Maybe Those Pipes Aren't So Dumb After All! Time Warner Subs Way Up ... Thanks to Netflix!

So, what's so wrong about being the supplier of "dumb" pipes? After all, being an arms merchant can be very very lucrative and profitable.

Case in point -- Time Warner Cable. The cable giant's broadband subscriptions are way way up -- 189,000 new subs in the last quarter alone (smashing analyst forecasts). And, get this, a primary driver for this surprising growth is cable's long-time bogeyman and nemesis -- that's right, Netflix! Consumer thirst for video is so high that they are craving bigger, faster pipes. Time Warner to the rescue! And, voila, all of a sudden Time Warner's CEO changes his tune and now proclaimeth "love" (that's right, love) for Netflix.

Ahh yes, the world is a wonderful, magical place ... so long as it is also profitable ....

Kirk Punches -- Welcome to the Blogosphere!

Sorenson Media's very own -- Kirk Punches (VP Business Development) -- has just launched his own digital media/technology blog. Click here to check it out.

Kirk is a very smart and talented guy -- and he has a lot to say. Among other things, he just opened our new Los Angeles office and is our point man in the media and entertainment industry. And, he personally drove our recent partnership with storied media company Technicolor.

Welcome to the blogosphere Kirk!

We Are the Champions! Forgive My Self-Aggrandizing Post

Woo Hoo! My hoops team won the 4x4 Santaluz Club championship last night in back-to-back nail-biters! (Well, okay, maybe there wasn't much of a crowd there ... or, not a crowd at all ...). That's right, back-to-back games -- first, beating back the 2nd seed (we were seeded 3rd, although we had the same record); and then beating back the 1st seed with monster play under the boards. I would like to think this tremendous honor was a result of my coaching (my primary decision being a brilliant one -- i.e., not starting me!). This rag tag group will now forever adorn the hallowed walls of the Santaluz Club gym -- immortalized forever!

Yes, I know -- what does this have to do with digital media? Absolutely nothing! But, when you get to my storied age, self-aggrandizement (and perhaps sports delusion?) is all you got!

The Magic Orb -- What It Can Do For Your Business

Metrics -- numerical objective measures of performance -- have a fundamental role in any business. We at Sorenson Media measure a variety of things -- and track many of those metrics in real-time via a dashboard that I watch continuously throughout the day. The pace of daily sales, not surprisingly, is a critical metric -- i.e., revenues across various product lines. After all, at the end of the day, the fundamental financial measures of overall business success are top line and bottom line revenues/profits.

A while back it was suggested to me by Mark Robertson -- a key member of our marketing team (and who also worked with me at my former company, SightSpeed) -- that we display our real-time sales metrics right "in our faces" in our office, so that all of us on the team are continuously reminded of how we are doing (which gives us overall context to what each of us does on a daily basis). So, we put a flat screen 60" TV on the wall and plugged it into our sales dashboard and -- voila -- there it is! Our real-time "success" is there for all of us to see (complete with color coding via various definitions of sales success for ease of giving an instant snapshot -- i.e., green means that, at that very moment, our sales are strong for the day; red means that they are weak; and purple means they are off the charts (we love those days!)).

Even before we got this set up on the big screen, Paul Yorke -- about whom I have previously written -- independently and without suggestion purchased an Orb (not sure from where) that also ties into our real-time sales data and is programmed via those same color patterns (which is not surprising, since he was the key driver of our overall sales dashboard (and the formulas used to measure real-time "success"). The magic Orb -- our resident soothsayer -- gives us the same real-time snapshot of sales success at that very moment. And, it too sits right in the center of our offices for all of us to see at all times and get a visceral reaction that gives us overall context. It's kind of fun too -- we talk about it all the time. This gives everyone on the team -- no matter what department -- continuing context to what we need to do financially as a business. The team loves it.

Yet another enterprising and creative member of our team (a team which is filled with such passion and drive) -- Ando Sonenblick -- took the magic Orb concept a step further (and again independently, without any request). He developed a plug-in toolbar app that is a virtual magic Orb -- gives us the same color-coded information (plus actual numbers) right there on our computers so that those financial metrics are even easier to see at all times (in fact, I am looking at it now). Ando also added a bit of whimsy to this toolbar app -- he added optional sound effects! On any meaningful sale, the virtual Orb chimes in with the sounds of a coin clinking into a piggybank. On a VERY meaningful sale, the Orb, instead, comes with applause. And, upon a VERY VERY large sale, we get both applause and the loud roaring of a crowd! It is hilarious ... and it is fun.

