>>Live from Washington, D C it's the cube covering Boomi world 19 how to bide booming. >>Welcome to the cube at Lisa Martin at Boomi world 19 in Washington DC and with John furrier and John and I are pleased to welcome to the cube Jason Maynard, the SVP of global field operations from NetSuite. Jason, welcome. Thanks for having me. It's great to be in D C and on the cube. It is. We were just talking about baseball, so we'll have to park that for a second and talk about some other sexy stuff besides baseball, ERP. So nets we, I saw you on stage this morning. You guys have been a partner of the first Alliance partner with Boomi for about 12 years. Thousands of joint customers. candy.com is one of them. Yep. They're going to be on later today. So I'm excited to have my afternoon sugar rush. Make sure he brings a big bag. You got it. So talk to us about you guys. We're also, I noticed Boomie's 2019 Alliance partner of the year. Lots of innovations going on. Give our audience a little bit of an overview of what NetSuite is doing with Boomi. >>Great. So Boomi is, has been one of our longest partners. I said I think we, we first inked the partnership in 2007 so it goes back 12, 13 years. Um, we, we, when we sell ERP, you always end up having to connect to a legacy on prem system, right? Or you may have to connect to new marketplaces to sell and so there's always need for integration. And so from day one, Boomi wanted to really kind of push the envelope work with cloud players. You know, when we started NetSuite 20 years ago, it was kinda crazy to put business applications on the internet and they'd been there from day one with us really on this journey. And so they've been a great partner to sort of help all those customers migrate and move their business to the cloud. >> You guys had success with Boomi on the customer front. >>Can you unpack that a little bit? Because the customer equation around data is interesting. You guys have turned this into an opportunity with nets. We talk about how that works. Yeah, I mean look EV every customer needs to get more insight out of their data. And you know, the ERP system is one of the major hubs in any organization, right? You've got a handful of system of records, right? And core financials is one of the main systems of record and inevitably every customer will have probably 1520 legacy data sources, right? That are going to be necessary for an ERP. And so for us, working with Boomi across not just the U S but across the globe with a lot of different international customers, it's a natural fit because we're not obviously going to be connecting with all of the systems that they're touching today. It brings a lot more value of data into NetSuite, which obviously then helps our customer out. >>So you guys were at, you said an early partner of Boomi back in 2007 when they were founded. We got to speak with Rick Nucci yesterday. So one of the interesting things that we talk about, and John even pointed out yesterday is you know, they took a big bet, Boomi dead way back then with building this architecture that's pretty unique to this day. This single instance, multi-tenant cloud application. Take us back to, because obviously NetSuite's been around longer, you a lot of choice, there are more iPods vendors out there. What is it about the way that Boomi is architected that is enabling your customers to achieve so much success but also really that you buy saw back in Oh seven I think this is something that's going to be a real big opportunity for NetSuite. >>You know, it's, it's, it's been an interesting ride because if you go back even to Oh seven and didn't even maybe eight or nine years ago, it was not a foregone conclusion with a lot of technology vendors that the world was going to shift to the cloud. Yeah, right. There were a lot of server huggers out there. There still are. They still want to hug this, they still want to hug the machine. Right. And so it's important, I think that we work with partners who have the same true North in terms of where we think that the technology is going. And I think that alignment, which is, you know, we're 100% in the cloud, always have been, always will be. Boomi shared that vision early on. So it was easier to make a bet then right, with a vendor who was going to have that commitment. >>And so that's been, to their credit, the vision that they've had for obviously years now. And I think that's what's helped them grow so quickly. And one of the things that you observed obviously is that the customers have choices, but the world software's changing, right? I mean cloud has changed the software development life cycle. I mean just in the past decade alone, the business of change, you still going to have the system of records. Okay. But with containers and Kubernetes and some of these cloud native opportunities, there's more flexibility in how people are deploying legacy and or core apps. Yeah. So they're not getting thrown away as everyone had predicted. So, I mean, there was some funded saying, well, everyone's going to move to the cloud and not really. Yeah, well I look at it, it's a good point because there's no packaged applications. They're not the entirety of the application market as you know. >>Right? Custom application development will never go away. You will always have, you know, things that are custom. People build apps on NetSuite, right? Things that are very close to ERP you'll build on the NetSuite platform. But there are things that are not, you know, native to our platform that need to connect to NetSuite. And there are customers that we share who are, have legacy COBOL applications for example. Right? And they may need to put a wrapper around that and get certain forms into NetSuite. So it really does run the gamut. And so it'll never be one thing, right? We just sort of, in the technology industry, we never go from, you know, 100 to zero in terms of what's deployed in the legacy. We sort of layer in compost technology. And I think that's what's happening. And so, you know, we'll replace certain systems. We go in and we pretty much always replace a an on prem system but there are a lot of on-prem technologies that a will never, never go away. >> I was digging around about Boomi and you guys net suite looking at some of the use cases. One thing that caught my eye was, you know, the growth startup for instance, might be born in the cloud. Yup. Never have an it department. Um, they have kind of a um, hacked together system of record at HR and ERP kind of things, but at some point they've got to grow and they hit a growth spurt and they just become rapid growth. Eventually goes public. You guys have had good success with Boomi in these kinds of startups. It's pretty normal. You've seen this before. Can you talk about that dynamic because at some point people got to start establishing formal, is this the systems applications? You're gonna need payroll, you're gonna need HR. I mean this is blocking and tackling. You guys have been successful there. >> Well, you know, we, we like to think about we can be the first system that you'll ever need and hopefully we'll be the last system that you'll ever need. Right? And what ends up happening is we've architected NetSuite to let you start small and then add more functionality as you grow. So you may start with just basic financials. You may add order management, move into full fledged ERP, maybe you're going to use our HR system down the road. And so we kind of, we kind of stairway a customer through their journey. Boomi does the same thing. Maybe you start with two connectors, right? You're just connecting two basic applications and, and that's sweet. And then you evolve into something more sophisticated, right? Where as you saw today and some of the technology demos where, you know, they're tapping into all sorts of different systems that are not even ERP or CRM, it's, you know, IOT and just all sorts of different insights that they can bring from the different technologies. >>Better together message is legit and this works. Yeah. You know, we look at, technology is all about coopertition these days, right? Is every vendor, right? In some way we overlap, you know, Boomie's owned by Dell, NetSuite's owned by Oracle, right? We're, we're all sort of inner inner locked in one way or another. But ultimately we have to work together because we share so many customers and so customers don't have the patience and nor should they for any of the sort of the, the vendor warfare. And I think that's the cool thing that's evolved with technology standards. It's easy for us to work together and we have to do it and we want to do it because it's what's the right thing for the customer. >>Let's talk about net suite as a launching pad for a lot of tech IPOs in the last few years. Give us your perspectives on what you guys started to recognize as a lot of these tech companies have kind of, that's why