Latest Technologies and Trends in Media and Entertainment

Every year technology leapfrogs and excites us with something that we have never seen before. In an era where artificial intelligence, augmented and mixed reality and virtual currencies have started to make inroads into consumer lives, there is little that surprises us anymore. However, technology is far from being done yet. It still finds a way to make us think twice about the revolutionary era we’re living in. 

Some of the biggest revenue generating countries in terms of media and entertainment include the United States with over $600 billion followed by Japan and China whose market size hovers around the figure of $200 billion mark. India is also one of the emerging media markets with Bollywood increasingly making its place in the global market. Here are some of the latest technologies and trends in media and entertainment industry that will leave you awestruck in terms of how far we’ve come.

Living the Movies with Urus Entertainment

When you watch a movie, the background surroundings are the same for everyone regardless of from where they’re watching it. However, a startup named Urus Entertainment is committed to make movies more personalised and relatable by blending in your surroundings in the movie.

All you have to do is capture a panoramic image of your surroundings and the smart software will reconstruct it into three dimensional (3D) imagery that’ll be overlapped onto the movie scenery. The startup’s founder, Kevin Niu believes that this way movies will become more relatable and interactive for the audience, especially the thriller and horror genre.

TaTaTu Revolutionising the Content Creation Business

Founded by a film director Andrea Iervolino, TaTaTu is a cryptocurrency token project running on Ethereum blockchain which aims to pay content creators in TTU coins who share their work on the platform. Platform users who watch sponsored content and ads can also earn TTU tokens.

The project’s blockchain ensures that content creators sharing their work on the platform are fairly compensated through a digital rights management platform. This has helped in developing precise record of content creators, distributors, and studios involved in the project. In the future, TTU tokens will gain the ability to be traded for cash or other cryptocurrencies. They can also be used in the Tatatu’s own e-commerce store.

Smart Speakers to go Mainstream

Much of our communication with the consumer electronics today happens with physical touch. However, with smart speakers becoming more mainstream and 5G technology just around the corner that’s about to change. Although smart speakers have already made some dents with more than 100 million already sold in the US market, the integration of 5G technology will mean that the speakers will be able to talk with other electronics seamlessly making smart speakers a part of our life. 

According to the VC of Advertising & Media Effectiveness at Kantar, Heather O’Shea:

“Newer generations will grow up with audio seamlessly embedded into their lives; they will voice their commands, questions and desires and expect speedy responses from a variety of voice-enabled devices.”

Many of these smart speakers come with virtual assistants who can already take instructions to perform basic tasks like setting alarms, playing requested music, generating reminders, and communicating with other devices. With 5G rolled out, the smart speakers can become a central hub for families.

Internet of Things to Diversify Media

Discrete physical screens have been traditionally used to consume media and entertainment. But with the combination of 5G network, immersive technologies like VR and AR, and internet of things, media consumption is very likely to be revolutionised. There are many game studios like Vertigo and Legame who are now publishing VR games which bring a higher level of immersion and interaction.

With Internet of Things, the conventional media will be replaced with a more invasive and contemporary media which will consume a large part of our life. That being said the new media will include, and to an extent compete with, conventional media i.e. social media will go head to head against content media while the IoT media will compete with content and social media. With a higher number of connected devices, the number of formats and vectors will also increase including smart cars, smart speakers, wearables and more.