Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove’s CEO, and I wrote an open letter in January 2008 to the consumer electronics industry that argued for a strategy to get Internet video to TV sets. We made the case that the best approach would be a set of open industry standards similar to the web, but geared to the unique experience of traditional TV.

Apparently the letter was lost in the mail.

Two years later, the consumer electronics industry continues to stumble forward without a real plan. We all want Internet video on our TV, so the question stands: How is it going to happen?

We are moving into a world of Internet-connected TVs (ICTV), in the form of both traditional TVs connected through a networked device (DVD player, computer, set-top box, game console, etc.) and TVs that come with their own built-in micro-computer and Internet connectivity. While most manufacturers are still fantasizing about replicating the success of Apple’s walled music Eden, the iPod/iTunes approach will fail; no single device and software system is going to win the battle for the living room. As a result, content distributors and publishers will have to find ways to get their content onto a wide range of ICTV systems.

Since the consumer electronics industry has not embraced traditional open standards, we are going to end up with the next best approach: a few default standards driven by open source efforts. These “media center platforms” (MCP) will give publishers and developers a way to build experiences and deliver content across multiple Internet-connected TVs. With any luck, the major consumer electronics manufactures will pick one or two of these software platforms and not make every experience proprietary. (Fingers crossed on this.)

The MCP market is already gaining momentum, and it creates a fresh patch of fertile ground for startups. XBMC, which was originally introduced as the Xbox Media Center, has emerged as an open source effort with decent traction. Boxee is the most high profile example of a commercialized version of XBMC. Adobe could easily resurrect Adobe Media Player as an MCP, as well. Undoubtedly there will be others as the race gains momentum.

But along with the MCP vendors, everyone else wants a slice of the new value chain, including broadband providers (e.g., Verizon), TV manufacturers (e.g., Sony), the content producers/owners (e.g., Viacom), the content aggregators (e.g., Hulu), the advertising networks and the existing social networks (e.g., Facebook). The fight is on.

The road to Internet TV nirvana is starting to come into focus, even if it still looks a little like a scene from Mad Max. As the new stack of hardware and software technologies settles into the place, the next question will be: Is there a killer app for Internet-connected TVs beyond simply delivering more TV?

Adam Berrey is the former SVP of Marketing and Strategy for Brightcove. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at General Catalyst (a Boxee investor) looking for the next big thing in renewable energy, and a blogger at www.startupblender.com.

3DTV is poised to emerge from your HDTV and jump right into your living room. The technology is in place, from the cameras used to capture the content, to the post-production tools and services available to handle the encoding of depth data into the digital image stream, to distribution channels including physical media and broadcast streams, and even to the consumer electronics required to view 3DTV at home.

The demand for 3DTV is clear. One needs only look at the millions of dollars spent at the local cinema box offices by consumers willing to pay a premium to see a movie in 3-D. Much of the movie content has been animated — in large part because it’s easier to create and produce 3-D versions — which, in turn, means that they have been targeted at family audiences for the most part. An entire generation is growing up with the expectation that movies should be in 3-D, and if that’s the case, then why shouldn’t they get the same experience at home? Unlike the difference between standard definition (such as DVDs) and high definition (such as Blu-ray) that can be too subtle for some consumers to appreciate, there’s no mistaking the impact of 3-D on the viewing experience.

While a number of different technologies are competing at the HDTV level, it is clear at this point that the winning combination is a fairly typical flat-screen HDTV with “active” glasses. The advantage of this approach is that the 3-D capable HDTV is likely to cost little or no more than an identical set without the 3-D support. This will reduce any consumer price resistance, speeding adoption. The extra cost only comes when consumers want to take advantage of the feature, at which point they can pay the extra for the required glasses. (And third-party competition is likely to help drive those costs down rapidly.) The situation is analogous to that of sound in today’s HDTVs; almost all have a simple stereo speaker configuration, but their circuitry supports 5.1 surround sound at no additional cost. You simply need to buy a home theater sound system in order to take advantage of the extended capability.

So why don’t we have 3DTV in every living room yet? The biggest bottleneck is content. Hollywood understands the favorable economics, and at present the studios are planning at least 15 major motion pictures in 3-D a year. That’s a significant portion of the movie industry output, but it pales compared with the combined content demand on a typical cable or satellite TV subscription service. Fortunately, a number of companies have developed ways to infer depth information from 2D content, which could open up the vast catalog of older movies and television programs to presentation in 3-D versions.

Panasonic and Sony have already announced plans to make a major push for 3DTV products in 2010, including HDTVs and 3-D capable Blu-ray players. As with so many technology advances in the past, however, hardware is likely to lead software. We had USB ports on personal computers for years before the software caught up enough to make them reliable and versatile features. By the same token, we are not likely to find appreciable amounts of 3-D content available from broadcast or recorded sources until about 2012. At that point, we expect to see more consumers expressing interest in the feature and starting to buy the 3-D capable hardware. This will accelerate, making it practical to move beyond the experimental stage for live broadcast program content, such as sports events that have traditionally driven home entertainment technology change.