And, again, it all gives us a constant reminder of what we need to do not only for our investors, but also for ourselves. This kind of context is priceless. And, it is appreciated by the team, because everyone likes to have context to what they do.

One more critical thing, real-time metrics tracking also can give any executive a "feel" for general sales patterns over time. As an example, I have an educated sense of the way things generally "should" be in terms of our daily sales on a Monday vis-a-vis mid-week sales (i.e., generally slower) vis-a-vis a weekend day (business day sales generally are much stronger than weekend sales sales days for us). So, if a particular sales day "feels" aberrant to me, then it is possible that there is a problem with our shopping cart or other factors -- or that new changes to our website have significantly impacted sales (both in a positive or negative sense). I have identified such problems in the past in this way -- i.e., I "felt" something was out of whack, so I asked my team to look into it and -- voila -- something was in fact out of whack and we fix it.

The magic Orb -- and what it represents -- is a great tool for any business. And, as indicated above, it keeps things lively all the time and gives us a sense that each of us is a significant contributor to our overall financial success (which we are).

London Calling! No Clash Here As Mark Lawson Is Ideal Fit to Lead Sorenson Media's New European Office

We at Sorenson Media are pleased to announce our new London office that is headed up by industry veteran Mark Lawson. London is our first European office, and this news follows fast on the heels of our recently announced office in Los Angeles headed up by Kirk Punches. Apart from our other offices here in the U.S. both in San Diego and Salt Lake City, London joins our other international offices in Tokyo and Seoul.

London is a natural fit for us as a company and is a direct response for growing UK and European demand for our broad array of video encoding solutions. As we have reported previously, despite receiving no direct Euro-centric marketing in the past, London has been our top online revenue generating city for quite some time and by a significant margin (over challenger New York City) -- and Europe, overall, accounts for about 30% of all online revenues. Why? Because London (and Europe in general) is the home of significant video production, of course. Among other things, this is a clear indicator of the growing importance -- and opportunity -- of the international markets to us.

Another Mesmerizing Video -- Slow-Mo Skydiving

Watch this mesmerizing video --

Experience Human Flight from Betty Wants In on Vimeo.

Yes, Apple Can Do No Wrong -- But, What's Next? iTV -- Trust Me On This One

Wow! What else can you say about Apple's just announced quarterly earnings? Wow, wow, wow, wow! Nearly $25 BILLION in sales -- for a 3 month period! Revenues were up an astonishing 83% year-over-year -- but, that's nothing compared to the fact that profits were up an astonishing-er 95% to $6 BILLION! And, get this -- 50% of Apple's quarterly revenues came from a product it didn't even sell a couple years back -- that's right, the iPhone now makes up over half of Apple's overall revenues.

The company simply can do no wrong.

But, how can any company -- even Apple -- keep this up? It simply isn't possible, is it?

Here's the answer -- here's Apple's next great frontier -- it is the living room. And, it is the REAL Apple TV (not the current impostor). The real Apple TV -- which will inevitably be dubbed the "iTV" -- will be a beautiful all-in-one flat screen that marries the hardware with the services in a way that Apple is singularly notorious for. It will be no separate box -- it will be an elegant work of art (or, at least, that's what we will all believe based on the Apple marketing machine). And, if Apple builds it, people most surely will come. And, they will pay -- and they will pay top premium dollars because they will pay more for anything Apple builds.

I have written about this before (here's my earlier detailed analysis about "why") -- this is not an "if" question -- it most certainly is a question of "when."

Sorenson's Own Finishes Boston Marathon (Just Doug Cebik's Latest Feat)

You just saw my post about Sorenson's talented team skiing and surfing. Not to be outdone, our very own Doug Cebik -- whom we call our International Man of Mystery -- just completed his latest Marathon (the Boston Marathon to be precise). And, he did it in style -- sub-3:30 time, and proudly donning a Sorenson Media shirt! (all Doug's idea by the way).

Doug is an amazing guy -- does Iron Man triathlons at a drop of a hat. And, does great things for us here at Sorenson Media.

This is yet another example of the talented team with whom I am proud to work. Talented, passionate, well-rounded ...

