Having started to “model out” what the virtual-reality business could mean to Imax, “there is a significant opportunity in eventizing VR in a similar way to how Imax is known to eventize movies," said CEO Richard Gelfond on an earnings call. The company opened its “flagship” Imax VR Centre in Los Angeles Jan. 6, and “allowing consumers to experience the very best of VR without having to invest thousands of dollars on in-home VR technology is a great way to kick-start the industry,” Gelfond said after earnings were reported Thursday. The LA building has VR headsets from Acer, Google and HTC (see 1608310001) and attracted more than 7,000 paying customers, the CEO said. “Sales and occupancy figures are trending ahead of our expectations.” Imax plans to open more VR centers throughout the world in 2017, for a total of six “pilot locations” to be running by midyear, he said. The buildings cost $250,000 to $400,000 to start and for customers about $1 per minute, with most VR experiences running 10-15 minutes, Gelfond said.
Last year was a “record" for Technicolor disc replication services “in terms of volume,” CEO Frederic Rose said on a Thursday earnings call. "The market is declining much slower than people expected,” he said. “We are well structured to continue this cash extraction.” Nine years ago, people began forecasting that the death of physical media would “occur five years hence,” Rose said in Q&A. “Every year I tell you [that] you should assume an 8-10 percent decline in units shipped on a yearly basis, and every year I’ve been wrong." The firm’s connected home segment in 2016 “experienced significant commercial success,” especially in North America, “with the largest U.S. players,” Rose said. Connected home is “an industry where we need to capture the new next-generation products” in over-the-top video or in broadband delivery, Rose said. “These are innovations that we are going to continue focusing on in 2017, all served by the fact that we clearly have been able to win the confidence of the customers” following Technicolor’s $600 million acquisition of Cisco’s connected-devices business in November 2015 (see 1511200038), he said.
Numerous LG mobile devices infringe three 4G LTE patents owned by Wi-LAN, the wireless technology and licensing company alleged in a Thursday complaint (in Pacer). LG’s products “include software and associated hardware that prioritize the transmission of data generated by various applications that run on these LG products, and in doing such prioritization utilize the claimed inventions of the patents asserted in this action,” said the complaint in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California. LG’s infringement gives it “an unfair advantage” over its competitors, “many of whom have chosen to do the right thing and license their use of Wi-LAN’s wireless technologies and patents,” it said. LG “knew or should have known” for months it was infringing the patents, it said. Wi-LAN since April “invited LG to renew its license” to Wi-LAN’s patent portfolio, but LG “declined to substantively engage in licensing negotiations with Wi-LAN or take a license,” it said. “As a matter of policy, LG doesn’t generally comment on such pending legal matters,” spokesman John Taylor emailed us.
There’s a “growing interest” among automotive OEMs in the deployment of “Level 2-Plus” autonomous-driving systems as a "phased" prelude to more advanced Level 3 and Level 4 self-driving vehicles, said Amnon Shashua, chairman and chief technology officer at components supplier Mobileye, on a Wednesday earnings call. Society of Automotive Engineers standard J3016 defines Level 2 as vehicles with automated acceleration, braking or steering features that still must rely on a human to perform most driving functions. Level 2-Plus systems will still need the driver “to be alert,” but they also will be “rich with sensory input” to assist with semi-automated driving, Shashua said. Level 2-Plus systems have the "potential" to be deployed in “significant” volumes in “premium” vehicles, the executive said. “We believe this is going to become the next push -- still Level 2, but very advanced content of driving-assist." Mobileye "separately" will continue work on "Level 3 and Level 4 activities,” he said. SAE defines Level 3 as “conditional” automation and Level 4 as “high” automation, one notch down on the scale from Level 5 “full” autonomy, meaning a self-driving car that requires no human control in any driving scenario. Mobileye is “already engaged” with 10 automotive OEMs on Level 3 and Level 4 deployments, Shashua said. He sees Level 2-Plus adoption beginning in late 2018 or early 2019, he said. Level 2-Plus as an autonomous-driving system “is not perfect in the sense that it can cover all crash situations,” he said. But “critical safety and redundancy” features in higher levels of autonomous driving “add a lot of cost,” he said. Level 2-Plus allows OEMs “to introduce high-content systems and still require the driver to be alert and take responsibility and take control,” he said.
Sinclair’s One Media is continuing development of ATSC 3.0 products and services that will “lead to next-gen business opportunities,” said CEO Chris Ripley on a Wednesday earnings call. One Media’s ATSC 3.0 efforts include work on single-frequency-network deployment, automotive telematics, “a 3.0 transition plan and other business-model opportunities,” said Ripley.
Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen is unfazed by skeptics who doubt he still has the energy and stamina to take on the challenge of building out a new 5G network through the end of the decade, he told a questioner on a Wednesday earnings call. “Anytime you can get new challenges, you can get pretty invigorated,” said Ergen, who turns 64 on March 1.
CTA President Gary Shapiro still has the high hopes he expressed the day after the November elections (see 1611090038) that President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., can be deal-makers on issues such as infrastructure spending, tax policy and high-skilled immigration overhaul, Shapiro emailed us Thursday.
The Feb. 9 decision of a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denying to stay a temporary restraining order (TRO) that blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump's Jan. 27 immigration executive order (see 1702100042) was “seriously flawed in several important respects.” So said a Trump administration brief (in Pacer) filed Thursday on whether an en banc panel of 11 judges from the 9th Circuit should rehear the case.
The vast majority of the nearly 8,200 individuals who posted comments through midday Tuesday in the Department of Transportation’s docket on the use of mobile devices for voice calls on commercial airlines urged the agency to permanently ban such calls while in-flight. DOT asked in a December NPRM (docket DOT-OST-2014-0002) whether airlines should have to disclose their policy on airborne voice calls or whether the agency should prohibit such calls entirely on commercial aircraft (see 1612090056).
If 2016 can be regarded as the first full year of consumer virtual-reality device deployments, “the first year was absolutely a great success,” Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said on a Thursday earnings call. The industry sold “many hundreds of thousands of units” of VR devices, Huang said. The first VR devices were “really targeted at early adopters,” and I think that we've delivered on the promise of a great experience,” he said. The industry’s challenge now is to make VR headsets “easier to use, with fewer cables,” he said. Headsets also will need to be “lighter” and “cheaper,” he said. “Those are all things that the industry is working on.” The early “experience” makes it “very, very clear that VR is exciting,” he said.