Those responsible for signing the purchase orders for big-ticket technology decisions must have been good last year. One of the items that top the wish list before and after every trade show – a chance to really get to know a system before buying it, with support handy afterwards – has finally been realized for a wide variety of digital broadcast products.

Motion Media, the broadcast offspring of inso, Microboutique’s new information solutions division, was launched mid-December in Toronto with two days of new-product intros, including Chyron’s new digital post system Jaleo, Alias’ new V6 Power Animator and Radius’ Telecast, and lots of industry folk both seeking and providing solutions.

Microboutique has been in the business of selling solutions for some time now; what’s different is that it is restricting its activities to retail and has set up inso to handle the increasingly complex needs of its professional clients, bringing in people from the industry to operate (under a variety of relationships) the separate companies in its 20,000-square-foot computing lab.

inso is divided into separate companies handling five vertical markets. Motion Media is the biggest component, with expansion plans already in the offing for Quebec and b.c. One of the other new entities housed in the waterfront facility is Impact, a multimedia production service, which does things like kiosks, etc.

Motion Media, run by vice-presidents David-Ray Worthington and Becky Posch, represents a large assortment of broadcast-oriented hardware and software products, which it sells as part of a total digital video/audio editing, animation or whatever-you-need package. Its vendor partners include Apple Canada, Silicon Graphics, Alias, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Radius, Dynatek, Adobe, Legacy, Electrogig, Aurora, Chyron Jaleo, Leitch, Tektronix and FilmMaker.

Part of the facility is set up as suites, which can be reconfigured to emulate a client’s existing studio environment so the buyer can check out the proposed new setup, and train on the equipment prior to installation.

cfto-tv is among the company’s first broadcaster clients. Through Motion Media, cfto, already in possession of one sgi machine running Liberty, bought two Indigo 2s and Alias Power Animator to be used for all on-air graphics production, and received training at the new facility.

Looking beyond training clients on the solutions designed by Motion Media, Posch says they’re currently talking to several post-secondary institutions in Toronto, including Centennial and Sheridan colleges, about setting up professional training in schools.

In addition to the digital technology showcase (kind of like a trade show but way easier to handle), a popular feature at the launch of the new hands-on setup was the Tiny Tom donut machine.