Just like the movie industry from a year ago, the last twelve months have not been very kind to the video game industry. In contrast to the movie industry, where the pandemic single-handedly nearly ruined it with the “stay at home” order, video game sales spiked and reached unprescented highs, but soon plummeted as the pandemic slowly went away. Sales could not be sustained, which is why gaming companies had to make cuts in order to survive. Games in production were cancelled, studios shut their doors, as thousands of workers suddenly found themselves without a job.
Unfortunately, massive job layoffs started last quarter, with well over 10,000 jobs lost, and an additional 8,000 jobs were lost in the first quarter of this year. The industry has never experienced this much devastation ever. Even the big companies were vulnerable, as Sony Interactive Entertainment laid off 1,000 people in their last two quarters and Epic Games, laid off almost as many in just one day last year. As of today, layoffs still continue to worry the entire industry.
Even the prestigious E3 Conference, the most highly anticipated video game industry event in the country had to halt its operations a few years ago due to the the pandemic. It’s actual last live event was in 2019, the year before the pandemic hit. After the pandemic was over, the industry’s biggest names had pulled themselves out, such as Microsoft and Sony, two of the three biggest gaming console companies out there.
Indie games showcased at the IGF Pavilion at GDC2024 at the Moscone Convention Center. Photo by Marcus Siu.
WELCOME TO GDC 2024
This year, the Game Developer’s Conference, known as GDC, helped fill the empty void in the world of gaming conferences, at least in California and the West Coast. However, since the pandemic, companies continued to pull out conferences over the last few years. It became obvious that there just wasn’t a whole lot of new product to promote on the Expo floor compared to the pre-pandemic years.
Notably absent at GDC 2024 were Amazon Web Services and Sony Interactive Entertainment. Unity and Google were present, but did not have any product demos on the Expo floor. At least Epic – Unreal and Meta were at the show with their latest product demos.
One can easily make an argument that 2-D gaming that utilizes Unity isn’t as impressive as the heavy-weight large-scale advanced projects that Unreal Engine has or even the games coming from Meta using their latest Meta Quest 3 VR headset which is geared for Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the Metaverse.
Regardless of the turnout on the floor, this year’s conference held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco still registered nearly 30,000 attendees from all walks of life from around the globe, which was about 2,000 more than a year before. The 730 nonstop sessions, workshops, and roundtable discussions to kept game developers busy for the entire week.
The Expo floor still was quite active mostly with Indie games, where you can play them as well as meet with the games creators and developers. In addition, hundreds of exhibitors were showing off there latest wares and tools, depending on your project needs. There were also various networking parties at separate off-site venues scattered around the city in a more relaxing atmostphere, as well.
Attendees came to meet, learn, and connect…and they did.
A GDC NEWBIE: MEET ALEX CRANE
Alex Crane in front of the entrance at Moscone Convention Center for GDC2024. Photo by Marcus Siu
Alex Crane, a 2019 graduate from the University of Kansas with a B.S. in computer science, was unsure what to expect at his first ever GDC. However, he was certain about achieving his ultimate goal; to be a game producer, project lead for a game company, or find another indie studio in the Midwest. He expressed what his intentions were while attending the GDC conference.
“My goals here were definitely to attend a lot of talks and learn a lot. I attempted to start an indie studio in the past…so attending talks about people who have done the same…figure out where we went wrong, what we could have done better…it would have been good attending talks at bigger companies and learn a lot about game development.”, Crane explained.
While an undergraduate, Crane’s background included a game project called “No Lives Left”, (much like the style of the classic game “The Legend of Zelda”), a meta imagining of what would happen if your games kept on going without you. Though he had regrets on not having completed the project during the three years he worked on it, he still gained tremendous knowledge in game design and its development, as well as having experience as a project lead for over thirty developers, engineers, and artists while using Unreal Engine 4.
At the same time, he became the President and Events chair for the “KU Game Developers Association” for the University of Kansas and has hosted many hackathons and jam events, such as “Game Jam”, which he is currently the Midwest Regional Organizer overseeing eight U.S. states for the “Global Game Jam”, an event that spans the entire world. In addition to having the opportunity to connect with professors who teach game design, as well as IGDA (International Game Developer’s Association) members, Crane was an organizer for “Flyaway Indies” and “Amber Waves of Games”, which is dedicated to connecting and showcasing video game developers who live in the Midwestern United States all through a discord server.
