Celebrating the first anniversary of Kinect's launch, Microsoft has announced that its commercial Kinect for Windows program will officially launch "early next year." While the official software development kit has been in beta since June and hackers have been playing with Kinect since it launched, this'll bring the big shiny official push for Kinect on Windows.

Though Microsoft focuses on the non-gaming applications for Kinect on Windows in today's announcement, it'll surely bring new and exciting opportunities to wave your arms at video games on your PC too.

Microsoft says that its commercial pilot program for Kinect on Windows has drawn interest from fields including healthcare, education, and art, receiving over 200 applications.

"We saw Kinect being used by therapists and physicians as part of a rehabilitation program for stroke victims, as a skill-building technique for children with autism, and as an application for hospitals in Spain enabling surgeons to scroll through medical images in the operating room with gestures so they could avoid the need to rescrub," Microsoft explains in a blog post using the appalling term "Kinect Effect."

A few of those non-video game uses are shown off in a video Microsoft has whipped together:

Google will update its Google TV during the next few weeks, beginning with the Sony Google TV sets. Logitech devices will be updated to Google TV 2.0 soon therafter.
Google has focused on four areas of user feedback. First: keep it simple. The interface is now much simpler. The new customisable home screen gets viewers to their favourite content quickly. And within “all apps” people can see all of their shortcuts, similar to an Android phone or tablet.
Second: make it easy to find something worth watching. Google said they have improved search across the board for content from live TV, Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, and more.
But what if a viewer doesn’t know what to search for? There’s now an app called “TV & Movies” that let’s the viewer easily browse through 80,000 movies and TV episodes across cable or satellite, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and many other sites.
Third: make YouTube better on TV. Google is launching a new YouTube experience specifically built for Google TV. It is now fast and easy to get to HD-quality YouTube entertainment. YouTube is now also more closely integrated with Google TV search, so that people can turn virtually any topic – mountain biking, cooking, etc. – into a channel.
And finally: bring more apps to TV. Google is opening up the TV to the creativity of content creators large and small through Android Market. Android developers can now bring existing mobile apps or entirely new ones to TV.
Initially, the number of apps won’t be large – apps requiring a touch screen, GPS, or telephony won’t show up – but 50 developers have seeded the Market with cool and useful apps for the TV. We’re excited to see the number of apps grow.
The news was posted on the official Google TV blog by Mario Queiroz, VP product management, and Vincent Dureau, director of engineering: “We look forward in the coming months to announcing new software updates as well as new devices on new chipsets from multiple hardware partners.”

Western Digital TV Content Streamer Outstrips Smart TV Sales

By David Richards | Thursday | 20/10/2011

Leading storage Company Western Digital claims to have sold close to one million of their WD TV Live streaming media players during the past 12 months in Australia, this is significantly more than the combined sales of Smart TV’s from both Samsung LG and Sony.

Now the storage Company is looking for content deals with the Company open to discussions with Telstra and Blockbuster with a view to delivering both movies and TV shows via their TV device.

Speaking at the launch of a new Wi Fi version of their TV player yesterday the Company said that the $149 device was proving extremely popular in Australia and that for only $100 extra users can attach a 1TB drive that allows content to be accessed over a network as well as via a tablet.

Damien Hodge the Business Development Manager for WD said that the Company was now focusing on delivering additional content and download services on the new WD media streamer that comes with access to a variety of Web services, such as YouTube, Flickr and Facebook. 

Hodges admitted that the Company had been slack in not chasing down content despite a promise 12 months ago at the launch of the original WD TV device that local content would be a priority for the US Company.

When questioned about the volume of sales and whether GFK tracked the device as a media player or storage devices Hodges said "GFK do not track these devices. Their reports are garbage. They don't track JB Hi Fi or Officeworks and this is where we sell a lot of these product" he said.

He added "We are now looking at content seriously and we are open to talking to Telstra about their new Unified Application that delivers access to movies and TV content. We are also open to discussions with Blockbuster. We are currently talking to TV Companies about access to TV programmes" he said. 

