My house has what we call the "million dollar view." As in, if it were in L.A. or New York, the view alone would be worth a million bucks. In Vegas, it's not worth what we paid for it, but that is a different subject…
Anyway, we have this very cool roof deck with a 360-degree view of the Las Vegas Valley. I can stand up there and look to my right and see the glitter of the Strip or to my left and see the very different and way more majestic beauty of Red Rock Canyon. I end most days up there with a cigar just hanging out, and am occasionally struck by not just the beauty but the contradiction between what is on my left and what is on my right. I am "in the middle" between two very different but very cool things.
That contradiction seems to be an apt description of a lot of things these days. We are in a kind of middle ground. The economy is getting better, but no one is doing the happy dance quite yet. The music business that is the root of so much of our audio income is still trying to figure out how to operate in a digital world. Tours are getting going again, but artists who could be counted on to sell the room wherever they appeared are seeing a lot of empty seats in the building. Meanwhile, some of the younger acts to whom the torch has been passed are doing huge business, both in the U.S. and across the pond.
In the publishing side of what I do, it's the same deal. With broadband service getting easier and easier to access with mobile devices, and with more and more of us carrying smart phones, and with the emergence of devices like the iPad and the stuff that is sure to follow, it is becoming increasingly obvious that ink-on-paper is becoming a smaller slice of the information-consumption pie on an almost daily basis. Where things like the digital edition of FOH, the fohonline.com Web site and our e-mail newsletters used to be cool add-ons, they are now a crucial part of what we do. The addition a year ago of the ProAudioSpace community was yet another big step down that road.
So here we are looking at a whole new, very digital world that is coming. But it is not all the way here yet. Just like the audio business, full implementation of the possible is hobbled by a lack of standards and too much guesswork in figuring out where this is all going. Not all of us carry mobile information appliances and those who do may carry one of three or more different kinds. And lots of us, damn it, just want to hold a printed magazine in our hands and not look at it on the screen. Besides, people look at you funny if you take your laptop into the can…
On the other hand, there are things about digital that just can't be replicated in print-video, easy reader feedback and near-instant breaking news are all good examples. So the question is how to bridge the two worlds. And we think we have found a pretty cool way that involves a company called ScanLife and a technology known as "2D bar codes." It is pretty cool stuff.
Hop online and go to ScanLife.com where you hit the "download" link and tell it what kind of smart phone you have and download the app directly. Once you have that, you can use you phone's camera to scan 2D barcodes like the one on page 4 of the May issue of FOH.
If you scan that, your phone will take you directly to the video that KA audio guy Mark Dennis put together – a very cool time-lapse of the construction of the audio at the O Theatre in the Bellagio in Las Vegas. When we run contests to win free stuff, entering will be as easy as scanning a 2D barcode and hitting "send" on the email that is automatically generated and pre-addressed.
You will start seeing more and more of these codes that link to online-only content attached to FOH print content in the coming months. But you have to have the application on your phone to use it. So, how ‘bout this: If you download the app and then scan the 2D barcode at the end of this piece, you will be entered to win a free iPod. Not bad, right?
Like most of you, we are looking at the information landscape and trying to figure out where it is going so we can continue to offer our readers (both in print and online) the best service and most relevant information possible. And as of right now FOH is the only audio publication to adopt this technology.
Yep, we may be "in the middle" but we sure ain't stuck… Now go download that app and check out how cool this is.
