6Sight - The Future of Imaging

Event Date: November 15-17, 2010
Location: San Jose, CA

Overview

Future Image was founded in 1991 as an independent center of expertise to assist the imaging industry and its customers with transitioning to digital technology, through executive conferences, continuous information services, and original research projects. The company has an unparalleled fifteen-year record of thought leadership on the future of imaging, predicting the interplay of technological innovation, changing customer behaviors and desires, and business opportunities for vendors and users.

6Sight is co-hosted and organized by Future Image Inc., publisher of The Future Image Report and host of the Mobile Imaging Summit executive conference, and the Association of Imaging Executives® (AIE™), a PMA® member association of photo imaging leaders who shape the strategic growth of the global imaging industry.

Jon Peddie Research will be an Analyst Sponsor at the 2010 6Sight event.

Jon Peddie Research’s Press Luncheon

Event Date: Wednesday July 28th, 2010, starting at 11:30am
Location: The Palm Restaurant, 1100 South Flower Street Los Angeles CA, in the Screening Room (two blocks from the convention center)

Overview

Jon Peddie Research is hosting an informational luncheon for press and analysts at Siggraph, July 28th.

There will be a panel of experts in the field to give their views and answer your questions. This panel features the people who are designing the hardware, software, and tools along with the people who are using the tools in their every day work. Questions get asked, and questions get answers. There will also be opportunities for exclusive one-on-one interviews that you won’t be able to get elsewhere, and you’ll get a damn fine lunch.

This year the focus will be on new graphics processor technologies and the software being designed for them.

  • The impact of the new HPU processors — CPUs with integrated powerful graphics (HPU — heterogeneous processor units — AMD calls them APUs, Intel uses Corei5) are they up to the task?
  • Changing the workflow. The impact of real time ray tracing from the user's perspective.
  • How is stereo affecting the CG production pipeline?
  • Is the cloud good enough to really deliver CG?

Limited Seating! RSVP Today.

  • Call us at +1.415.435.9368
  • Email us: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
  • or sign up via the online form here

The Prizes

HP workstation and monitor HP EliteBook 8740w mobile workstation One ATI FirePro V7800 &
One ATI FirePro V8800		 Autodesk Mudbox
Two subscriptions to TechWatch Two Nvidia Quadro AIBs Luxology Modo 401 Everyone will receive a great looking bowling shirt, a 2GB pen from LightWorks and JPR’s glossary and market forecast for computer graphics.
  MachStudio Pro
MachStudio Pro by StudioGPU is real-time 3D nonlinear workflow and rendering software		 3D Content from DOSCH
Products for 3D design, advertising, print publishing, architectural visualizations, animation, motion design and multimedia presentations		  

Panelists

Eric Demers, GPG Chief Technology Officer Company: AMD Eric Demers is the GPG Chief Technology Officer at AMD. He is responsible for AMD GPU core strategy and roadmap planning as well as AMD strategic planning. Prior to this role, he was an AMD Fellow, where he focused on next generation graphics architecture for personal computers and consoles. Eric came to AMD by way of the acquisition of ATI Technologies in 2006. He joined ATI Technologies as a graphics hardware design and architect when the company bought ArtX in 2000. Eric holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, specializing in computer architecture and signal processing. He is a member of the Association of Computer Machinery and SIGGRAPH.

Brian Harrison, Director at SolidWorks Labs Company: SolidWorks Brian Harrison has been in the CAD industry for over 20 years. As CTO of Dassault Systemes SolidWorks, he leads the research and prototyping of new technologies and product directions for the SolidWorks brand. Previous to this role, Brian held a number of roles in development of the SolidWorks product since 1994, including graphics, drafting, eDrawings, and Labs.

Brian joined SolidWorks in 1994 after leaving Parametric Technology Corporation, where he was a member of the systems development group. Prior to that, he spent a number of years at CADKEY. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Connecticut.

Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO Company: mental images Rolf Herken is the founder of mental images and the driving force behind its innovative technologies and products as well as its successful establishment as the global leader in core component technology for 3D modeling, collaboration and visualization. Trained as a Theoretical Physicist with a strong interest in Computer Science he established the company in 1986. Since then he has been serving as the company's CEO and CTO with primary responsibility for Research, Development, Technology Strategy, and the company's OEM business.