Featuring a brand new interface the new streamer delivers support for 7.1 Dolby True HD sound tracks as well as games such as Chess and Black Jack Royale. 

The new HD Wireless TV device is sleeker than the original device; it also comes with Wi-Fi integrated directly into the box. 

US Smart TV users have access to  Netflix, Facebook, YouTube, and Hulu Plus as standard, with the new WD TV the Company is now offering users access to applications such as Spotify, Pandora, Blockbuster On Demand, and TuneIn Radio.  

In Australia none of these services are available with the exception of Facebook and You Tube.

 

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When we first started to see TVs offer a connection to the Internet, we knew that they had something other than Twitter updates planned for us. Okay, so we know that being able to tweet what we thought of a show or sporting event is a big deal for some, but the apps that are of more importance to most consumers are those that feature gaming.

The first TV maker to fully realize this is Samsung, so we were not surprised when they brought out their Samsung Smart TV range, which supported a whole host of new apps, all of which are available from their dedicated store. The power of social gaming was never taken that seriously, but it’s hard to ignore how popular Facebook and Zynga have been with these games.

Now Samsung did have one or two games available at launch, but it takes time to build relationships and for developers to realize the potential, as this was a new market to do what has become so popular for the computer and tablet and to bring it in front of our sofas.

Thankfully, PlayJam was able to see this potential and a few months ago made hundreds of games available to those with a Samsung Smart TV. Now we are not trying to kid ourselves here, they are never going to compete with the PS3 or Xbox 360 in terms of graphics. But where it will compete is price and the fun factor. Okay, so there are hundreds of games on consoles that offer the same, but you have to pay for that privilege.

The gaming apps available are still basic in graphical terms and also how you can interact with them socially. However, what Samsung and their partnered developers have taught us is that there is so much more to come.

For those who are not convinced, then think back to the beginning of 2010, when experts in the computer market dismissed a device that has now become a market leader – that would be the iPad. The potential of social gaming on your TV is massive, and we are glad that the biggest TV maker in the world (Samsung) is behind it. To keep fully up-to-date with what Samsung has planned with their Smart TV apps, then visit their Facebook page.

Using apps to tell stories

Shaftesbury Films chairman and CEO Christina Jennings tells David Jenkinson how the launch of a narrative app this fall is defining a new direction for the business.

Christina Jennings (left) is one of the more considered people in the TV business. When you ask her a question, she doesn't rush to answer. But when the answer comes, it's worth noting.

Her creativity and consistency were recognised this year when she received the Achievement Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, not least for drama series like The Listener and Murdoch Mysteries.

Since 1987, Jennings has overseen Canadian prodco Shaftesbury Films' growth, and seen many changes down the years, but perhaps none so diverse as those that currently present themselves. "How we all approach the business is completely changing," she says. "We saw it coming but now it's definitely here.

"It's no longer the case that we pitch shows to broadcasters, who do the heavy lifting – commissioning them, scheduling them, marketing them – we are the ones who are now responsible for creating content brands, and perhaps then talking to a broadcaster afterwards.

"It was a real shift for me this year when I realised that we could no longer just walk into a broadcaster and say, 'Buy my show.' You have to walk in now with a strategy that says, 'Here's what I can do to help create a new brand.' Or else you go out there and buy famous books to adapt, and it can't all be about that."

For Jennings, using digital media to support her existing content brands and germinating new ones is imperative. The company already works to bridge TV seasons with digital initiatives (such as a Twitter series featuring video from behind the scenes and in the writers' room between seasons three and four of drama The Listener), but Shaftesbury is now leading with the digital piece.

"We have recognised that, fundamentally, our industry was based on the broadcaster as gatekeeper, and they are now pressured. So we have to help them," she says. "Those days of fully financing shows are just going away. We help by bringing ideas about ways to finance and pre-launch new content brands, build new back-end models and redefine the next generation of production."

