By Mark R. Smith, Contributing Writer
Discussing trends in digital media can be, simply said, challenging.
Really, where does one start? With video images via various platforms, be it on a screen in your personal space or via a massive public display? Video games? Digital advertising? And how about artificial intelligence and the large, growing number of influencers?
Given such confluence, the state of the Internet was deemed a good starting point by Ani Matson, co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based CMOSyndicate.com. After all, most humans have been using it for a while, and that trend hasn’t slowed since its mass inception.
Matson begins to tell the tale with data: “Let’s start with world population, which is now more than eight billion people,” she said, “then how many people are really online, where they hang out and how many use smartphones?”
The answers to those questions are endless. Complicating matters is that the tech sector’s bigger players in terms of market capitalization―including Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook), Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding―in effect also influence, and to some degree control, consumer access and business models. Other familiar names (in terms of market capitalization) also holding sway on digital media’s future include Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Nvdia, Tesla, etc.
Allison Dollar, chair of the Los Angeles Venture Association Media Group and CEO of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based ITV Alliance, underscored Matson’s observations. “Technically speaking, all media is digital now,” so the fundamental question is the degree to which content, be it text, still image and/or video, has metadata attached and whether or not consumers can control, engage or otherwise interact with it.
“The most salient and dramatic media trends are largely video-driven and AI is the primary wild card,” Dollar said. “AI is already transforming, or perhaps invading, all media sectors; that’s a big factor in the Writer’s Guild of America and Screen Actor’s Guild strikes.”
“Moreover, today social platforms integration,” she said, “is a given.”
World Market
Within that framework, Matson commented that what’s driving growth in digital media is ecommerce, advertising, the creator economy and AI; Dollar further broke down the trends:
- Ascendance of Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television (or FAST) channels
- Advanced targeted and addressable advertising
- Advertising in narrative, entertaining formats (e.g. BMW Films opened their original programming division back up and debuted with the Barbie movie)
- Location-based entertainment and Out-of-Home experiences concatenating various forms of video, virtual reality, augmented reality, smart screens, mobile and other technologies to offer fun engagement with various levels of immersive activities
- Hyper-local news and sports
Accordingly, more advertising spending “has gone digital with search, social media, video and the creator economy contributing to it,” said Matson. In late summer, linear TV fell below 50 percent viewing share for the first time. “Digital will continue to grow worldwide;” in 2022, it was approximately $567 billion and is estimated to reach $626 billion this year, according to eMarketer.
In this case, however, U.S. companies spent more money on digital advertising than any other last year with $232.7 billion, also according to eMarketer; China was a distant second at $141.8 billion.
Then comes AI, which is making its presence known in no uncertain terms. “Everyone is using it and it’s only going to become more prevalent,” said Matson.
Then, however, comes the caveat that those who think technology is taking over the world need to hear: “Still know, however, that ChatGPT is not foolproof, and humans need to check information and references that AI reveals,” she said, “because they sometimes don’t exist.”
Going forward, Matson said the main skillset is knowing how to write questions, or prompts, when generating content via AI “to obtain better information, then create a draft and ask more good questions. For people in the media business,” she said, “the will be key.”
At a basic level, this is just the next step forward, albeit a big one, in the Information Age. “If you aren’t constantly learning in the marketing world, you will become obsolete. But it’s not hard to move toward the future, either,” Matson said. “We all just have to keep learning.”
AI + VR
While it’s having a massive impact, AI isn’t the only sector of the digital media world that’s a topic of discussion. Take Extended Reality (XR), for instance.
“The buzz in digital media is all about the combination of AI and Virtual Reality. Separately it’s all part of the new video environment of XR,” said Gary Arlen, president of Bethesda, Md.-based Arlen Communications. “That’s important for many reasons. But a big issue concerns convergence between different sectors of the business world.”
The questions are about the Advanced Television Systems Committee standards that have succeeded the U.S.’s analog TV system “and how broadcasters are looking for new ways to use the bandwidth,” said Arlen. “Verizon, T-Mobile, ATT, Comcast, etc., are already providing broadband digital content.”
“People are looking for the best way to deliver it,” he said. “It’s interactive, two-way; like holograms with a sci-fi feel.”
Arlen also said the increased focus on streaming is heightening competition. “Where do the broadcasters fit in?” he queried. “The streams are often free and ad supported but what can companies like Verizon do? Buy a studio and produce their own programming, that’s what.”
They even have help in deciding what content to create. “Plus today, there are numerous fracking and analytics software packages to help advertisers target potential customers,” Arlen said.
On the Big Screens
While Arlen discussed elements of video that occur via personal interaction, Planar, a large Oregon-based visual display company, sells fine pitch products for the masses to behold.
Planar has “launched a groundbreaking 1.2mm fine pitch platform for the outdoor market,” said Robert Detwiler, director of LED products, “with better resolution and up to 3,500-nit brightness and proprietary coating for outdoor ruggedness,” as well as “enhanced high ambient light visual performance.”
Detwiler also pointed to progress in making high-tech products simpler for more people to use and install, thus the ability to build and market them in sections/components. “Designing video walls has always been a specialized skill,” he said. “People want larger displays that are faster and easier to use, but training the less tech-savvy employees to be able to deploy them is a work in progress.”
On that note, he pointed to a product Planar recently launched at Infocomm: its UltraRes L Series, which is available in 136-inch diagonal screen size. It’s designed to be deployed within a day by a tech-savvy installer or team, “which would typically cost several thousand dollars.”
