Redford has a long history in media improvement and disruption. He was there in the beginning with the development of the mouse, the laser printer, GUI and the Ethernet while working for PARC right out of graduate school. “The public would not see these technologies for several more years. The PARC experience changed my life — it reinforced in me the notion that ANYTHING is possible. It also got me hooked on electronic media.”
From there,
Redford got his hands into micro-processing, sound cards, flash and developing the
first steps towards touch technology. Eventually he started his own company
ILOOK which is focused on changing the face of traditional cable television.
I sat down with Peter
and asked him the following questions:
CW: What is your background - how did you get to where you are today?
PR: I graduated
from UC Berkeley in 1977 with a master’s degree in integrated circuit (chip)
design, which was the hottest field at the time (like Big Data is today). Then
I was hired out of school by Xerox PARC to be on their research staff to
develop a methodology for the design of VLSI (very large scale integration)
chips. We also worked on the graphical user interface (GUI), the Ethernet, the
mouse, the laser printer and electronic media.
Eventually I
was recruited by Zilog to help them design the Z80 microprocessor. It turned
out to be the most popular microprocessor ever designed. Zilog was acquired by
EXXON and I received a small windfall from my stock options. Shortly after
that, with this small windfall and a Zilog engineer named Jim Miller, I started
my first company, Redford-Miller Productions (RMP). Inspired by Star Wars, our
mission was to develop advanced electronic media technology and to use it to
produce science fiction movies. The first advanced technology was going to be a
16-bit digital mixer, modeled after a room-sized digital mixer that Jim used
while studying at Stanford. We finished our version in 1982 and it fit into two
ganged IBM PCs. In late 1982, Yamaha purchased our digital mixer technology and
integrated it into a chip-set that became known as the Sound Blaster
sound card. We never did produce a movie.
I took this
second small windfall and in January of 1983 started my second company,
Trillian Computer. My mission was to develop the first ever animation engine
that would run on the IBM PC. We called it Action. By 1984, Action was used by virtually all PC
software companies to create product demos and tutorials. In 1986 the
technology was acquired by Macromedia and, when Adobe acquired Macromedia,
became known as Flash.
I took this
third small windfall and in January 1990 started a company called TV
Interactive (TVI). My mission was to create a technology that merged the
personal computer with the television set and was useable even by small
children. By 1993 we had a “touch-&-view” technology called AirPlay. When a child touched a
picture of a horse on a printed page (2nd screen), the page signaled a computer
(1st screen) which played a short video about horses. The video was stored on a
CD. We quickly realized, however, that an adult was needed to start the CD
because the process required many keystrokes and mouse clicks (and the reading
of an entire page of instructions). So, we developed another technology which
we called AutoPlay. Now the
child simply inserted the CD into the drive and the correct program started
automatically. After we filed fourteen patents for both technologies we showed
them to Microsoft, hoping that they would include AutoPlay in the forthcoming
Windows 95. Just a few months after our meeting, Microsoft did include AutoPlay
in Windows 95 — without a license from TVI. When all the AutoPlay patents
were granted in 2004, I sued Microsoft (along with all PC, DVD and Blu-ray
player manufacturers) for infringement — and won!
In 2009 I
took this not-so-small windfall and started a company called ILOOK. My mission
was to develop a television platform that would be a successor to traditional
cable.
CW: Tell me about your company and your role in it.
PR: I am the CEO of ILOOK Corporation, located in San Jose, CA. ILOOK is a cloud-powered OTT television platform, modeled after traditional cable, that instantly converts YouTube channels into branded mobile "channel apps" enabling: “Amazon of TV networks” and “GoogleAds of TV commercials”; video plays on mobile or connected TV; zero-cost broadcasting; e-commerce enabled commercials; and a user-customizable, “touch & view” program guide on the user’s mobile device.
