Five Multimedia Predictions for 2011

Posted by briansingler on Dec 28, 2010 in Featured Articles, Thoughts, Video | 0 comments

In 2010, we saw
more explosive growth of apps, social media, DSLR video and much
more on the visual production front. What’s ahead?

1. The continued decline of
   Flash. And I mean this in terms of both video and
   interactive content. In a way, it makes me sad because I have a
   sense of the power of Flash having done several projects myself.
   However, I think Flash will be cannibalized by HTML 5, which plays
   nice on all devices, especially mobile ones.
2. The beginnings of a shift from
   platform-specific apps to web apps. This ties into No.
   1. I can’t imagine being a company with limited resources and
   facing the proposition of having to develop a specific app for iOS,
   Android, Blackberry and maybe Windows Phone 7. Why do that when an
   HTML5 based web app could run more easily on all the platforms? I
   think Apple’s App Store will continue to be successful, just
   not with the explosive growth it’s seen the past several
   years.
3. The rise of the
   hybrid camera. The cinematic quality of DSLR video makes
   me drool. Still. However, the audio problems and form factor
   problems it introduces are real barriers, both to professionals and
   amateurs. I can see video cameras popping up that give you that
   shallow, depth of field look, allow for interchangeable photo
   lenses and have real XLR inputs, viewfinders and shoulder mounts
   like more traditional broadcast cameras.
4. The return of longer-form, higher-quality
   content. My friend Will Sullivan, the brain behind the
   popular blog journerdism.com and now a fellow at the Reynolds
   Journalism Instititue, agreed with me on this when I spoke to him
   last week. The Web is slowly become more of a lean-back medium than
   a lean-forward one. People are spending more time consuming content
   whether it’s on an iPad or a GoogleTV and their demand and
   attention span for higher quality and longer content is going to
   increase. This is great news for those of us who love in-depth
   pieces with high production value.
5. A shrinking gap between the quality of content
   produced by major media players and smaller ones. I am
   continually amazed at the quality of content I see from little(r)
   organizations and individuals taking advantage of the incredibly
   shrinking cost of equipment and software needed to produce high
   quality content.

Those are some of my ideas.
Have any of your own?