As the industry marvels at the latest innovations coming to a TV or radio station new year CTO and Executive Vice President at the NAB, Sam Matheny believes there is one outstanding figure: Artificial Intelligence.
Matheny noted speaker Hao Li’s company Pinscreen as one of the most innovative. “Li has a company called Pinscreen, they’re talking about instead of just dubbing it and offering a different language. You can actually manipulate the video to make it look as if that person is speaking that language. So you’re not distracted by it.
“Now, I think that is more important in an entertainment and movie or television show environment than it would be necessarily in a news environment. But the underlying, I’m going to take one language, I’m going to instantly translate it to 19 other languages. Not only can I provide it as a ticker text, but then I can do a speech-to-text back, or a text-to-speech back and provide it in my native tongue. That is really exciting.”
However, he does have concerns about AI being misused by the media saying, “Absolutely. I mean, it’s a tool, right? And it’s it’s all about how you use it. If you were a bad actor or a nation-state or, someone who wanted to sow discontent, you could absolutely use AI in that way. And for us as broadcasters, we have to be and already are exceptionally aware of that.” He added verifying information and maintaining content provenance is key to good reporting.
Matheny’s North Carolina roots in local news showed him what good reporting looks like and also exposed him to the importance of local media. His grandfather published the local paper in Zebulon and had a radio show which aired across the state. Matheny believes his family roots in media gave him a unique perspective on the industry.
“I think what it gave me was two things one was going back to the real appreciation of the importance of local media and accurate information. The notion of being able to reach people, to be enabled, to communicate with them, to entertain them.”
As technology has grown, Matheny has seen smaller and more local outlets closer their doors. Preventing this is something the NAB is “very focused on.” While technology may help small outlets stay open, Matheny believes there is a second prong not being as closely monitored to aid outlets from closing.
“What it requires is, what I’ll just call business and regulatory innovation. It requires a willingness to say that this is important, and we have to ensure that we have a regulatory and business environment that enables these local outlets to succeed.”
There are other innovations outside of AI, Matheny is keeping his eye on, including better sound and better visual quality. “It may evolve into a more 3D type of experience. Or at least a 180-type view as opposed to today. Everything is on a flat screen. And I think the most famous example of that right now is the Sphere as a place that you can go in Las Vegas and experience a new type of viewing.”
Another innovation was spatial computing. “I just call it facial computing. And it’s the idea that I have to put this thing on my face, but it gives me an immersive experience. I think that will evolve too.”
Matheny noted today we are in a clunky world where “You either have to have this bespoke sphere environment that’s built or you have to wear these goofy goggles.
“But I think that’s going to continue and you’re going to have different types of experiences, that are ultimately enabled by this notion that I can have better compression, I can have better network connectivity.”
He made note to say it’s not just one technology but a combination of different technologies which is making these innovations all possible.
Over his nearly 10 years at the NAB, Matheny says there are three pillars they have focused on: “advocacy, education and innovation.” What is essential for the organization is working together as a team, “not just internally as staff, but also with our members, and the way that we pursue an advocacy agenda. But we also do something like NAB Show where we provide global level education not just to our members, but also, to the entire media and entertainment industry.”
Matheny plays a significant role in innovation, not just passive innovation, but actively getting in and doing things to help encourage innovation. “We do a lot of research and development and early-stage engineering projects to explore what some of the possibilities might be.”
With their global consortium of members from Japan, Europe, Australia, and many others they look at operating systems like Android Automotive. He said of the technology, “[It is] supposedly going to be adopted by many different automakers. We looked at how is the radio going to function in this new operating system.”
The most important note Matheny made about his work was, “Through NAB’s innovation initiative, to say we’re going to develop real, frameworks and software and ideas that can be adopted to make sure that broadcasting prospers in the future.”
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