“Amazon of
TV networks” implies an infinite “shelf space” for TV networks — so,
anyone can create and operate a TV network on ILOOK. “GoogleAds of
TV commercials” means that ILOOK inserts TV commercials into TV networks
just like Google inserts text ads into websites. The end result is an Ebay-like
marketplace that crowd sources an infinite number of ads (TV commercials) and
add-space (TV networks). ILOOK keeps 10% of TV commercial revenue, 90% goes to
channel app owners.
TV viewers
download only the channels they want from app stores to their mobile device
screens. Starting a “channel app” displays the program guide. Touching a
program listing plays the program on the mobile screen or on any connected TV
screen.
CW: How would a
specific channel break through the clutter?
PR:
To discover Channel Apps of interest, a TV viewer typically performs a simple keyword
search. Channel Apps in the search result can be listed according to different
sort orders such as most popular or newest on top. Although there may be
millions of available Channel Apps, the viewer only downloads a small handful
that will be watched repeatedly. Just like with print magazines -- there are
over 18,000 of them in the US but most people only subscribe to 2 or 3.
CW: Wouldn’t
this fragment the network market and create tiny networks?
PR:
Yes, there will be thousands or even millions of affinity networks. The US
print magazine industry has 18,000 magazines that represent 265 interests
(affinities). The lower barrier to entry when creating a TV network on ILOOK
compared to printing a magazine will make it cost-effective to cover even narrower
areas of interest via a huge number of special interest networks.
CW: What
measurement would you use – what are some of the metrics you would report?
PR:
Which videos were watched, when, how much of each video was watched. Did the
viewer "Like" the video or share it. How much of each commercial was
watched. How often did the advertised product generate a viewer response.
CW: Would you
use a form of programmatic buying?
PR:
Yes. A video playing on the mobile or TV screen can trigger the display of a
Buy Now Button on the mobile screen. Also, a video's information pane can
include a Buy Now button.
CW: How would
this work on connected TVs?
PR:
The connected TV is just a "slave" display for the mobile device. All
the user activities, such as buying or searching are always performed by the
mobile device.
However,
when a mobile device commands a connected TV to play a video, the video streams
from the cloud directly to the TV -- not through the mobile device. This
saves battery power and allows the phone to be used for other tasks (such as
making a call).
CW: Is this
multi-platform?
PR:
Yes. iOS now, Android in Q4.
CW: Where do you see the media landscape in the next 3-5 years. Give me
some predictions.
PR: Let’s see…
1. The
Internet will become the preferred “pipe” for TV providers, replacing
cable/satellite/telco pipes. This will be mostly because of Internet's lower
cost compared to proprietary cable/sat/telco networks and because it will
enable new services such as e-commerce enabled commercials.
2. All
TV commercials will become e-commerce enabled. For example, a TV commercial
playing on a TV screen will trigger the display of a Buy Now button on the
viewer’s mobile device. This will have profound implications on the effectiveness
of advertising by reducing the “impulse-to-purchase” time to zero.
3. The
2nd screen (mobile device) will become a de-facto, “touch & view"
electronic program guide (EPG). Video will play on the 1st screen (TV) or on
the 2nd screen (mobile) but the EPG will always be displayed only on the 2nd
screen. This will ensure a consistent UI independent of which screen the video
is playing on, and will make it simple to switch screens. All TV “brains” will
be in the mobile device. The TV will be just a dumb display device.
4.
Media players such as Roku, AppleTV and Amazon Fire will disappear to be
replaced by “thin clients” like Chromecast that will be embedded in dongles
like the current Chromecast and directly in TVs. The media player approach is a
dead-end because it does not allow touch & view (a dedicated remote must be
used), does not allow screen switching (because the “brain” is in the box that
is physically connected to a TV) and is more expensive (since it needs
lots of memory to store channel apps and to display the program guide). Thin
clients rely the mobile device to store the channel apps and to display the
program guide.
First published, in abbreviated form, on MediaPost.com
First published, in abbreviated form, on MediaPost.com
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