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MoTV: Getting Bigger all the Time

The signs are all around us. Just check in with any of the cell phone kiosks in your nearest shopping mall. Ask about what they have in the way of phones for mobile video.

(click thumbnail)Joe Zaller, vice president of strategic marketing for Snell & WilcoxThe signs are all around us. Just check in with any of the cell phone kiosks in your nearest shopping mall. Ask about what they have in the way of phones for mobile video.

Have a look at the business news. There’s more and more mention of MediaFLO, DVB-H, H.264 and MPEG-4.

Yes, there are scoffers saying “it’s just a fad; won’t last — it’s too expensive and the picture is too small.” Of course, that’s just what they were saying 60 years ago when television sets first began to appear in appliance store windows.

The best advice is to get ready for it—Mobile TV is coming and what better way to get ready than with the April 17, all-day MoTV session at NAB2007.

Last year’s NAB mobile TV seminar was an early sellout, becoming a standing-room-only event long before the doors opened. This year’s event promises to be even better, with no less than 11 sessions scheduled, dealing with every aspect of mobile video — from creating content for postage stamp-sized screens to battling of the transmission standards.

The event, MoTV: Mobile Video & TV Forum, gets underway with an introduction by co-sponsor iHollywood Forum’s CEO Michael Stroud, at 9:00 a.m.

Immediately afterwards, Joe Zaller, vice president of strategic marketing for Snell & Wilcox and Bob Zitter, senior vice president of technology at HBO take the reins and present “Mobile Video: Opportunities and Obstacles.” This session deals with methodologies that can be used to get the public on board with the small screen. The technology has been built; it’s now just a matter of getting them to come!
Zaller says that even though the mobile TV business is still in its early stages, he sees it becoming big business.

“There is significant potential for us and for companies like us with mobile television and we think that it will not only significantly expand the size of our business, but also bring a new dynamic to the entire industry,” said Zaller. “The concept of mobile TV should not just be video delivered to a phone, but also about giving consumers a choice of content on the device they want to view it on and when they want it—cell phone, Web or iPod.”

A keynote address by Paul Jacobs, CEO at Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, follows at 10 a.m.

DUELING DELIVERY

At 10:30 a.m., there’s “Mobile TV: The Battle is Joined,” which takes a hard look at competing delivery systems for getting images to the small screen. Omar Javaid, vice president of business development at Qualcomm MediaFLO and Sam Matheny, GM at News Over Wireless, will be discussing the finer points of the delivery methodologies available.

There’s a scheduled break in activities at 11:20 a.m., with an opportunity for networking, as well as a featured showcase of mobile television products.

Sessions resume at 11:45 with “Video That Cells,” with a look at the kind of cell phone video content that attracts dollars. Speakers include Bob Shallow, VP/GM of the mobile entertainment group at TV Guide Inc.; Maureen Fitzpatrick, VP or mobile development at Atomic Wedgie; Michael Arrieta, SVP of Sony Pictures digital sales and marketing at Sony Digital Entertainment; and Dennis Quinn, executive VP of business development at TBS.

At 12:30 Joe Zaller returns to the dais with a case study from Snell &Wilcox, followed at 1 p.m. with a Nokia representative with another case study.

CONCURRENT SESSIONS

The afternoon promises more valuable sessions for MoTV players, leading off with a case study from Envivio at 2:30 p.m. Following this, the day’s activities get into high gear with two sessions running concurrently from 3:10 to 4:00 p.m. One of these is a discussion of “VOD vs. Real Time: Two Mobile Paradigms,” which is moderated by Julie Ask, research director and senior analyst at Jupiter Kegan. The other session is entitled, “This Video Brought to You By….”

Another round of concurrent sessions start at 4:10 p.m. with Alain Blancquart, CEO at Streamezzo, who is joined by Alain Fernando-Santana, chief marketing officer for Envivio Inc and Louis Gump, VP of mobile at Weather Channel Interactive to present the lowdown on creating content for the small screen.

Along side this session is “User Content and Video Messaging: Building a Mobile Community.” A reception, scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. puts a wrap up the day’s events.

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