Applied Research for the Creative Industries - Andrew Bud - The Media Institute

© 2010 The Media InstituteThe Media InstituteThe Media InstituteThe Media Institute

The Media Institute

Applied Research for the Creative Industries

14th July 2011

Andrew BudAndrew Bud

DirectorDirector


Overview

©© Media Institute 2011 TSB v1.0 14/07/2011 Media Institute 2011 TSB v1.0 14/07/2011 p.p.33

Mission

• Contribute to national economic growth and employment….

• By increasing the international competitiveness of the huge London and UK media industry…

• Addressing the challenges of the digital discontinuity…

• Through applied research into technology and social sciences…

• Conducted by world-class Universities in London…

• Working together in multi-disciplinary teams in a single building…

• Supported by Government…

• To accelerate innovation and create employment


Target Sectors

We target our research at three main sectors:

• Content Creation – creative flair

• TV and film production, including studios and news gathering

• Video games

• Computer generated graphics and post-production

• Music

• Advertising

• Content Publishing and Presentation – commercial skills

• Music Labels, online streaming services, games publishing

• Book Publishers

• Social media

• Distribution platforms – telco and OTT

• Distribution Networks – telecommunications innovation

• Satellite and cable networks

• Broadband and mobile networks


Leveraging the Digital Discontinuity

• The media industry in the UK has the opportunity to use the digital

discontinuity to:

• Reduce the cost of creating new content - dramatically.

• Lower cost results in better risk profiles, easier financing and more scope for the

realisation of creative ideas.

• Create entirely new types, styles and genres of content.

• Video games, CGI and social networking are recent examples of content owing

their entire existence to recent technology.

• Revolutionise its business model.

• Digital disrupts the economics of every facet of the media industry, and its

business model is being transformed. Examples are digital cinema, IP video

streaming and download, peer-to-peer, mobile applications and e-books


A New Approach

• The digital discontinuity creates opportunities for creative industries worldwide…

• …if they are equipped to capture the opportunity

• To do so they need to:

• Be aware of the potential impact of technology

• Explore the changes technology could effect directly and indirectly

• Experiment with new ways of creating, delivering and valuing

• Derisk opportunities to unlock major investments

• They need pre-competitive applied research into technology and economic/legal questions

• In general they don’t have it…

• …and can’t afford to do it alone


Areas of Focus

• The Institute will succeed by focusing on a number of themes that are crucial to the industry

• Research will focus on the following areas:

• Creation and capture of content and information

• Presentation, user interfaces and multi-channel consumption

• Characterisation, discovery and choice of intelligent information

• Service delivery and distribution

• Rights, privacy and authenticity

• Business models, behavioural economics and innovation

• Multi-language, multi-culture

• Examples of possible research topics for each area are in the appendix.

• Industry-led Illustrations of how the Institute’s mission are expressed


Attraction for Universities and Staff

• Exciting, relevant work

• Industry-focus is a huge plus

• Increases quality of research and hence related government funding

• Additional flow of industry funding for research

• Access to advanced facilities

• Multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration is exciting


Impact and Benefits for Companies

• Delivers applied research and advanced development to help companies:

• Be aware of the potential impact of technology

• Explore the changes technology could effect directly and indirectly

• Experiment and prototype new ways of creating, delivering and valuing content

• Establish strong defensive IPR positions early

• De-risk opportunities to unlock major investments

• Key benefits of undertaking work at the Institute will be:• Flexible, easy access to a deep pool of outstanding academic expertise

• Low transaction costs in establishing and operating relationship with relevant

academic teams - single contract, single relationship, single point of contact

• Professionally managed projects and IPR reduce outcome risks

• Low day rates reduce project cost

• Access to complete, growing pool of IPR, most of it financed by public purse,

delivers highly leveraged outcomes

• Potential to share risk by participation with other partners


Management


Management Strategy

• The Institute will be managed to a small number of key metrics

to ensure focus:

• Industrial revenue and concentration – to manage market relevance

without becoming captive to a small number of dominant stakeholders

• IPR licensing base – to measure economic impact of industry work

• Services utilisation – to ensure that resources are being effectively

exploited by industry

• Total revenue, P&L, cashflow – to ensure targets for growth

and viability are met

• The Institute will concentrate on fostering a culture of creative, industry-

focused innovation, which takes pride in making business better by being

clever. Cross-disciplinary teamwork will be strongly encouraged.


