As IPO looms, GoPro enjoys spotlight
By Bree Fowler, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — GoPro isn’t exactly a household name, but anyone who’s spent a little time on YouTube is surely familiar with the thousands of snowboarding, surfing and even skateboarding baby videos that its cameras produce.
GoPro Inc., which makes a small line of high-definition video cameras geared toward extreme sports athletes, is experiencing a rare moment in the spotlight. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company is a common sight at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, showing up in everything from the opening ceremony to test runs of ski and snowboarding courses. It currently sponsors the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and champion snowboarder Shaun White.
And now GoPro is preparing to enter the high-profile area of public companies. Earlier this month, it announced plans for an initial public offering of common stock.
The company’s cameras, which sell for between $200 and $400, are small, light, water resistant and extremely durable. The highest-end GoPro model shoots video in ultra-high-definition, or 4K. With a variety of related accessories such as helmet attachments, bike mounts and harnesses, the cameras can be mounted to everything from a bike helmet to the side of a half pipe.
Those attributes make GoPro a favorite of extreme athletes. The company was founded more than a decade ago by avid surfer and CEO Nicholas Woodman. The cameras’ most popular use: the ultimate selfie, a one-of-a-kind first-person point of view, even if the person starring in the video happens to be hang-gliding off a cliff or parachuting from a giant helium balloon.
During this year’s Super Bowl, the company aired a commercial featuring footage shot with a GoPro in 2012 as supersonic Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner parachuted from 24 miles up and became the first human being to break the sound barrier with only his body.
Through its sponsorships, GoPro gets one-of-a-kind content. Its YouTube channel has about 1.7 million subscribers and features hundreds of eye-popping videos starring everyday users and famous people like GoPro-sponsored surfing legend Kelly Slater.
Citing legal restrictions related to the IPO, company officials declined to comment for this story.
One challenge for GoPro as a public company will be to broaden the appeal of its cameras. Extreme sports athletes —and people who think they are— are GoPro’s main consumers at the moment.
There is potential, however, to attract more consumers given the current consumer craze surrounding wearable technologies, says Whitney Fishman, senior director of innovation and consumer technology at media agency MEC.
It’s also possible, Fishman believes, that the cameras could find commercial use in fields such as medicine.
“Is everybody going to run out and buy one? Probably not, but it definitely has value outside of the amateur athlete circuit,” Fishman says. “The Olympics and all the crazy footage really helps.”
GoPro cameras are being spotted all over the Sochi Games. Coaches and athletes are using them to analyze courses and test runs. Members of the media also use them to give viewers an idea of what it’s like to zip down a ski slope or fly along a bobsled run.
Brian Carlin, director of industry relations for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, says the cameras are a key part of training for many of his group’s athletes. He estimates that he’s distributed about 20 of them to skiing and snowboarding coaches in Sochi, who use them to detect snow-related problems.
“They’re using man-made snow with some kind of chemicals in it,” Carlin says of the Olympic courses. “It gets soft and rutted, so the cameras are critical.”
Coaches also mount the cameras at various points along a course to film practice runs, so they and the athletes can watch and learn from the footage. In exchange for the use of the cameras, GoPro gets unique footage, he says.
Jason Stein, founder and president of the New York-based social media agency Laundry Service, argues that GoPro’s true value lies not in its camera, but in the exclusive content the gadgets creates. He predicts that as a result of its online notoriety, GoPro will eventually become more of a media company than a manufacturer.
“I think it always comes back to content creation,” Stein says. “Content is the key to becoming a successful media company and they have content that no one else has.”
There’s a handful of ways GoPro could make money from its content, Stein believes, including selling advertising to run alongside it, or licensing it to media or entertainment companies.
Stein says GoPro could follow the example of Red Bull GmbH. While the Austrian company still makes energy drinks, it also sponsors a number of extreme sports athletes and recently unveiled its own channel on Apple TV. Red Bull’s YouTube channel has more than 3.3 million subscribers and contains over 3,000 videos.
Fishman is skeptical of GoPro’s potential as a media company.
“Sure, it could eventually evolve into a crazy media company, but right now it’s a consumer product.”
But both Fishman and Stein warn that investing in a company like GoPro doesn’t come without significant risks. While the company largely dominates the market for cameras like its own, there’s nothing to stop a larger electronics company or camera maker from devising a similar product.
Fishman also notes that most consumers don’t replace products like cameras on a regular basis, limiting GoPro’s potential for recurring revenue. And since GoPro makes physical products its profitability won’t be as high as service-based technology companies like Twitter and Facebook.
