1. The Media Institute
Applied Research for
the Creative Industries
14th July 2011
Andrew Bud
Director
© 2010
The Media Institute

2. Overview
© 2010
The Media Institute

3. Mission
• Contribute to national economic growth and employment….
• By increasing the international competitiveness of the huge
London and UK media industry…
• Addressing the challenges of the digital discontinuity…
• Through applied research into technology and social sciences…
• Conducted by world-class Universities in London…
• Working together in multi-disciplinary teams in a single building…
• Supported by Government…
• To accelerate innovation and create employment
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4. Target Sectors
We target our research at three main sectors:
• Content Creation – creative flair
• TV and film production, including studios and news gathering
• Video games
• Computer generated graphics and post-production
• Music
• Advertising
• Content Publishing and Presentation – commercial skills
• Music Labels, online streaming services, games publishing
• Book Publishers
• Social media
• Distribution platforms – telco and OTT
• Distribution Networks – telecommunications innovation
• Satellite and cable networks
• Broadband and mobile networks
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5. Leveraging the Digital Discontinuity
• The media industry in the UK has the opportunity to use the digital
discontinuity to:
• Reduce the cost of creating new content - dramatically.
• Lower cost results in better risk profiles, easier financing and more scope for the
realisation of creative ideas.
• Create entirely new types, styles and genres of content.
• Video games, CGI and social networking are recent examples of content owing
their entire existence to recent technology.
• Revolutionise its business model.
• Digital disrupts the economics of every facet of the media industry, and its
business model is being transformed. Examples are digital cinema, IP video
streaming and download, peer-to-peer, mobile applications and e-books
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6. A New Approach
• The digital discontinuity creates opportunities for creative industries
worldwide…
• …if they are equipped to capture the opportunity
• To do so they need to:
• Be aware of the potential impact of technology
• Explore the changes technology could effect directly and indirectly
• Experiment with new ways of creating, delivering and valuing
• Derisk opportunities to unlock major investments
• They need pre-competitive applied research into technology and
economic/legal questions
• In general they don’t have it…
• …and can’t afford to do it alone
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7. Areas of Focus
• The Institute will succeed by focusing on a number of themes
that are crucial to the industry
• Research will focus on the following areas:
• Creation and capture of content and information
• Presentation, user interfaces and multi-channel consumption
• Characterisation, discovery and choice of intelligent information
• Service delivery and distribution
• Rights, privacy and authenticity
• Business models, behavioural economics and innovation
• Multi-language, multi-culture
• Examples of possible research topics for each area are in the appendix.
• Industry-led Illustrations of how the Institute’s mission are expressed
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8. Attraction for Universities and Staff
• Exciting, relevant work
• Industry-focus is a huge plus
• Increases quality of research and hence related government
funding
• Additional flow of industry funding for research
• Access to advanced facilities
• Multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration is exciting
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9. Impact and Benefits for Companies
• Delivers applied research and advanced development to help
companies:
• Be aware of the potential impact of technology
• Explore the changes technology could effect directly and indirectly
• Experiment and prototype new ways of creating, delivering and valuing content
• Establish strong defensive IPR positions early
• De-risk opportunities to unlock major investments
• Key benefits of undertaking work at the Institute will be:
• Flexible, easy access to a deep pool of outstanding academic expertise
• Low transaction costs in establishing and operating relationship with relevant
academic teams - single contract, single relationship, single point of contact
• Professionally managed projects and IPR reduce outcome risks
• Low day rates reduce project cost
• Access to complete, growing pool of IPR, most of it financed by public purse,
delivers highly leveraged outcomes
• Potential to share risk by participation with other partners
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10. Management
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11. Management Strategy
• The Institute will be managed to a small number of key metrics
to ensure focus:
• Industrial revenue and concentration – to manage market relevance
without becoming captive to a small number of dominant stakeholders
• IPR licensing base – to measure economic impact of industry work
• Services utilisation – to ensure that resources are being effectively
exploited by industry
• Total revenue, P&L, cashflow – to ensure targets for growth
and viability are met
• The Institute will concentrate on fostering a culture of creative, industry-
focused innovation, which takes pride in making business better by being
clever. Cross-disciplinary teamwork will be strongly encouraged.