Research Personnel Model

• Academics will continue to be employed by their current university Colleges and will work on secondment to the Institute

• Pay and conditions will initially remain unaffected by secondment

• Institute HR will draw attention of host Colleges to any notabledisparities that emerge

• Seconded staff will be subject to the rules and policies of the Institute staff handbook

• Research staff may work at the Institute part-time, subject to the consent of Institute management

• Clear boundaries must be established between “in-Institute” and “ex-Institute” work, for IPR reasons

• Academic publication will be under dual-affiliate titles

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Organisation


Facilities

• The concept of “place” is central to the Institute’s vision

• This is not a virtual centre of excellence

• “Face-time” between researchers from different institutions and different disciplines and company partners is considered vital to drive real relevant innovation

• The prestige of the “place” is crucial to attracting the best research talent, industry commitment and continuing Government support

• The Institute will occupy offices and lab space in East London Tech City, within easy reach of the industry clusters in WC/W1

• Currently forecast to use 1250m2 including public areas in 2013

• An outstation for facilities including stages, data centre and incubation may be required, in a lower-rent area on the periphery of the centre of London

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Governance

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Membership and Governance

• The Institute will be a Charity if possible

• Universities are the Members of the Institute

• They do not control it

• Members must vote 2/3 in favour to:

• Change the Objectives of the Institute or its Articles

• Raise new membership fees

• Close the Institute down

• A majority of Members must also approve independent candidates for the

Board

• The Institute is controlled by:

• The Board

• Technical Advisory Panel

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The Board

The Board of the Institute will serve as the Trustees of the charity and is

comprised of:

• Independent directors (the majority)

• 1/3 of the Board, at least two directors, elected by the Members

• The Director

• Directors serve for three years

• Directors serving when Members’ Agreement signed require no further

appointment

• Independent directors are selected by the Board itself

• Intended to be industry figures of known integrity and expertise

• Subject to veto by Members

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Technical Advisory Panel

• Board takes advice from the Technical Advisory Panel

• All members and important industry sponsors can be on the Panel

• Chief Scientist chairs the Panel

• Panel governance is TBC, and subject to Board approval

• Panel oversees

• Procedures for allocating research

• Evolution of research themes

• Assessment of academic standing of proposed new members

• Allocation of Research

• Must satisfy competition law – no carve-outs for Members

• New work subject to calls for bids and submissions from members

• Panel will establish criteria for choosing amongst bids

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Intellectual Property

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IP Policy Key Objectives

• Creation and use of IP as a cumulative asset to be managed for the benefit of the

entire UK industry – a trustee for growing know-how

• Avoid compromising existing University background IP

• Maximum freedom for Institute academics to pursue research unhindered by IPR

barriers

• Avoid fragmentation of Institute background to maximise its reuse potential

• Avoid unknowing incorporation of restricted IP into Institute output

• Availability of Institute IP for licensing, patent pool or defensive publication purposes

• Use of IP licensing procedures as a tool for monitoring the economic impact of the

Institute

• Revenues to the Institute from IP are not an objective

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IP Policies

• Institute will own all IP generated within its walls, whether financed by RC or