Bill Mark, Senior Research Scientist Company: Intel Bill Mark leads the advanced graphics research group at Intel. Prior to joining Intel he was on the computer sciences faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where his group investigated flexible real-time 3D graphics techniques and architectures. From 2001-2002 Bill worked at NVIDIA as the technical lead for the design of the Cg language. Bill received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did postdoctoral research at Stanford University.

 

Paul Stallings, Vice President of Development Company: Kubotek Dr. Paul Stallings provides the strategic direction for Kubotek USA's engineering software products and oversees the company's development team. As a technology innovator with 20 years of engineering and software development experience, Paul understands the value of delivering quality solutions to the marketplace.

Prior to joining the company, Dr. Stallings led a core development team for ACIS, a product of Spatial Corp., the first commercially available 3D modelling kernel and one of the engineering industry's most widely used 3D component modellers. He is the principal author of the ACIS Space Warping patent. While working for Spatial, he was also able to leverage the experience he gained through his prior work with EDS Unigraphics, Pipkins, Inc. and the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground.

Embedded Systems Conference - ESC 2010

Event Date: April 26th - 29 2010
Location: McEnery Convention Center - San Jose

Overview

The Industry’s Leading Embedded Systems Event
ESC brings together the largest community of designers, technologists, business leaders, and suppliers all in one place.
Practical design information you can use today. Skills you use for a lifetime.

3D Gaming Summit

Event Date: April 21-22 2010
Location: Hilton Los Angeles, Universal City, California

Overview

The first ever 3D Gaming Summit™ will attract the brightest minds in the gaming industry to define the market opportunity for 3D stereoscopic gaming and entertainment. Delivering two days of packed in-depth discussions, the summit will help steer your strategy to capitalize on the next biggest thing in gaming!

The 3D Gaming Summit™ is the only industry event focused on how 3D Stereoscopic technology will affect the future of gaming and entertainment.

BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

  • Explore the Intersection of Linear and Interactive Entertainment
  • Learn how S3D Gaming will develop and when
  • Scale the 3D Opportunity
  • Understand why 3D creates accelerated synergies between video game companies and film and television studios
  • Learn from industry leaders and leading global research analysts
  • Discover the tools and technologies that offer the best solutions, gaming and augmented reality technologies and opportunities
  • Find out the most efficient, effective ways to harness the adoption of S3D technology and integrate into your future business plans
  • Look ahead to make the most of time and budget by learning from key players who are ready to discuss their business experiences and findings budget.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

  • Video Game Executives
  • Entertainment Executives
  • Visual Arts Executives
  • Game Developers
  • Press/Media Analysts
  • Other

COFES 2010

Event Date: April 15-18, 2010
Location: The Scottsdale Plaza Resort Scottsdale, Arizona

Overview

Peddie is scheduled to give a presentation about the topic at The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software 2010 (COFES, Scottsdale, Arizona, April 15-18). He invites you to bring your own theories in favor — or against — cloud computing.

COFES: Congress On the Future of Engineering Software

Where Great Minds Come Together

COFES is the engineering software industry’s only annual think tank event which brings executives from design, engineering, architectural, development and technology companies together to understand the role engineering technology will play in the future survival and success of your business.

COFES is:

     
  • a think tank where great minds come together to discuss best practices and to share ideas for managing change
    •  
  • a technology summit that promotes discussion and problem-solving among industry thought-leaders, analysts and customers
    •  
  • a business conference that delivers practical strategies for achieving financial success in the engineering and design technology sector
    •  
  • an informal environment where business leaders and technology providers can meet to identify and address key industry issues and challenges

COFES is renowned for hosting leading keynote visionaries that bring a new perspective to the future of the industry. Past keynote speakers include Dr. Eric Drexler, father of nanotechnology; Alan Kay, HP Labs Senior Fellow and one of the founders of Xerox PARC; Dick Morley, creator of the floppy disk among many industry achievements, John Koza, the inventor of genetic programming, David Weinberger, and Alan Cooper, the father of Visual Basic and author of "Inmates are running the asylum". Join the tech sector’s best and brightest at COFES 2010 April 15 - 18, 2010

     
  • Participate in discussions with industry thought leaders and analysts
    •  
  • Get an insider’s view of the engineering and design technologies of tomorrow
    •  
  • Learn about key winning strategies for business success today

COFES is an invitation-only event. Find out more about the 11th Annual COFES and apply for an invitation.