If the company doesn't stay on top of all the components in the digital content piece, Jennings believes her broadcast clients will default to easier choices, picking up established franchises and not taking the risks she needs them to in order to move her business forward. "Everyone is looking for books or catalogues. You just have to say 'Camelot,' for instance, and it conjures up a whole set of images. Established brands are the easy option, which means establishing a brand is the hard thing."

That work is spawning new creativity and taking Shaftesbury into new areas. Most notably at Mipcom earlier this month, the company unveiled its first narrative-driven app, creating what Jennings believes will be a "wholly new strand" for developing video content. "We're launching 10 seven-minute 'appisodes' in a brand new franchise called Totally Amp'd," she says. "This does not exist in the space right now. It's a combination of narrative storytelling and gaming, and will be pushed out through iTunes."

The project is aimed at the tween girl market and features original music that the company hopes may also help it to break out. Shaftesbury flew 10 social media influencers over to the set on the final day of filming and will launch it with as much hullabaloo as possible mid-December.

"There is really nothing in the app world for this demo beyond nail painting, and teenage girls are over that," says Jennings. "Girls like stories, and in each of these appisodes, which will publish once a week on iTunes in Canada, there will be a cliffhanger ending and a call to action. Rolling the project out internationally will take a number of different forms. We will be having conversations with broadcasters who may need original content for their websites, and we'll also be talking to online platforms. If the series makes enough noise we'll then consider taking it to broadcast. It's completely reversing the order in which we think about the creative and commercial process."

Shaftesbury is fortunate in the fact that Canada is investing in digital content creation through its creative funding schemes (which are paying for Totally Amp'd), but Jennings believes the model sets the agenda for a lot more development in future. "Anything that is narrative-driven is about falling in love with the characters," she says. "So if we can get an audience to do this through apps, there are a million ways to create partnerships around it and distribute it.

"Our strategy is to come to this market with a groundbreaking new way to develop programming. The bulk of our business remains selling television, but if we can get this off the ground - and use the experience to create a new way of working - then we're getting the message across that we are a creative company to be in business with."

David Jenkinson
26 Oct 2011
© C21 Media 2011

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Spike TV has tapped social TV app-maker Loyalize to power a live feedback loop for the Wednesday finale of Deadliest Warrior (airs 9:00 EST). The show will allow contestants to answer polls in real time, the results of which will appear instantly on screen, and an animated graphic will update to affect voting dynamically throughout the show. The audience’s interactions with the show’s hosts will alter the show’s outcome. “We’re closing a loop between the show and the audience in real time,” said Jon Slusser, SVP of Spike Digital Entertainment. In some ways, the inmates will be running the asylum.

Deadliest Warrior is one of Spike TV’s most popular shows,

About the Author

Erin Griffith is a staff writer for Adweek. Follow Erin Griffith at @griffitherin.

@griffitherin

The Union Hall house ipod broke, which means everyone here is about to learn just how lowbrow my taste in music goes. #liltroy #warrenzevon

@DeadliestWarior

Tonight's matchups: Yakuza vs. Mafia at 9pm EST. And don't miss the new episode at 10pm EST, Green Beret vs. Spetznas.

with around one million viewers each week. The show features a battle between two historical or modern warriors, with the hosts analyzing their weapons. About 800,000 of its loyal viewers are fans on Facebook, and there’s a video game and rumors of a movie. “It’s a true franchise,” said Slusser.

For its third season finale, Deadliest Warrior’s hosts will pose questions to the audience about different aspects of the fight. Rather than a “text your answer once and we’ll show the results after a commercial” type of poll, viewers can answer polls on a Loyalize-powered white label app or Web browser, optimized for mobile and tablet viewing. The results appear on-screen in real time; the hosts of the live show will react to the answers and mold their conversation around them. “We’re not just using social to promote the show, but bringing it in to the development of the show from the start,” Slusser said. Spike TV chose Loyalize to power its platform because of its instant results, he said. Other competitors’ products had a lag time before results could be displayed.

The fact that the show is live perhaps affects rewatchability, but Loyalize CEO Todd Greene said even those who don’t participate in the voting will benefit from the polling because they’ll be able to witness reactions that correlate directly to what’s happening on-screen. “It’s a video game approach that’s almost like watching a race,” he said.

