Star of Siam

• Hokyoung Ryu (Hanyang University, Korea)
• Takayuki Nakachi (NTT, Japan)
• Shuichi Aoki (NHK, Japan)
• Sijung Kim (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA)
• Youngkwon Lim (Samsung Research America, USA)
• Eunju Jeong (Hanyang University, Korea)
• Jae-kwan Kim (Hanyang University, Korea)

• Sharing research interests of each discussant
• Understanding this year’s forum theme “Can television compete with other emerging platforms in Asia?”
• Linking up individual presenting topics with the forum theme
• Mingling with each other

 Nathan Room, IIT Institute of Design 

• Thomas Willnoizer (Snapscreen, Austria) willo at snapscreen.com
• Jens Herder (HS Dusseldorf, Germany) herder at hs-duesseldorf.de
• Xiaojian Liu (Zhejiang University of Technology, China) crazylxj at 126.com
• Santosh Basapur (IIT Institute of Design, USA) basapur at id.iit.edu
• Jincheul Jang (KAIST, Korea) jcjang at kaist.ac.kr
• Jehwan Seo (Samsung Electronics, Korea) jehwan.seo at samsung.com
• Hokyoung Ryu (Hanyang University, Korea) hryu at hanyang.ac.kr
• Shuichi Aoki (NHK, Japan) aoki.s-ha at nhk.or.jp
• Sijung Kim (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA) s.kim at unlv.edu
• Youngkwon Lim (Samsung Research America, USA) young.L at samsung.com
• Eunju Jeong (Hanyang University, Korea) eun.jeong at icloud.com
• Jae-kwan Kim (Hanyang University, Korea) firelion at hanyang.ac.kr

SA opened up the discussion based on his experience in 8K super hi-vision delivery over broadcasting (terrestrial and satellite) and broadband (IPTV). He expressed that the needs to enjoy 8K content is blomming in Japan, and NHK is trying to meet these needs offering strong sense of presense and realness to Japanese viewers. However, he acknowledged that it is easier said than done, because this service is highly asking a hybrid model with broadband (internet) together with traditional broadcasting systems. In particualr, braodcasting systems are bulky and hard to change after its launch, he wanted to see the potential of enhancement through the broadband delivery for providing complimentary audio and visual information. That is, the hybrid system – basic serviced provided by braodcast & upgraded services with broadband, is the way how NHK addresses the Japanese needs. He showed the forum participants about a real-time transmission test of 8K video & 22.2 audio via satellite and GEMNet 2 as broadband network. From the receiver’s sdie, the TV set is linked to GEMNet 2 and MMT signalling information is also delivered through broadband. In anothe demonstration, the hybrid model was tested over cable TV, using DOCSIS network. By this first talk, the audience to the forum was being rasied their understanding of the NHK’s approach to link-up the content (in particular, advertisements) with multi-view videos & fast-channel change technique between broadcast & broadband.  

Following on SA’s talk, TN added up NTT’s approach to ensure the quality of services with 4K/8K visual content. What he firstly showed to the audience was the event that NTT tested in 2002 and 207. In particular, the audience was impressed by the remote sports events live-streammed to the cinemas or stadiums in Japan using their own equipments for 4K video live straming. What he was learnt from these experience, and to ensure the success of 4K or 8K video service model, a key is to a standardized protocol. The rest of his talk was to raise the awareness of ‘MMT (MPEG Media Transport)’ standard, to support multimedia content delivery over the packet-based heterogeneous networks. Also, he linked up his talk with SA’s talk (hybrid content delivery), saying that “A typical use case using MMT is hybrid content delivery. whilst the 4k/8K content is transmitted via broadcast, specific contents (multi-angle videos or enlarged portion of a whole video) for each user are transmitted via broadband”.  In the following-up demonstration, he revealed his experience of 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, where he tested with NHK about MMT FF-LDGM Code reliablity. Lastly, from a UX perspective, he disseminated a Japanese KABUKI festival proposal to mark a collaboration between the Japanese traditional culture “kabuki” and ICT technologies to give immersive tele-presence experience using a technique called ‘Kirari‘.   

YL is a key person to lead this MMT protocol standardization in the world. He covered a rather bigger picture of this standardization scope, including MMT, ISO BMFF, OMA BCAST ESG, and UTC. What he questioned to the forum delegates was what they want to have from their future TV environment. Mobile and Ultra HD, Multi-view/Multi-screen, 3D Content (Video), Personalisation and further interactivity are all built upon the MMT standardization. He then emphasized that the TVX people should be vigilant to this standardized format for their UX design activities. 

Enjoying a half hour break, mingling with the speakers & the audience in the forum, HR started his talk on the media consumption culture in Korea. He rendered the pay TV business market in Asia, ranging the market size $376M (2014) to prospective futhre market size $535M (2020). Instead of focusing on the systemic market in the TV media consumption, he talked a new trend observed in Korean younger people, tentatively called ‘snack culture‘, that 5 – 10 minutes short online-videos are widely consumed in this generation. For instance, webtoon (web + cartoon), web novel, web drama are quite populizsed, and the business world is very interested in cultivating this for their future BMs (business models), i.e., ruggedized content with marketing. He showed to the audience about ‘Naver Live service’, which the biggest Korean search engine combine their search results with the ruggedizsed content. These contents are able to lead to purchasing relevant items quickly and easily. He finally raised a philosophical question of a future online media content design – “are we truly free to watch online media?, or  are we just slaves to our tendency to be sidetracked?”   

SK’s presentation focuses on his own CPND (content, platform, network, device) model that accounts for Smart TV evolution, including Google TV, Apple TV, MS TV, Samsung TV, LG TV, and other IPTVs, Smart TV companies. One of the biggest hits in his talk was to classify the types of business model (BM) and ecosystem using CPND, and to introduce the different consumer interactivities. The first part focused on Smart TV’s evolution path, and the second part covered the current and future Korea’s Smart TV design model.

The audience in the forum seemed to be tired just before SJK started his talk. His talk was a star in the form, methinks. His funny gesture & entertaining approach to the audience was a gem. Most of his talk was based on his research results carried out in Las Vegas (the casino city), inter alia, TV experiences with mobile devices. ‘Scene + Scene’ project is still ongoing to make N-screen concept working in the Las Vegas theatres. More than half an hour he demonstrated how the second or N-screen concept quite possibly boosts up UXs without interrupting a flow of engagement to the shows in Las Vegas.