Siggraph Asia 2009

Event Date: December 16 - 19, 2009
Location: Room 413 at Conference Center, Pacifico Yokohama

Overview

Jon Peddie will be guest keynote speaker for the Khronos Group.

For a complete schedule of the Khronos event, please visit the Khronos Website.

See the Future of Imaging at 6Sight

Event Date: November 10-12, 2009
Location: Monterey Conference Center, Monterey California

Exploring the transformative impact of imaging technology, the 6Sight Future of Imaging Conference focuses on visual communication at every level of society – businesses, homes, and communities.

  • Preview breakthrough technologies
  • Forecast innovative uses
  • Spark new ideas and alliances

Jon Peddie Research is a proud sponsor of 6Sight.

Embedded Systems Conference - ESC 2009

Event Date: September 21st - 24th 2009
Location: Hynes Convention Center - Boston Massachusetts

Overview

Now in its 17th year, ESC brings together the largest community of designers, technologists, business leaders, and suppliers all in one place.

If you are an engineer involved in designing and developing embedded systems, you can’t afford not to attend ESC. The conference is your chance to learn about design techniques and best practices from the leading experts in the industry.

Jon Peddie will be speaking at this conference. More details to follow.

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Siggraph 2009

Event Date: Wednesday August 5th 2009, 12:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: Mulate’s, New Orleans Louisiana

Overview

Quick Links

When and Where?

The luncheon takes place from 12:00 to 3:00pm, August 5 at Mulate’s 201 Julia St., New Orleans


How does the world change when you can see what you’re thinking?

JPR is planning a luncheon for press and analysts at Siggraph this year. We’ve reserved a room at Mulate’s just a few steps from the convention center.

Mulate’s is a famous dance hall and restaurant serving traditional Cajun food. The space we’ve reserved includes an area for table top demonstrations.

We’re inviting press, analysts, and investors to come for a delicious Cajun lunch and a free-wheeling panel on the next phase of visualization.

There will be a drawing for a $700 HP Artist Edition DV6 laptop:

Specs:

     
  • AMD Athlon (TM) X2 Dual-Core Processor
    •  
  • 2GB memory
    •  
  • 250GB hard drive
    •  
  • Full version softwares to create music, sketch and draw, edit photos and videos.
    •  
  • Optional Blu-ray, Verizon mobile broadband ExpressCard V740, edge to edge LED display
    •  
  • Optional matching artist edition laser mouse and sleeve
    •  
  • Wireless-G card
    •  
  • LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW
    •  
  • Integrated webcam & microphone

The theme is The convergence of CG computing and visualization has arrived. What does it mean when you can see what you’re thinking?

How does the world change when you can see what you’re thinking?

Who are going to be the winners and who will be the losers?

In the old days (just a few years ago and still today) researchers – in scientific (think molecular studies like protein), entertainment (think amazing movies or games), or industrial (think FEA) would launch or commission a horrendous calculation run that could take from weeks to years depending upon resources and research. When the results came back they would then send the file(s) to the visualizer. Then when the renders were done the researchers would complain and tell the visualizer to do them over and make them look like this…

Today, with GPU compute (magnificently enabled now through Win 7 and Snow Leopard) the researcher is the director. He or she launches the computation in his or her own lab with his or her local supercomputer and with the same machine does the visualizations the way he or she wants them done. Depending on the complexity of the task jobs that took weeks now takes days, jobs that took days can be done in minutes and the time scales are further compressing. Productivity goes up, quality of research goes up, humanity benefits - it is the convergence of compute and viz.

Restart the clock

This is a change that has been long in coming. The hardware companies—AMD, Intel, Nvidia—are building in rendering power to mainstream computers. The software companies are pushing the hardware for all its got and asking for more. In some ways, the hard work is really just beginning. Rendering any time and anywhere changes the workflow—at least that’s the theory.

At Siggraph this year, the luncheon discussion will include representatives from software and hardware companies. Invited guests include press, analysts, investors, and advanced users. The industry has worked long and hard to expand the possible. It’s time to move the discussion into the practical.

How does the world change when you can see what you think?

For more information


KG|KD Public Relations
www.kgkdpr.com
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
514-754-0343
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
512-394-8789

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Panelists

Dr. Bill Dally, Chief Scientist Company: NVIDIA

Bill Dally joined NVIDIA in January 2009 as chief scientist, after spending 12 years at Stanford University, where he was chairman of the computer science department. Dally and his Stanford team developed the system architecture, network architecture, signaling, routing and synchronization technology that is found in most large parallel computers today.

