– New SMART Toronto college consortium

SMART Toronto is behind the New Media Trainers Alliance, an initiative designed to push the city’s new media education resources further into the spotlight.

The recently created alliance is a group of six established institutions providing new media, animation and digital imaging programs. They are Centennial College, Digital Media Studios, the International Academy of Design, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Seneca College and Sheridan College.

The alliance offers a resource and contact point for students and a body through which the Toronto educational infrastructure will be marketed. It also provides a showcase for student work in the area of new media with exposure at trade shows and other events.

– CDTV lubes DTV gears

Representatives from across the television industry board have given the thumbs-up to a new organization to help pave the way for digital tv.

Canadian Digital Television was formed at an Ottawa meeting May 12 with input from the broadcasting, cable, production, manufacturing, satellite and specialty and pay-tv segments of the industry.

Michael McEwen, formerly of the cbc, is president of the new not-for-profit corporation and Global ceo Jim Sward is interim chair.

cdtv will work in a number of areas related to the conversion to digital tv, including transmitter testing and production format research, economic and market analysis, and developing policy in conjunction with industry and government.

The creation of a pan-industry entity to facilitate the transition to digital tv in Canada was recommended by the Task Force on the Implementation of Digital tv in its report late last year.

– Oh Maya

Toronto’s Optix Digital Post & Effects is moving into the 3D animation realm and has acquired an Alias| Wavefront Maya animation system.

Senior f/x animator/compositor John Moores will be the primary talent on the new system, which has already been employed on projects including the Cinenova Productions docudrama The Coming Disasters.

– Affiliated lights up

The Partners’ Film Company’s equipment arm, Affiliated Equipment, is the first shop in Canada to make 24K lights available to the commercial production industry.

– IMAT’s out of this world

With its ‘Area 51’ booth and its people circulating in white anti-toxic suits, the Interactive Multimedia Arts and Technologies Association presented a rejuvenated face to the industry at newMedia98 in Toronto, May 12-15.

imat has been fortified to support a growing yet fragmented new media industry in Toronto.

The organization has also added new staff including association coordinator Chris Bull, Webmaster Norbert Fortner, event coordinator Tracey Parnell and online magazine editor Catherine Gray.

– Event promotes storage regularity

Fibrefest was the name of an event held last month at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, to test the actual capabilities of FibreChannel equipment in professional audio and video applications.

Minnesota-based Rorke Data, together with Apple, assembled manufacturers to compare the theoretical limits of the FibreChannel specification with what is achievable in actual installations. Rorke Data was able to configure its FibreChannel work-group solution StudioNet-fc with as many as 24 Macs running professional applications including Pro Tools and Media 100, with the network sustaining over 85mb/second on a single loop.

The Apple platform was chosen for the compatibility of its volume management software with FibreChannel.

– ITS gala tickets

Tickets for the International Teleproduction Society’s International Monitor Awards are now available through the its. The gala is being held July 11 at the Regal Biltmore in Los Angeles. Monitor judging took place May 30 and 31 in l.a. and New York, sponsored by Discreet Logic and Softimage.

– People

– Vancouver’s Northwest Imaging & Effects has named Joanna Bisley exec producer of the commercial division. Bisley has a five-year background in post and effects at Northwest, coordinating and managing commercial and long-form projects.

– Brian Patterson has been appointed director of sales for Toronto-based Magnetic North. Patterson was previously director of sales and marketing at Triangle Studios and associate publisher of Applied Arts magazine.