GoPro & Sorenson Media VIDEO -- Surfing & Skiing Together

This video is what "IT" is all about -- (1) great content (hey, these are not stunt doubles, these are actual live multi-talented Sorenson Media team members -- we work hard, but we also surf & ski in our San Diego and Salt Lake offices), and (2) great enabling technology (take 1-part GoPro HD cameras -- wow! and 1-part Sorenson Media). Here is the end result by mix-master Pat Rich, our resident in-house video production guru ... enjoy ... I certainly did.

Sorenson & GoPro HD

Mobile Video & the Significance of Adaptive Bit Rate - A Simple Explanation

[This is a guest post by David Dudas, Sorenson Media's Vice President of Video Solutions, that first appeared in BusinessInsider a few days back. This is David's second thought piece in BusinessInsider in two months -- his earlier piece explained the significance of the H.264 v WebM format debate. David takes a decidedly non-techy approach to these discussions, which makes them very useful indeed to the business executive, no matter how techy they may think they are. In other words, his thought pieces give real-world practicality and tangible understanding.]

It's not discussed often, but online video is undergoing a quiet transformation that's fundamentally altering the economics of digital distribution. What is this radical transformation? It's not over-the-top delivery, a new video-on-demand (VOD) service, or even a new tablet or smart phone. Instead, it's something much more mundane: the adoption of Adaptive Bit Rate technology.

Adaptive Bit Rate, or ABR, is a technology that allows online video to be viewed without frustrating interruptions for "buffering" – something we've all unwillingly experienced. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Simply put, ABR enables uninterrupted playback by constantly analyzing the viewer's Internet connection and "adapting" to poor bandwidth conditions by switching to a lower quality stream. It's the digital equivalent of driving home from work on city surface streets when freeway traffic is at a standstill.

As recently as two years ago, ABR was considered a nice-to-have feature for content creators and online video service providers. The vast majority of online video was consumed in-the-home or at-the-office on PCs with decent broadband connections. While the average U.S. broadband speed of 3 Mbps paled in comparison to South Korea's 15 Mbps (and still does!), it was good enough to view online video that was delivered via now-outmoded technologies such as progressive download and constant bit rate streaming.

Today, everything is different. It's no longer guaranteed that an online video viewer is attached to a wired broadband connection. Today's viewing audience is just as likely to be streaming video to an iPhone or Android device over a 3G wireless network, or to a set top box in a home where three other people are saturating the network by streaming video to their iPads and laptops. In other words, the diversity of today's streaming environments and proliferation of viewing devices makes ABR a must-have technology for content creators and service providers, not a nice-to-have. The trends overwhelmingly point to greater device proliferation in the future. Remember, the tablet category of personal computers didn’t even exist as recently as one year ago.

So the user experience is all well and good, but how does Adaptive Bit Rate alter the economics of digital distribution? To answer this question, it's helpful to understand that ABR avoids buffering by delivering very short video segments (typically 5-10 seconds) – one after another after another – to the viewing device rather than one continuous stream or one large file. Every five seconds the viewing device requests the next video segment from the media server. In response the media server delivers a lower quality (i.e. lower bit rate) segment if the connection speed is degraded, or a higher quality segment if the connection is sufficiently fast.

To enable this adaptive form of delivery, content creators and service providers must chop their videos into a bunch of five-second segments. Then, they need to create multiple "renditions" of every five-second segment – e.g. a 200 kbps segment for poor bandwidth, a 400 kbps segment for slightly better bandwidth, and so on. To illustrate, let's assume we want to prepare a two-hour movie for 10 different bandwidth conditions. First, we chop the video into five-second segments:

120 minutes ÷ 5 seconds = 1440 segments

Then, we create 10 renditions of each 5-second segment:

1440 segments X 10 renditions = 14,400 little digital files

In other words: you will need to transcode and store over fourteen thousand digital files for every two hours of source content.

Unfortunately, the madness doesn't stop there. The 14,400 files described above may look great on an iPad, but will be completely incompatible with Android devices or devices that use Flash or Silverlight for playback. So one must transcode and segment several additional renditions to support the growing number of smart phones, tablets, and connected TVs flooding the market this year. Multiply all those renditions by the number of titles in your catalog....Wow, that's a lot of transcoding and storage!

