Post the holiday season torpor #HappyNewYear2020 BTW, I wanted to share some ideas about how a number of different developments and changes might be brought together to create new business opportunities in 2020 & beyond. Some elements do hark back to the 50’s, but with the changes in lifestyle and technology, they can be refreshed and also benefit from a shift in emphasis. This piece will contain ideas that I am sure others will have had, but it’s the overall picture that I intend to paint that hopefully will spark interest. 

It all started with the idea around the acronym FONO – For One Night Only. I love music, cars and movies and it occurred to me that the drive-in movie theatre was a fading experience, but it could be re-energised in the age of the Electric car. If you have to spend time waiting to charge your car, why not also have a reason to be in it, whilst this is happening? The car is now a great audio auditorium too, especially if you also connect it directly or via your mobile phone to an OTT stream. And with the growing concept of connected Pop-up events, we can have ad hoc FONO spaces that are designed to synchronise with any number of event types that may actually be happening elsewhere in the world. Here’s my first pass list: 

FONO Live – Appointment to View (#ATV) Events – one to many – creating distributed audiences around the world, simultaneously (using #UTC launch times)

Live Live – personally be at the event or participate via

• Live Stream to Drive-in Movie/Event Spaces where parked cars can be re-charged electrically whilst the occupants watch the movie/concert/performance/game/event 
• Live Stream to Mobile phones, STBs, Connected TVs, Games consoles (in progress)
• Live Streaming to Movie Theatres & other Performing Arts Venues (in progress)
• Live Streams to Pop-up venues inc restaurants & other public spaces (in progress)
• Live Streams to VR/AR devices
• Live Stream to Driverless cars (whilst in transit), Coaches, Trains, Cruise ships & Planes (possibly) 

Of course all of the above relates to all types of Streaming media at any time post the Live window too, but with Live events becoming more popular, it looks like a valid starting point.

Whilst I was musing on the above list, it also occurred to me that Shopping Mall car parks, especially during downtime, would be great spaces to also have FONO drive-ins. Retail needs a serious shot in the arm these days and giving people a reason to stay around the Mall is no bad thing. You can also have food and drink delivered to your car from the food court or other Mall outlets (your shopping too) and there are usually also restroom facilities available on site. The noise would be minimised if everyone used headphones with the images being displayed on the side of the Mall buildings and even though others could see it, you would be paying for the synchronised audio stream. Putting in temporary/mobile charging points for the cars is also feasible too. 

As I continued to muse on all the above, I started off down a couple of more futuristic thoughts:

• Could in-car Heads-up Displays (#HUD) also be used to project FONO/OTT streams into each car?
• Can projector headlights also double up as streaming image projectors too? 

I am sure that many will say these are ideas too far, but I’m a great believer in what I term Z-axis thinking which is more than lateral thinking but looks for adjacencies that may not be so obvious (for another post).

So as CES2020 kicks off, let’s see who is already on these paths and what translates into reality over the coming months. 

Many thanks – Feedback welcome

geof@toddcs.com

Originally published on LinkedIn.