If it rapidly becomes a standard feature that does not come at an added premium price, worldwide sales of 3-D capable HDTVs should reach 46 million units in 2013, or a bit more than 20 percent. Three out of four of these will be 30 inches or larger, as the 3-D experience is more effective on larger screens. If manufacturers manage to maintain a price premium for 3-D support, adoption will be slower, reaching 28 million units worldwide in 2013.

So while we have a few years to wait before 3DTV becomes a part of the mainstream HDTV experience, the initial momentum is already apparent. It is simply a matter of waiting for the content to whet consumers’ appetite for a richer viewing environment, where they can get the same benefits that they have come to expect at the local cinema, but in the comfort of their own home.

Alfred Poor is editor and publisher of the HDTV Almanac and a member of the GigaOM Analyst Network. His complete discussion of this topic is available in the latest GigaOM Pro report, “3DTV Market Analysis: The Transition from Cinema to Living Room” (subscription required).

It really doesn’t matter much whether or not plasma HDTVs have better image quality than competing LCD models. It’s a bit like arguing whether LCoS rear-projection high-definition TVs are better than LCD flat panels, or whether HD-DVD is superior to Blu-ray. It doesn’t matter, because the war is over. Just like LCoS rear-projection and HD-DVD, plasma has lost on the field of battle — the retail showroom — and arguing about it isn’t going to change the outcome.

Sure, the plasma market is still more than a dead man walking. The technology holds onto about 7 percent market share, according to DisplaySearch; in order of magnitude, that’s about the same as Apple’s hold on the personal computer market. And the forecast is for plasma to maintain roughly that same share going forward.

The problem is, you don’t survive in the technology world by standing still. Most companies rely on growth and new markets to fund the return on the mind-boggling investments that it takes just to keep a seat at the table in these games. And the LCD HDTV makers are looking at a future in which they will divvy up all the expansion in the marketplace, as well as sales that convert from the disappearing cathode ray tube (CRT) segment.

Compounding the problem is that the LCD makers are in an incredible arms race. Until now, the largest LCD factories — known as the eighth generation, or “Gen 8” — used sheets of glass that are about 7 feet by 8 feet. That’s bigger than a king-size bed, making it more efficient to produce the larger HDTV panels. Sharp’s new Gen 10 LCD plant in Japan will use glass sheets that are about 10 feet per side; it cost in excess of $4 billion to build and is slated to start production in October 2009. (Corning invested about $800 million just to build a glass panel manufacturing plant at the site; the panels are too large to ship so they have to be fabricated at the same location as the LCD panel factory.) Samsung and AUO also have announced plans for Gen 10 or larger LCD plants, but those are not expected to open before 2011 at the earliest.

The result will be continued downward pressure on HDTV set prices. It once was hard to believe that the price for a 42-inch flat-panel HDTV could go below $1,000, but now you can find them for under $600 — both plasma and LCD. These are more or less rock-bottom prices, but there’s reason to expect that the average price for flat-panel sets will continue to decline.

As a result, the plasma set makers will find themselves looking at declining revenues as their market share holds steady while prices drop. And that’s a tough way to grow any business. Some of the plasma companies, such as Samsung and LG, also have big investments in LCD technology, so they’re in a position to win either way. But Panasonic is stuck holding a hand of just plasma cards, limiting its competitive options.

It’s not enough to be better. If that were the case, we’d still have Pioneer Kuro plasma HDTVs as a choice. Instead, Panasonic will have to find some other way to position its products. It revealed part of its strategy this past weekend when it partnered with 20th Century Fox in a promotional campaign for James Cameron’s AVATAR, a much-anticipated movie scheduled to debut in December. Panasonic intends to use the tie-in to promote its 3-D technologies, including plasma HDTVs and new 3-D capable Blu-ray players that are slated to appear early in 2010.

It’s true that plasma has some technological advantages over LCD when it comes to displaying stereoscopic (3-D) images (though it also has some disadvantages as well). The big question is whether or not these advantages can be demonstrated in a compelling way that will make consumers prefer plasma over LCD. As we’ve already seen, being better is not always good enough to win.

Alfred Poor is a display industry expert and a member of the GigaOM Analyst Network. His complete discussion of this topic is available in the latest GigaOM Pro report, “The Death of Plasma” (subscription required).

Jeffrey Katzenberg is prepared for 3D to utterly change the experience of watching television and movies — and a lot sooner than you may think.

The DreamWorks’ chief told attendees at Fortune’s Brainstorm conference in Pasadena, Calif., today that companies like LG and Panasonic are ready to ship “millions of monitors” that show 3D video. Such TVs should show up in living rooms early next year. After that will come 3D screens that don’t require glasses.

“It’s like the move from black and white to color,” he said. “It will move to every device we have. Hollywood will be dramatically changed by this.”

Sports and games will be a strong driver for 3D into the home, Katzenberg said. So will Blu-ray, which he called a “fantastic platform” for 3D.

Katzenberg parried an audience member’s suggestion that 3D TVs might bring consumers out of movie theaters. “The home experience is great, but not comparable,” he said. “It’s like the difference between a live sporting event and watching it at home.”

DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens release earlier this year was the studio’s biggest screen-test for 3D. The film grossed more than $200 million domestically; with half of admissions choosing the 3D version. Some 86 percent of customers said the experience met or exceeded their expectations, according to Katzenberg.

The key to 3D without glasses, Katzenberg noted, is just processing power –- a challenge he said he’s confident Intel and other electronics makers will solve.

Meanwhile, 3D is also taking center stage at Comic-Con, now underway in San Diego. Organizers have converted an entire hall into a 3D screening room for upcoming films from studios like Disney, Sony, Warner Brothers and Fox.

When Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch saw a throwaway character on their show You Suck at PhotoShop — Sandy, a friend of protagonist Donnie Hoyle — get 2,000 Facebook friends, they knew they had a hit on their hands. Web video series YSAP chronicled the life of frustrated PhotoShop user Hoyle through his deadpan asides and stunts that included posting his wedding ring on eBay. But it was Hoyle’s elaborate backstory that drew viewers in, entertaining them while simultaneously teaching them how to master the desktop publishing program.

Bledsoe and Hitch are sticking to the winning formula with their new web series, Big Fat University. The idea behind Big Fat University, the two said at a Web TV/Internet Week Meetup last night at For Your Imagination’s studio in New York, is to teach things they know, like filmmaking and music.

Bledsoe said they have three criteria for their shows: They have to be funny, they have to teach something, and they have to create a connection with the audience. “YouTube broadcasts,” he said by way of comparison, “allow a simple community, but prevent real interaction.” Bledsoe and Hitch create rich context for the characters of their shows, context that spans the entire Internet — including Facebook profiles, Skype accounts, and web sites for the characters’ companies.

And that’s where BigFatUniversity.org comes in. The university, which is “based” in Bledsoe and Hitch’s hometown of Covington, Ky., has a detailed history checkered with just enough real facts to completely confuse the audience. For example, Hitch said, “Where other web sites call it content, “we’re calling it ‘courses,’ and ‘professors’ issuing challenges.” He hopes to get sponsors to form the “university’s” endowment — but says that the sponsors would have to really understand their concept, since it’s not as measurable as traditional web analytics are. The free courses will also follow the same model as You Suck at PhotoShop: web videos that beg for interaction by asking the audience to complete “assignments.” For a guitar class, for example, students could send in different tracks that would be combined to create a song.

The key to YSAP’s success, Hitch said, was that it was a two-way conversation. Posting a video with Boyle answering a Skype call from Sw4shbuckl3r, a friend of Doyle’s from World of Warcraft, for example, would result in people starting WoW Sw4shbuckl3r guilds and logging on to Skype to chat with him. Showing Facebook messages from one of Doyle’s friends would yield her 2,000 Facebook friends by the end of the week. “People would go to see if she was real,” he said. “And that is far more valuable than saying ‘Come look at my Facebook page!’ It gives people more ownership.”

Bledsoe and Hitch also incorporated content based on both the positive and negative feedback they received. From the first episode of YSAP on, commenters debated whether or not the voice-over on the show was done by comedian Dane Cook. The creators said they got an e-mail from Cook saying that he loved what they were doing, but that he was getting tons of emails every day asking if he was the voice-over. So for the show’s final episode, he made a cameo appearance.

Meanwhile, as people got hooked on the story, the creators realized that they, too, were learning PhotoShop. And from a sponsor’s perspective, that’s powerful. “You have people there already interested in your product,” Hitch said. Adobe approached them and loved what they were doing, he said, but ultimately decided that it was a little too PG-13 for them to get officially involved. (Donnie Hoyle has a bit of a potty mouth.)

Bledsoe and Hitch were then asked by Adobe to create a show called Agency of Record, a parody of ad shops. But while the two said they loved the opportunity, it just wasn’t the same as creating something on their own, without direction from anyone else. Being both picky and potty-mouthed, however, is a hard row to hoe; hopefully they can make it work.

Pictured: Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe. Photo credit Karoline Barwinski.

As the battle for 4G supremacy heats up, Clearwire last week at the Cable Show in D.C. showed off an in-car entertainment setup powered by its WiMAX network. On display were two demo vehicles, one of which was set up in Sprint’s booth, rigged with WiMAX-equipped computer stations.

The Clearwire team showed me various examples of streaming video from Hulu and a Slingbox, as well as that of a live traffic camera feed. In an effort to tout its bandwidth capabilities, Clearwire also showed off some web speed tests; I witnessed as high as 10Mbps+ and as low as 2Mbps.

Clearwire’s had discussions with several CE manufacturers interested in creating “pluggable” type technologies, which let consumers port gear between their homes and cars, according to reps. One of the demo vehicles had a Sony PSP with video playing on it strapped to the back of a seat, as well as a portable Wi-Fi base station that was connected to the WiMAX network via a little Motorola dongle.