Even with all his Midwest connections, Crane was somewhat disappointed not having the opportunity to meet or connect with some of the bigger name game companies at GDC 2024, especially on the Expo floor.
“There’s a few of the bigger names and then not much else other than third party software that assists with the development of games as opposed to companies that develop games or game engines”, Crane continued. “You’ve got Epic and Unity here, a couple of other bigger names but I was expecting a bit more of that…Microsoft has their thing upstairs but it’s just for swag. They don’t really have recruiters here or anything or any of that. I didn’t know what to expect though since it’s my first time.”
However, as far as networking and connecting with other game developers from around the country, Crane found GDC to be quite useful. “I was surprised to meet so many people from the Midwest. I didn’t know there were so many developers in Wisconsin and Michigan. I wasn’t actually aware some companies have some campuses there.”, Crane remarked.
Indeed, out of all the advantages that the conference has to offer, connecting and networking is a huge plus at GDC. Despite all the gloom and doom around the Gaming industry now even more vulnerable than ever with the threat of A.I. in the horizon, it hopefully won’t stop the 30,000 attendees who like Crane, have drive and passion to pursue their dreams as game developers.
The world certainly needs them.
Meta Quest demo booth at GDC 2024. Photo by Marcus Siu.
September 29th marks a very sad day for the remaining one million loyal Netflix DVD subscribers including myself. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the company announced earlier this year to pull the plug and close its DVD rental operations.
Needless to say, the DVD rental business for the company had been dwindling down ever since its streaming services became the primary choice for its subscribers all over the world and disrupted the video and movie industry.
To give you an idea, Netflix’s DVD revenue totaled $60 million for the first six months of 2023. In comparison, Netflix’s streaming revenue in the United States for the same period reached $6.5 billion. In 2022, the DVD business generated $145.7 million, down 20% year-over-year, which represented just 0.5% of its total revenue. That’s just half of one percent!
In their early beginnings in 1998, they couldn’t have chosen a more opportune time to get into the DVD rental business. DVD’s were at the beginning of their popularity. It also was the perfect format to ship and mail off to millions of customers due to its light weight and size. They wouldn’t have been very profitable during the days of VHS and Beta. Could you imagine Netflix stuffings bulky VHS or Beta tapes in the mail to make it in the video rental business to try to make a profit?
Instead of wasting time and gas and driving back and forth to rent and return the movies to brick and mortar video stores, customers only had to deal with their mailboxes with Netflix. They also had the luxury of returning it anytime, without any late fee to any mailbox. To many customers who are habitually late in returning their DVD rentals, it was a blessing.
Netflix was the primary reason why Blockbuster Video went out of business in 2010, along with the many independent mom and pop video stores that was virtually in nearly every neighborhood.
Nowadays, it’s unfathomable to even think that people actually made special trips back and forth to a video store just to rent and return a video.
As a Netflix subscriber, I had two gripes. There was no way to filter down movie titles that were only available in blu-ray when searching thru their inventory. The other issue that I had was trying to figure out what version of the movie that I would get if there was a title that had been released multiple times, I wouldn’t be able to tell which version of the movie I would get. Customer service was useless with those issues.
But, overall, I will miss this wonderful service.
Netflix not only changed our lives forever with the good old “red envelope” rental subscription for a good ten to fifteen years, but also with the introduction of their streaming services in 2007 it changed the world and the way we watched movies.
But is that a good thing?
Sure there are lots of great popular shows that are currently streaming on Netflix, but unfortunately the number of streaming titles in their catalog are very limited and cannot compete with the number of titles in the Netflix DVD catalog. Netflix streams about 4,000 titles at any given time, but during the peak of DVD rentals ten years ago, there were as many as 100,000 titles to choose from when DVD rental subscription peaked with over 20 million subscribers before streaming was even an option.
With their former DVD subscription, it was great to be able to search their vast inventory ranging from not just blockbuster feature films, but TV shows, documentaries, foreign films, and even music performances and videos. In addition, I loved being able to watch the extras and bonus features that were included on the DVD’s.