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12. Research Personnel Model
• Academics will continue to be employed by their current university
Colleges and will work on secondment to the Institute
• Pay and conditions will initially remain unaffected by secondment
• Institute HR will draw attention of host Colleges to any notable
disparities that emerge
• Seconded staff will be subject to the rules and policies of the
Institute staff handbook
• Research staff may work at the Institute part-time, subject to the
consent of Institute management
• Clear boundaries must be established between “in-Institute” and
“ex-Institute” work, for IPR reasons
• Academic publication will be under dual-affiliate titles
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13. Organisation
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14. Facilities
• The concept of “place” is central to the Institute’s vision
• This is not a virtual centre of excellence
• “Face-time” between researchers from different institutions and
different disciplines and company partners is considered vital to drive
real relevant innovation
• The prestige of the “place” is crucial to attracting the best research
talent, industry commitment and continuing Government support
• The Institute will occupy offices and lab space in East London Tech
City, within easy reach of the industry clusters in WC/W1
• Currently forecast to use 1250m2 including public areas in 2013
• An outstation for facilities including stages, data centre and
incubation may be required, in a lower-rent area on the periphery of
the centre of London
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15. Governance
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16. Membership and Governance
• The Institute will be a Charity if possible
• Universities are the Members of the Institute
• They do not control it
• Members must vote 2/3 in favour to:
• Change the Objectives of the Institute or its Articles
• Raise new membership fees
• Close the Institute down
• A majority of Members must also approve independent candidates for the
Board
• The Institute is controlled by:
• The Board
• Technical Advisory Panel
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17. The Board
The Board of the Institute will serve as the Trustees of the charity and is
comprised of:
• Independent directors (the majority)
• 1/3 of the Board, at least two directors, elected by the Members
• The Director
• Directors serve for three years
• Directors serving when Members’ Agreement signed require no further
appointment
• Independent directors are selected by the Board itself
• Intended to be industry figures of known integrity and expertise
• Subject to veto by Members
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18. Technical Advisory Panel
• Board takes advice from the Technical Advisory Panel
• All members and important industry sponsors can be on the Panel
• Chief Scientist chairs the Panel
• Panel governance is TBC, and subject to Board approval
• Panel oversees
• Procedures for allocating research
• Evolution of research themes
• Assessment of academic standing of proposed new members
• Allocation of Research
• Must satisfy competition law – no carve-outs for Members
• New work subject to calls for bids and submissions from members
• Panel will establish criteria for choosing amongst bids
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19. Intellectual Property
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20. IP Policy Key Objectives
• Creation and use of IP as a cumulative asset to be managed for the benefit of the
entire UK industry – a trustee for growing know-how
• Avoid compromising existing University background IP
• Maximum freedom for Institute academics to pursue research unhindered by IPR
barriers
• Avoid fragmentation of Institute background to maximise its reuse potential
• Avoid unknowing incorporation of restricted IP into Institute output
• Availability of Institute IP for licensing, patent pool or defensive publication purposes
• Use of IP licensing procedures as a tool for monitoring the economic impact of the
Institute
• Revenues to the Institute from IP are not an objective
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21. IP Policies
• Institute will own all IP generated within its walls, whether financed by RC or
industry money
• All IP licensed back to University Members for research purposes
• Required University Background automatically licensed to Institute solely for
research projects
• Universities and academics must declare beforehand the licensing conditions
for commercial use of their Background
• Companies will receive commercial licenses for the work they finance – some
of them may be very powerfully structured
• Use of open-source will be rigorously managed
• Revenues from RC-funded IP licenses will be shared back to the Universities
• IP policies for commercial projects will be agreed for each project