Stacey has written several posts on GigaOM about the WiMAX vs. LTE battles that will continue to grow over the next couple of years as providers pick sides and roll out their 4G solutions. Clearwire was unsurprisingly bullish on its technology; reps cited what they referred to as its “huge spectrum position” and what amounts to an advantage in backhaul capacity of some 10 times. Setting up new technologies such as WiMax or LTE is not trivial. Citing their own experience with delays of equipment setup and testing, the reps I spoke with said they think carriers are underestimating the length of the trial periods needed to get the LTE systems up, tested and stable before they can do widespread rollouts.

Clearwire is currently running trials in Portland, Ore., and Baltimore and is teeing up Vegas and Atlanta next to be ready by mid-year. They are also rebranding the Baltimore market, away from the original Sprint XOHM branding.

Nate D’Amico works with telecommunications providers on implementing SaaS solutions for their business and consumer customers. He’s also written for our sister site OStatic.

This article was written by Ben Homer, a NewTeeVee contributor who runs the site Online Video Watch.

Updated: More than 55 million homes will could be interactive TV-enabled by the end of 2009. according to research firm SNL Kagan, a number expected to reach 75 million by the end of 2010. Currently there are 30 million homes capable of receiving interactive programming as a result of the Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format standard employed NDS and OpenTV standards employed by DirecTV and DISH Network, respectively. Research firm SNL Kagan expects the Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) standard will be rolled out to an additional 25 million-plus digital cable and Verizon FiOS subscribers this year. In the meantime, ESPN recently became the first U.S. network to announce they will soon go fully interactive 24/7. In other words, this year should be a tipping point for interactive TV.

Interactive TV, which connects digital broadcast television to the Internet to enable a two-way viewing experience, has existed in Europe for years, but here in the U.S. it’s been handicapped by strict government regulations and cable operators resistant to change after years as operating monopolies.

Now that widespread consumption of online video is beginning put pressure on cable operators, we may finally be at a tipping point. Cable operator joint ventures in the form of Project Canoe and Tru2way, as well as the already widespread OpenTV platform, are finally making interactive television possible in the U.S. on a large scale.

“This is the year for interactive television,” Dalen Harrison, CEO of Ensequence, one of the companies leading the creation of interactive television experiences in the U.S., told us this week at the OnMedia conference in New York. “We’re seeing broad deployments with television networks going interactive.” The Portland-based company provides a single authoring tool to deliver interactive content across all platforms for cable companies, networks and advertisers. It first came onto our radar in 2007 when it announced $40 million in Series C funding; it has since signed up an impressive client list.

Ensequence powered NBC Universal’s interactive Summer Olympics broadcast for DISH Networks, which was utilized by 41 percent of subscribers. It’s powered QVC UK’s interactive service, allowing viewers to purchase items using only their remote control, since October of 2008.

“Anything that keeps [viewers] on television is a far better proposition than sending them the Internet,” Harrison said. And the results speak for themselves. He says that, on average, when interactive elements are present, 20 percent of viewers spend 5 minutes interacting. During SpikeTV’s interactive broadcast of the Video Game Awards in 2007, 25 percent of the audience spent a half hour interacting on a two-hour show.

Above: SpikeTV Interactive Features During the 2007 VGAs

According to Harrison, the selling point of interactive TV for programmers, advertisers and MSOs is clear. “It combines the reach of television with the measurement accountability of the Internet,” he said. “You can use your current remote control, current set-top box, no change in hardware. You have a call to action on your television set and it just works.”

ESPN clearly agrees. Starting in June, it will begin rolling out three new interactive features on its networks: A polling application tentatively called ESPN My Vote; ESPN In Game Extra, which will enable viewers to get additional stats and information during live events; and My Bottom Line, which will be available to Tru2way viewers anywhere ESPN displays a bottom line.

That said, it’s still early days. There are a number of hurdles for companies seeking to provide more innovative interactive experiences in the U.S to overcome, and a lot of work to be done in order to standardize interactive ad formats and bring interactive TV to the mainstream. And even if it is possible to reach 100 million households with interactive experiences, that doesn’t mean networks will be able to monetize it or that advertisers will flock to change their existing methods. But for viewers new interactive features can’t hurt, and we can look forward to seeing more of these in the coming months

Has any comic book movie borne the weight of expectations that Zach Snyder’s upcoming adaptation of Watchmen does? Created by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, the legendary graphic novel isn’t like Batman or X-Men, comics that have been reinterpreted numerous times by various writers and artists over the years. There are no alternate visions to debate; there’s only one Watchmen and it has a rabid fan base. Thus, to appease that fan base, the producers have sought to keep the kids in the loop via an interactive web site and a viral approach. And now that the issue of getting the movie released has been settled, they’ve uploaded a marketing gem: a fictional news broadcast celebrating the arrival of a critical character to the comic, Dr. Manhattan.

Found on the web page of The New Frontiersman (a conservative rag and source of conspiracy theories in the original comic), the clip shows a news report circa 1970, and it definitely looks the part. The microphones, the backdrops, the clothing and haircuts are spot on. The newscasters happily recount 10 years of American prosperity under the nigh-omnipotent protection of the blue-skinned superman, and detail Dr. Manhattan’s numerous impacts on the world.

