The Weather Channel's new series, From the Edge With Peter Lik, will use the Media-Sync Platform to enable a second screen experience. 

The iPad app provides fans of the show the ability to interact with exclusive content in real time using your iPad. While you watch each episode you can map Peter’s path as he finds the "perfect shot”, see behind the scenes videos and photos and connect with other fans of the show on Facebook and Twitter.

The Media-Sync platform relies on audio watermarks already inserted into nearly every TV program in the U.S. as part of Nielsen's industry standard TV audience ratings service. 

Media-Sync is a joint venture between The Nielsen Company and Digimarc Corporation.

During the past dozen years the percentage of American households with DVRs increased from zero to forty percent. Viewers became increasingly accustomed to skipping commercials and viewing shows on their own timetables as opposed to broadcast schedules. The growth intensifies apprehension among sponsors that TV advertising is losing effectiveness. While to date industry efforts to combat the trend have been unproductive, recent developments suggest the tendency can be mitigated, and even reversed. When combined with better ad targeting and commercials permitting viewers to segue into spontaneous online merchandise purchases, the TV industry could advance to a new era of prosperity.

The "trick" is to transform scripted shows into realtime events.

Dazed and confused by mobile marketing? 

• Do your clients want their print ads to do more than look pretty?
• Is your team's brilliant web pages supporting print ads buried on the Web? Are your promotional URLs too long and clumsy to remember?
• Does the thought of placing big ol' barcodes, QR codes or Microsoft Tag pyramids on your print ads make you despondent?
• Are SMS short codes going to cost your client a small fortune to test the waters?
• Maybe an image recognition app would work? With a little luck your client will show up in a list of possible results! Maybe...

Hmm... kinda sounds like I’m an evangelist. Maybe I should try to channel Reverend Don’s traveling mobile show: “BROTHERS! SISTERS! DESIGNERS and MARKETEERS! Hallelujah! Your salvation is at hand!” Nope, that’s not really me.

Greetings from Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona Spain. This conference is the largest gathering for anything related to mobile and yours truly was there, not only to witness the swarm of 55,000 people, but to launch the Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal (OSP). We had our own booth right in the App Planet, where many of the folks that stopped by thought we were the coolest new technology around. You can see some panaromic photos of the the entire show right here.

With the Online Services Portal you can now turn your printed content into new rich interactive experiences, and all of it can be done directly from the portal. That's right, just create a free acount, watermark your image, identify the URL that the image will link to, and select when and how long it will be active. Once your watermarked images are printed, they can be read using our free Digimarc Discover reader, downloadable from the iTunes App Store or the Android Market. No barcodes cluttering up your layout. Setting up an account is simple and during our Open Beta ( through May 31st 2011) you can turn your printed content interactive for free. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.digimarc.com/portal to get started!

The Nielsen Company (Nielsen) embeds audio digital watermarks into the US TV broadcast workflow. These watermarks are detected by Nielsen households and aggregated into a rating for a particular program and market.

Advertisers have been seeking a similar system, a system that would provide a rating by commerical, for quite some time. At a recent conference Nielsen endorsed the Ad-ID standard, and announced plans to incorporate Ad-ID within its watermarking system to provide commercial ratings.

Read more at the NY Times blog

Ad-ID enables individual commercials to be tracked from the beginning to the end of their life. The Ad-ID standard, created in 2003, is managed by the ANA and the 4A's (formerly the American Association of Advertising Agencies).

Last Thursday Digimarc helped sponsor the Beer West launch party at Spirit of 77 in Portland. We had an exceptional turnout and the crowd was having a great time interacting with our technology in the Beer West winter issue. (Let me know if you haven’t seen it; I’ll send you a copy of this groundbreaking issue: www.digimarc.com/beerme)

Overall, there was a great vibe throughout the night. I’m sure the sponsored kegs from New Belgium and Sierra Nevada helped encourage the fun atmosphere. The launch party was an enjoyable event to showcase our technology to the beer, tech, and media communities in the Portland area. I know we amazed the crowd with our technology. It was great hearing multiple people at the event tell us that Digimarc could “revolutionize the publishing industry.” One of my favorite quotes of the night was when somebody told me that “we could change the world with our technology.” Seriously, who doesn’t love hearing that?!?

Disney/ABC Television Group today announced the new "Grey's Anatomy" Sync App for iPad App, now available on the App store.

Powered by the Media-Sync Platform, the app provides fans of the show the ability to interact with exclusive content in real time using iPad.  The Media-Sync platform relies on audio watermarks already inserted into nearly every TV program in the U.S. as part of Nielsen's industry standard TV audience ratings service. 

View a video demonstration of the technlogy at work.

Media-Sync is a joint venture between The Nielsen Company and Digimarc Corporation.

I first want to apologize for the recent lack of activity here on the blog. There's good reason though as we here at Digimarc have been very busy and are extremely excited about things to come.

You may have noticed that we've made a few minor changes to the blog site and have welcomed a few more authors (see to the right). Yes, Don and I are going to continue to share with you lots of valuable information about Digimarc for Images, but also wanted to expand the the focus of the blog to better showcase Digimarc's vision for a world where intuitive computing is part of our everyday lives. I touched on this briefly already in my previous post "Digimarc Discover: The Future" but now we'll have more experts who will be able to help keep us better informed.

Watch this amazing video here.

 

Today I wanted to share with you something that I believe is very interesting. Mobile devices are essentially becoming miniature computers and will enable us to use them in ways we never imagined.  Your mobile phone today most likely has a camera and a microphone, enabling the device to essentially see and hear.

Now imagine if that device could see and hear objects that are around you every day. Most of you may not know, but digital watermarks can also be used in audio and video, and they can be printed as well. Check out this video and see some of the amazing things that Digimarc can enable. Or learn more about by clicking here.

Keep in mind that your Digimarc for Images watermark is not compatible with Digimarc Discover, but showcases potential future possibilities.

This year was my first time attending Photoshop World and I must say it was a great show. Really fun. For anyone interested in photography or Photoshop, no matter whether you're a beginner or expert, I highly recommend attending as there is a lot to learn and never a dull moment.

Did you miss out? You'll have another change in 2011. Digimarc will host another booth at the show in Orlando, Florida from March 30th through April 1st. Find out more by clicking on the logo below. Also, for you Facebookers, check out some images from our booth by clicking here (including yours truly and my colleagues!).