After mailing over five billion DVD’s and Blu-ray’s envelopes since 1998, Netflix has come to the end of an era for DVD rentals, but it certainly has been a great twenty five year run for Netflix and its appreciative customers, such as myself. It was a major part of my life.
In the future, I hope Netflix will realize that there is a demand for their own titles that should be released to home media. I do see some hope as “The Irishman” did get a release on the Criterion label, but would love to see more Netflix releases, such as “Squid Game” get a release, as well.
If they decide against releasing their movies to retail, they could at least compromise and have more special supplements streamable, like they did for “The Irishman”, with a Q&A session. I still want to know how certain movies were made along with a behind the scenes featurette, and watch interviews and commentaries with the filmmakers.
Now with my Netflix DVD subscription coming to an end, I may be forced to change my viewing habits and subscribe to their streaming services, but I know I will absolutely miss seeing Netflix’s red envelope in my mailbox every few days.
You could feel the sheer excitement in the air surrounding San Francisco’s Moscone Center where exhibitor’s and attendees convened at the 2023 Game Developer’s Conference. It recently happened a few weeks ago from March 20th thru the 24th when the Games Developer’s Conference tied its pre-pandemic record of 28,000 attendees in San Francisco that was set in 2019, more than doubling the number of in-person attendees from last year at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.
It was all about the return of the “in-person” experience, having the strong desire and necessity of connecting with one another. Whether it was at one of the many numerous and inspiring sessions that was going on all week, or in one of the populated halls on the expo floor with some of the biggest names in the gaming world, or at a social mixer networking party with peers and leaders in the games industry; everyone seemed eager to seek and discover connections and to gain insight within their craft.
It seemed as though the conference hadn’t missed a beat since the pandemic.
For those who are unfamiliar with GDC, The Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is the world’s largest professional game industry event with market-defining content for programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers, and others involved in the development of interactive games and immersive experiences. It also is the world’s largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games
All in all, GDC 2023 featured more than 1,000 speakers and 700+ sessions, workshops, roundtable discussions and networking opportunities. 330+ exhibitors were present to display their newest technologies, programs and services on the GDC Expo Floor, including industry leaders like Amazon Web Services, Adobe, Discord, Google, NEXON and more.
It was also a space for attendees to play and connect with the developers behind new and exciting independent games, including the finalists from the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and the alt.ctrl.GDC exhibit that is home to games that use alternative controllers like toaster ovens, giant oversized hats and others.
When you walk in the entrance on the South Side, some of the biggest name in gaming with attendees waiting in line for a demo as soon as they entered the hall, including Meta and Sony. Unity and Unreal were to the left of them and had even bigger booths with lots of play space. In fact, many of the companies were not signing anyone up for demos because they filled up within the first hour after the expo opened. Sign ups were available the next morning, as soon as they opened at 10 am, but filled up quickly. What I noticed this year compared to previous years is that there are more companies are using VR/AR/MR/XR and smart glasses for immersive gaming.
WELCOME TO THE METAWORLD
At the Meta booth, they had four demos, including Demeo, Ironman, Among Us, and a Mixed Reality Fencing Prototype which is the one I participated in. I requested the demo that would make use of the Meta Quest Pro, their flagship VR goggles. Unfortunately, Meta was having some wi-fi or battery issues and it took awhile to fix, but when it worked, I had a blast in my ten minute slot sword fighting against my opponent on the other side of the wall.
My opponent quickly got up to ten points, and just when I thought it was over, I was quick to go for another ten rounds. I was able to come out victorious. Ironically, after meeting my opponent, I found out he used to fence in Finland. Not sure if I should try the real thing next time I’m in Europe.
A swordfight at the Meta booth. The player on the left actually won, even thought the player on the right was an experience fencer.
A Meta rep also was roaming around the booth and touting their new Meta-Ray Ban glasses. She had me put them on and told me that they can capture what you are seeing in real time. Meta’s first generation of smart glasses have built-in cameras, open-ear audio, and seamless social sharing. Sort of a POV for the user that is sharable to others.