Beyond the fun of the re-created era (including the tell-tale marks of an old, dubbed tape), it’s the footage of Dr. Manhattan (portrayed by Billy Crudup in the film) that makes this video cool. Highlights include a demonstration with a tank, a baseball card-like rundown of his super powers, and an absolutely inspired animated version of the good Doctor.

The cartoon really stays with you; it’s not just cute, but also points to something bigger: God as a cartoon. Or is it the other way around? That might be fine if Dr. Manhattan were a simple entity, or just a tool of propaganda and destruction for the American people. Of everything seen in these three minutes, it’s a long close-up of the hero’s face that haunts the mind, the eyes bright and impenetrable. He is a far more complicated figure than the citizens of the world realize, just like in the original comic.

And this, then, is what makes the viral clip so grand. It’s a fun diversion, something you could show to a friend who doesn’t know a thing about Watchmen, but it’s also a message to the old fans: The filmmakers care about the source material, and are trying to do right by it. Using The New Frontiersman site to deliver bait, just as its fictional counterpart did, is a nice touch. This NBS report portends good things for a movie that has long been anticipated by an devoted, anxious and somewhat unforgiving fan base.

Written by Nate D’Amico.

Cisco had its living room coming out this year at CES, while Yahoo, Intel Samsung and the gang are banded together to bring the Internet into the living room via their TV widgets platform. But Microsoft wasn’t sitting on the sidelines, and I think — for once — that the Redmond giant is ahead of the curve.

Microsoft has spent years and billions of dollars trying to develop a living room strategy. After screwing up its WebTV purchase back in the day and its failed reboot with UltimateTV, it’s hoping that the third time is the charm to stake a claim as the leader in the living room. Its current campaign is launching attacks on two fronts. On one side you have the Xbox, sold direct to consumers. On the other front you have the Microsoft Mediaroom solution that’s sold to service providers as a way to deliver IPTV-based solutions.

After years of losing millions in the gaming space, the Xbox found its golden child in the Halo franchise, along with its growing Xbox Live service. During his keynote address at CES, Steve Ballmer dropped the stat that Microsoft has sold 28 million Xbox units, and more astonishingly, that there are now 17 million users signed up on its Xbox Live service. The rollout of new services, such as Netflix access, should help bump up the number of Xbox Live Gold users. At $50 a year, Microsoft stands to attract substantial revenue from Xbox users.

As for Mediaroom, like most Microsoft products, it had a troubled start. But the company learned some lessons from working with Verizon and the AT&T (sT) U-Verse trials. When I talked with telco reps at the TelcoTV Conference, the feedback I heard was that Mediaroom is maturing into a stable and highly scalable solution. The service now boasts more than 2.5 million subscribers through providers such as AT&T, BT, and SingTel.

At the end of 2008, Microsoft released the Mediaroom Presentation Framework for building interactive applications — and from the demos at CES, the Presentation Framework’s potential is very impressive. It’s quickly raising the bar for cable providers such as Comcast and Time Warner who are trying to get through network and set-top-box upgrades to deliver their own interactive programming experience in the living room.

I had a chance to spend some time with Shari Barnett, who heads up the Presentation Framework group, and see some of the applications Microsoft was showing off. Barret is working with service and content providers to deploy a first wave of Interactive TV (ITV) applications for the Mediaroom Platform, and below are some pictures of initial applications from the Professional Golf Association (PGA).

Once the PGA application is launched you see the main application menu in the top left hand corner of the screen:

Here, the player lookup functionality has been selected to view a detailed profile. Notice the ad banner included at the bottom. Microsoft is offering these ad features to provide monetization opportunities for providers.

Because of the bandwidth management capabilities that IPTV provides, features such as Multi-View allow content producers to get pretty creative with their productions. For example, NASCAR could pipe out the normal broadcast views along with additional cockpit views, allowing the user to switch on the fly to the lead driver cockpit view; or CBS could broadcast Multi-View for March Madness, allowing people to switch between games themselves. Here is a shot of the Multi-View feature that allows the user to view different angles and golfers on the course at the same time:

No word yet when U-Verse customers will get the PGA application. The service providers are moving slowly into the interactive space here in the states but Barnett says AT&T customers should be on the lookout for wider deployments as we get later into this year.

Nate D’Amico works with telecommunications providers on implementing SaaS solutions for their business and consumer customers. He has also written for our sister site href=”http://ostatic.com/”>OStatic.

There are those who assume that the automobile — at least when working properly — is merely a utilitarian machine that facilitates transportation from Point A to Point B. For this particular demographic, the mere existence of a daily web show devoted to everything cool on wheels might be baffling. What could there possibly be to talk about on an ongoing basis? Sure, some cars look nicer and go faster than others, but besides that…?

This is a larger audience than you might expect, given that Fast Lane — from the robustly funded NextNewNetworks — has recently ripped past the 500 episode-mark with incredible viewing stats. The show deftly encapsulates everything within its realm of specialty, from news about big automaker bailouts to the latest model prototypes, from concept cars to electric ones…and it’s not just real-world vehicles that make headlines. Heck, you don’t have to be a fully immersed auto aficionado to be curious about what all the cyborgs will be driving come summer — at least in the latest Terminator flick.