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22. Licensing and Disclosure
• The Institute will license its IP and demand licensing accounts from
companies, to monitor the economic impact of its work
• Nominal license fees will be market-rate
• Nominal fees will be discounted
• By 100% for sponsor companies
• Where IP can be licensed to other parties, by 99% for other companies,
up to 3x the total cumulative research spend of a company in the
Institute
• For RC-funded work, there is a presumption of publication
• Institute must check work pre-publication to prevent wildcat disclosures
• For commercially funded work, publication is subject to agreement with the
sponsor at the outset
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23. Business Plan
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24. Business Model
• The Institute will receive funding directly from companies
sponsoring research…
• …and will remit some to the Universities contributing staff
• The Universities will receive funding directly from the Research
Councils for work carried on in the Institute and…
• The Institute will receive some money from Universities for
facilities and support
• The Institute seeks to receive direct Government grant via the TSB
as a Technology Innovation Centre
• The Institute will rent out its facilities, teach training courses and
offer consultancy to third parties
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25. Industrial Sales Model
Years FY2011/12 FY2012/13 FY2013/14
Nov-11 Feb-12 May-12 Aug-12 Nov-12 Feb-13 May-13 Aug-13 Nov-13 Feb-14
• Industrial income Total industrial income 104,167 166,667 204,167 216,667 231,250 252,083 302,083 339,583 400,000 412,500
Sales 800,000 400,000 300,000 50,000 525,000 350,000 350,000 350,000 825,000 450,000
modelled as a Contracts
Contract length
6 3 2 1 4 4 3 3 4 4
stream of multi-year C1
Sold (years)
3 300,000
C2 3 200,000
contracts C3
C4
2
1
100,000
100,000
C5 1 50,000
C6 1 50,000
• Revenue is C10
C11
2
1
200,000
100,000
recognised evenly C12
C13
2
2
100,000
200,000
C14 2 100,000
throughout the C15
C16
1
3
50,000
250,000
contract period C17
C18
2
1
200,000
50,000
C19 1 25,000
C20 2 100,000
• Launch contracts C21
C22
2
1
100,000
50,000
C23 3 100,000
are provided by C24
C25
2
2
200,000
100,000
initial sponsors C26
C27
1
2
50,000
200,000
C28 2 100,000
C29 1 50,000
• Contract sizes are C30
C31
3
2
500,000
250,000
gauged in line with C32
C33
C34
1
1
2
50,000
25,000
200,000
media industry C35
C36
2
2
100,000
100,000
capability to C37
C39
C40
1
3
2
50,000
sponsor C41
C42
2
1
C43 1
C44 3
C45 2
C46 2
C47 1
C48 3
C50 2
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26. Financial Projections 2011-2015
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
RC Spend Payments to Members 731,374 1,109,017 1,578,858 2,131,818
Institute Income -Maxwell 87,500 1,212,500 1,875,000 2,375,000 2,875,000
-RC from members - 146,275 221,803 315,772 426,364
-Industrial 104,167 818,750 1,293,750 2,037,500 2,735,417
-Facilities 5 167 775 979 979
COGS Payments to Universities 67,708 532,188 840,938 1,324,375 1,778,021
Institute outgoings -Staff 185,353 680,665 1,129,749 1,512,236 1,954,952
-Rent & facilities 16,905 301,875 377,344 603,750 603,750
-Other opex 30,200 74,700 112,700 141,700 153,700
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27. Funds Flows (2014)
Research Councils
£ 1,578,858
Government/TSB Universities Companies
£ 315,772
£ 2,375,000 £ 2,037,500
The Media Institute
£ 141,700 £ 1,512,236 £ 1,324,375 £ 603,750
Other
Universities
Facilities
Staff
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28. Current Status
• Seed funding from University College London
• Supported by Dean of Engineering Professor Anthony Finkelstein
• Academic Lead Professor Ingemar Cox
• External Director Andrew Bud, technology entrepreneur
• Established in form and substance
• Incorporated as not-for-profit company in August 2010
• “Media Research Partners Limited” “The Media Institute”
• Legal agreements defining the Institute now complete in settled
drafts
• Own branding and website www.themediainstitute.com
• Operating a series of open networking seminars
• Offered a detailed EOI to the TSB in February 2011
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29. Appendix:
Example Research Topics
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30. Areas of Focus
• The Institute will succeed by focusing on a number of themes
that are crucial to the industry
• Research will focus on the following areas:
• Creation and capture of content and information
• Presentation, user interfaces and multi-channel consumption
• Characterisation, discovery and choice of intelligent information
• Service delivery and distribution
• Rights, privacy and authenticity
• Business models, behavioural economics and innovation
• Multi-language, multi-culture
• Examples of possible research topics for each area follow.