For now, potential investors don’t have much information to go on. The company’s IPO papers were filed confidentially and the documents did not include specific financial information. A federal law passed in 2012 allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year to keep their IPO documents under seal until the final few weeks before an IPO price is set.
Front Porch Digital joins USC’s Entertainment Technology Center
LAFAYETTE, Colo.–Front Porch Digital, known for its content storage management (CSM) solutions, has joined the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California , a nonprofit, member-funded organization that explores issues related to the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content. ETC at USC acts as an organizer and accelerator for entertainment technology and commerce through research, publications, events, collaborative projects, and shared exploratory labs and demonstrations. As an expert in digitization, migration, metadata, and content storage, Front Porch Digital will use its membership to help the entire industry address some of its most challenging data management issues, and then transfer those advances to other markets such as sports, government, archiving, and broadcast.
“Front Porch Digital leads the industry in content storage management and they are experts on so many topics of interest to our membership, so we are delighted to have them join our organization,” said ETC chairman Vince Roberts, who is the executive VP of global operations and chief technology officer at Disney/ABC Television Group. “Front Porch Digital is already taking a very helpful role in our metadata workgroups and has invested a lot of executive time and thought leadership into this relationship. We welcome the company’s involvement.”
Front Porch Digital has always worked collaboratively with individual industry partners. By working within the auspices of the ETC, it can broaden that collaboration. Joining at the Gold Member level, Front Porch Digital will have the opportunity to participate in all of the ETC’s projects and working groups. Being an active participant in the industry’s cutting-edge projects ensures the company will remain at the forefront of innovation surrounding CSM, migration, and digitization. In that way, Front Porch Digital will ensure that its customers’ needs are well-represented as entertainment technology develops and changes.
“Working within the frame of the ETC is an entirely new level of collaboration,” said Mike Knaisch, president and CEO of Front Porch Digital. “Our membership in an institution so well regarded for its contributions to the entertainment industry enables Front Porch Digital to participate in ETC’s research projects and act as a subject matter expert, when relevant.”
Knaisch continued, “I have long thought that the ETC at USC is one of the best examples of industry collaboration in the world, so I have involved my best, most talented people in the organization and its initiatives. We are ready to go to work!”
Telestream integrates with Cloud-based studio make.tv
NEVADA CITY, Calif.–Telestream, the developers of Wirecast live streaming production software, announced that make.tv, a cloud-based live video production studio is now an integrated drop-down destination within Wirecast. This integration lets users easily send streams to make.tv, which features interactive capabilities and a cloud-based production hub that allows teams to collaborate remotely in the production.
“We’re thrilled to be able to offer direct access to make.tv from Wirecast,” said Tom Prehn, Wirecast product manager at Telestream. “Wirecast’s pro production capabilities are a great addition for make.tv users. And the cloud-based design of make.tv adds exciting interactivity and collaboration options for Wirecast users.”
Wirecast’s live video feeds are transmitted directly to the make.tv Studio where the stream can be mixed with other incoming live streams, enhanced with on-screen graphics, effects, interactive capabilities and uploaded media. make.tv Studio’s cloud-based design enables teams from different locations to collaborate on the same production to optimize efficiency and control. The final live stream can be broadcast live to any RTMP-capable streaming server or destination such as YouTube Live or Ustream, or CDNs including Akamai or Limelight.
“Producing a low latency stream with multiple cameras and then adding other streams, viewer call-ins and other interactive features, is perfect for sports events, concerts and any type of setup with multiple camera inputs from local and remote sources,” added make.tv CEO, Andreas Jacobi.
Sony showcases phone with ultra-HD video recording
By Anick Jesdanun, Technology Writer
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Sony is borrowing innovations from its audio and camcorder businesses and incorporating its new Xperia Z2 smartphone with noise-cancelling technology and ultra-high-definition video recording.
Noise cancellation works with an in-ear headset sold separately for 60 euros ($82), while the Z2’s built-in camera can capture video in so-called 4K resolution, an emerging technology that offers four times the details as current high-definition video.
Kazuo Hirai, president and CEO of Sony Corp., described Sony’s new lineup as “products that are built on the shoulders of 60 years of design, engineering and artistic excellence.”
Monday’s announcement at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, comes just weeks after Sony said it was selling its Vaio personal computer operations and making its Bravia TV business a subsidiary company. Sony also plans to cut its global workforce by about 3 percent, or 5,000 people, by the end of March 2015.
