Facial Recognition
In a rare show of bipartisan unity this past Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee expressed concerns over the rapid spread of facial recognition software used by technology companies. This should make you stop and think very long and hard about what your elected leaders do not understand about the world we live in. Continue Reading →
Samsung Q8FN
Courtesy of Black Friday/Cyber Monday pricing, I am the proud owner of a brand new, top-of-the-line 82” Samsung 4K TV set. It is huge, awesome, and amazing. The picture quality is breathtaking. You just run out of superlatives when trying to describe the viewing experience. There’s only one problem. The best 4K content is only available over-the-top (OTT). Regular TV viewers (cable TV customers and antenna users) are simply out of luck. Continue Reading →

The Cloud Network Era

OTT Networks
For the first ten years of the consumer web — circa 1994 to 2004 — internet video quality was laughable. Those of us who predicted that the Net would disrupt television were laughed at. How could a video the size of a postage stamp compete with ESPN? We queued up tiny videos to buffer on Continue Reading →
Girl Watching TV
The entire digital ecosystem attends the NAB Show 2017 (April 24-27 in Las Vegas), including Broadcast, Digital Media, Film, Entertainment, Telecom, Post-Production, Academia, Mobile, Houses of Worship, Advertising, Military, Government, Retail, Security, Sports, Live Events, Online Video, IT, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and so many more. Seth Shapiro, Senior Advisor, The Palmer Group, offers his Continue Reading →

CES 2016: What to Expect

The newly named CTA™ (Consumer Technology Association, formerly the Consumer Electronics Association or CEA) will hold the newly named CES® 2016 show (Consumer Electronics Show, formerly International CES) this week. Here's what to expect. Continue Reading →
The pace of technological change is exponential and accelerating, and the results are hiding in plain sight. I call it “inconspicuous innovation” and it’s the top trend of 2016.  Let’s have a look at some other macro trends that will be on display at CES. Continue Reading →
TiVo Bolt
Perhaps a better title for this article would be "TiVo BOLT – For People Who Love to Be Informed, Enlightened and Entertained by Watching Free Over-the-Air Television or IP-Delivered Traditional Television Content Through a Set-Top Box Rented from a Cable, Satellite or Telco, but Hate the Commercial Advertisements that Subsidize the Content." No matter how you spin this, the TiVo BOLT is a referendum on the state of the commercial television business. After all, you don't really hate TV; you really hate TV commercials. You probably also hate the experience of trying to get all of your content to play on your big-screen TV. This is all about to change. Continue Reading →