In the gadget-rich and app-heavy session ‘Smart Viewers, Dumb Screens’, the power of mobile technology to inspire people to create cool stuff was very much in the frame. From wiring up public screens to interact with passersby’s movements, to adding €220 of kit to an iPhone to create a quasi-professional mobile recording and editing tool, there were many examples of how technology advances are allowing creativity to blossom.
“It was only four years ago that the tablet launched and who knew how much they would change the world and change people’s lives,” observed David Wood, futurist and principal at Delta Wisdom. “There will be more and more apps and app-cessories and the broadcast industry has to realise this is happening faster than the industry has been able to move so it needs to get its skates on.”
A Dutch conceptual artist showcased an art festival where all the installations were virtual and could only be seen through a mobile screen equipped with the proper app that included the virtual overlays, while Simon Morice of ICM Reporting showcased his iPhone recording studio by interviewing the panelists and quickly creating an edited story that he uploaded to the web. Screens, including the TV screen, are being “hijacked” for creative uses, by all kinds of apps, said session moderator Ken Blakeslee of WebMobility Ventures.
“I don’t think it is for the broadcasting industry to figure all of this out,” said Tom Weiss, CEO of Genius Digital. “The consumer is figuring it out. I think it is about learning what is successful and how to measure it that we should be focusing because that is what the we should be tailoring the new broadcast services to.”
