Streaming Media - June/July 2008 - (Page 30) a whole new lexicon Interactivity as the Foundation With all the emphasis on computers in the CSI shows— creator and executive producer Anthony Zuiker makes regular visits to Microsoft and in turn gets to show off gadgets long before they come to the consumer market—it might seem like a natural for one of its biggest stars to take an interest in technology. But it’s not the technology itself that interests Caruso; it’s the desire to reach more people, which of course hopefully translates into more revenue. Caruso said he was doing some promotional work in Japan and realized that people there were watching season 3, while the show was gearing up for its 7th season in the U.S. People in Pakistan might be watching season 2, while people in Australia might be watching season 4, he said, so why not look at ways to bridge the gaps among those different markets? “If we could organize the world of content and shrink it, imagine the monetization on all the different variations of content that we could pursue,” he says. He began to think of ways to break up individual pieces of the CSI franchise, all the way down to the level of individual shots, and to give viewers across the globe access to that material to not just watch but interact with. “If viewers were able to do that, would they not then be more likely to show up on a Monday evening in a way that they wouldn’t now be interested in?” Caruso says. And, from a monetization standpoint, he sees value in each of those individual elements. “A signature Horatio Caine shot has a different monetary value than a more pedestrian shot, a more mundane shot.” Caruso acknowledges that viewers are already creating mashups and radical re-edits of TV shows and movies, but he sees value in established entertainment brands providing viewers with many more options than they have now in exchange for a subscription fee. Caruso and Lahr say that CBS, and particularly CEO Les Moonves, has been supportive of the move toward interactivity but that changes aren’t going to happen overnight. “It’s one thing to say ‘interactivity is important,’ but they’re still making millions off of the old format,” Caruso says. “So we have to take things very slowly before they’re going to change anything. We’re not scaring everyone by saying we’re going to have the Google Earth version of the show next Monday night.” Caruso in Japan on a promotional tour for CSI: Miami Hollywood meets Silicon Valley: the Lexicon team on a shoot for a music video promoting the company. “The coming generation isn’t interested in traditional entertainment,” Caruso says. “I’ve been pretty clear about that and shared my thoughts with CSI creators and CBS that in order to begin the preparation for the coming generation, interactivity has to be the basis and the foundation.” Examples of what he has in mind include adding live webcasts of rehearsals and scene shootings (with that footage later available on demand for viewers to mash up as they desire), allowing the audience to cast guest stars, and—most radically—giving viewers access to the entirety of CSI, broken up into individual shots, soundtrack elements, and images, and allowing users to create what is essentially their own version of the show. For instance, one might create an entire season of 24 shot only from the point of view of Kiefer Sutherland’s character, and with an emphasis on action rather than exposition. 30 STREAMING MEDIA June/July 2008 Caruso met Nein via a mutual acquaintance, and the two started talking about the future. “Within 15 minutes I couldn’t see him as a television star,” Nein says. “I could only see him as an entrepeneur. I asked him how much control he wanted, and he said was interested in controlling a company and talked about patents and trademarks. I said he had to have a top engineer as a CTO, and that’s what brought us to Nils.” Breaking the Rules So what, exactly, is Lexicon Digital’s value proposition? If you look at the company description on its website (www.lexicondigital.tv), you’re not likely to come away with any clear answer, as it’s a litany of technologies and media, from IPTV to mobile media to teleconferencing, from object-oriented streaming media to “real-time postproduction, layering, redirection, and editing.” http://www.lexicondigital.tv
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