• Industry-led Illustrations of how the Institute’s mission will be expressed
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31. Examples: Content Creation and Capture
Computer Generated Graphics for Cinema and TV
• Low-cost 3D photo-real actor and scene synthesis
Virtual world synthesis for video games and social media
• real time synthesis of 3D space
News Gathering
• Compact, portable, low-bandwidth broadcast-quality HD
Next Generation Multi-Media
• authoring of integrated text, pictures and audio-visual
Tele-presence of live events (eg. concerts)
• capture of complex environments and experiences
Virtual events and museums
• creation of complex place-like experiences
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32. Examples: Presentation, Cross Platform, UI
Real-time multi-format encoding
• simultaneous stream availability for mobile, tablet, PC, TV, etc.
Portable content
• containers for moving/sharing content between devices
3D gesture-based user interfaces, metaphors & widgets
• successful interaction models in a depth-enabled space
Implications of new displays, sensors and transducers
• Novel applications of paper replacement, flexible displays, tactile sensors
Multi-screen presentation
• metaphors and narrative models for experiences on several different
screens at once and on unconventional screens
Accessible interfaces
• media access devices for the old and the disabled
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33. Examples: Characterisation, Discovery, Choice
Interchange standards for metadata
• enabling transfer of rich metadata along the value chain
Automated extraction and generation of metadata
• essence extraction from audio and visual content
• generation of meta-data on different scales for the same content
Discovery Journeys
• determination of successful trajectories through
personalised search experiences
Storefront & Publishing Techniques
• metaphors for display and promotion of audio-visual content
• presentation of micro-modular content for easy self-packaging
• classification and self-identification of very large linked inventory sets
Advertising and Marketing
• personalisation and multi-screen presentation of advertising
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34. Examples: Service Delivery
End-to-End Quality of Service management
• in variable throughput/congestion networks
Architectures for multi-network delivery
• integration of different last-mile tails with selection and handover
Traffic forecasting in media-loaded networks
• impact of audio-visual media load growth on cost and performance
Future impacts of peer-to-peer
Network enabler services
• opportunities for media distributors from enabler APIs
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35. Examples: Rights, Privacy and Authenticity
Tracking consumption of rights-derived content
• watermarking, reporting, derivation detection
Protection algorithms for DRM and private data
Reducing the cost of managing originator rights
• legal and operational means to simplify clearance and admin
Legal frameworks for digital rights
• ways to make copyright law fit for the digital purpose
Licensing models for digital content
• models for monetising beyond copyright
Protecting privacy in a personalising world
• identification and protection of key privacies when visibility is total
• ways to safely share personalisation data with and along the value chain
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36. Examples: Economics and Business Models
Behavioural Economics of Digital Content
• perceptions of value, responses to costs
Game Theory of Digital Distribution
• supplier strategies in the game with consumers
Business Models for Digital Media
• acknowledging the new behaviours and dynamics of consumers
Models for Dynamic Pricing of Content
• adapting value generation to the new model of consumer behaviour
Valuing Personal Data
• models for valuation and value sharing between protagonists
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37. Examples: Multi-Culture, Multi-Language
• Automated subtitling and dubbing
• Synthesis of signing and avatar speakers for the deaf
• Parameterisation of gesture dialects for international UIs
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38. The Media Institute
A world-class research centre
serving a world-class industry
www.themediainst.org
© 2010
The Media Institute