I can imagine that people may not have rush out and shoot with their smartphones any longer, if they wanted to capture something spontaneously by the touch of their finger. I immediately thought that this would be a great way to monitor the world around us and share our experiences together, as it doesn’t necessarily need to be for game sharing purposes. Perhaps, it could cut down on crime, since we might all be wearing these on a daily basis?
NReal booth demos the Air Glasses at GDC2023. Photo by Marcus Siu
AUGMENTED REALITYISJUST NREAL
Another company that I was happy to see having a nice booth at the Expo Hall was Nreal. I was first introduced to them at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara in 2019 and wrote about them with their impressive augmented reality technology. This time, they were demonstrated their latest “Air” AR Glasses on laptops and smartphones, which reminds me of Google Glass, but has much better promise.
My first impression with these ultra-lightweight Nreal Air glasses, which could easily be confused as regular fashion sunglasses, is an amazing 201″ spatial display that gets casted from your device, whether it’s streaming from a game on the cloud, a compatible smartphone, or a iMac.
It has Micro-OLED panels and it is just has an amazing immersive display. As I put them on, I was looking at floating apps and browsers that I could select with my mouse, and be transported watching videos. Imagine watching Netflix or having a big screen for cloud gaming on the big screen anywhere you go.
A glimpse at the Pico Booth at GDC 2023. Photo by Marcus Siu.
META’S MAIN COMPETITOR?
If there is a Meta competitor on the Expo floor, it would probably be Pico from China who made their debut at GDC. They had a nice booth showing the evolution of their hardware products over they years, much displayed like it would be at a VR museum, if there was one.
The release of their Pico 4 was getting some buzz on the floor, but didn’t get any official announcement when it would actually be released. This is probably due to the fact that their parent company, Bytedance, also owns TikTok, is still trying to settle with the Senate hearings.
What a great time to be a game developer! Here are a slideshow of a few scenes from the Expo floor.
originally published on https://mlsentertainment.wordpress.com/2023/04/21/the-2023-game-developers-conference-future-glimpse-of-the-latest-spectacles/
I vividly remember the first time becoming totally immersed with an “Arthouse film” It was in 1992, in a little dinky hole-in-the-wall cinema in San Francisco. I sat there completely mesmerized watching, and as far as I can tell, a “near-perfect” movie, as every component of it’s filmmaking was simply superior in every aspect. The movie was “Howards End”.
The tiny theater consisted of less than fifty uncomfortable seats, but that didn’t matter much, as I was glued to how the the story moved along with Emma Thompson’s nuanced performance as Margaret Schlegel, a character I would never forget, along with the masterly Sir Anthony Hopkins.
The adapted screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala of Merchant/Ivory fame resonated with me, that I inspired to seek out the original writings by the author himself, E.M. Forster. When everyone else was collecting Batman memorabilia, I was collecting anything “Howard’s End”.
The film went on the following year to win three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Thompson. It also happened to be the very first Sony Pictures Classics movie ever released.
Thank you Sony Pictures Classics for not only for introducing me to “Howard’s End”, which was absolutely my “Best Picture” favorite from that year, but also to the countless movies that were released in the last three decades.
Over the years of festival going, I would flip through the programs as an active movie festival goer, always looking for thought provoking films, both domestic and international. If I see the name “Sony Pictures Classics” as the distributor, then I knew right off that it was going to be a high quality film.
I still can’t believe it’s been thirty years.
To commemorate, Sony Pictures Classics just released since their 30th Anniversary 4K UHD set and it’s a beautiful package. It is the perfect gift for that someone who not only collects 4K UHD movies, but who appreciates finely designed packaging.
One of my gripes of buying physical media is that more than 90% of the time, you just get an amaray case along with the paper insert and Blu-ray. I used to love collecting Digi books Blu-Rays in my collection. Here, you have a 24-page booklet, featuring an all-new essay from renowned film critic David Thomson about the history of Sony Pictures Classics, along with information about each of the included films and an introduction from SPC co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker.
This 11 movie box set includes iconic award-winning masterpieces from world-renowned filmmakers, unforgettable performances from global luminaries, and fan-favorite stories that have resonated across the years: ORLANDO, THE CELLULOID CLOSET, THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, RUN LOLA RUN, SLC PUNK, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, VOLVER, SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, STILL ALICE and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range.