In a nutshell, THAT is how Adaptive Bit Rate alters the economics of digital distribution. In years past, transcoding and storage were manageable expenses because a single source video was typically transcoded to a single output file. In the age of ABR, however, the sheer volume of output files requires significantly more compute power and storage space. Clearly, content creators and service providers cannot rely on the traditional hardware model to support ABR unless they want to blow their IT budgets on truckloads of servers and teams of engineers to keep them running.

Fortunately, there's a place where high-volume, high-complexity ABR transcoding makes economic sense: in the Cloud. As content creators and service providers migrate their transcoding workflows to the Cloud, they quickly discover a myriad of advantages over the traditional hardware model: drastically reduced CapEx and OpEx, on-demand elastic capacity, automated scalability, increased agility, quicker time-to-market, and built-in future-proofing. In fact, the economics of video transcoding in the Cloud are so advantageous, content creators and service providers who try to build or maintain in-house systems will find themselves at a debilitating disadvantage to their competitors.

If not for Cloud computing, the cost and complexity of Adaptive Bit Rate would kill online video. Providers would either stick with outmoded technologies – which would discourage consumption due to the maddening buffering experience – or providers would drain their resources on unsustainable, traditional hardware infrastructure. Luckily for all of us digital media junkies, the Cloud is here to rescue online video. This is a case in which you really can believe the hype.

"American Idiot" on Broadway -- Music Great -- Story, Not So Much

I am on my way to Washington, D.C. from New York this week to be part of TechAmerica's Cloud2 Commission that will make recommendations to the Obama Administration (okay, there is the digital media/technology angle for this post). During my New York City sojourn, last night, I saw the Green Day musical "American Idiot" on Broadway. And, Billie Joe Armstrong himself played the part of St. Jimmy -- which was an incredible fortuity for me, since I am a huge Green Day/Billie Joe Armstrong fan. Great musician. Great talent. Great passion.

So, what's the verdict on the production? Not surprisingly, the music was outstanding. And, equally not surprising, Billie Joe Armstrong was outstanding in his role (which is a secondary one). He is a born entertainer. The male lead also was outstanding. So far, so good.

But, as much as I wanted to like the production ... really like it ... I never got to that point. In fact, by the show's end, things had begun to drag and I was ready to call it a night. Why? Because the story itself was a jumbled mess for me -- very difficult to follow. So, the musical played more like a Green Day concert that was mostly sung without Green Day than an actual Broadway production. Overall, a strong story would have made the overall experience much more memorable -- the music itself was born to be that way.

Nonetheless, I saw Billie Joe ... which was very very cool. And, that alone was worth the price of admission.

iPhone Kills the (Previous) Video Star -- Cisco's Flip Is Dead

Wow -- although not completely surprising. Just announced - Cisco is immediately killing off its Flip business (which it just purchased for $590 million a couple years back). 550 employees are getting pink-slipped ... very sad indeed.

I predicted this a long time ago -- i.e., the stand-alone pocket cam is a tough sell to consumers right now who can get HD video capture in their all-in-one smart phone.

Another casualty of the iPhone ...

"Wicked's" Wicked Witch IS Wicked After All!

Warning! This post is decidedly not about digital media -- it is a New York slice of life.

My wife and I just took the kids to New York City for the first time -- and, not surprisingly, one main reason is to see their first real Broadway shows (they both love the theatre). What does that mean for kids? The musical "Wicked" of course.

The musical lived up to all its hype -- great show, great spectacle. My kids loved it. They loved it so much so that they wanted to do a quintessential New York thing -- stand outside the stage door after the show to see the musical's stars exit the building and get their autographs on their Playbills (it was their first real Broadway show after all). That's what Broadway stars do, right?

The two leads in "Wicked", of course, are Glinda, the good witch, and Elphaba, the Wicked witch (who, in the show, is not so wicked after all -- but is just believed to be -- and that is the whole point of the musical of course).

So, the Wicked Witch isn't so Wicked, right? Well, not so fast.

Glinda (the Good Witch) didn't disappoint -- as she left the stage door, she was nothing but smiles, adorable, gracious and effusive with the kids. She signed the playbill with aplomb. The kids were thrilled.

But, then we kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Elphaba (Ms. Wicked herself). The security officer outside the door essentially told us she would be coming. 15 minutes passed, 30 minutes .... We rationalized all of this by thinking that she must still be taking off her green make-up -- that's got to take forever.