 

Eric Demers, GPG Chief Technology Officer Company: AMD

Eric Demers is the GPG Chief Technology Officer at AMD. He is responsible for AMD GPU Core strategy and roadmap planning as well as AMD strategic planning. When he was an AMD Fellow, Mr. Demers was involved in next generation graphics architecture for PC and consoles. He joined ATI Technologies as a graphics hardware design and architect when the company bought ArtX, Inc. in 2000.

He holds a Masterís degree in Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York specializing in computer architecture and signal processing. Mr. Demers is a member of the Association of Computer Machinery and SIGGRAPH.

Gary FitzGerald, Creative Director, Visualization Company: BMW Group DesignworksUSA

Gary is the Creative Director of Visualization at the BMW Group DesignworksUSA

 

 

 

 

Anwar Ghuloum, Principal Engineer Company: Intel

Anwar Ghuloum is a Principal Engineer with Intel's Microprocessor Technology Lab, working on diverse topics such as parallel language and compiler design, parallel architecture evaluation, optimizing memory system performance, and multimedia applications.

Before joining Intel, he co-founded and was the CTO of a fab- less semiconductor startup that designed parallel image and video processors for the consumer electronics market. Prior to that, Anwar developed novel predictive drug design software for early lead optimization using 3D surface pattern recognition techniques for a biotech startup. A recurring theme in Anwar's work has been to bridge high-level application knowledge and low-level parallel architecture constraints with careful parallel language and compiler design to achieve the optimal tradeoffs in productivity and performance.

Anwar received a B.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in 1996.

Mark Hereld, Researcher in Mathematics and Computer Science Division Company: Argonne National Laboratory

Mark is a member of the research staff in Argonne's Mathematics and Computer Science Division and leads visualization efforts for Argonne's Leadership Computing Facility. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Computation Institute with a joint appointment at the University of Chicago.

His is currently interested in research and development in the area of advanced infrastructures for computational science. He is engaged in display technology development projects for applications in scientific visualization, active spaces, and collaborative environments -- activities which advance machine vision, tiled displays, human-computer interface, and visual data analysis. His work in understanding simulation on future computer architectures is currently focussed on development and characterization of large neural network models of neocortex, including research in parallel programming models and application performance analysis. He is also a principal architect of distributed analysis environments that support collaborative creation of annotated data repositories of multi-modal data (audio, video, image, text, numerical) based on web and Grid services. He is the holder of one darn fine patent.

Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO Company: mental images

Rolf is the CEO and CTO, and founder of mental images and the driving force behind its innovative technologies and products as well as its successful establishment as the global leader in core component technology for 3D modeling, collaboration and visualization.

Trained as a Theoretical Physicist with a strong interest in Computer Science he established the company in 1986. Since then he has been serving as the company's CEO and CTO with primary responsibility for Research, Development, Technology Strategy, and the company's OEM business.

Yoni Koenig, Chief Scientist Company: Studio GPU

Yoni Koenig has overseen production and developed unique production pipelines in the game and animation industries for the past 15 years. He is a key force behind the development of Studio GPU's technology.

Yoni started working in the game industry at Eidolon - a New York based independent game developer producing game entertainment for Electronic Arts - as the company's lead-artist. Yoni's groundbreaking work led to him being featured on a Business Week cover story focusing on the interactive entertainment revolution.

Yoni Koenig has a BA in painting from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and an MFA in mixed media at Hunter College in New York.

Ken Pimentel, Director of Visual Communication Solutions Company: Autodesk

Ken Pimentel is the Director of Visual Communication Solutions within Autodesk's Media & Entertainment division, responsible for guiding 3ds Max, Project Newport, Mudbox, ImageModeler, Stitcher and FBX solutions.

Ken founded Sense8, one of the pioneer virtual reality companies 20 years ago, while sipping wine in a Jacuzzi and wondered if it would be possibleto display images directly in front of someone's eyes and update these images based on where someone was looking. Note: this was BEFORE anyone had heard of "virtual reality".

Sense8 was sold to Engineering Animation Inc which was sold to Unigraphics which was sold to EDS which later sold Unigraphics back to Unigraphics aznd Ken left and joined Autodesk where I've resided for the last 6 years working with traditional computer animation.

