UCLA, USC and Caltech collectively graduate more engineers annually than Stanford and Berkeley, major feeders of Silicon Valley. And L.A. tech staffers tend to possess more interdisciplinary skills than their northern counterparts, having developed expertise in cinema, communications, music, design and entrepreneurialism while pursuing engineering degrees… Silicon Beach culture, unlike Silicon Valley’s, is more consumer-oriented, drawing on art, entertainment and commerce to explore the intersections between technology and gaming, fashion, advertising and video… Hollywood studios are using profits from their cash cows — cable and television — to invest in digital entertainment. And Los Angeles is at the center of 21st century video production. YouTube has opened new production studios in Playa Vista to capitalize on the number of content channels originating here. According to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, annual revenue generated by film and video entertainment delivered online is expected to double from $5 billion in 2012 to more than $10 billion in 2016. Companies based in Los Angeles produce most of that content…

L.A.’s future: ‘Silicon Beach’. By Lucy Hood, LA Times.

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