So, we kept waiting and waiting some more ... extremely patiently (I got to hand it to the kids). The payoff would be worth it. Both witches signing the playbill -- how cool would that be for the kids? Frame that for them -- a keepsake forever!

But then, without explanation, Mr. Security Man closes the door matter-of-factly and extremely abruptly breaks the jarring news to the kids -- "okay folks, that's it -- no one else will be coming out the door."

Huh, what? Tens of adoring little kids standing outside the door (including my own) all looked at each other -- and all of us parents -- incredulously. Their little hands held little pens for the Wicked One to sign their little playbills! And, their little hearts were a little broken for that little special moment that never came after waiting for more than a little bit of time (ok, so that is a bit dramatic ... but it WAS disappointing). At least it would have been a little more polite for the Wicked One to let the little security man know that she wouldn't be instilling a little joy in those little lives at that little moment.

(That little moment brought me back to a traumatic moment in my own childhood that still haunts me -- I was in D.C. during the filming of the classic movie "All The President's Men" in the mid-1970s; Robert Redford was there filming a scene; I had a chance to approach him, so I seized that moment. I was a smiling kid after all, right? So, I approach Mr. Sundance himself -- he is a giver after all. I ask him politely for his John Hancock. And, what does he do? He looks me in the eyes and proclaims, "No son, if I gave it to you, I would need to give it to everyone." OUCH! That stung!)

So, the final verdict? The Wicked Witch lived up to her name after all! Maybe that IS the point after all!

(so off we went -- following the grey brick road to the Meatpacking District where we had a great meal that didn't disappoint and all was right with the world ... ).

(Post-script -- check out the restaurant "Spice Market" in the Meatpacking District; then go have a drink at the top of The Standard Hotel; and don't miss out on checking out the restrooms -- THE most incredible views you will ever see from a restroom ... ever! And, yes, I am being serious here).

Sorenson Media Goes Hollywood -- Opens LA Office

Sorenson Media's products have long been used by the biggest media companies in the world, as well as by post-production video specialists. That is an important part of our legacy. And, our new enterprise video transcoding solutions -- in the Cloud, on premise, or hybrid -- offer an entirely new and compelling way for media and entertainment companies to meet their video transcoding, hosting and delivery needs. Just last week we announced our innovative new "Digital Dailies" solution with industry giant Technicolor.

To better server Technicolor and our other existing media and entertainment customers, and to better address the accelerating demand for our solutions, today we officially open our new Los Angeles office. Kirk Punches, our VP Business Development who oversaw our Technicolor relationship among others, will lead this office. Kirk has a wealth of experience working with companies in the media and entertainment space. In fact, our entire team has a wealth of experience in the media and entertainment worlds -- those markets are near and dear to us. I personally spent a decade in Los Angeles at Universal Studios, New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures (before joining the digital media/technology world in 2000). Eric Quanstrom, our COO, spent a number of years at Fox before he jumped to the digital media/technology world. And the list continues with a number of others on our team.

Our new LA office represents our expanded commitment to the Hollywood community. We believe we can uniquely get the creative community what it needs -- and we are committed to succeed in that regard. My team will be at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show all week to further underscore this commitment.

Sorenson Media Honored to Be Selected to Cloud Commission Advising Obama Administration

As I have frequently written, my company, Sorenson Media, has a 15 year legacy of innovation -- including innovation in the Cloud with industry-first enterprise-grade Cloud and Hybrid Cloud transcoding. We were just featured in TechCrunch on Wednesday in this regard.

We are honored to have received further validation of this Cloud prowess by being selected to be part of a newly organized Cloud technology Commission (named Cloud2) that make recommendations to the Obama Administration. Here is a link to the breaking story in InformationWeek. Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, will serve as Co-Chair of the Commission which was organized by the TechAmerica Foundation. In the words of TechAmerica (here is the link), the Commission's mandate "is to provide the Obama Administration with recommendations for how government should deploy cloud technologies and for public policies that will help drive U.S. innovation in the cloud."

I will fly to Washington, D.C. next week to represent Sorenson Media on this Commission -- and am honored to have been selected. Here is the full list of other Commissioners -- it is a veritable "who's who" of the technology world.

