Connections

5G technology may be the best thing to happen to media and entertainment in ages, the industry’s use of blockchain for content management is being hamstrung by state regulations, and when someone uses the term “artificial intelligence” for their tech, be suspect that they are actually employing AI.

Those were the main takeaways from Halsey Minor — a serial entrepreneur, the founder of CNET, and one of the initial major investors in Salesforce — Oct. 20, as he delivered the opening keynote of the Media & Entertainment Day — a live, worldwide virtual event, which took place during the all-new NAB Show New York digital experience.

“Media is actually very dependent on technology,” he said. “So when new tech comes along, it always allows for new media.”

His presentation — “Is Blockchain the Inevitable Future for Video Content Management?” — examined current and future implications of blockchain technology for video content management, and how the tech has evolved separately from the potentially negative associations that came with Bitcoin. Media and entertainment’s use of blockchain technology — which can record transactions securely via encrypted digital databases using distributed networks — could open up new opportunities, from content micropayment to more efficient direct-to-consumer models. But challenges exist, Minor said.

“The business of media and entertainment wants to remain centralized, because it wants complete control of its product,” he said. “Being distributed widely and not having control doesn’t resonate with this industry.”

And what may be most holding the implementation of blockchain transactions happening industrywide is nearly every state having its own money transfer regulations, severely hindering the easy adoption of blockchain, Minor said. “It quickly becomes confined and restrained,” he said. “The shame is that most of its potential has been restricted by regulation.”

That’s happened before, and Minor hopes that excessive government regulation does the same to the potential of 5G technology, and the lowered-bandwidth and -latency benefits that brings to video, he said. He pointed to companies like Microsoft and Google creating and distributing console-quality video games without the need for an actual gaming console.

“There will be clever ways to take advantage of [5G],” Minor said, but cautioned against treating the tech the same way the first airwaves were treated. “Television worked because of government standards, and helped Europe with 3G. But having a free-market approach vs. the FCC [today is better].”

Minor also touched on AI and machine learning, and how those terms have become increasingly prevalent in the M&E industry. “Ninety-five percent of stuff calling itself AI actually isn’t,” he said.

M&E Day was sponsored by IBM Security, Microsoft Azure, SHIFT, Akamai, Cartesian, Chesapeake Systems, ContentArmor, Convergent Risks, Deluxe, Digital Nirvana, edgescan, EIDR, PK, Richey May Technology Solutions, STEGA, Synamedia and Signiant and was produced by MESA, in cooperation with NAB Show New York, and in association with the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) and the Hollywood IT Society (HITS).