get to see the ads in full clarity, however — while Sony and the BBC are recording some of the event in 4K, they’re playing that footage at an experience zone on the Wimbledon grounds. We’re not looking at a decisive marketing coup, then, but those left squinting at home will at least know what they’re missing.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Sony

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Sony

It turns out there’s a reason why iPlayer hasn’t supported downloads for radio shows in the UK: the executive wing of the BBC couldn’t implement this feature without explicit permission from the BBC Trust, which in turn had to seek advice from the national regulator, Ofcom. Fortunately, these hoops have been hurdled and the Corporation now says it expects to enable downloads for iPlayer users “in 2014,” giving them seven days to download a show after broadcast, up to 30 days to store it, and then seven days to listen to it once it’s opened. This’ll no doubt prove to be a popular feature, but since regular TV downloads still don’t work on the iPlayer app for Android, we’re kinda hoping the devs get that fixed first.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video, Internet, HD

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Source: BBC

At today’s Thinking Digital conference, the BBC exhibited the first gadget designed through its Perceptive Media Project: the Perceptive Radio, created by Ian Forrester of the corporation’s Future Media division. When the BBC announced the project last summer, the response included some head scratching, mostly due to a lack of clarity about what perceptive media entails. The BBC’s R&D department defines perceptive media as distinct from personalized or pervasive media in that it intelligently adapts to specific audiences and surroundings. The Perceptive Radio accomplishes this through the use of light, sound and proximity sensors that adjust what the radio plays according to environmental factors like time, location and the listener’s distance from the device. At the moment, the list of tricks ready to demo on the Perceptive Radio is short, but the BBC plans to open-source the design soon, allowing tinkerers to fiddle with it to their hearts’ content.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Science

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Via: The Next Web

If you’re a fan of BBC programming and use a Windows Phone 8 smartphone, BBC has announced that its iPlayer is now available for you to enjoy. While you may be thinking, cool a new app, this offering isn’t an app as you might expect. BBC calls it an application, but it’s a shortcut to the mobile optimized website, live tile, and media player.

The iPlayer app/link/shortcut is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Store. Once downloaded, users can search for content by channel, by featured content, or save shows you like to your favorites area. Users can catch up on their favorite BBC programs on the go.

BBC also says that it realizes how important being able to catch up on your favorite programs on the go is. According to the company, in March of 2013 30% of overall requests for streaming content came in from mobile devices and tablets. Those requests totaled 81 million in March alone.

Fans of BBC programming who use Windows Phone 7.5 may be wondering where their support is. BBC says that it has been working with Microsoft to launch its iPlayer on both Windows Phone 7.5 and 8. However, BBC says that platform limitations on Windows Phone 7.5 have left it unable to provide the same quality playback experience as it can on version 8.

The fact that the playback quality was impacted led BBC to the side to not offer iPlayer on Windows Phone 7.5. BBC doesn’t think this is that big of a deal because Windows Phone 8 currently makes up the majority of all Window smartphones on the market. I don’t think the only people using Windows Phone 7.5 feel any better knowing that fact.

SOURCE: BBC

BBC brings iPlayer to Windows Phone 8 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.