CCNC 2004 Conference Panels

Bio:

Richard Doherty graduated from Caltech with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and shortly thereafter co-founded the startup Silerity, with the mission to deliver datapath synthesis tools to the design automation market. After successfully delivering the PathBlazer product, Silerity was purchased by Synopsys, and Richard left to pursue his creative side for a time. Richard earned an MFA in Film Production from the USC film school, and went on to win a dozen festival directing awards for his thesis film, My Chorus. Richard joined the startup CineForm, where he served as Principal Architect for the real-time HD video editing platform, Aspect HD. Richard now serves as Director of Professional A/V at Panasonic Hollywood Labs, where he is focusing on new products for the professional market.

Panel Summary:

The delivery of high-definition video content to consumers has been gearing up for a number of years, and some very high-profile HiDef optical disc formats are nearing their market debut. Ten years ago, the idea of distributing a movie on a single self-contained disc seemed like a pretty good idea, and a decade of enormous profit has flowed from the DVD format. But in the living room of the future, where content may reside in any number of forms on a variety of media, and an array of delivery methods may exist and interoperate, is there still a place for the shrink-wrapped disc? Given the convenience, capacity and superior quality of optical discs combined with the vast preexisting sales infrastructure of DVD that includes pressing, designing, packaging, and shipping, the optical disc will likely be an efficient format for delivery of content to the consumer. But when it gets to the consumer, what happens? How does he use this prerecorded content in his newly networked entertainment environment? What new benefits will the networked home offer for both content creators and content consumers? How much content is included on the disc, and how much is withheld for later download? How much of the content will be modified through network connectivity after the discs are already in the hands of the consumer? Finally, is there any way to protect this content that satisfies both studios and consumers? This panel brings together the representatives of the latest optical disc technologies along with the Hollywood visionaries and studio technologists to discuss the future of content delivery.