it just seems to me like net suite has been this sort of launchpad for that. Talk to us about what you've achieved there. >>Yeah, no, it's, we're, we're really humbled by the fact that more companies go, Poe tech companies go public on NetSuite than frankly you need any other ERP system. Um, you know, we help invent the industry. Early on, 20 years ago, Evan Goldberg and Larry had the famous four minute phone call to, you know, kind of crazily idea to put business apps on the web. Um, and so we've been, you know, at the forefront of this, but it's not just technology. It's, you know, we, we're a subscription business right from day one. Like we didn't sell a license with maintenance. We sold a subscription. So I think a lot of customers look at us and say, okay, they've been through the journey that we have. You know, we went public 12 years ago, you know, we past $1 billion in sales, you know, we got acquired. So the journey that we've been on, most of our customers are going to be on that journey in one form or another. >>We're going to, we've made acquisitions. Our customers make acquisitions, right? So we tried it and this was sort of the genius of what Evan and the team built is a system that can handle any business model. So whether you're selling time as a service, whether you're selling time or you're selling a subscription, you're selling a widget, maybe you're going to sell a widget as a service in the future. We can kind of handle any of the business models and most of the IPS are innovative companies that innovate not just with what they sell, but in how they sell it. >> Show about some stories from the field that you've seen out there. Anecdotally, share some turn situation. What are customers going through right now? Enterprises as they go through their journeys, they realize cloud's there. They got some stuff on premise is going to keep there. >>There's obviously certain reasons you're gonna run payroll in the cloud. You're going to have to have multitenancy is allows it news cases and clouds, not that straightforward. When you start thinking about having an enterprise and the hybrid mode of operations, what are some of the customers feeling? What's a, what's the mindset? What's their architecture look like? What are some of the examples? Can you share? Yeah. You know, I'd say three things come to mind. So first off, it's this business model innovation, right? The, the on prem systems tend to lock you into a model, right? And there's nothing, and when they were built, they were innovative 1520, 30 years ago. Most companies, business models have outgrown that legacy system. So they need to move off that to enable some new thing that they want to do. So that's a big driver. I think the other thing is, is globalization is here to stay. >>Um, you know, whether you're in the United States or you're in the UK or you're in Asia, right? We're one interconnected global economy. And so you may, you know, source from Asia, you may design in California, you may do nearshore assembly in Mexico and then you do omni-channel distribution. So you have to be global. And I would say the thing that's changed in the last 10 years is companies are being global from day one. It's not just something you add on five, seven, eight years down the road. You see companies designed for being global. And that I think those two things, business model, innovation global are our big catalyst right now. I mean we had, Oh one more thing real quick. So we have a Cuba alumni set on the cube data's the new software. Yeah. So if you've got a global business, data's critical as the data needs to be acted upon, you've got policy, you got regulations, regulatory issues, personal privacy stuff, company policy. >>As you have this global layer of data, making it available, addressable across multiple systems is a huge task. What's your view on that? Well it's, it's, it's an interesting question cause we think of it and kind of three pillars. It's we give you visibility, we give you control and then we give you the agility, right? So you've got to, first off, you've got to have visibility into the data, right? You need to know what's happening. Like how much did we sell in the Australian subsidiary yesterday, right? You need to have controls. If your CFO, you need to have global financial controls. You may have sold a lot in Australia. You've got to make sure you're spending too much. Right? How do you manage that? And then ultimately the agility is how do you make a decision on that? Right. And so that's those three things I think all play into it. >>And how does the consumerization effect impact it? Visibility, control, agility. Because as consumers we have this expectation whether you know in our personal lives we can get anything that we want within a couple of clicks. So when you're talking to a tech, whether it's a young tech company or even not a tech company like candy.com which is seems like a mixture. You and I were talking before of a number of different industries, all, all in one. How does, has NetSuite evolved to enable that consumer to go from their personal life to being able to interact with ERP next, struck the value from it in the ways that they want? Anywhere, anytime. >>Let's, let's be honest, for a second, ERP kinda got a dirty reputation. You know, in the nineties nobody loved their ERP implementations. Books had been written on this, right? ERP was like, it was like going like a bad trip to the dentist office in the 90s and that was sort of the catalyst for our company. But that's not enough just to be in the cloud. It's you have to make your user experience consumer grade, right? We always talk about enterprise grade. It's all the, reliability, scalability, all that kind of stuff. That's sort of a given, like you have to do that, but I think you have to, you have to adopt the consumer grade. So we spent a lot of time and we're doing a lot more and we're going to be rolling out some new stuff around user interface and just how easy is it to have a dashboard on your phone so that you can run your business from your smartphone versus actually having to be tethered to the desktop because we're all mobile, we're all traveling. You're a business owner, you're a CFO, you're CEO. You need to be connected. Maybe you're too connected. Maybe that's part, maybe we have screen-time problems. We do business. If we, if we can give our customers Screentime addiction to watch their business in real time, I guess that's a good thing. Right? And so we want to be able to make sure that they can have all that insight at their fingertips, whether they're in the office or at the beach. >>And speaking of insight, talk to us about brain yard. What that is, why you developed it and what it's enabling. >>Yeah. Thank you. That's like my, I was hoping you were gonna ask me. It's my secret, but not so secret anymore. Pet project. So one of the things being in the cloud, we have 18,000 customers, right? We have a single instance of NetSuite and so we've had the unique seat at the table to see all of these different companies grow in all these different industries. We evolved into selling by industry. So we have a retail version of software version of manufacturing, nonprofit, 1213 different industries. What we had in that is we had all these insights by industry. What is the right DSO number for a software company, right? What is the thing that a nonprofit needs to look at? And so we had trapped inside of NetSuite, all these brains sitting in all this information and PowerPoint and word docs and just everywhere. And so we decided to crack the hood open and literally open source that information and put it on the website. >>And so there's a subtle message here is that we have to do more than just sell bits. We, we're ultimately selling customer success or a business outcome, whatever you want to call it. So we need to transfer that knowledge to our customers so they can run their business better. So it's our investment back into the customer saying, Hey, you know what, if you're a software company and your DSO is at this level, you know, best in class is actually, you know, five days lower on a day sale, outstanding. How do you get your business to close that gap? And that's where we can really add value comms. People love comparables and best practices. You're essentially taking that heavy lifting work. It's giving it up there. It's benchmarking, it's analysis. You know, I was a former wall street analyst, so this one's near and dear to my heart, which is comparison, you know, how is this company doing versus that company? >>And so we have lots of data, um, that we've gleaned over the years. Lots of insights. So we kind of know what those best practices are. This is just the first phase of what we're doing. We're working with a lot of partners across the industry to give us some of their industry data so we kind of mash it up and come up