>> 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)