5G lands and expands
Long promised, 5G internet has arrived, albeit slowly. When fully realized, 5G networks will usher in a host of new options for streaming content, live events, gaming, and other high-quality immersive and interactive experiences. 5G enables new ways for personalized marketing and advertising because they’ll be able to collect more accurate and granular data to target audiences.
5G Smartphones: Of smartphones sold in 2020, 12% will be 5G handsets. Those early adopters will not be spending the extra money on a handset just for show. They will use the lightning-fast speed to drive demand for the emerging cloud-based technologies, most notably playing video games, which used to be limited to consoles or high-end PCs.
Entertainment: 5G networks will have an impact on all aspects of entertainment. As 4K UHD content is now commonplace, 5G download speeds mean mobile viewers will not have to settle for a downgrade in quality as they watch. 5G will also mean that cloud-based subscription gaming services don’t have to be tethered to the home.
Metaverse
Metaverse doesn’t refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with technology. For more about the metaverse click here.
FAST
Free Ad-supported Television Services (FAST) – live streaming services without a subscription.
Legacy entertainment giants that first built ad-free, subscription-based streaming services that were modeled after Netflix are increasingly eyeing another path to growth: free television.
A free digital service could help companies extract value from less-trafficked content on their subscription services. There will always be viewers that will never pay for content.
Augmented Reality
Companies are using AR for marketing. Immersive tech is less an ad campaign and more an extension of your brand. It’s an experience not an advertisement.
AR overlays digital computing on top of the physical world. It’s both opt-in and participatory—the audience chooses to engage and experience AR in their world and, sometimes, on their bodies.
Virtual Production
Virtual production is revolutionizing the filmmaking process and more and more film and television productions are relying on its workflows which offer filmmakers greater control over when and how they envisage a scene. This increased interest is seeing new creative and innovative roles for real-time artists emerge throughout all stages of production.
Virtual production combines physical and virtual filmmaking techniques to create cutting-edge media. Teams use real-time 3D engines (game engines such as UnReal or Unity) to create photorealistic sets, then display them on large LED walls behind physical sets using the real-time rendering capabilities of the game engines.