with the insights. So it wasn't as an analyst, I'd love to get your thoughts real quick and take the, take the net suite hat off, put your industry participants hat on. Lot of wall street challenges around we worked, pulled their IPO, their GP gross profit was down. Other SAS businesses have huge margins. Their successful zooms public. There's a new formula developing in this cloud 2.0 world software world where the dynamic between classic software and software economics in the cloud are changing. What's your thoughts on this? >>If a startups out there and growing companies that are really looking to crack the code by at all costs and then monetize, get the margins that would, what's your, what's your analysis? No, it's, I, this is an area that I think a lot of companies raise too much, too much capital. Right? And they, we've been in this very unique environment over the last kind of eight or nine years where I'd argue a lot of startups who've been overfunded and when you have overfunding you chase growth at really no, you know, at without any limit on terms of the cost and what you see as you sort of distort the reality of what's happening in the business. And so I would argue that we've had, you know, zero in basically free money in terms of access to capital and we've lost track of some of the basics that you need to build a profitable, sustainable business. >>So, you know, when I was working on wall street, you couldn't go public, you know, if you were within say four quarters of cashflow break even, right? Those are some of the things that we used to have. But you've seen, you know, business fundamentals. Yeah, I need, and so what's happening right now? It's just a little bit of her. I think it's mean reversion. Honestly. I think you're seeing, you know, the public markets, you know, if you will veto some of the frothiness that's been in the private markets. And so this is, I think companies, some marketplaces do. That's what they, that's there. It's fantastic. It's a self correcting mechanism, right? I mean it's, you know, just cause you marked up your last round when you were private to a good Jillian dollars doesn't mean that the buy side on, you know, the pension fund is going to want to pay that and we work so you can't be high and run a business. You know, as we were saying, you know, trying, you know, God bless them, they're trying, but it's probably not the best practice I would not have. I would not recommend that. It's not a good look for wall street. How a good luck, you know, you can get on the Joe Rogan show there, knock yourself out. If you're a Ilan, you can do it. But you know, he's the, he's the only one we're going to let, don't know. >>Probably shouldn't be publicly. Air's too much unless you want something to laugh at and you know what, in this economy, I think we all need that. Jason, thank you for sharing with us what you're doing at NetSuite with Boomi, the insights that you guys are opening up with brain yard. So from brain yard, let's go back to the other yard that I promised. The baseball yard, your Dodger fan giants fan. Hats off. You guys are there. We are not. So I will say good luck to your team. We appreciate your time and what can I say, Bri? I'll give it to ya. All right, well it's been a pleasure talking to you and thank you for your time. Thanks for John furrier. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the cube from booby world 19 thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick with The Cube. If you can't tell over my shoulder, we are at Oracle Park. It's a glorious day. The marine layer is burning off and it is really spectacular. We're happy to be here. Haven't been here since, I think 2014. It's an interesting event called Sports Tech Tokyo World Demo Day. About 25 technology companies in the sports area are giving demos all day today. It's a huge program, and we're excited to have our next guest coming from the analytics side. She's Sezin Aksoy, Global Data Strategy and Analytics for AXS. >> Correct. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Glad to be here. >> So Global Data Strategy. Everything's all about data. >> Correct. >> So, somebody's really happy to have you on board. What are so... What do you, what are you working on, what was top of line. >> Sure, so it's going to sound cheesy but data is the power of the world. >> Yes. >> It's going to empower people making better decisions, so that's kind of my role is at AXS. So AXS is the ticketing platform for live entertainment events. We operate in the US, Europe, as well as in Japan. And, if you think about it, when a consumer comes to your website, that's the first touchpoint that you have. Whether they buy the ticket or don't. Whether they buy or sell, and transfer the ticket, or they attend the event, all those are various touchpoints that we are collecting. So that we can inform our clients to make better decisions with data. >> Right. >> Whether it's pricing decisions, or marketing decisions, or scanning an event, which gates will be more busier than others. So, that's kind of what my team works on. >> Excellent. So, let's jump into a little bit on the dynamic pricing. >> Sizen: Hm mm. >> Because we saw, we've seen dynamic pricing. And you said you were in the airline industry. >> Correct. >> We've seen it in the hotel industry. >> Yup. >> My father in law talks about when he was doing dynamic pricing as a young kid. >> Sizen: Okay. Just making a call when somebody came through the door, at eleven o'clock. >> Sizen: Yeah. (laughs) >> Jeffrey: What's my marginal cost... >> Okay, yep. >> Jeffrey: with somebody in that room or not. There's really slow to get beyond, kind of the entertain, oh excuse me, the travel industry for other people... >> Hm mm. Yep. >> To kind of get on board the dynamic pricing. >> Yeah. We saw the Giants here... >> Yep. >> Actually a couple of years ago. We came by, they were starting to do dynamic pricing. >> Sizen: Hm mm. >> A Friday night Dodger game, compared to a Tuesday day... >> Sizen: Yep. >> Milwaukee game, very, very different. >> Sizen: Hm mm. >> So, what are some of the factors going in, what are some of the resistance, >> Sizen: Yeah. >> that had to be overcome for people to actually accept that it's okay to charge more for a Friday night Dodger game, than a Tuesday afternoon Milwaukee game. >> Yep, so yeah, so my background start with the airlines, which is where dynamic pricing, revenue management started at, specifically the American Airlines. If you think about there are a lot of similarities between airlines and live entertainments. Fixed costs, you have to, flight has to go, or the game has to be played no matter how many people are there. So, you really have a limited time to really maximize your revenue. And you kind of have a product that the demand level is different by day, whether it's a Tuesday game or Friday game. It really something you have to study the sort of the behavior from the consumers when they buy their tickets. What are the factors they put into play to make that decision? And in that mix, San Francisco Giants was one of the first teams that actually incorporated dynamic pricing about ten years ago, that slowly. The challenges with it is we are not as the consumer, not as trained to know that the price may change. Hotels, airlines been doing it for years and years. >> Right. >> And for them, also it didn't start from like doing all the flights in day one. So it's really needs to be a phased approach. It needs to be a lot of education for the public, and to think about the right way to think about it is, you want incentivize people to buy early. And you want to make sure they are the ones that getting the best price, and not necessarily the people that are buying last minute. >> Right. >> If you're buying last minute, then you must accept that it maybe the available today you're not looking for or the price not you looking for. But I will say though that plans change, people decide to not attend the game. The reason is that, potential for finding other seats for that similar game. But, really for you, have your plans. It's better to buy early, and that's kind of what the industries needs to be trained on, more and more. >> Right. >> Was there more opportunity in getting additional value out of that high demand game? Or was the bigger opportunity in getting, kind of lowering the prices on the less desirable games, and getting kind of marginal revenue on that side. Where was the easy money made, >> Yeah. >> Jeffrey: On dynamic pricing? I mean the immediate impact is from the high value seats for the high value games, cause that's really is your premium product at that point. But in the meantime, there's always a low number of seats that you have in your premium area. And if you find the right price, and if you start earlier. And really the goal is to sell all the seats, and to fill all the seats. >> Right. >> Also, just