industry money

• All IP licensed back to University Members for research purposes

• Required University Background automatically licensed to Institute solely for

research projects

• Universities and academics must declare beforehand the licensing conditions

for commercial use of their Background

• Companies will receive commercial licenses for the work they finance – some

of them may be very powerfully structured

• Use of open-source will be rigorously managed

• Revenues from RC-funded IP licenses will be shared back to the Universities

• IP policies for commercial projects will be agreed for each project

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Licensing and Disclosure

• The Institute will license its IP and demand licensing accounts from

companies, to monitor the economic impact of its work

• Nominal license fees will be market-rate

• Nominal fees will be discounted

• By 100% for sponsor companies

• Where IP can be licensed to other parties, by 99% for other companies,

up to 3x the total cumulative research spend of a company in the

Institute

• For RC-funded work, there is a presumption of publication

• Institute must check work pre-publication to prevent wildcat disclosures

• For commercially funded work, publication is subject to agreement with the

sponsor at the outset

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Business Plan


Business Model

• The Institute will receive funding directly from companiessponsoring research…

• …and will remit some to the Universities contributing staff

• The Universities will receive funding directly from the ResearchCouncils for work carried on in the Institute and…

• The Institute will receive some money from Universities for facilities and support

• The Institute seeks to receive direct Government grant via the TSB as a Technology Innovation Centre

• The Institute will rent out its facilities, teach training courses and offer consultancy to third parties


Industrial Sales Model

• Industrial income modelled as a stream of multi-year contracts

• Revenue is recognised evenly throughout the contract period

• Launch contracts are provided by initial sponsors

• Contract sizes are gauged in line with media industry capability to sponsor

Years

Nov-11 Feb-12 May-12 Aug-12 Nov-12 Feb-13 May-13 Aug-13 Nov-13 Feb-14

Total industrial income 104,167 166,667 204,167 216,667 231,250 252,083 302,083 339,583 400,000 412,500

Sales 800,000 400,000 300,000 50,000 525,000 350,000 350,000 350,000 825,000 450,000

Contracts 6 3 2 1 4 4 3 3 4 4

Contract length

Sold (years)

C1 3 300,000

C2 3 200,000

C3 2 100,000

C4 1 100,000

C5 1 50,000

C6 1 50,000

C10 2 200,000

C11 1 100,000

C12 2 100,000

C13 2 200,000

C14 2 100,000

C15 1 50,000

C16 3 250,000

C17 2 200,000

C18 1 50,000

C19 1 25,000

C20 2 100,000

C21 2 100,000

C22 1 50,000

C23 3 100,000

C24 2 200,000

C25 2 100,000

C26 1 50,000

C27 2 200,000

C28 2 100,000

C29 1 50,000

C30 3 500,000

C31 2 250,000

C32 1 50,000

C33 1 25,000

C34 2 200,000

C35 2 100,000

C36 2 100,000

C37 1 50,000

C39 3

C40 2

C41 2

C42 1

C43 1

C44 3

C45 2

C46 2

C47 1

C48 3

C50 2

FY2011/12 FY2012/13 FY2013/14

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Financial Projections 2011-2015

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

RC Spend Payments to Members 731,374 1,109,017 1,578,858 2,131,818

Institute Income -Maxwell 87,500 1,212,500 1,875,000 2,375,000 2,875,000 -RC from members - 146,275 221,803 315,772 426,364 -Industrial 104,167 818,750 1,293,750 2,037,500 2,735,417

-Facilities 5 167 775 979 979

COGS Payments to Universities 67,708 532,188 840,938 1,324,375 1,778,021

Institute outgoings -Staff 185,353 680,665 1,129,749 1,512,236 1,954,952

-Rent & facilities 16,905 301,875 377,344 603,750 603,750

-Other opex 30,200 74,700 112,700 141,700 153,700

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Funds Flows (2014)

Research Councils

1,578,858£

Government/TSB Universities Companies

315,772£

2,375,000£ 2,037,500£

The Media Institute

141,700£ 1,512,236£ 1,324,375£ 603,750£

Other

Universities

Facilities

Staff

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Current Status

• Seed funding from University College London

• Supported by Dean of Engineering Professor Anthony Finkelstein

• Academic Lead Professor Ingemar Cox

• External Director Andrew Bud, technology entrepreneur

• Established in form and substance

• Incorporated as not-for-profit company in August 2010

• “Media Research Partners Limited” “The Media Institute”