Ken holds a BS of Electrical and Computer Engineering degree from the University of California at Davis and is the coauthor of the book "Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking Glass. Kenís ìMaxed Outî Blog on AREA: http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/ken

Dimension 3 - International 3D Stereo Forum

Event Date: June 2nd - 4th 2009
Location: Centre National de la Danse / Pantin / Seine-Saint-Denis, France

Overview

A little over three years ago, when we presented our Forum project to professionals in France and abroad, we were sometimes met with puzzlement and defiance, but there was also a great deal of enthusiasm: Dimension 3 was born…
Today, 3D is on everyone’s mind and its proponents are in ever-increasing numbers, much to our pleasure! We are responding to this evolution with changes of our own for Dimension 3’s third edition, starting with a change of location: the department of Seine-Saint-Denis will be hosting the event, with the support of its local government, from June 2 to 4 at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin. 

For 3 years, Dimension 3 has been the only European event fully dedicated to 3D images. A place for sharing, discovering and networking, Dimension 3 is now a must-attend event for designers, producers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and researchers who include 3D into their development strategy.

Jon Peddie will be speaking about 3D stereographics in games on the 4th of June.

More details will follow.

COFES 2009: Slipstreaming Innovation into the Mainstream

Event Date: April 16-19, 2009
Location: The Scottsdale Plaza Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona

Overview

At COFES 2009, we are asking: How can innovation become part of standard operating procedures for the bulk of engineering-related firms—not just the big ones or the pioneers? What are some of the best practices being applied by leaders?

Sustainably Innovation is the lifeblood of engineering-based businesses. Yet only large enterprises even take a stab at formal innovation processes, and only few of them. Most companies do not approach innovation as a corporate challenge; it’s just part of the work flow, and we hope for the best.

Competitively, there are signs that business can no longer afford to ignore one of the most important factors in competitiveness.

At the same time, the pressures of global climate change are upon us. These additional constraints are challenging all companies, and are themselves demanding greater innovation.

COFES 2008 introduced Maieutic Parataxis. You can see those 5-min Maieutic Parataxis videos here.

To learn more about the COFES 2009 Conference, please take a moment to visit the COFES site.

All Systems Go!

Event Date: December 3rd, 2008
Location: Pacific Palms Convention Center in City of Industry, CA

Overview

Everything Channel proudly brings you All Systems Go!, a one day event dedicated to system builders, system integrators, white box VARs and hardware components—and located right in your backyard!

Everything Channel proudly brings you All Systems Go!, a one day event dedicated to system builders, system integrators, white box VARs and hardware components—and located right in your backyard!

Why you absolutely should not miss this event:

  • Meeting with leading component vendors, such as HP, Fujitsu, VMware, ESET, Intel, Tandberg Data, NVIDIA, Synnex and AMD
  • CRN’s Test Center building the Ultimate PC!
  • Content sessions lead by CRN, VARBusiness Magazine editors and market analysts from IPED
  • An Industry Panel to focus on the custom market
  • Special educational sessions on gaming and hardware enabling software
  • Networking with your peers
  • And the chance to win one of two IPODs

Schedule

General Session: Thin clients fat profits
Time: 10:30 am - 11:15 am
Speaker: Jon Peddie, President, Jon Peddie Research & Publisher of Tech Watch

Every business is trying to down size their power consumption and lock up sensitive information. Thin clients offer low cost hard solution, that does not use much power or space, have all the power of the computer center, and can't be broken into or loss of sensitive data.

Only kids play games. Wanna bet?
Time: 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm
Speaker: Jon Peddie, President, Jon Peddie Research & Publisher of Tech Watch

The average price of high-end gaming machine tops $5,000, and the demand is astounding. But it's a boutique market, and Bill doesn't like the one that Tom has - is that a system integrator's dream or what?

Click here to see the full agenda: www.everythingchannelevents.com/asg_agenda

Registration

Click here to register now.

Jon Peddie Research’s Press Luncheon

Event Date: Wednesday August 13th, 2008, 12 noon - 3pm
Location: Los Angeles California, The Palm Restaurant, in the Screening Room (two blocks from the convention center)

Overview

Jon Peddie Research is hosting an informational luncheon for press and analysts at Siggraph, Aug. 13. The topic will be 2009 Directions for Ray Tracing & Rasterization, and the collision of games and simulations.

