Montreal: Three Montreal companies have launched Jazz Media Network, a broadband distribution system offering realtime connectivity to the global media production industry.

The company is an initiative of Richard Cormier, Jazz Media’s ceo and founder and ex-president of Buzz Image Group, in partnership with Bell Canada and Teleglobe Media Enterprises.

The system’s three primary elements are a high-speed broadband network, an intuitive proprietary desktop application and an online service component. Jazz Media’s formal launch takes place in Las Vegas at NAB April 7-10.

Jazz Media has invested $6.6 million to date, with the full three-year rollout projected to cost $80 million. Cormier wouldn’t discuss revenue projections for 1998, the first year of commercial operation, but the company is projecting as many as 18,000 online connections (subscribers) by the year 2000.

The system uses a Java-based architectural design and is open and multiplatformed.

Bell and Teleglobe helped in designing a global (distribution) blueprint for network connectivity, specifically nailing down the international Telco operations.

The system makes it possible to network all media content whether still pictures, audio, video, D1, film or commercial data.

As an operational example, in the case of daily film rushes to be sent to l.a. for evaluation or processing by a foreign distributor or cgi producer, the footage can be sourced directly from the telecine’s (the transfer unit’s) video output signal and sent in realtime to the l.a. Jazz center where the file is downloaded and stored in a server. The distributor or cgi producer can then access the file in realtime at will, says Cormier.

Trails will be extended to include as many as 20 technical partners, including dave (Dome) in Toronto, Post Perfect in New York and Pacific Ocean Postproduction (l.a.) and others by early fall.

Initially, Jazz Media will offer three levels of connectivity (service) and cost options, but the packages will be augmented and range from isdn to realtime D1.

‘From this you can have D1, adsl and wireless technologies. The good thing about Jazz is that we are technology-independent on the carrier side,’ says Cormier.