selling the seats is not, doesn't get you far enough. You want to make sure people actually come to the game, and they're the people that are going to attend the game. Right? >> Right. >> So, if you kind of, the lower level has many more seats, so it's really has to be both ways. It can't be in one area, either dynamic pricing and you don't do it. It's just all about training the public and consumers. >> Right. Now, the other interesting you said in your kind of intro, was keeping track of... What are the busiest turnstiles? And where people coming? And the flow within the game. >> Sizen: Yep. >> What are some of the analytics that you do there, >> Sizen: Yep. >> And how are teams using those... >> Sizen: Yep. >> that information to provide a better fan experience? >> Yeah, so we have scanned data, and we actually have it real time. So, we are able to provide the teams. We have kineses streams, not to go too technical, to kind of empower them to do their game operations in a certain way. So example would be, you could study the past games and understand where people came from. Typically for a Friday game verse a Tuesday game, your crowd will look different, right. The Friday game, maybe the more the families or Saturday or Sunday. But Tuesday may be more corporate world, right. So understanding they're patterns, but also than having that data accessible to you to real time. So, that way you're able to see how many people are coming in from this one gate to other. You can man the gates differently that way. And the real time data is not something that comes just easily. There's a lot of infrastructure built for it. >> Right. >> But we've done it at AXS, and we've been able to provide to the teams so they can manage their getting in better. >> Right. >> So real time's interesting cause you know a lot of these conversations about real time, and I would say, "How do you define real time?" And in my mind, it's in time to do something about it. >> Exactly. >> So, using real time, I mean are there things they can do in real time to either lighten the load at an overdone gate, or... >> Sizen: Yeah. >> What are some of the real time impacts that people are using this data to do? >> Yeah, so exactly the example you provided. Like making sure there are more people at this one gate as opposed to others. But also, like knowing who's coming into the arena. So AXS's I-D ticketing, I-D based ticketing platform, so we actually know who's coming in. It's a rotating barcode, so if you just copy-paste the ticket, and text your friend. That doesn't work, that eliminates fraud as well. But because we know who's coming in, you can actually empower your sales reps as a team to make sure you are, you know, if they are coming to a suite or a premium area. So in so actually just scanned in, so you kind of come up with ideas for sales reps. As well as some of the marketing activations, like... It could be that you have people that typically come in late. You want to incentivize them. You could actually come up with promotions on merch and food and beverage to incentivize them early, right? Or at the same time you can actually, there are some platforms that do marketing activation. You may have had a lot of hotdogs left that you couldn't sell. Towards the late quarter, you could send a message to everyone saying, "Okay, ya know, hot dogs are 20 percent off." >> Right, right. >> So that, you need real time for it, for data for that. Cause you again need to know how many people scanned in. You may want to know how many people scanned out. So for some conferences and other type events, you want to make sure there's a Fire Marshall rules, so you want to make sure. So all the real time data is helpful for that if you just look at the purchaser data, you're not going to get that specifically there. >> That's really interesting cause I was going to say, What are some of the next things that we can expect to see dynamic pricing applied to, and you just went through them which are really situational specific. >> Yep. >> Opportunities to clear inventory, to do whatever. >> Exactly, it's not just a ticket purchase. It could be applied to other things as well. >> Right, Right. >> Yeah. >> How cool. So what other kind of data sets are you looking at to help teams that maybe we're not thinking about. >> Sure, just when people buy their tickets. What marketing may have they done, so that we can understand the web traffic, and did they buy the ticket when you send out that email. Or did they buy it three days later. So that's one area. As well as sort of, the inventory that you have available for that game. Does it sell faster for that Friday game versus a Tuesday game? We also, we're a comprehensive marketplace where we have both primary and secondary in the same map. To give the convenience back to the consumers, so you kind of have a chance to see all the inventory available in front of you. So, a bit of understanding how tickets transact in the secondary marketplace is helpful for the teams to really price their product better. Cause sometimes we have... I work for a team, so I have that background where you may have just 20 price points, and you've done it for 20 years but it's been certainly changing then. But now that you have all these different data points on the second, you also you kind of maybe is like, 'Okay I need 40 price points really because there's that much differentiation demand. >> Wow, really sophisticated analysis... >> Yeah, it's a passion area for me, so... >> And doing the real time, real time data flow and everything. >> Yeah, yeah. A really interesting, interesting conversation. >> Yeah. >> To go so far beyond just dynamic pricing. >> Exactly. >> It uses more sophisticated methods to get more value, provide better experience for the fans. >> And actually in Japan, they do more about dynamic pricing. So they utilize our platform to actually able to price every seat differently if they wanted to. We've just went out with on sales for Big League teams, and that's how they apply that. So it's been used elsewhere, maybe in the U-S in sports. It's definitely catching up, and it's much much big difference from the 10 years ago. But, I think Japan has already been kind of doing that. >> Excellent. >> Mm hm. >> Well Sizen, thanks for taking a few minutes, and sharing those stories. There's a lot going on behind the scenes that may not be conscious of, but hopefully we're getting the benefit of. >> Yeah, thank you. >> All right. Sizen, and I'm Jeff. Yes, we're live. They're banging on something down there. I'm not sure what, but keep watching. We'lls be here at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Thanks for watching, and see ya next time. (upbeat music)

>> From Sand Hill Road in the heart of Silicon Valley, it's theCUBE. Presenting, the People First Network, insights from entrepreneurs and tech leaders. >> Hello everyone I'm John Furrier with theCUBE, we are here in Sand Hill Road up at Mayfield Venture Capital Firm for their 50th anniversary, their People First Network series, produced with theCUBE and Mayfield, I'm John Furrier, with Bill Schlough, the Chief Information Officer of the San Francisco Giants, CUBE alumni, great to see you thanks for joining me today for this People First Series we're doing with Mayfield's 50th anniversary, thanks for coming in. >> Good to be here, John. >> So, been a while since we chatted, it's been a year, A lot's happening in tech, you can't go a year, that's like seven dog years in tech, lot happening, you're managing, as the CIO for the Giants, a lot of things going on in baseball, what's the priorities for you these days, obviously, you guys, great social, great fan experience, what's new for you, what's the priority? >> Man, there's always something new. It's what I love about it, this'll be my 20th season with the Giants comin' up. And, it never gets old, there's always new challenges. On the field, in the seats, off the field, you name it. As we look toward next year, really excited about bringin' in a new video board, which we haven't publicly announced, maybe I just did publicly announce, we're breaking news on theCUBE today. So we're puttin' in a new video board, it'll be over three times the size of the one we have today. That's big news, we're doing a lot of exciting things in the ticketing world. The ticketing world is really transforming right before our eyes in terms of the way fans buy tickets. It's changed a lot. Once up on a time you could call a game a sellout, and we sold out 530 straight games at AT&T Park, but really there's no such thing as a sellout anymore I mean, at any point you can get a great ticket, so we have to adapt to that and change the product that we're delivering to fans, so making some changes on the ticketing front, the fan experience, the ballpark with the video board, and another thing that's changing a lot is the way fans