Notably, ten out of the eleven titles have never been released on 4K. (Only Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released in 4K) Also, the set includes hours of archival special features across the eleven films, plus a few newly added materials, rounding out this set.
It would be a wonderful present for the holidays, even if it’s just for yourself.
ORLANDO
Synopsis: Tilda Swinton and Billy Zane star in this hip, sexy and wickedly funny look at an English nobleman who defies the laws of nature and comes back to life as an English noblewoman.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
English 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio
Audio Commentary with Director Sally Potter and Actress Tilda Swinton
Select Scenes Commentary
Orlando Goes to Russia
Orlando in Uzbekistan
Jimmy Was an Angel
Venice Film Festival Press Conference
An Interview with Sally Potter
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
THE CELLULOID CLOSET
Synopsis: Narrated by Lily Tomlin, this exuberant, eye-opening movie serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of gay men and women on the silver screen.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
English 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio
Audio Commentary with Filmmakers Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, Lily Tomlin, producer Howard Rosenman, and editor Arnold Glassman
Additional Commentary with Author Vito Russo
Collection of Outtakes
Interview with Vito Russo
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN
Synopsis: From Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of AMELIE and DELICATESSEN, comes a fantastically twisted fairy tale chock-full of curious characters, spectacular stunts and unforgettable visuals.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
French 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio
NEW Audio Commentary with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Audio Commentary with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Actor Ron Perlman
Making-Of Featurette
“Les Archives de Jean-Pierre Jeunet”
Interview With Costume Designer Jean-Paul Gaultier
Theatrical Teasers & Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the main feature
RUN LOLA RUN
Synopsis: A thrilling post-MTV, roller-coaster ride! Time is running out for Lola (Franka Potente). She’s just received a frantic phone call from her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who’s lost a small fortune belonging to his mobster boss. If Lola doesn’t replace the money in twenty minutes, Manni will surely suffer severe consequences.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
NEW Audio Commentary with Director Tom Tykwer and Editor Mathilde Bonnefoy
NEW, Making-Of Featurette
Audio Commentary with Director Tom Tykwer and Actor Franka Potente
Still Running Featurette
Believe” Music Video
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the main feature
SLC PUNK
Synopsis: It’s 1985 and Stevo is that rare animal: a punk rocker in the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City, Utah. He just graduated from college with honors and now his life is a nutty roller coaster ride of rock shows, stealing cars, beating up rednecks and non-stop partying with his buddy, Heroin Bob, and his girlfriend. But with the scene getting lame and Stevo going nowhere fast, he has to put his punk ideals to the test.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
NEW Revisiting SLC PUNK – a new interview with Director James Merendino
Audio Commentary with Director James Merendino and Actors Matthew Lillard & Michael Goorjian
Comic Book Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Synopsis: An epic set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon combines the exhilarating martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo-Ping (The Matrix) with the sensitivity and classical storytelling of an Ang Lee film. The result is something truly unexpected: romantic, emotionally powerful entertainment.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Mandarin Dolbv Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Audio Commentary with Director Ang Lee and Writer / Producer James Schamus
Audio Commentary with Cinematographer Peter Pau
Introduction by Director Ang Lee
7 Deleted Scenes (in 4K HDR)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – A Retrospective
The Making of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
English “A Love Before Time” Music Video
Mandarin “A Love Before Time” Music Video
A Conversation with Michelle Yeoh
Photo Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the main feature
THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
Synopsis: His father killed in the brutal fighting of the Spanish Civil War, ten-year-old Carlos is sent to live at the desolate Santa Lucia School, now a makeshift shelter for war orphans. Soon after his arrival, Carlos has a series of seemingly supernatural encounters: strange shadows, voices and, most frightening of all, the apparition of a brutalized young boy. Turns out that Carlos is not alone in seeing these strange phenomena, many other children have experienced the “One Who Sighs,” as the entity has come to be called.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Audio Commentary with Director Guillermo del Toro
Audio Commentary with Director Guillermo del Toro and Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro
Guillermo del Toro Introduction
Director’s Thumbnails Track
Director’s Notebook
Que es un fantasma? Featurette