Sony, once an electronics powerhouse when its Walkman music players defined what portable gadgets should be, has had trouble keeping up with Samsung and other rivals in various consumer electronics.
Phones are no different. Despite favorable reviews, Sony phones haven’t had much traction in an industry dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
With the Z2, Sony is trying to innovate on hardware, while many of the groundbreaking features in rival devices have been in their software.
The Z2 sports the same 20.7 megapixel camera found in its predecessors, the Z1 and the Z1s. Most other smartphone cameras have 8 to 13 megapixels. The Z2 is waterproof, like the Z1 phones. Its screen is slightly larger, at 5.2 inches diagonally instead of 5 inches, but overall size is roughly the same.
Sony is boasting that the phone reproduces colors more naturally, thanks to the use of Bravia TV technology. As an example of the integration with other businesses, Sony Mobile President Kunimasa Suzuki said a few engineers from the television team worked with the mobile engineers to adjust coloring, vividness and other qualities.
In an interview, Suzuki said Sony can innovate quickly because it has expertise in-house.
Sony also unveiled a SmartBand fitness accessory that works with a Lifelog app on the phone to record your day. You see key moments on a timeline, including photos taken and messages sent and received. As your day progresses on the timeline, you see the number of steps and calories burned to that point.
The SmartBand will sell for 99 euros ($136), while the price for the Z2 wasn’t announced. Both will be available in March, although Sony didn’t disclose specific U.S. plans. Sony sometimes makes devices available in the U.S. later than elsewhere around the world.
Sony also announced a high-end tablet and a separate, mid-range smartphone.
The tablet is also called the Xperia Z2 and features a 10.1-inch screen, larger than most full-size tablets. The Wi-Fi-only model, which is waterproof, weighs 426 grams (0.94 pound), lighter than Apple’s lightweight iPad Air, despite the Z2’s larger size. The tablet is also coming in March.
Sony’s Xperia M2 handset, meanwhile, is meant as a cheaper alternative to the Z2. Its camera isn’t as powerful, at only 8 megapixels, and the screen is only 4.8 inches. Still, the camera is the same as what the iPhone offers, and it’s larger than the iPhone’s 4 inches. The M2 is coming in April.
Sony is making a version of the M2 with two SIM card slots, something in demand in emerging markets, where plans vary so much that people often have service with multiple carriers and use what’s most economical for the circumstance.
Sony said nothing about price and U.S. availability of either device.
Flip TV deploys Grass Valley for mobile productions
HILLSBORO, Ore.–FlipTV, the Maryland-based provider of mobile TV productions and technical services, has deployed a K2 Dyno S Replay System with a K2 Summit 3G Production Client from Grass Valley inside its 30-foot outside broadcasting (OB) truck, named Captain. The mobile production truck is used to broadcast various college sports, most recently basketball games at American University in Washington, DC. The truck fills a niche in the market by providing a compact footprint that packs the same high quality punch as its larger truck counterparts, but in a more cost-efficient manner.
“A few years ago we identified a gap in the market for smaller production trucks that were powerful enough to be used for college sports, but not as expensive as the larger trucks being used for major league games. That’s why we developed ‘Captain,’” explained Marcelo Capuchinho, managing partner, FlipTV. “Our goal is to provide an alternative for regional networks that need a cost effective solution without compromising on quality.”
“Having the right instant replay technology is extremely important in live sports productions, so in choosing a replay system, reliability and creativity were our top priorities,” added Elmar Lamarques, managing partner, Flip TV. “K2 Dyno lets us create engaging replays and highlights with ease, simplicity and a short learning curve. Plus, as a truck owner, it’s a big deal for us to tell our clients we work with Grass Valley.”
The Grass Valley K2 Dyno is a total solution that can capture, replay, manage, edit and playout compelling content. Used in tandem with Grass Valley’s flexible K2 media server technology, K2 Dyno can be scaled up for increased capacity, channels, and bandwidth. Additionally, its compact footprint makes it ideal for the OB truck market, especially inside smaller trucks such as Captain.
“Live sports production is a hugely competitive area and is becoming more complex, which is why we designed our K2 Dyno with an easy-to-learn interface,” said Andy Jackson, Senior Vice President of North America, Grass Valley. “With the K2 Dyno, anyone can become conversant in live production replay in a short time period. It can be used for ingest, editing, clip store and replay — which makes it a great value for broadcasters like FlipTV who want high-end quality productions without a hefty price tag.”