My Interview in TechCrunch Announcing Our Technicolor Partnership

On Friday, I was interviewed by Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch about our new partnership with Technicolor (about which I just posted and which was just announced). This is my 800th blog post -- and representing Sorenson Media in TechCrunch for this post is a nice way to celebrate it. Here is the video interview. And, here is the TechCrunch post itself that gives more detail to it.

Technicolor Chooses Sorenson Media to Transform Hollywood Production Via the Cloud

Today we, at Sorenson Media, proudly announce that legendary mega-media & entertainment company Technicolor has partnered with us to harness the power of the Cloud to revolutionize the motion picture and television "dailies" process (which is at the core of production). Here is the link to our press release. And, here is the link to Technicolor's separate press release. "Dailies" are the actual video footage shot each day on set and, as you can imagine, directors, cinematographers, editors, actors, business execs and others need to review that footage continuously during a shoot -- and provide feedback continuously -- throughout the production to get to the desired final product.

That means that these "dailies" are the very core of overall production. And, as you can imagine, apart from quality, security is absolutely fundamental and mission-critical with these dailies. If those dailies get into the wrong hands or are otherwise leaked, then those prized video assets (and the millions of dollars of value they represent) are compromised. Actors' reputations also are at stake -- remember Christian Bale's leaked on-set rant on the Batman production that was aired by TMZ? -- that's because things certainly were not as locked down as they needed to be.

Perhaps shockingly, up to now, the dailies process has been very "old school" as a result of these security concerns. On-set video footage would be burned to a disc -- and those discs would either be couriered across town for viewing or fed-ex'd across the globe. Needless to say, not only was this extremely inefficient and still highly insecure, this process also made the actual feedback process extremely cumbersome and unwieldy.

Enter Technicolor and Sorenson Media to introduce the media & entertainment industry's first high quality and highly secure and interactive "digital dailies" solution -- called ShareVUE -- to solve all of these problems. ShareVUE enables those on-set to simply (1) easily upload that video footage into the Cloud -- SECURELY! -- (2) where it is transcoded utilizing Sorenson Media's renown Squeeze engine that results in the highest video quality -- (3) where those transcoded files are then immediately delivered (SECURELY!) to the director et al. directly to their iPads, iPhones, laptops from the Cloud -- and (4) where those delivered files can be viewed (SECURELY!) and commented on right there in the ShareVUE application so that the feedback loop is complete. If this sounds hard, it is because it is. And, this was only possible by the combined innovation of Technicolor and Sorenson Media -- to read more about how we do it using our Squeeze Solution Pack product, click on this link.

We are honored that Technicolor entrusted this key foundational part of the media & entertainment industry process and workflow to us here at Sorenson Media. Technicolor is a multi-billion dollar global colossus that has deep industry relationships that it has formed over its 95 years (from the very beginnings of Hollywood). In Q4 2010, the company generated well over $1 billion in revenues. And, in its most recent press release announcing its Q4 2010 results, the company underscored that its "digital businesses" are at the core of fueling its future growth. Technicolor joins our growing list of blue-chip partners, which reads like a virtual "who's who" of the media and technology industries -- including Google, Apple, Adobe, Amazon, Shutterfly and Avid.

Click on this link to watch my interview with TechCrunch announcing this partnership -- and what it means for Hollywood.

Hollywood Productions Reel in Wake of Japanese Tsunami -- Consideration of Digital Workflows Accelerates

The recent and ongoing Japanese disasters continue to cause mass suffering. And, apart from the human toll (against which everything else pales in significance), tremendous shock waves continue to ripple across the globe. Hollywood is not immune. And, those realities are accelerating adoption of digital workflows across television and movie productions.

The specific driver for this reality is a significant HD tape shortage in Hollywood because one of the major tape manufacturing factories in the world -- Sony's -- was heavily damaged by the disaster (click here to read more about this reality). Hollywood, perhaps surprisingly, still largely depends on such video tapes for motion picture and television productions. Recent meetings I attended in Los Angeles last week confirm that there is a mass scramble for such tapes right now. At the same time, consideration of digital workflows amongst those same Hollywood ranks -- in lieu of tapes (and vulnerable supply chains) -- has accelerated because the business ranks have demanded immediate solutions from their technical teams.

Hollywood is notorious for being reactive (I know this from my own personal experiences, having worked within the major studios for nearly a decade). This is one such example amidst the poignant fragility and suffering in Japan.