Letter from the Editor - April 2016

By: Tim Young

“Yes, I'm sad to see celluloid go, there's no doubt. But, you know, nitrate went, by the way, in 1971. If you ever saw a nitrate print of a silent film and then saw an acetate print, you'd see a big difference, but nobody remembers anymore. The acetate print is what we have. Maybe. Now it's digital.” _{–Martin Scorsese}

Evolution is a natural thing. I know a few film purists who insist, insist, that the trend of shooting on digital is killing the art of filmmaking. Film has soul that no arrangement of ones and zeroes can duplicate, they say. Well, Scorsese seems a little more sanguine about the whole thing, and other legends of cinema go even further.

William Friedkin, director of such classics as The French Connection and The Exorcist recently appeared on Marc Maron’s podcast and, among many other fascinating topics, the two discussed digital vs. film. Friedkin unequivocally came down on the side of digital video. He reasoned that a director’s job is to try to share a vision that is as close as possible to what he saw through the viewfinder during filming. The last thing he wanted was to give final cut privileges to every projectionist who handles a print of his film and, along the way, adds smudges, splices, scratches and other forms of degradation.

So on the production side, the creation side, even the legends of the form are willing to bury the old and bring in the new. They are willing to set aside an old way of doing business in favor of a new one. So who are the service providers to say that they are unwilling or unable to do the same?

More and more carriers are getting on board, and are making the leap from “communications service provider” to “digital service provider” in response to changes in both technology and user demand. And as they do, there are myriad questions to be answered, many of which we will take on this month.

In this issue of Pipeline, we examine the digital service provider—the new expectation of what carriers are to become. We will talk about disruptive video models, ways to move to a digital architecture, and new twists on the set-top box. We’ll also look at how NFV/SDN can be a huge boon for carriers… if they can weather the transition. We’ll discuss how a new approach to content requires and deserves new marketing and customer care approaches, and also touch on the IoT. In addition, we’ll get into subjects like energy savings, digital mediation and IMS.

Enjoy and fear not,

Tim Young
Editor-in-Chief