It’s Loyalize’s first live event-focused project of this nature. Alongside the company’s official launch in April, it announced the Loyalize platform would host Motorola’s SocialTV Companion Service, a second screen TV-focused app. The company has raised $6 million in funding from its founders and angel investors, including Shahar Smirin, former CEO of Comverse Inc.

 

Rick Liebling is director of digital strategy at Coyne PR where he helps clients utilize social media channels to engage relevant audiences. You can follow him on Twitter @Rick_Now and read his blog at here.

As social media matures, new opportunities are arising for content producers. Social TV, for instance, has exploded in 2011. While terms like “cross-media” and “transmedia” have only started to become part of the media lexicon, technology advances are creating new opportunities for content creators and audiences to engage with one another – an experience I call “intermedia.”

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The Growth of Social TV and the Dawn of Intermedia

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Increasingly, social TV has viewers using platforms like Twitter to comment on and discuss their favorite shows. HBO’s True Blood, Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club and Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, or landmark events such as presidential debates generate thousands of comments, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands. As social TV gains momentum, savvy networks like Bravo, MTV and The CW are poised to take advantage by engaging their audiences in new and compelling ways.

Then intermedia was born, the offspring of social TV and transmedia. Social TV provides a space for audience members to discuss a show, while transmedia encourages content producers to create stories that move across platforms. Therefore, intermedia means that audience members and content producers engage each other between media channels, often with content from one platform affecting content from the other.

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Why You Need an Intermedia Strategy

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While content producers are currently leading the way, brands will surely follow along the intermedia path, hungry for new, relevant ways to reach consumers. In the months to come, companies and their agencies will be looking to build intermedia strategies.

Overall, intermedia leverages several trends:

• Viewers are looking for more meaningful interaction with the shows they watch.
• Stars/celebrities are taking an active role in social media.
• Content producers are trying to engage viewers in new ways.
• A burgeoning group of social platforms are catering to various entertainment interests.

Read on to discover the components of an intermedia strategy plan.

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1. What Does Success Look Like?

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Before you embark, have a measurement of success for your program. Think about how you’ll measure the growth of the online community as well as show viewership. Look at quantitative metrics such as followers or retweets, but also observe more qualitative engagement like conversation sentiment. You may also be looking at other factors such as an increase in traffic to online or offline retail outlets for ancillary products such as merchandise or DVDs. Use intermedia as a tool to see what elements of a program are resonating most with the audience.

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2. What Are Your Assets?

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Do you have access to talent? Will that talent engage viewers as themselves or as their characters? What online owned media channels can you leverage? Does the show already have a Twitter account? Finally, archival footage, brand partners and physical venues can also become weapons in your intermedia arsenal.

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3. What Sort of Intermedia Content Will You Develop?

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While certain properties have an existing base of passionate fans (think Mad Men), new shows (like 2 Broke Girls) attempt to establish a strong initial relationship with their audiences. Understanding your audience will help determine the type of content you can create, whether by providing character back story or offering exclusive access to table readings from the actors. Ultimately you’ll be asking yourself: Am I trying to build deeper ties with those who already know my content, or am I trying to introduce myself to new, potential fans?

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4. What Platforms Should You Use?

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While Twitter is the obvious choice for intermedia engagement, it’s certainly not the only one. Sarah Hill, interactive anchor/reporter for KOMU-TV in Missouri uses live Google+ Hangouts during her broadcast. Turntable.fm, Skype and YouTube can all be leveraged similarly.

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5. When Will This Happen?

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Intermedia can be planned for a variety of experiences and settings, including music venues, sports stadiums and fashion shows. Producers can also use intermedia to reinvigorate classic programming; for instance, G4 aired Star Trek 2.0 in 2006.

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Recent Examples

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Companies like Social Guide and TV Dinner are making social TV engagement easier by developing mobile apps and engagement platforms respectively. Others such as Bluefin Labs show the value of social TV interaction through rigorous measurement.

