Letter from the Editor - April 2015

By: Tim Young

“Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.”   
-Shigeru Miyamoto

I love this quote, and not just because it came from the video game producer who helped to bring the world the "Mario" franchise, "Donkey Kong," and The "Legend of Zelda." (Speaking of which, if you’re reading this, Mr. Miyamoto, my mother would like to have a word with you about large chunks of my misspent youth.)  

I love it because it gets at the heart of the changing nature of cutting-edge content. There’s always something new out there that springs into the mainstream and scares the wits out of the uninitiated because it elicits such passion from its audience, who spend a significant amount of time and money on something that outsiders just don’t get. The way many parents talked about video games and rock-n-roll is the same way that Strepsiades talked about horses in Aristophanes’ "The Clouds," written about 2500 years ago. His discontent is driven by his son, “who only knows how to look after his long locks, to show himself off in his chariot and to dream of horses!” This expensive preoccupation is foreign to Strepsiades, who sees it only as a colossal waste of time and source of debt. 

Kids today, right?

But the value of any new pastime—video games or horses or social media—is in the eye of the beholder. A smart company will look for ways to become a provider, or at least an enabler, for these passions. While communications service providers aren’t so great at delivering horses, they are brilliant purveyors of countless other types of content, from video to gaming to the next big thing consumers crave.

In this issue of Pipeline, we explore the latest in video and content. We check out the latest must-have content and discuss video convergence. We examine the demands of UltraHD/4K and talk about how to make your content platform the destination of choice for consumers looking to scratch their content itch. We also discuss virtualization and software-defined video, as well as all of the latest news and opinion in the communications IT space.

Thanks for coming by. We don’t care what anyone says. Information, like video games and rock-n-roll, is good for you.

Best,

Tim Young
Editor-in-Chief