Alternating with regular hosting duties are wisecracking Derek DeAngelis, and uber-babes Carrie Milbank and Alex Gizela. While devoted fans of the series are just as likely to salivate over shots of a Maserati in action as anything, it certainly can’t hurt to throw in some punchlines or, more notably, the hottie hostesses. Beyond that, the pacing is fast enough, and episodes brief enough, to keep things interesting, even for those motivated more by casual curiosity than full-fledged vehicular obsession. If anything, the series can serve as an excellent primer for those wishing to take a stab at attempting up-to-date conversation with those who eat, sleep and breathe wheels.

Will Fast Lane convert the non-believers, specifically those who are perfectly content with their fully functional mini-vans and economy sedans? Probably not, but for everyone else, the show does provide a sweet ride en route to auto enlightenment.

Written by Max Bloom.

A 20-foot great white shark came at you while you were diving, and your friends want evidence. Good thing you had along your Liquid Image underwater digital camera mask. Liquid Image’s latest offering, a diving mask that records HD video in 720p/30fps and can capture 5-megapixel stills, was introduced this week at CES 2009.

The HD Series camera mask allows scuba divers to take underwater HD video and photos hands free, and it’s certified to a depth rating of 115 ft. To use the mask, the diver lines up crosshair marks on the mask with the object then presses the capture button. LED lights inside the viewing area indicate whether the camera is in still or video mode. The mask is powered by four AAA lithium batteries; that amount of power is estimated to be sufficient for 2000 stills or two hours of video.

Liquid Image previously offered a snorkeling version of the mask, certified to 15 ft., that records in 20fps VGA. At the other end of the scale, the company offers the Pro HD350 model certified to 330 ft, with specs identical to those of the HD Series mask. Professional videographers have been capturing the mysteries of the deep for years using expensive waterproof housings. With a projected MSRP of $215, Liquid Image’s HD Series camera mask brings that capability to the vacationing masses.

See the video embedded above for a product tour from the CES floor in Las Vegas.

Max Bloom is a television cameraman and journalist who writes frequently about new trends in digital media.

Ah, irony. When Hollywood’s film and TV writers went “pencils down” in last year’s strike over issues like a fair rate for Internet distribution, who knew that one of the byproducts of their newfound downtime would be great online video? We got the Speechless series, we got StrikeTV, and we got musical phenom Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. But we only almost got The Remnants. And going by the just-released pilot episode, we missed out.

The Remnants from John August on Vimeo.

Screenwriter/director John August (Go, Charlie’s Angels, Big Fish, The Nines) teased a snippet of The Remnants back on his always-fantastic web site in October. The hope was that 60Frames and NBC Universal Digital Studio would pony up to shoot subsequent episodes. Now, with the economy uncertain and August’s post-strike schedule tight, more of The Remnants seems unlikely. So instead this week we get the pilot, and only the pilot, and more’s the pity, ’cause it’s pretty darn good.

A hilariously matter-of-fact look at a goofy group of survivors in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, The Remnants isn’t revolutionary in terms of technology or production values. It is, however, a great example of one of the most elusive of Web beasts: a well-written, well-directed, well-produced comedy that’s actually funny. What’s more, August’s site is geared toward writers, so you can read the script there and see how it started out funny on the page and got funnier when all the talent came together.

Described by August as being a tonal cross “between The Office and The Stand,” The Remnants gives us an end-of-the-world scenario where you raid abandoned kitchens and consider a can of Pringles a triumph, where you score a Wii before realizing you don’t have the electricity to run it, and where that realization leads to a discussion of the time Ed Begley, Jr. gave Helen Hunt a green audit. (“It sounds dirty, but it wasn’t.”)

There’s not a single weak link in the cast, which includes web celebs Ze Frank and Justine Bateman (yeah, we call her a “web celeb” now), alongside Michael Cassidy, Ernie Hudson, Ben Falcone and Amanda Walsh. (With a great cameo by Enrico Colantoni.) Yeah, there’s a moment here and there where the pace seems to drag slightly (a weird pitfall that strikes just about every online video shot with a handheld). On the other hand, what your average web series lacks is a great score, and, when the action’s going, The Remnants has that down — it sounds like the answer to, “give me something like Shaft, only more … jaunty.”

Hope still springs eternal that word of mouth will revive interest and bring the sponsorship dollars rolling in. But until then, Remnants, we hardly knew ye.

This review, along with more details about the show, can be found at NewTeeVee Station.

When reviewing the work of the American sketch comedy duo Dave & Tom, there’s an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. It’s nigh impossible to discuss Dave & Tom without invoking England’s mighty Monty Python.

It’s not simply that David Beeler and Tom Konkle are skilled at literate lampooning, and choose to deliver much of it in British accents. Or that Beeler studied drama for over a decade on the other side of the pond. Or that Konkle recently wrote and co-starred with John Cleese in a two-man sketch show. Beyond the more obvious connections, much of the material from this double act plays like vintage Flying Circus, comedy writ large with an almost swashbuckling sense of wordplay and whimsy.