4 Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary
Sketch, Storyboard, Screen – 6 Scenes
Making-Of Featurette
Summoning Spirits Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the main feature
VOLVER
Academy Award-winner Pedro Almodóvar (2003, Best Original Screenplay, Talk to Her) comes VOLVER, a comedic and compassionate tribute to women and their resilience in the face of life’s most outrageous tribulations. A luminous Penélope Cruz leads an ensemble of gifted actresses, including Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). Raimunda (Cruz) and her sister Sole lost their parents in a tragic fire years ago…or did they? Superstitious villagers claim that the girls’ departed mother, Irene (Maura), has been seen wandering around their Aunt Paula’s home. When Irene appears to Sole, she explains that she has returned to set right her daughters’ troubled lives and reveal shocking secrets that will impact everyone!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Audio Commentary: Director Pedro Almodóvar and Actor Penélope Cruz
Making of Volver Featurette
Interview With Pedro Almodóvar
Interview with Penélope Cruz
Interview With Carmen Maura
Tribute to Penélope Cruz
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the main feature
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
Synopsis: From Charlie Kaufman comes a visual and philosophic adventure. Theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis (Hope Davis), is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel (Samantha Morton) has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
The Story of Caden Cotard Featurette
NFTS/Script Factory Masterclass
Infectious Diseases in Cattle Roundtable
In and Around Synecdoche, New York Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
STILL ALICE
Synopsis: Alice Howland (Julianne Moore), happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested. Her struggle stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Also starring Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
3 Deleted Scenes
Directing Alice Featurette
Finding Alice Featurette
Interview with Composer Ilan Eshkeri
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Synopsis: Amid the summer splendor of 1980’s Italy, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire that will alter their lives forever.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Audio Commentary with Actors Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg
Snapshots of Italy: The Making of Call Me by Your Name Featurette
In Conversation with Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Luca Guadagnino Featurette
“Mystery of Love” Music Video by Sufjan Stevens
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
“There’s a way to do it better – find it” – Thomas Edison.
Over the years, the GE brand has been synonymous with Thomas Edison, America’s greatest known inventor. Though he wasn’t the original inventor, he improved on the original light bulb and took it a big leap further. He modernized it to last much longer compared to any of his other counterparts could have done, thanks mainly with his brilliant idea of the development of a more durable incandescent material, better elimination of air from the bulb by the creation of a vacuum, and a filament material with a higher resistance which promoted economically efficient power distribution.
Needless to say, he practically changed the world “overnight” as electric lighting became widespread everywhere.
By the flick of a switch it was “night and day”.
Thanks to dramatic improvements of LED lighting over the years, smart-lighting technology has been catching on with consumers everywhere. People are ditching traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of LED lights that last up to fifty times longer, use less energy, and do not contain any mercury. More recently, the traditional incandescent bulb has been banned by many governments around the world as they are not energy efficient and is unsuitable for the environment.
GE Lighting, a Savant company, purchased General Electric’s Lighting Company just less than a year ago and introduced the LED+ Collection line. Just like Thomas Edison did back 129 year ago, Savant, went to the drawing board with their engineers to design and improve the GE LED light bulb. The LED + line has improved on the solo light bulb, as each bulb in the LED+ series has one extra feature to make life a little better. What makes this collection unique is that the features are built right into the lights, eliminating the need for apps or additional hardware for seamless set-up and ongoing use.
The LED+ Collection:
There are six different LED+ products so far in their lineup: LED+ Color not only remits white light, but also has the option to light ten different colors with the use of a remote. The LED+ Battery Backup is quite practical when your electricity goes out, the bulb will go to a battery backup and you will have light for at least five or more hours. You can even use it as a flashlight backup and take it where you need it. The LED+ Dusk to Dawn bulb automatically turns on your bulb in the evening at sundown as it gets dark and turns off when daylight approaches, perfect for porch lights. The LED+ Linkable Motion turns on automatically when it detects motion outside for safety, as well as scaring off intruders for security purposes. The LED+ Timer turns on and off at any time you set it to.
GE Lighting’s line seems to just put one bright idea on top of another for the home connected space.
