TechnoCloud

If, like me, only a cruel lack of opportunity prevented you from being crowned F1 World Champion in Jenson Button’s place, then help could be at hand with Real Time Race.

This is a system that allows players to drive alongside the actual drivers in real-time as you watch the race. The technology maps the circuit just before the race so the virtual track would matches up to the one on TV. Although the game is unlikely to be ready until next year, a demo is available.

Of course, you won’t be able to drive Alonso off the track, no matter how much you want to, but it’s another example of the blurring of real world and digital experiences.

Deep in TechnoCloud Towers is a room which I use to showcase consumer technology. This allows colleagues to familiarise themselves with the home entertainment gadgets that their budget or interests wouldn’t normally bring them into contact with.

There’s no doubt which two gadgets excite the most interest - the Apple TV and the Wii.

For all its limitations, Apple TV has a wonderfully intuitive user interface that people ‘get’ first time round. Simple, elegant and no manual required, it’s in theory a good mass market proposition, even though it’s shown few signs of breaking into the mass market…

The wii impresses in a different way. It’s always interesting to see the energy levels rise as soon as you show the motion sensor controller. It brings out the kid in almost everyone as they at first shyly and then with abandon launch themselves into Wii Sports, after a basic explanation of the principles behind the controller.

As the iPhone and potentially the Microsoft Surface are likewise showing, user interface design on consumer technology devices remains in its early phases as more intuitive and satisfying ways emerge to issue commands. That TV remote is already starting to feel pretty dated…

MTV parent Viacom is allowing web users to embed videos from a number of MTV sites, including Pimp My Ride, into their web spaces. This comes at a time when Viacom requested the removal of 100k+ clips from YouTube.

While this move shows Viacom’s desire to control the source of their content on the web, they are prepared to let users consume it at least partly on their own terms, whether embedded on a blog or in their social networking space. With the content contained in their player, they can potentially place advertising around the player or within the content to monetise their content in this space.

Check out our example below to see it in action.

Could Joost be the future of television? This venture, formerly known as the Venice Project has Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström behind it. These are the people who brought you Kazaa and then Skype. Read more here.

I had an interesting session with selected members of the UK public to discuss the ways their TV consumption has evolved thanks to ownership of a Personal/Digital Video Recorder (PVR/DVR), such as Sky+ or TiVo.

Disruptive to the traditional linear model of broadcasting via the schedule, the PVR is part of a growing trend of ‘Me, Me, Media’ - what you want, when you want it and on what device you want it.

Here are some of the takeaways:

• They skip nearly all advertising
• Despite the predicted demise of the ‘hit’ in Chris Andersen’s thought-provoking Long Tail book and blog, their viewing is structured around hit shows: Lost, Match of the Day, Spooks, soaps…
• By more actively selecting their media consumption, TV is less of a background medium. They pay more attention and are more loyal to their top shows.
• However, they still like to watch certain live events as they happen: Big Brother, live sport, charity events…
• They buy less TV DVDs thanks to the ability to ’subscribe’ to a whole series
• They still channel surf, just not as much as before

While I wouldn’t claim that the sample is representative of the whole segment, much of what they said rang true for me in terms of people’s changes in media consumption. As this segment becomes increasingly mainstream, the implications for broadcasters and advertisers alike are clear in that they must evolve in line with their audiences or risk becoming increasingly marginalised.