consume our game when they're not at the ballpark. It's rare that you're going to see somebody sit on a couch for three plus hours and watch a game continuously anymore. Fans are consuming through mobile devices, streaming, catching clips here and there, all different methods, and it's fun to be a part of that, because, fans still love the game, but they're just consuming it in different ways. >> Yeah, I love having chats with you on theCUBE because one of the things that have always been the same from nine years doing theCUBE is, the buzzword of consumerization of IT has been out there, overused, but you're living it, you have a consumer product, the ultimate consumer product, in Major League Baseball, and the Giants, great franchise, in a great city, in a great stadium, with a rabid fanbase, and they know tech, so you have all the elements of tech, but the expectation of consumers, and the experiences are changing all the time, you got to deliver on the expectations and introduce new experiences that become expectations, and this is the flywheel of innovation, and it's really hard, but I really respect what you guys are doing over there, and that's why I'm always curious, but, always, the question comes back to, is, can I get faster wifi in the stadium? (laughs) It's always the number one question >> It's funny that you ask that because it is AT&T Park, you know, so, honestly, we got to check that box, and we've had to for years, all the way back to when we first rolled it out, way back in 2004 when we first rolled out wifi in the park, people weren't asking for it then, people were coming to the ballpark with a laptop and plugging a card into it, and there were about a hundred of them that were accessing it, but today, what's interesting is, who knows what next, but we're not talkin' about wifi as much, wifi is just kind of, expected, you got to have it, like water. You're talkin' about 5G networks, and new ways to connect. Honestly, this past season, our wifi usage in terms of the number of fans that use wifi, what we call the take rate, the percentage of fans, was actually down 30% from the previous year. Not because we had less fans in the stadium, because this is the take rate, a percentage of fans in the stadium, went down, because AT&T made some massive investments in their cellular infrastructure at the ballpark, and if you're just connecting, and you got great bandwidth, you don't feel the need to switch over to wifi, so who knows what the future will hold? That's a great point, and you see the LTE networks have so much more power, it used to be you needed wifi to upload your photos, so you'd go in, log in, and if they auto login that's cool, but people don't need to. >> Not with photos, what they need it now for is when we see it really maxing out is events, like our Eagles concert, or Journey concert, or a really big game, like opening day, or honestly, Warriors playoffs game, 49ers football games, that's when folks are streamin' to video. For streamin' to video, they're still goin' to that wifi. Yeah, that's the proven method, plus they don't want to jack up their charges on the AT&T site, but I won't go there, Let's talk about innovat-- Most say unlimited, I will go there, most say unlimited these days. >> Really, I got to find that plan, my daughter's killin' me with her watchin' Netflix on LTE, I tell her. Innovation is changing, I want to get your thoughts on this, 'cause I know you're on the front end of a lot of innovations, you do a lot of advising here at Mayfield. The VC's always trying to read the tea leaves, you're living it, what's the innovation formula look like now for you 'cause as you're sittin' in your staff meetings, as you look at the team of people around you, you guys want to foster, you do foster, innovation culture. What's the formula, what do you guys do when you have those meetings, when everyone's sitting around the table sayin', what do we do next? "How do we create a better experience? "How can we get better fans, and better product "in their hands as fast as possible?" What's your strategy? >> You know, it's funny, people talk about the secret sauce for innovation, what's the formula? I would say, for us, it's really a symbiotic relationship with a lot of things, first of all, where we are, geographically, we've got folks like Mayfield, down the street, and many others, that we can talk to, that are, when innovation is happening, when the startups are incubating, they're being funded by these guys, a lot of times they are here, and our phones are ringing off the hook with a lot of folks so my formula for innovation is answer the phone and take the meetings, but, to be honest, that creates its own problems, because there's so many great ideas out there, if you try to do all of them, you're going to fail at all of them. You got to pick a very small few to try to experiment with, give it a shot, we just don't have the bandwidth, we only have 250 full-time staff on the business side. For us, geographically, you have to really be laser-focused and say okay, there are so many great ideas out here, which are the three or four that we're going to focus on this year, and really give it a try, that's really going to drive, propel our business forward, enhance our product on the field, whatever it might be, but I'll tell you where it really truly starts. It's from the top with our CEO. And, I've had a few different bosses over the years, but with the Giants, our CEO is singularly focused on all of us doing things folks have never done before regardless of what business unit you're in. Whether you're in ticketing, finance, marketing, sales, what drives him, and drives all of us, is innovation. And his eyes glaze over when I talk to him about cost-cutting, and his eyes can glaze over really fast. But when I talk to him about doing something no one's ever done before, that's when he sits forward in his chair, he gets engaged, and I just have a great boss, Larry Baer, he's been with us for 25 years wit the Giants, and he is the driver for it, he creates the culture from the top, where all of us, we want to impress him, and to impress him, you got to do sometin' nobody's ever done before, and what's even more interesting is there are some challenges and some changes talking place across our industry, as I said before, ticketing and other areas, and I've sat in meetings with him where somebody might raise their hand and say, "But this is happening across the industry, "so it's just a macro trend," and he'll get upset, be like, "I don't care about macro trends. "We are here in the Bay Area, "we're the San Francisco Giants, "we're going to do it our way." >> And so when you do it your way, he promotes risk-taking, so that's a great culture. What are some of the things you have tried that were risky, and/or risque, or maybe an experiment, that went well, and maybe ones that didn't go well, can you share some color commentary around that? >> Sure, over 20 years we've had some of all of those. I would say, I've had some real scary moments, our culture is collaborative, but I wouldn't call it combative, but we all have strong opinions, a lot of us have been there a long time, and we have strong opinions and so we'll battle, internally, a lot, but then once the battle is over, we'll all align behind the victory. Thinking back, one of the most stressful times for me at the ballpark was related to wifi, when we decided to take our antennas and put 'em under people's seats. No one had ever done that before, and there were two major concerns with that. One is, honestly are people going to get cancer from these antennas under their seats, it's never been done before, what's going to happen, and whether it's going to happen or not, what's the perception of our fans going to be, because, these are, the bread and butter is, the golden goose here, all the fans, so, yeah it's great that they're going to be, have faster connection here at AT&T Park, but if they think they're going to get cancer, they're going to cancel their season ticket plans, we got to problem. Number two is, we're taking away a little storage space also, under the seats, so it was very controversial internally, we did all of our research, we proved that having a wifi antennae under your seat is the equivalent to having a cell phone in your pocket, most people do that, so we're pretty safe there, and from the storage space perspective, honestly, it actually elevates your stuff, if somebody spills a Coke behind ya, it'll fall all around your purse, which is sitting on top of that wifi antenna so we came up with a good solution, but that was an example of something that was really controversial >> So beer goes on the antennae not your bag. (laughs) >> Exactly, your bag stays dry, we found a way to spin that but, there have been so many, I can go way back in time, back to the days when it was the PalmPilot that ruled the day instead