We’ll have some cool take aways for you too. A poster on the history of 3D, some white papers on pixel metrics, a glossary on some of the gobbledygook, some samples of reports, and of course whatever backgrounder and/or quotes you can use.
There will also a special guest demo by, Jules Urbach,  of OTOY of real-time raytracing from the Spiderman movie.

Limited Seating! RSVP Today.

  • Call us at +1.415.435.9368
  • Email us: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
  • or sign up via the online form here

Panelists

John Hart, Prof. CS Company: University of Illinois

John Hart is a Professor at the University of Illinois and Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Graphics. In Nov. 2001 he and his students implemented “The Ray Engine” to show the GPU’s potential for ray tracing. He now leads multicore visual computing research for the Intel/Microsoft UPCRC at Illinois.

 

David Kirk, Chief Scientist Company: NVIDIA

David Kirk has been Nvidia's Chief Scientist since January 1997. In 2006, Dr. Kirk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). In 2002, Dr. Kirk received the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award. Dr. Kirk holds 50 patents and patent applications relating to graphics. Dr. Kirk has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from CalTech.

Raja Koduri, CTO, Graphics Company: AMD Raja Koduri is the Chief Technology Officer for Graphics Product Group at AMD. He has been with ATI/AMD for seven years leading various GPU performance architecture efforts from the ATI R300 to the recent AMD 4800 series GPU technologies. Raja worked at S3 Inc. prior to ATI as Director of Graphics Architecture and has been involved with development of PC Graphics hardware, software and algorithms since 1996. He has a Master’s Degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India

 

Bill Mark, Senior Research Scientist Company: Intel

Bill Mark leads the advanced graphics research group at Intel. Prior to joining Intel he was on the computer sciences faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where his group investigated flexible real-time 3D graphics techniques and architectures. From 2001-2002 Bill worked at NVIDIA as the technical lead for the design of the Cg language. Bill received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did postdoctoral research at Stanford University.

 

James McCombe, CTO Company: Caustic Graphics

James McCombe is the CTO and founder of Caustic Graphics, and the visionary behind their breakthrough ray tracing technology. Prior to Caustic, James was a lead architect and developer of Apple's OpenGL implementation now used by every Apple software product. He was also chief architect of the embedded rasterization algorithms for the rendering technology used in the iPhone and video iPod.

Bill Roberts, Director of Product Management Company: Softimage

Bill Roberts is a 20-year veteran of the media and entertainment industry. Before joining Softimage, Bill held positions at Avid Technology, the CTV Television Network, and Autodesk. An expert in digital film, the Digital Intermediate Process, HDTV and the games industry, Bill’s knack for aligning shifts in technology with changes in the media production landscape have helped improve existing products, and grow companies through new product introductions and strategic acquisitions. Bill resides in Montreal.

Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director Company: EA

Habib Zargarpour currently serves as a Senior Art Director at EALA collaborating on a new next-gen game project. Habib has over 12 years of experience in the visual effects industry working on both games and film. Nominated for two Academy Awards in Visual Effects, for his work on Twister and The Perfect Storm while at ILM, his other projects include the pod race sequence in Star Wars Episode I, Star Trek First Contact, Spawn, and Signs, and the Need for Speed Underground and Most Wanted games.

 

 

IDTV 2008

Event Date: May 14th, 2008
Location: Howard Plaza Hotel, Taipei

Overview

The 2008 IDTV Conference is the only conference that brings the companies designing TV components together with each other and their customers—all from the unique perspective of the semiconductors that are making next generation TVs with advanced features possible.

Parks Connections conference

Event Date: May 7th 2007
Location:

Overview

If you’ve never been to a Parks Associates conference, we recommend you do so at your earliest opportunity. But get a good night’s sleep beforehand. A Parks Conference is the most high-energy, high-content, and rapid information delivery system you’ll encounter. They hammer you with a team of four or five super-smart, super-informed, well-spoken analysts who deliver a non-stop rush of really interesting data.

    Answers to all your questions

By Jon Peddie

scherf
Kurt Scherf

If you’ve never been to a Parks Associates conference, we recommend you do so at your earliest opportunity. But get a good night’s sleep beforehand. A Parks Conference is the most high-energy, high-content, and rapid information delivery system you’ll encounter. They hammer you with a team of four or five super-smart, super-informed, well-spoken analysts who deliver a non-stop rush of really interesting data.

At the recent conference in Santa Clara, the organization delivered no less than eight information-packed one-hour sessions beginning with an overview and then Broadband, TV, Home Networking, Gaming, Social Media, Digital Health, and Home Systems.