The product I was most thrilled about reviewing from the LED+ line was GE’s LED+ Speaker Bulb, It comes in the traditional A-line bulb and a BR for recessed can applications. My review is based on the A21 bulb.
One bright idea on top of another. The LED+ Speaker Bulb. Courtesy of GE Lighting, a Savant Company.
THE SET-UP
It certainly didn’t take much effort or time to set up the GE LED+ speaker bulb up; perhaps, about a whole minute. There are basically three simple steps: screw in the light bulb in the light socket, pair and connect the Bluetooth to the GE speaker bulb, and stream whatever media you would like from your device, such as a smart-phone, tablet, or laptop.
Using my smart-phone, I immediately found myself playing songs from my favorite musical apps like Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon. I was even able to stream my favorite local radio stations on radio.net. Of course, if you have music files on your phone, you can play those, as well.
I was pleasantly taken with the sound quality of the bulb. The speakers produce a very nice respectable sound considering how they are built right on top of the bulb with its circumference being about the size of a half dollar coin. The LED+ speaker also has a remote that comes with it so you can turn on/off the light or adjust the volume on it. Regardless of whether you are increasing or decreasing the volume, the clarity of the speaker is very clean with no hint of any distortion, which is quite impressive. The remote also allows you to connect and disconnect your Bluetooth, as well as being able to dim or increase the brightness of the light.
One advantage of having an LED+ speaker is when you are at home with a group of friends and want to share media from your device. For example, a typical situation might be when you are trying to share a video on your smart-phone, but unfortunately, even though everyone is gathered around it closely, not everyone is able to clearly hear the dialogue clearly enough due to the sound limitations from the smart-phone’s speakers. Of course, it also doesn’t help when your environment gets a little noisy.
With the LED+ speaker bulb, you won’t have to suffer through this type of scenario. It’s astounding how clear and audible this speaker can get. Some may confuse it as being primarily a Bluetooth speaker that also contains an LED light bulb instead of the other way around. The party continues.
For those with multiple lamps or light fixtures next to each other in a room, you have the option of putting up to ten speaker bulbs across the room all at once. While these aren’t multi-channel or stereo speakers, the more you have, the more robust the sound, especially coming from a ceiling space. With these built-in speakers camouflaging as a light bulb, I love the idea that they aren’t taking any additional space in the room. Watch for house guests to glance around the room wondering where the sound is coming from.
Given how simple these are to setup without any complex configurations, GE Lighting made me a believer that everyone should install LED+ speaker bulbs in all the rooms in their homes. I just love the idea of knowing I can just stream anything from any device in any room in the house and and knowing I can have instant music without having to turn on any electricity from something plugged into an outlet, like a radio, stereo, or even Alexa. It’s instant gratification at its best.
Thomas Edison would have been proud with the GE LED+ speaker, if he were alive today. It’s as close as you can come to with two of his greatest inventions that were invented within two years of each other: the light bulb and the phonograph cylinder. The LED+ speaker is basically the combination of one great Edison invention built on top of another. The fact that you are able to reproduce music through a light bulb instead of a phonograph cylinder may be one of the greatest inventions that Edison has never seen. If he was alive today, it would be music to his ears.
At the CES Pepcom “Digital Experience” show online, I was fortunate to spend some considerable time at the Dolby virtual booth learning about the company’s recent announcements at CES, as well as the company’s rapid progress during the last few years.
It was just a mere four years ago when I wrote about the launch of Dolby Cinema which dramatically changed the movie going experience with its immersive combination of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with their collaboration with AMC theaters wowing audiences around the world. In movie houses around the world, nothing looked or sounded better.
Dolby Vision has also been the benchmark for TV’s since its introduction. It is the HDR standard that uses dynamic metadata which will give you better visuals and improve the image quality. The main difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10 is the colour depth and brightness the content and equipment is capable of achieving, with Dolby Vision giving you the darkest of darks and the brightest of brights.
In 2015, Vizio was the first company in America to release Dolby Vision TV’s. Two years later, LG was the first company globally to utilize Dolby Vision on their top of the line OLED TV’s. Every year since, LG won the “Best of CES” awards for TV’s, including one for this year’s CES. During that span, the majority of TV manufacturers have jumped onto the Dolby Vision bandwagon; TCL, Sony, Panasonic, and Phillips, to name just a few.