of the apple >> Well you guys also did a good job on social media, I got to give you guys props, because, you're one of the first early adopters on making the fan experience very interactive. That was, at that time, not viewed as standard. Yeah, built the @Cafe at our ballpark, which is still there really to try to bring social media to the fans. >> I think you're the first ballpark to have a kale garden, too, I think. >> That's a little off topic, but yes, driven by one of our players, who's a big kale fan, yeah, the garden out in center field. >> So sustainibility's certainly important, okay, I got to ask the question around your role in the industry, because one of the things that's happening more and more in Major League Baseball and certainly as it crosses over to tech her at Mayfield Venture Capital, there's a lot of collaboration going on, and it's a very people-centric culture where, it used to be people would meet at conferences, or you'd do conference calls, now people are in touch in real time, so these networks are forming. It takes a village to create innovative products, whether you're inside the Giants, or outside in the ecosystem, how have you personally navigated that, and can you share some experiences to the folks watching, how you became successful working in an environment where it's collaborative inside the walls of the San Francisco Giants, but also outside? >> %100, the topic is near and dear to my heart, and from when I started with the Giants, that's what I love about our industry We compete on the field, and only on the field. When you look at who the Giants competitors are, from a business perspective, honestly the Dodgers are not a competitor from a business perspective. The A's are barely a competitor from a business perspective. We got a lot of competitors and very few of them are in our actual industry, so we collaborate all day, and it's been amazing, I can count on one hand, across all of sports, folks who have not been collaborative. There's a very small group of teams, your favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, are not on that list, they are very collaborative, but their arch rival, well there's a few others out there that may be less collaborative, but most of them are highly collaborative, from top down, and so, what I did from when I first started the first trip I made, was to Cleveland. And this was many years ago, Cleveland Indians had a reputation of being very progressive so I called up my counterpart there, I said, "I'm new to the industry, can I come out, "can I learn from you?" And that's where it started, and ever since, every year, we travel to two cities, I take at least four of my staff, to two cities each year and we meet with all the sports teams in those cities. This year, we went to Milwaukee and we met with the Brewers, and we did the Packers as well. Every year, over the 20 years we've visited pretty much every professional sports city, and we just go through it again, and always, red carpet, open door, and you build those face-to-face relationships, that you can pick up the phone and make the call, in a few weeks we're all going to get together in Denver at our MLB IT Summit, my job at the IT Summit every year is I host the golf classic, so I bring all the golfers, the hackers, the duffers out, and we have a great time on the golf course and build those relationships and again, the only thing that we don't really talk about that much is the technology we use to enhance the product on the field. Everything else is fair game. >> So share the business side, but the competitive advantage, where the battle's really having Dodger and Giants obviously on the field, highly competitive-- >> But what's cool about that is then I can meet with the other sports teams to talk about that, so I'll leave the teams nameless, but we've had some awesome collaborative discussions with NBA teams especially to talk about what they're doing to assess talent, and there's no competition there. >> So there's kind of rules of the road, kind of like baseball, unwritten rules. >> Right. >> So talk about the coolest thing that you guys have done this year, share something that you personally feel proud of, or fans love, what were some of the cool things this year that pops out for you? >> Sure, the technology that we invested in this year that I thought was a game-changer, we saw, we experimented with last season, but this year, we've been experimenting with VR and AR a little bit. But, a technology that we thought was really cool is called 4DReplay, it's a company out of Korea. And we saw them, we did an experiment with them, and then we implemented them for the full season this year and we've seen them at some other venues as well, the Warriors tried them at the Playoffs, but we had 'em full year and what we did was they put in about 120 cameras, spaced approximately five feet apart, between the bases. 120 of 'em, and they focus on the pitcher and the batter, so when you have a play, you can 3D, or 4D, 4D rotate around that play and watch the ball as it's moving off the bat, and get it from that full perspective, it's awesome for the fan experience, it gives them a perspective they never have, I love watching the picture, because you can see that hand, in full 4D glory pronating as it comes through on every pitch, if you can watch that hand carefully you can predict what kind of pitch it is, it's something that a fan has never had access to before, we did that for the first time this year. >> I had a new experience, obviously you see Statcast on TV now, a lot of this overlayed stuff happening, kind of creates like an esports vibe to the table. Esports is just coming. >> And it's just the beginning >> Your thoughts on esports, competitor, natural evolution, baseball's going to be involved in it, obviously, thing in the emerging technology's looking interesting, and the younger generation wants the hot, young... Sure, we feel like our game has been around a long time, and it still is, the rules haven't changed that much, but fans still enjoy it, but they just consume it differently and our game can be incredibly exciting in moments, but, there's also some gaps in there when you can build relationships. Some of the younger generation may fill those gaps with watching somethin' else, or two other things on their devices, but that's okay, we embrace that at the ballpark, but in terms of the emergence of esports, and the changing demographic of our fanbase, what we're trying to do is just package our game differently. One thing I'm really excited about, and startin' to see, we're in the early days, I consider with virtual reality, we experiment with it, maybe two or three years ago we've been doing some stuff with it, but I'd say it feels like we're in the second or third inning with virtual reality, where we're really going, and I've seen Intel doin' some of this stuff, I was out working with Intel in Pyeongchang, at the Olympics this past year, working with their PR team, and where it's going I can already visualize what this is going to be like, this concept of volumetric video. Where, it's not about having that courtside seat, in basketball, or that seat right behind home plate, it's about being wherever you want to be, anywhere in the action. And to me it's not about doin' it live, because in baseball, you don't know where the ball's going to go, it's about doin' it, replay, right after, okay, that ball was shot to Brandon Crawford, he made the most amazing diving play, picked it up, gunned it to first, where do you want to watch that from? Everybody's different, some people might want to watch it from right behind first base, some people might want to watch it right Brandon Crawford, behind the batter, with volumetric video and the future of VR, you'll be able to do that, and this esports generation, this fan's instant gratification want, unique experiences, that's what's going to deliver it. >> This is such an immersive environment, we're looking at this kind of volumetric things from Intel, and you got VR and AR, immersion, is a new definition, and it's not, I won't say putting pressure, it's evolving the business model, who would've thought that DraftKings and these companies would be around and be successful, that's gambling, okay, you now you got that, your VR so the business model's changing, I've been hearing even token and cryptocurrency, maybe baseball cards will be tokenized. So these are kind of new, crazy ideas that might be new fan experience and a business model for you guys. Your thoughts on those kind of wacky trends. >> That's why I love working with companies like Mayfield 'cause they're seeing the future before we see it, and I love being where we are, so we can talk to them, and learn about these companies. Another example, along those lines is, how are fans going to get to the ballpark five years from now, and how do we adapt to