Exhibit A: The duo’s newest web series, Invention with Brian Forbes, centers around a genteel British television host and his recurring (and, in fact, only) guest, a half-baked inventor named Sir Reginald Bo-Hey Know. Invention recently scored a distribution deal with KoldCast TV, which also has a deal with TiVo. TiVo? It’s a surprising success for such a wry and literate series.

There are more mainstream pop culture parodies within the Dave & Tom repertoire as well, but even those canter off into unexpected tangents. There’s the Jedi knight felled by technological malfunction; a crime show spoof that references white dwarves and Asian mysticism; and even a breakfast cereal commercial that extols the virtues of starting the day with a heaping bowl of Raisin Brahms — as hawked by its namesake German composer. And according to TubeMogul, Dave & Tom’s assorted web offerings have accumulated an impressive 12 million hits thus far. In an age where the knuckle-dragging “comedy” of the Jackass reality franchise profitably milks America’s illiterate underbelly for laughs, it’s heartening to discover that there’s still an audience for the multi-syllabic punchline.

While Dave & Tom’s artful anglophilia is clearly steeped in a nostalgia for the more subtly flavored comedy of yesteryear, it’s surprisingly fit for modern consumption. There’s not a dead parrot in sight, but plenty of time-traveling historians and inept bookshop proprietors rouse the specter of ye olde English sketch show…and even teach it a few new tricks.

This review, along with more details about the show, can be found at NewTeeVee Station.

In Gold, we witness an American team striving for top prize in the world championship of a fantasy role-playing game known as Goblins & Gold. The Yanks have one goal: to snatch victory from the jaws of their gold-hogging archrivals, the Brits.

Gold offers up an interesting pastiche of premises, including the scrappy-underdog-within-a-sports-competition theme, and the spectacle of nerd in-fighting within an already marginalized geekdom. Many stock sports movie characters are introduced, including cocky MVP Richard; straight-shooting Jonathan Drake, the former national team leader who has suffering a crushing “injury” and is attempting to rally in time for the big contest; and the requisite villain competitor, Oliver Crane, who can likely be relied upon to wield mad skills and impeccable British enunciation. (For those nerds who are culturally banned from possessing any previous knowledge of sports movie archetypes, it’s your typical Han Solo/Luke/Vader set-up.) It is the apparent incongruity of sports and nerds that provides some decidedly wry and ironic moments — one might say it’s Rocky, but with a game master in lieu of that Burgess Meredith guy.

Comparisons between Gold and that other highly successful gamer-centric serial are inevitable, if not entirely fair. For starters, Gold goes offline, with much of the premise promising to address the dying art of unplugged role-playing and how the characters will deal with the increased irrelevance of their sport. Judging this series on its own merits, Gold’s pilot episode does falter occasionally, but overall provides ample amusing moments. (Witness the sport agent who has amended his office plaque with a Post-it note reading, “Walk-Ins Welcome!”, or the rogue Richard trying to bounce a gaming groupie out of his boudoir.) With longer-than-usual webisodes (the premiere ep runs for 11 minutes), there is of course a greater risk of getting bogged down by material that doesn’t flow — and Episode 1 does feel slow in parts — but on the flip side, the series also makes good use of the extra time to flesh out its characters and provide a level of detail that shorter webisodes can’t. Also deserving honorable mention is the series’ comprehensive web site, which offers an invaluable primer about the characters, plot and episode chronology.

It will be worth watching to see how Gold’s offline vs. online theme in particular is explored in subsequent episodes, for herein lies a universal fear: Table-top gaming is hardly the first offline hobby to be threatened with extinction. The decline of vinyl records, and books (not the e-kind), and the playing of guitars with actual strings attached, have all elicited comparable waves of protest by die-hard, old-school fans.

You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate Gold’s more successful elements of sports satire or the theme of offline irrelevance, and the looming introduction of the villainous Brits seems compelling enough to stay tuned. (No, they do not make an appearance in the first installment, though the trailer provides a tantalizing glimpse of them.) Gold is off to a solid start.

This review, along with more details about the show, can be found at NewTeeVee Station.

Nowadays, everyone who’s anyone in corporate America is throwing their advertising dollars in one of two directions: hip little branded web series or flashy heal-the-Earth projects. Hands-down successes on either front are still in the minority. But with the delightful GOOD News, luxury car company Lexus and GOOD Worldwide, the media company “for people who want to live well and do good,” have it all going on. Not only are they raising each other’s profiles with a seamlessly integrated sponsorship deal, but they’re delivering a thoughtful, informative daily news show that’s — gasp — fun to watch.

