At Tech Con '04 in Orlando, Frank Cloutier and I had brainstormed an
idea with a couple of HP Labs researchers to use an array of inexpensive
video projectors to create a low cost projection system for digital
cinema. HP was still in the projector business, and we invented a novel
method for this that ended up in a patent.
The project was named Pluribus. Through work on Pluribus and the
Digital Cinema Initiative, I became even more involved with the studios
in Hollywood and the overall content world.
In 2005, I
was still on the boards of DLNA, CE Linux Forum, the W3C Mobile Web
Initiative, and Coral. I still worked some on HP's color initiatives and
did technology evangelism. Travel took me to Palo Alto, Tahoe, Burbank,
Barcelona, Bristol, London, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, New York
City, Grenoble, Amsterdam, London, and San Francisco.
But
2005 was another year of significant change at HP, and my career took
another interesting turn. By March, Carly was gone, and Mark Hurd was
CEO. Frank Cloutier retired again from HP, and Patrick Scaglia became my
manager as IPG CTO. Whereas Frank was loyal to VJ, Patrick was loyal to
Shane. In turn, Shane needed to be able to survive with Mark Hurd as
his boss. The overall dynamic led to the need to put focus on corporate
goals and initiatives rather than IPG priorities. That's not to say that
IPG was ignored. In fact, the CTO team that evolved under Patrick's
leadership worked diligently to continue to find ways to make printing
relevant in the evolving reality of mobility and the Web and less
interest in hardcopy output. But budgets were slashed, headcounts were
reduced (including the whole HP CTO community), and entire businesses
were under intense scrutiny and pressure to perform. We eventually had
to stop leading international initiatives like DLNA and Corel and the
Mobile Web Initiative due to the lack of funding.
But
it took awhile for the full Hurd effect to be felt. Meanwhile, we had an
interesting attempt to launch and grow a business we called Digital
Entertainment Services (DES). A DLNA BoD colleague, Willem de Zoete,
left Philips and landed at HP as VP and GM of DES. Willem asked to have
me assigned as CTO, and I was glad to morph my role. I eventually became
CTO for the larger Digital Photography and Entertainment business unit
in IPG under Larry Lesley.
Willem's organization ended
up having two parts. One was an attempt to become a video download
service provider. The idea was that HP would be the power behind branded
(e.g., Blockbuster or Walmart) Web-based video stores. That idea
absorbed the bulk of Willem's resources as the Web commerce and video
download capabilities had to be created, and the deals with the Studios
needed to be made to have an interesting library of downloadable
content. All of that fit well with my ongoing work on content
technologies with Hollywood.
The other part of Willem's
organization was aimed at content management for commercial content
owners. That is where I spent most of my time and effort. HP Labs in
Bristol had created technology that we packaged as the HP Digital Media
Platform (DMP) to manage content resources, to fulfill requests for
specialized versions of video and movies (e.g., language, mash-ups,
...), and to handle other post-production requirements. We were in
partnership with Ascent Media in Burbank (and nearly acquired them in
2006). Ascent used the HP DMP and had 100% of the digital assets of Sony
Pictures under management. Together with Ascent, we worked on other
deals and broadened the scope to include mobility, broadcast and
international distribution. Those were very exciting times!
By the end of 2005, the HP DES organization was launched and rapidly becoming successful.
Next: 2006: Digital Entertainment Services
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