The big picture

The presentation were kicked off, as usual, by vice president and principal analyst Kurt Scherf, who unabashedly told the audience he wouldn’t get through all his slides and issued a torrent of facts and figures. He started out with the big picture: what are the opportunities in the move to a digital lifestyle? Scherf, like all the Parks folks, thinks about this a lot, and has put together a nice map of the universe as he sees it.

parks01
Figure 1. Identifying digital lifestyle opportunities. (Source: Parks Associates)

Delivery systems

cai
Michael Cai

One of the treats of a Parks Conference is Michael Cai who studies the developments in broadband services, broadband technologies such as FTTx and broadband wireless, electronic gaming, and other value-added services. This guy must never sleep, and he has a passion for these topics, having spent a full day designing one chart which remarkably shows the state of the industry and where it’s heading.

Cai gave us his key takaways:

Scherf noted that several important milestones have been reached on the way to enabling true digital lifestyles in the home. He projects that as of the year 2011 there will be more than 900 million networked nodes worldwide. At that point, 39% of home networks will be designed to handle home entertainment multimedia.

He sees that market maturing to the point that it will be easier for people to tinker around with their own home networks without bringing disaster down on their heads. Unfortunately, that is not the case today as anyone with a home network finds out the hard way.

Today the home networking industry is plagued with a very heavy return rate. Nevertheless, consumers are interested in taking advantage of their home network for entertainment, and as they do so they’ve added on a lot of devices that are not recogizable to other devices on the network. In other words, the home networking market is going to have some challenges as a result of its success—how to deal with a large installed base of non-addressable home networking gear.

The next part of the challenge is equally clear. As the industry tries to clean up its act, a bunch of non-compatible -standards crop up. The conference addressed these problems and more over the day.  

Home networking is a maturing market: 70% of Internet households connect through Broadband and four SPs split 67% of the market.

The Cable MSOs still dominate but the fiber deployments by the Telcos have gotten their attention, forcing them to rethink their strategies and offer solid advantages in bundling, etc., to gain ground.

Opportunities for competitive entrants: WiMax is particularly interesting with FMS potential.

The next-round competition will be about bundles and value added services. All national service providers have quad-play capabilities and aim to become “experience providers.”

Changing competitive dynamics drive Capex; that’s good news for network and CPE vendors

Service providers are becoming more proactive: they have to, facing pressures from not just in-kind competitors but also emerging OTT (over the top) providers such as Google, Yahoo, Vonage, eBay.

Service providers are going to be required take on more responsibility for home network management. Parks’ research indicates that most homeowners call their service providers for help. There is a business opportunity for trusted home network advicers.

Broadband is still a growing market, and in case of home delivery systems in the U.S., Cai offered the following data (Figure 2).

parks02
Figure 2. More than 53 million broadband households connected. (Source: Parks Associates)

Mobile delivery systems

Not limiting himself or the firm to staying at home, Cai also examined the mobile broadband industry, believing as many of so that TV on our phones is something that is going to happen and happen soon. He put together a great map of the choices and their future.

Got game?

One of the major users of broadband, at home or on a mobile is gaming, and Cai has investigated that too. He and his team conducted a survey in late 2006 and found there was high usage of game play (Figure 3).

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Figure 3. 3G and beyond—mobile broadband technologies are going to enable the same types of bandwidth outside the home as homeowners are coming to enjoy in the home.  (Source: Parks Associates)

Cai has taken the trouble to look beyond the common assumptions about game play. He has concluded that the rapid diversification of the gaming market is not just core vs. casual. Instead, he says gaming is social, it’s also about community and communications. The change comes because gaming is no longer just about the content and it’s becoming an important family entertainment activity. Furthermore, he thinks the transformation of consoles is about being connected and moving beyond gaming.

Cai sees the emergence of new business models: free-to-play and/or microtransactions, syndication, game advertising, episodic games, virtual world, etc. Pervasive gaming is the new concept, and therefore he concludes, “Everybody needs a gaming strategy!”

What do we think?

A day with the Parks folks is well spent and they have an exhibition associated with the conference that gets bigger every year (in the past they’ve been able to squeeze it into a hotel; this year they had to use a convention center).

Parks conferences are not like most others. They speak with you, not talk at or down to you. It’s very comfortable and an environment that makes for learning and sharing.—JP