that because we're doing a major development right adjacent to the ballpark, we've got 4,000 parking spaces. Are we going to need those five years from now? Well we're going to build out that whole parking lot, we're going to put a structure in there. But five, ten years from now, we're building that structure so it can be adaptable, because, is anyone going to need to park? Is parking going to be like typing, you know on a typewriter, 10, 15 years now because everybody is in either self-driving cars, or ride shares, and the cars just, poof, go away, and they come back when you need 'em. >> Like I said, everything that's been invented's been on Star Trek except for the transporter room, but maybe they could transport to the game. >> We could use that in San Francisco. >> Bill, got to ask you about your role with Mayfield, because one of the things I've always been impressed with you is that you always have a taste for innovation, you're not afraid to put the toe in the water or jump in the deep end where the technology is, these guys are lookin' for some trends, too. How do you advise some of these guys, how do you work with Mayfield, what's the relationship, how are they to work with, what's the intersection between Mayfield and you? >> Well the one thing that Mayfield does is they put together a conference, each Summer, that I love comin' down to, and I get to meet a lot of my counterparts and we talked about meeting with my counterparts in sports, but I love meetin' with my counterparts across all industries, and Mayfield makes that possible, they bring us all together with some really interesting speakers on a variety of topics not all directly tech related, so it's a great opportunity for me to just get outside of the daily routine, get outside the box, open my mind, and I just have to drop down the road to do it. So that's an example, another thing is, Mayfield, and other firms will come to me, and just say, "Hey, here's a technology we're evaluating, "they think it would be a great fit in sports, "what do you think?" And so, I can give them some valuable feedback, on company's they're evaluating, companies will come to us, and I might throw them their way, so it's really a two way street >> Great relationship, so you're a sounding board for some ideas, you get to peek into the future, I mean, we've interviewed entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs here, it's a seven, eight year build out, so it's almost like an eight year peek into the future. >> Yeah, and it's super valuable, especially given where we are geographically and our inclination toward being on the leading edge. >> I want to just end the segment by sayin', thanks for comin' in, and I want you to show the ring there, 'cause I always, can't stop starin' at the hardware, you got the ring there, the world champion. >> It's a few years old at the moment, we're going to have to get a new one sometime soon. >> We got to work on that, so is there any cutting edge technology to help you evaluate the best player, who you lookin' at next year, what's goin' on? What's the trades goin' on, share us-- >> Are we off the record now, 'cause I have a feeling you're asking this for personal reasons, for your squad, so. >> I'm a Red Sox fan of the AL, obviously, moved here 20 years ago, big fan of the Giants, I love comin' to the games, you guys do a great job, fan experience is great, you guys do great job and I'm looking forward to seeing a great season. >> Thanks, yeah, hope springs eternal this time of year, we always block off October and expect to be busy, but when we have it back, it just gives us an opportunity to get a head start on everybody. >> Well Bill, thanks for coming in, Bill Schlough, CIO for the San Francisco Giants, here on Sand Hill Road talkin' about the 50th anniversary of Mayfield, and this is the People First Network, getting ideas from entrepreneurs, industry executives, and leaders. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE, thanks for watching. (electronic music)

>> Narrator: Live from Las Vegas, it's, theCube. Covering NAB 2017, brought to you by HGST. (upbeat techno music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick hear with, theCube. We're at NAB 2017 in Las Vegas, California. 100,000 people all talking about broadcast industry, media industry, and tech. Met is the theme because the technology is completely interwoven in with media and entertainment. And we're excited to have a great representative from the Hollywood Section Manager, Society Motion Picture and Television Engineers. That's a mouth full, Steve Wong. Steve, welcome. >> Welcome, or SMPTE, that's the easiest. >> SMPTE, I'll go with SMPTE, he's from SMPTE. Alright so you had an interesting talk earlier about blockchain. It's interesting, we've been here for three days and a lot of conversations of kind of, similarities with trends we're seeing at other shows that we cover with democratization of data, and access to the data, and abilities of cloud, and integrated security. But we haven't really talked about blockchain. But I think that's kind of funny, that now we're hearing the blockchain conversation come in too as we hear in many places. Where does blockchain fit? >> You know it's really interesting, because originally I had heard of a blockchain for folks in the financial industry. And that's where the real big push is. And a lot of VC's were talking about blockchain. So I started to look at blockchain and median entertainment, and I said, "You know could this fit? "You know what would be an interesting fit for this?" And when you look at making a movie or a television program, it's just a lot of transactions. And that's where blockchain is absolutely perfect. >> Right. >> You know blockchain is basically a general ledger entry. So when you think of you know, why is that important? You know, I looked back to the origination of content, you know, for moving images, and that's a feature film script or a television script. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> So imagine when you write that, the first thing you do is you go and you register it with the copyright office. So my thought is, that's your first chain in that link of ownership. And so the next thing you do, is you want to option that script off. So you're going to send out a document, your PDF to your agent, and he's going to send it out to a bunch of other agents. And then you'll have a track record of that next transaction, whoever received that. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> So as you go down through that production, you know I envision being able to tie it back to that original ownership for that script. Whoever options his script to go out into the production. To actually take that all the way down to the storage, to the camera, and be able to pull even all of that meta-data together. Link it to the ownership into that chain, all the way to the distribution to the actual viewer at the end of it. >> So, the greatest descriptive term I've heard of blockchain is trust as a service. >> Steve: Right. >> Which is really an interesting way to coin it. And what's interesting about this industry, is the transient nature of the way, you know, kind of groups of people and resources are assembled around a particular project, this script in which you described. They create this asset, and then they go, you know, poof, they go back from whence they came. >> That's the challenge, right? >> So it really begs, it begs for better trust solutions. >> So imagine you get a deal with a show, and they say, "You know what? "We're going to pay you rate, "but we're going to give you percentage of the back end." And you say, "Fantastic." And then you go on to your next project. How do you find that out? >> Jeff: Right, right. >> Right now it's really difficult to track that all the way back, residuals or whatever. This will be an easy way to basically see who's seen it, who gets paid, what you're owed, and everything else. >> Right. Now it's pretty crazy now you said before we turned on the cameras, that it's all very, very still old-school paper based at this point and time. >> That's the crazy thing about, you know, you look at other industries, you know, and I touch a lot of industries. And you think, wow, you know, we've got basic things. Such as when I start with an employer, I can go online and download all of my stuff, and I never touch paper. But even today in the television industry and the motion picture, you know, for 99% of it, it's all paper. So basically all my stuff I have to physically give them, and fill out, you know, documents at the end of the day. You know, a PA checks me in when I show up. A PA signs when I send out, on a piece of paper, they send it in a football back to the financial office at the show. And they do all these things manually. You know, it's coming to where they're doing digital onboarding. >> Right. >> But