GOOD News officially launched Nov. 21, with the announcement of the Lexus sponsorship, but episodes on the web site date back as far as Oct 14, and they’re all worth checking out. Animated host Roger Numbers is the cutest balding brainiac since Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, infusing laid-back, Ira Glass-esque dryness with an impish snark Jon Stewart would envy. (And he rocks a mean polo shirt on Casual Friday.) The unmistakable NPR flavor is probably no coincidence; former Fresh Air with Terry Gross producer Ian Chillag is GOOD News’ managing editor. (I don’t know who’s responsible for the decision to adorably animate stuff like Numbers’ “I Voted” sticker and his horrified reaction to recycling humans, but I would like to buy that person a cookie.)

Given that it’s coming to you from Lexus’ hybrid line and GOOD, GOOD News is pretty absent of an obvious liberal slant. Sure, you get your occasional focus on climate change and the bold stance that censorship is bad, but you also get severed feet, James Bond and NASCAR. And GOOD News is news you can use, especially if you mingle with smart people and want to sound competent when spouting off about migrant domestic workers in the Middle East or the mess currently known as the Canadian government.

The partnership, which extends to Lexus sponsoring GOOD Magazine’s State of the Planet issue, will probably also do much to raise the profile for two of the car company’s other pet projects: the Lexus Eco Challenge, a scholarship competition, and Hybrid Living, Lexus’ site for consumers wishing to combine luxury and ecoconscious lifestyles.

Yes, you get not one but two big fat Lexus ads on the average page and a blurb for Lexus’ hybrids at the end of each episode. You also get an ad for GOOD Magazine, a change-the-world periodical that lets subscribers pay what they choose and select which nonprofit gets the entire subscription amount. The quality of the show and GOOD’s agenda of positive social change make a little logo-flashing an easy pill to swallow.

Plus, I’m pretty sure they change Roger’s tie every episode, which is kind of awesome.

News worth watching, and a corporate giant pouring a little money into making the world a better place? Sounds good to me.

This review, along with more details about the show, can be found at NewTeeVee Station.

Written by Jake Zim.

Everyone has a story they’d like to tell. As COO for digital media entertainment company Safran Digital, one of the best parts of my job is being pitched those stories, in the form of new web show ideas. The first step in getting your project off the ground is a successful pitch, so if you’re an artist looking to tell stories online and you need financing, here are a few suggestions on how to best construct — and deliver — one.

BEFORE THE PITCH

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so it’s best to get your meeting set through an agent, manager or a contact who’s done previous business with whomever you’re meeting. Let your reps do their job, warming up the room as much as possible by sending links to your work, writing samples, credits, etc. Once you’re in front of a legitimate financier or distributor, you don’t want to waste time self-promoting. And without representation or a warm lead, it could be difficult to get into the room at all.

Consider your story arc — does it work for digital? Think of your episode or segment trajectory as a slingshot. From the first frame, you’re introducing an inciting incident, pulling back to increase tension until the point at which you deliver your punch line, your button, or your reveal. Music and cinematography can help, but the pacing has to be evident in the script. No audience is more impatient than the one online. They’ll click away at the first yawn.

Think transmedia and stay away from gimmicks. While no one in the web video industry is lining their pockets right now, there’s every reason to believe that the next South Park will be incubated online. The most valuable properties, and those that are likely to get made, are the ones that can be leveraged across multiple platforms –- digital, gaming consoles, mobile, graphic novels, TV, film, home entertainment, music, international format rights, licensing and merchandise. Build evergreen characters and expandable worlds.

AT YOUR PITCH

Make it a conversation. It’s a chance to tell a story, but don’t be afraid to get the people to whom you’re presenting talking, too. Your goal is to get them excited about seeing your show, so it helps if you start off by identifying a shared experience. “Have you ever been in line at the grocery store when such and such happens…?”

Focus on what’s unique about your project, without losing sight of why it’s relatable to audiences. Remember: Digital content shouldn’t look or feel like anything you see on TV or at the movies. Remember, too, that the majority of digital screens provide less comfortable viewing environments than those of traditional media. Your show has to be so compelling that it will entice viewership despite being watched on a laptop in a dorm, at a desktop in a cubicle surrounded by nosey colleagues, or on an iPhone in bed next to a sleeping spouse. For example when we produced the Xbox series, Horror Meets Comedy, we went with a concept that traditional media had neglected, taking established horror directors and giving them a chance to show their comedy chops. We catered to the diehard horror fans, banking on the fact that they would want to see their favorite directors cross genres.

Don’t linger on technology; keep your focus on story and style. Don’t waste time in your pitch on the technology that wraps around the delivery platform. Let that aspect of the marketing and distribution be part of another discussion.

Use visuals –- scripts, stills, animatics, character design samples and video. Don’t leave anything to the imagination.

AFTER YOUR PITCH

Be sure to follow up, but when it comes to actually assessing the level of interest, let your reps do the heavy lifting. Keep in mind that you’re never pitching a single project, you’re always presenting yourself as someone with whom to collaborate down the line. More often than not, there are jobs on other projects that come through the pipe that need a rewrite, a director or a producer. Get your pitch down and eventually, you’ll be able to tell your story.

Jake Zim is Chief Operating Officer of Safran Digital Group (SDG), a digital media entertainment company that finances, develops and distributes entertainment programming and technologies for digital platforms.