Within the last year, with the help of the pandemic with people staying home, the adoption and demand of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in the home has been widespread, and not just exclusively associated to TV’s, but also mobile devices.
As the pandemic worsened during 2020, Dolby conducted a global survey and discovered a significant shift in consumer behavior. Fueled by a majority who uses their smartphone, tablet, PC as their primary device for consuming entertainment over the past few months, Dolby found out that the majority of them wanted, desired and planned to upgrade and pay for more immersive experiences. The survey also noted that 82% of the respondents in the survey said that they were planning to purchase a new device in the next few months to upgrade their entertainment experience.
“That’s very exciting for us!”, Cairon Armstrong, the PR Manager at Dolby exclaimed, “because with our partners there’s a lot of new devices coming out that support Dolby Atmos and Dolby vision that they can use to get those great experiences”.
NOT JUST FOR MOVIES ANYMORE…
With consumers having more time than ever before to engage with entertainment on their mobile devices, the survey also showed that most consumers, many for the first time, are interacting with friends and family while enjoying entertainment, such as talking on the phone, texting, and video chatting while watching the same content simultaneously, as well as spending more on premium subscriptions in order to receive a better quality and shared experience.
Certainly, at least for now, our mobile device has become our new “best friend” that connects are friends, given the COVID-19 stay at home orders. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to “socialize” with the people we know, as the pandemic has pretty much dissipated the large groups of social gatherings that we used to have.
However, the stark reality is that most consumers are still stuck at home with the technical limitations of their mobile devices and will never be able to replace that real-life experience of, for example, going to a live concert with their group of friends.
Watching a streamed pay per-view concert on any mobile device is certainly dwarfed in comparison to experiencing a real live concert, but if you add Dolby Vision or Atmos, it will significantly boost the the enjoyment level a big notch. This is an example of what users want as a more personal and immersive entertainment experience.
Dolby have made lots of announcements in a lot of ways for consumers to get content both in the movie and TV space, as well as the music and games, and even in content creation that allows them to experience Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
It was just last year when Dolby launched Dolby Atmos music at CES, not just with Amazon Music and Echo Studio but also with titles from Universal Music Group. Soon, new tracks and albums will be launched by huge artists like Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Post Malone, and The Weeknd in Dolby Atmos.
“On the gaming front, Microsoft announced the new Xbox with support for Dolby Atmos, but more importantly it was the first console that also supported Dolby Vision,” Armstrong continued, “There were a lot of big game titles, such as “Cyberpunk 2077”, and “Call of Duty – Warzone” that support Dolby Atmos…we’re excited this year to see the first Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos game titles coming out”.
“On the mobile front, with the launch of the iPhone 12, we launched Dolby Vision capture together with Apple giving consumers a way to create, share and watch Dolby Vision content on their own without all of the complications and difficulties that they used to take,” Amstrong explained, “and so taking this really premium high quality experience allows them to capture their worlds and share it in a much easier way.”
Though Dolby was primarily at CES to promote the wonderful products in the home entertainment space, they were also here because of a new innovation in the PC audio conferencing space from one of their PC partners.
One of their partners, Lenovo announced and unveiled three new innovative and redesigned ThinkPads at CES; the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga (their thinnest ever), ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 and the X1 Yoga Gen 6. Though their entire line of X1’s and Carbons all feature Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, this line is the very first to support Dolby Voice.
Dolby Voice delivers a supreme conferencing experience that feels more natural, reduces listener fatigue, and sounds stunningly clear to make meetings more productive. It also optimizes speaker and microphone performance with features such as dynamic levelling to automatically adjust for voices that are quieter or further away and noise suppression that reduces unwanted background noises and echo no matter what meeting platform you use. Productivity is further enhanced with improved speech recognition for voice assistants.
“We’re particularly excited about how we can bring our Dolby technology to bear on making PC video conferencing an even better experience.”, Armstrong said.
Whether at work or play, it looks like our global landscape will continue to improve for the better as we will soon be able to see and hear Dolby just about everywhere we go.
