On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 19:38, Scot McSweeney-Roberts <bbc_backst...@mcsweeney-
> To be honest, I'm unconvinced by Project Canvas. It's difficult to see > how a UK only system is going to compete in this day and age. What > does it do that a Google TV box can't do? Why would a manufacturer > make a Canvas box instead of something that they can sell in most of > the world (or even all of the world with the right components)? > > All it does is remind me of the BBC Micro Vs PC Compatibles. Canvas is very short-sighted, but not because it's contrasted with Google TV. GTV has its own raft of moronic issues. >From what I know, Canvas started life as something with a relatively exciting promise: blur the lines between content delivered over IP and content delivered over the air. Splendid. Nothing wrong with that. By easing the massive barrier to entry which exists because of the medium (well, media — DTT, cable, and satellite), you open the market up to a whole host of potential content providers who can get their wares into the living rooms of people who don't particularly want to faff around with web (and all it entails) in order to watch some telly. Unfortunately, this poses a bit of a problem. Not for the BBC particularly (although doubtless many within it look upon such a future with a certain amount of trepidation), but for the other partners in the JV who have a whole lot more to lose if people can chip away at their audience-share for everything except the major series with not a lot of outlay. What would be a win to consumers, if done sensible, is potentially a huge loss to ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5. Essentially, the Canvas JV collectively wants to reap the benefits of the Internet without letting consumers do the same. What we're left with is a somewhat interesting platform. Technically — as far as I can tell based upon what’s been released to date, it's not bad at all, if not particularly forward-thinking. Where we have MHEG on Freeview and Freesat, “application developers” have a choice of MHEG, Flash Lite, or HTML5. Not too shabby. However, the fundamental model remains one whereby the broadcasters as we know them today are not on an equal footing with everybody else, despite a platform which could allow some significant degree of levelling without going too far the other way. Where there was the barrier-to-entry in the form of spectrum and the like, there is now an artificial barrier-to-entry in the form of the Canvas Joint Venture. Thus, Canvas is more or less a souped-up Freeview. It's aiming at the masses, but it’s some distance away from what *could* have been implemented. On the other hand, Google TV doesn't know _what_ it wants to be. Google seems to have this notion that people want to search the web on their TVs and that the user interface for this won't suck balls from 10ft away. Unfortunately, it will. In the end, it's another interesting platform in technical terms, but one which lacks the user experience needed to become a mainstream product (and in the context of this conversation, that's dependent upon whether it lands in the UK any time in the next year or so, which is by no means guaranteed). Worse, GTV – as far as I can tell — lacks any integration between the broadcast stream and the IP-delivered stuff. GTV is, effectively, just a layer on top of whatever happens to be airing. No triggering, no introspection. The “worldwide” angle is a misnomer, because pretty much no TV-related product operates worldwide. Some stuff works generically across all implementations of a particular broadcast standard, but will do so without any of the local niceties. Others will implement multiple standards (although they tend to be quite pricey). The flipside is that the technical aspects of the Canvas specs will probably get punted up to ETSI at some point, and so other countries can run their own “Canvas” ventures working to the same standards. M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