all this stuff is still paper. Because really it's like we've been making movies for the last hundred years. >> Right, and yet we're surrounded at this conference with hundreds of thousands of square feet of new technology, and new innovation, and computer based stuff, and IP based stuff, and crazy cameras, and 360 cameras, and 4K, and 8K, and HDTV. So clearly there's no holding back the technology edge. That there's three leverages, but then you got to check-in with the PA right? >> If you make billions of dollars the same way that you did a hundred years ago You know, who's going to be the guy that going to change that? Or a girl, right? That's the challenge, if it's, you know, not broke, don't fix it. >> That's why I love Clayton Christensen's book. It's still my all-time favorite book. Right, it hard to change when you've been making money, that same old way. So what are some of your other impressions of the show? You've been coming here for a number of years. The vibe's different I keep hearing. It's our first time, but I'm curious to get your kind of general impression. >> You know the interesting thing is, you know, again following the trends in other industries, you know, to move to a true digital IP workflow. So I'm seeing that really starting to materialize around here. You know, I think that the challenge is... You know, when I started off a hundred years ago on television I was a, you know, de facto MIS manager and director of research at ABC. And back in those days, in the 90s, you know, I connected our sales team to the internet. And then you could actually send emails to the buyers, and that was like a big, big jump. >> That was a bad day though, in hindsight. >> Yeah, so um. >> (laughing) Too much email ack. >> So you see folks that, you know, understand video and BNC cables, and things like that. >> Right, right. You have another group that understand ethernet, you know, NIP. And they have always been in two different worlds. You know, at every TV station, you have your IT guy that would never touch the broadcast equipment, he was forbidden there. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> You know, a long time ago. But now you see that merger. You know, where you really have, you know, a manager or VP that understands video and understands IP, and says, "You know there's a better way to do that." And it's secure now a days, and you know, if you take the right precautions. So that's the trend that I've seen change around here. Because the cameras are all digital, right? >> Right, right. >> Everything is digital along that path, why would you have to go back to video? >> Jeff: Right. >> You know, we have things like Periscope. We can do live video to millions of people. >> Jeff: Right. >> So the technology's clearly here. >> It's just so amazing, you know again, the themes are consistent wherever we go. This just democratization of access, and ability. That I can go sit in the front row of a Dodger, Giant's game, and you know, hold up my Periscope and pretend that I'm Vin Scully, you know, for a minute. Which clearly I'm not. And people probably are not going to watch me like they love Vin Scully. But it's so interesting that at the low-end, you know, there's so many tools available for people, for creators, that they just have access that they didn't have before. At the high-end, I mean, the amount of stuff in this conference room. Again with the 360, and VR, and the IR, and the 4K, and the 8K. You know, it's fascinating. But I sometimes wonder is it too much? Are we still managing, you know, the story telling? And is it-- >> And that's what it comes down to. You have to tell a story, that's the most important thing. >> It's so competitive for the audience, right? Because the alternate is just a quick swipe away, you know. So it seems like the pressure to perform, and to get your ROI's, especially on these bigger projects, has got to be higher than it's ever been. >> Alright, this is an interesting thing, because what we've seen in Hollywood is an increase in production. You know, it used to be you'd wait, you know, for a TV season, and they'd pitch the shows to the advertising agencies in New York. But now with the increase of Netflix and Amazon, there's always a season. >> Jeff: Right, right. 'Cause they're always buying things. You know, whatever YouTube channels. You see YouTube stars that are making money, and that's a valuable audience now. Where people are saying, "I'll just watch YouTube tonight "and see what's going on there, "from the people I like to follow." >> Jeff: Right. >> So that drives production, you know, goals and costs down because you can't do a hundred million dollar YouTube production, or you can I guess, right? But you probably won't make any money with it. >> (laughing) I'm sure they are. But the other thing is just strikes me, just is the compression around, for feature movies, around the opening weekend. 'Cause there's only 52 weekends a year. >> Steve: Right. >> And, you know, some of those are probably not so great from a marketing point of view. And this just compression to make that number. Because the next weekend, or two weekends from now it's another movie, or it's another movie, or it's another movie. And so it's seems just crazy. On the other hand, the long-tail opportunities with VOD, and multi-forms of distribution, multi-language, multi-format, multi-channel are bigger than they've ever been before. So it's this interesting dichotomy in terms of the way the market's evolving. >> The interesting thing, because of that pressure, we see huge growth in analytics. You know, there was a great article from, About Netflix, talking about the genres. You know, in Hollywood we've got like 13 genres or something like that. But Netflix has like 73 genres. >> Jeff: Right. >> So they've broken down their audience 'cause they have the device. You know, they know exactly what they're watching. So they use those analytics to their benefits when they buy. You know, the studios are at a disadvantage, unless they have the same things. >> Right. >> So you see guys like Legendary investing in analytics teams and, you know, all these other folks out there that are investing in these analytics teams to make that, you know, smarter investment for those movies. >> Right, it is interesting is, again, as it gets consistent, right? Is that now, if you can track to the consumption of the material, you're not just shipping the product anymore. And it's going to a theater, and hopefully people are watching it or not watching it. But now if they're watching it on their phone, you know, where they're watching, who's watching it, you know what time, how often, how deep they go-- >> Well now that's the key. >> Jeff: It's pretty interesting. >> If you have that application, and you have the ability, you know, like Netflix does that's awesome. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> But remember most of the studios and networks, they're creating it and licensing it off. So they may not get that information. But that's where you see the other trend, where folks like HBO, they create the content, but they also want to have that application device so they can get that information. So I think that's another trend you'll start seeing. >> So will the ones that are still independent that don't have the channel, you know, start to get back as part of their channel deal, some of that data? >> It's challenging, right? Because cable companies typically don't want to release that data. You know, a secondary OTT app may not want to release that data. So it really forces a creator to own that distribution chain, so they can get that valuable data, so. >> Interesting time. Somebody said earlier, I think in the week, that Netflix, I think, is now the largest producer. I don't know what genre of category, but they're like one of the largest studios now of all. Which is pretty fascinating, when they were simply, you know, DVD rental service not that long ago for people that remember what a DVD was. >> Steve: Right. Having difficulty getting contracts with studios. >> Jeff: Right, exactly. >> But-- >> So make your own I guess, that's the ticket. >> Steve: There you go. >> Alright, Steve, so I'll give you the last word. As you look forward to 2017, if we meet again here next year-- >> Steve: Yes. >> What do you think the topics going to be? >> Again, I think what you're going to see is more folks moving to a public cloud, trusting that, and really working with it, using analytics. And the most important thing, that we touched on, is managing that security. Making sure they don't get hacked, so. >> Alright, Steve. Well, Steve from SMPTE. That was the shorter way. >> There you go. >> Steve Wong, I'm Jeff Frick. Thanks for stopping by. >> Steve: Thanks so much. >> Alright, you're watching, theCube, from NAB 2017. We'll be right back after this short break. (upbeat techno music)