• Legal agreements defining the Institute now complete in settled drafts

• Own branding and website www.themediainstitute.com

• Operating a series of open networking seminars

• Offered a detailed EOI to the TSB in February 2011

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Appendix:

Example Research Topics

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Areas of Focus

• The Institute will succeed by focusing on a number of themes

that are crucial to the industry

• Research will focus on the following areas:

• Creation and capture of content and information

• Presentation, user interfaces and multi-channel consumption

• Characterisation, discovery and choice of intelligent information

• Service delivery and distribution

• Rights, privacy and authenticity

• Business models, behavioural economics and innovation

• Multi-language, multi-culture

• Examples of possible research topics for each area follow.

• Industry-led Illustrations of how the Institute’s mission will be expressed

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Examples: Content Creation and Capture

Computer Generated Graphics for Cinema and TV

• Low-cost 3D photo-real actor and scene synthesis

Virtual world synthesis for video games and social media

• real time synthesis of 3D space

News Gathering

• Compact, portable, low-bandwidth broadcast-quality HD

Next Generation Multi-Media

• authoring of integrated text, pictures and audio-visual

Tele-presence of live events (eg. concerts)

• capture of complex environments and experiences

Virtual events and museums

• creation of complex place-like experiences

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Examples: Presentation, Cross Platform, UI

Real-time multi-format encoding

• simultaneous stream availability for mobile, tablet, PC, TV, etc.

Portable content

• containers for moving/sharing content between devices

3D gesture-based user interfaces, metaphors & widgets

• successful interaction models in a depth-enabled space

Implications of new displays, sensors and transducers

• Novel applications of paper replacement, flexible displays, tactile sensors

Multi-screen presentation

• metaphors and narrative models for experiences on several different

screens at once and on unconventional screens

Accessible interfaces

• media access devices for the old and the disabled

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Examples: Characterisation, Discovery, Choice

Interchange standards for metadata

• enabling transfer of rich metadata along the value chain

Automated extraction and generation of metadata

• essence extraction from audio and visual content

• generation of meta-data on different scales for the same content

Discovery Journeys

• determination of successful trajectories through

personalised search experiences

Storefront & Publishing Techniques

• metaphors for display and promotion of audio-visual content

• presentation of micro-modular content for easy self-packaging

• classification and self-identification of very large linked inventory sets

Advertising and Marketing

• personalisation and multi-screen presentation of advertising

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Examples: Service Delivery

End-to-End Quality of Service management

• in variable throughput/congestion networks

Architectures for multi-network delivery

• integration of different last-mile tails with selection and handover

Traffic forecasting in media-loaded networks

• impact of audio-visual media load growth on cost and performance

Future impacts of peer-to-peer

Network enabler services

• opportunities for media distributors from enabler APIs

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Examples: Rights, Privacy and Authenticity

Tracking consumption of rights-derived content

• watermarking, reporting, derivation detection

Protection algorithms for DRM and private data

Reducing the cost of managing originator rights

• legal and operational means to simplify clearance and admin

Legal frameworks for digital rights

• ways to make copyright law fit for the digital purpose

Licensing models for digital content

• models for monetising beyond copyright

Protecting privacy in a personalising world

• identification and protection of key privacies when visibility is total

• ways to safely share personalisation data with and along the value chain

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Examples: Economics and Business Models

Behavioural Economics of Digital Content

• perceptions of value, responses to costs

Game Theory of Digital Distribution

• supplier strategies in the game with consumers

Business Models for Digital Media

• acknowledging the new behaviours and dynamics of consumers

Models for Dynamic Pricing of Content

• adapting value generation to the new model of consumer behaviour

Valuing Personal Data

• models for valuation and value sharing between protagonists

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Examples: Multi-Culture, Multi-Language

• Automated subtitling and dubbing

• Synthesis of signing and avatar speakers for the deaf

• Parameterisation of gesture dialects for international UIs


The Media InstituteA world-class research centre serving a world-class industry

www.themediainst.orgwww.themediainst.org

Applied Research for the Creative Industries - Andrew Bud - The Media Institute

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