© 2010 The Media Institute The Media Institute The Media Institute The Media Institute The Media Institute Applied Research for the Creative Industries 14 th July 2011 Andrew Bud Andrew Bud Director Director
Jan 23, 2015
© 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
© 2010 The Media InstituteThe Media InstituteThe Media InstituteThe Media Institute
Overview
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 are in the appendix.
• Industry-led Illustrations of how the Institute’s mission are expressed
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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
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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
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Management
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
© 2010 The Media InstituteThe Media InstituteThe Media InstituteThe Media Institute
The Media InstituteA world-class research centre serving a world-class industry
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