Such advances are resulting in broader market reach. “Sales have been brisk and we want to sell more to less tech-savvy users, which means more installs and easier use for the operators,” said Detwiler. “Once installed, it’s very user-friendly, even similar to operating your home TV.”
Taking the broader view, “There’s no question that the overall market is growing. More stores and facilities are using these signs to share information or to simply offer greater ambiance by running artwork or colors to heighten the mood,” he said. “They’re getting larger and larger, and people are getting used to seeing them to the point that they almost expect to.”
On that note, another new product from Planar is the DirectLight Pro Series, a mid-tier product built around a higher resolution in 27- and 36-inch models “that can be used to build large walls in various configurations while offering high bandwidth and high resolution,” with three types of controllers.
While bigger displays are creeping into the market, they’re still not easily accessible to mom ’n pop businesses. “There’s some crossover,” said Detweiler, “but LED video walls are still a considerable investment” and generally start with the smaller displays at around $40,000.
While the higher resolution and finer pitch trends will continue, “we’re constantly seeing all types of businesses taking this step from corporate offices, transportation locations and museums to storefronts, education facilities and houses of worship,” etc., he said. They’re “anywhere, really, that there is little aside from occasional ordnances preventing LED walls from becoming part of a company’s presentation.”
Games On
The Mesilla Valley region encompasses Las Cruces, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and bi-national Juarez, Mexico. “Collectively, it’s known as The Borderplex so we can market our region and also pull in a larger, more robust work force,” said Carlos Parra, director of marketing for the Las Cruces-based Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance.
What The Borderplex markets is a film credit that can have a large benefit in the digital media space, notably content that emerges via video games.
“On the New Mexico side, we have aggressive film credits that offer a 30 percent tax break on the entire film production for digital media and the video game market,” said Parra. “While film productions can contribute nicely to the bottom line of a given area for about a year, enticing video game producers is a whole different ballgame.”
The reason is simple: the production of one video game “can last from four to 10 years,” said Parra, “so we started looking to attract larger companies, like Sony and Microsoft, with New Mexico State University having a robust engineering major in which the students can learn C++, which is used in game development.”
For example, “Fortnight is one of the biggest video games in history and uses the Unreal engine, which was developed by Epic Games. NMSU students are being trained to use this engine because it’s become very popular,” which equates to “greater opportunities.”
For instance, “When the game’s writer is done, they move on to another studio, as do the concept artist and animator,” said Parra. Therefore, “our goal is to attract independent game developers and create a community. We want our workforce to have options when one project ends so they have somewhere to land.”
In addition, there’s a method to nurturing the part of the community that’s composed of students, young creatives, freelancers and the aforementioned talent in transition.
“Eventually, these contractors and budding companies will morph into large companies like Bungie, which started with the fledgling staff working off a Mac.” he said. “It grew from 50 employees to an international company with 3,000 employees in 20 years. Then Sony bought it for $3.5 billion.”
So if Parra and company can cultivate and boost the smaller teams with its Borderplex incentives, “They’re on,” he said.
The most recent news is that the state broke ground on the Creative Campus at NMSU’s Arrowhead Center, which will house the Las Cruces satellite campus of the New Mexico Media Academy alongside new film and media educational facilities―including classrooms designed for graphic and web design, game design, virtual reality, animation, cinematography, etc.―for NMSU and Doña Ana Community College.
‘Amazing Moment’
While what’s happening in New Mexico is another strong example of forward movement in the industry, there are sectors of the industry that are on a tighter watch. Rene Amador, CEO of Los Angeles-based ARwall, discussed the market for LED XR virtual production.
“The middle range of that market is beginning to see trouble, polarizing most production spends at the less than $15,000 per day and more than $45,000 per day ranges.” Amador said. “We would advise most people getting started to approach a stage build and project strategy that is going to fit into either one of these extremes.”
Back to the topic of AI, he discussed AI-generated backdrops becoming a norm and how ARwall “sometimes designs in 2-D generative AI tools and uses an automated AI process to extrude the 2-D imagery into 3-D spaces with parallax,” including a commercial for a Sony PSVR2 video game, Crossfire Sierra Squad, “which was the culmination of many of the peripherals integrations we’ve been working on for years and were made possible by our ARFX Pro Plugin for UE5.”
Currently, Amador said the major challenge “is reacting to all the major technical and business changes occurring in the industry, with a new massive technical achievement hitting us about every 18 months.”
“We highly recommend if you’re a filmmaker, production company or brand looking to get started in XR VP that you work with a proven partner in the space,” he said, “that can ensure you’re taking advantage of the most modern software and workflows.”
But despite the challenges, he considers today “an amazing moment in the film industry, because of the efforts of labor to retake control of the workplace from the studios.”
“XR filmmaking provides filmmakers an alternative system, using virtual backlots and sets, instead of a studio’s physical backlots and workshops of set creators,” Amador said.
“It will be very interesting to see,” he said, “whether creators at home will adopt and thrive with virtual production as a proper alternative to traditional filmmaking.”
Bio: Odenton, Maryland-based Mark R. Smith joined Expansion Solutions after having written about site selection among the vast number of topics he has covered in the business universe. That part of his career began in 1993 when he joined The Daily Record, a Baltimore business and legal publication, where he delved into the worlds of economic development and commercial real estate, among numerous other industries; in 2003, he was named editor-in-chief of The Business Monthly, another Maryland publication that covers the scene in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor counties.
Concurrently, he’s written at length about the film and video industry for a variety of publications, and about his other loves, including music, sports and leisure.