For their season finale, Spike TV’s Deadliest Warrior integrated live segments of the show’s hosts, who answered tweeted questions and commented on real-time poll results taken from the show’s website. This dynamic approach helped land the show a Top 10 “Social TV” spot on SocialGuide.com for the night, edging out CBS social TV juggernaut Survivor.

ESPN is taking a more ambitious intermedia strategy with its NFL32 programming. The show airs Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2, during which ESPN football analysts and insiders take questions from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. An #NFL32 hashtag keeps the conversation flowing alongside the @NFL32 account.

As you can see, creating an intermedia program requires more aggressive tactics than a simple hashtag or a few Facebook video posts. Planning and maximizing assets using an intermedia strategy can drive real results.

Turning the TV Set into a Touch Screen - with junaio

Munich, Germany and San Francisco, California, January 26, 2011 - Yesterday was a historic day for television. For the first time ever, viewers could actively participate in a live television show and react to things shown on the TV screen by simply using a smartphone and the Augmented Reality browser junaio. The occasion was a live quiz of the popular German science show ProSieben "Galileo" and it was just like having a TV set with a touch screen. Pointing the phone's camera at the displayed choice of answers and clicking on one of the options was all that was needed to get instant feedback on whether the viewer's choice was right and how well he was doing compared to others. This interesting breakthrough technology could open up many new opportunities for news networks and popular shows like "American Idol".

The idea of interactive television with viewers being able to cast their vote in real time, to transmit their opinion or to participate in a quiz show has been around for decades. To date though, popular entertainment shows were only able to offer a very limited form of viewer participation by having viewers send text messages or using batteries of call centers. Now, for the first time everybody was able to actively participate in a bi-directional communication, provided he had a smartphone available, and junaio, which can be downloaded for free at the Apple iPhone App Store or the Android Marketplace.

Different from any normal feedback app, the AR image recognition assures that only those actually seeing the show can participate. It is not hard to imagine the different opportunities this technology opens up. The trick during the "Galileo" quiz was to point the smartphone camera directly at the choice of alternative responses displayed on the TV screen. junaio uses a technology called digital image recognition. The scanned screen image triggers communication with the station's server via Internet and thus establishes a bi-directional transmission of information. With just a click on the touch screen of the smartphone the viewer's response is transmitted. Results are displayed instantly, both at the station's end and on the smartphone. The viewer then sees immediately whether his answer was right or wrong, which percentage of viewers answered correctly and how many questions he has gotten right himself so far.

The public showed great interest in this technology. The number of junaio downloads was staggering, and for ProSieben "Galileo", who advertised the show well in advance, it was a huge success. "Galileo" was number one in German twitter trends and ratings shot up to 14% in market share among 14 to 49 year old viewers. ProSieben is committed to continue integrating such Augmented Reality services in future shows. Yesterday's experiment can be considered a first important step towards truly interactive television, offering a simple and elegant solution to instant user feedback and messaging without requiring any special and complicated equipment.

"Viewer polling is one thing", says Peter Meier, CTO of metaio, the developers of junaio. "Another idea could be to offer films or documentaries based on the audience's spontaneous choice. Or to make additional information available, such as a chef's recipe, and transmit it at a viewer's request directly onto his smartphone. News networks can take an instant temperature check of viewer attitudes. Someone on Twitter already suggested using this for the popular show 'American Idol'. Breakthrough technologies such as junaio will provide the media industry with entirely new possibilities of user interaction."

American consumers are increasingly connected and our recent survey shows they are increasingly multitasking when it comes to multimedia.

Roughly 40 percent of tablet and smartphone owners in the U.S. used their devices daily while watching TV, while only 14 percent of eReader owners said they watched TV while using their device every day.

And what are smartphone and tablet owners doing while watching TV? Checking email. Email was the top activity for both men and women during television programming and commercial breaks. In addition, women reported engaging in social networking more than men, while men checked sports scores more often.Advertisers should take note that while viewers may be splitting attention between two (or three!) screens, 19 percent of smartphone and tablet owners searched for product information and 13 percent searched for coupons or deals while the television was on.