* New name, new money for DR

Toronto’s Digital Renaissance has a new name to go along with a new $26.5 million in institutional financing intended to fuel the company’s growth into the u.s. and to increase its scope as a provider of content and technology for the integration of the Internet and tv.

Eight-year-old Digital Renaissance will now go by the name ExtendMedia, and with the change will position itself for further development of its Internet technologies for broadcasting and cable.

The company secured the $26.5 million from a group of Canadian and u.s. institutional investors, with Toronto-based Griffiths McBurney acting as investment dealer for the transaction.

Current investors in ExtendMedia include BCE Media (a division of bce), Alliance Atlantis Communications and Invesprint. With the new financing deal, BCE Media will increase its equity stake by 5% to 25%, while aac and Toronto-based Invesprint maintain their stakes at 10% each.

aac, however, will increase the scope of its partnership. ExtendMedia had previously worked on tv/Internet content initiatives with aac’s Life Network, developing Internet content and technology for that specialty’s Dish it Out series. ExtendMedia will now be the primary supplier and partner for integrated tv and Internet solutions for aac.

‘Both BCE Media and aac are strategic partners for us; we’re working closely with them on the expansion and what we’re trying to do in the broadcast and production marketplace in Canada and, primarily, in the u.s.,’ says ExtendMedia ceo Keith Kocho. ‘The relationships we’ve established are integral to our success in the next two years.’

Kocho says the company will announce a series of initiatives with aac over the next few weeks and with bce, in the content area, in the coming months.

The company is targeting year’s end for an ipo to access the capital to pursue opportunities in the u.s. market. The timing depends on market conditions and the degree to which the new incarnation of the company achieves its current objectives, says Kocho.

Former Alias/Wavefront chief Penny Wilson was recently appointed ExtendMedia president and ceo.

* Virtually ONtv

Ontario broadcaster ontv is launching its new ontv news slots against a virtual set backdrop. The sets are being created using the ORAD Cyber Set O hardware and software virtual set system and a set model designed by San Diego, California-based Devlin Design Group.

The broadcaster’s new 6-7 p.m. news show and the 11 p.m. newscast will be presented using the virtual set, starting May 17, as will the noon news, beginning May 18.

The 5:30 First Edition and 6:30 Canada Tonight slots will cease and all of the station’s newscasts will go under the ONtv News banner.

While the studio appears as a large blue space with a targeting grid to live production personnel, the on-air look will feature a 3D, two-storey, earth-toned environment, as well as a new graphics lineup.

The system runs on an sgi Onyx Infinite Reality as well as two sgi 02s and utilizes standard digital studio hardware, including an Ultimatte 7 for compositing.

ONtv is currently leasing one set model from Devlin with an option for a second. The ONtv news and technology team researched virtual set solutions for months before arriving at the present configuration, which the broadcaster says provides the appropriate design and lighting elements within a workable budget/hard-drive framework. The team included news director John McFadyen and, from the broadcast technology department, vp broadcast technology John Heij, special projects supervisor Peter Blockland and systems integration project leader John Jarrett.

Jarrett says while the investment was ‘significant,’ the advantages of the system will pay off over the long term. Jarrett says the system provides a significant flexibility advantage in that it allows a handful of different news shows to be turned around within tight timelines. ‘Typically, you would need a lot of time to turn around lighting and staging,’ says Jarrett. ‘That’s where the advantage lies; in time as well as studio and control room space.’

* Promax/BDA confab

Over 250 speakers and 100 sessions, an awards show and a lineup of celebrity guests will highlight the 44th Promax and bda conference, being held June 9-12 in San Francisco. Seminar content covers a broad array of issues related to the creative and business sides of broadcasting and cable, incorporating a range of new technology experts and seminars.

Scheduled speakers include film and commercial maker Spike Lee, critic Roger Ebert and Politically Incorrect host Bill Maher. Guests also include British producer Sir George ‘I signed the Beatles’ Martin, Yahoo president and ceo Tim Koogle and Infoseek ceo Harry Motro. Session topics include ‘Champagne Spots on a Beer Budget,’ ‘Digital Animation from Antz to Z’ and ‘Tuning in to hdtv.’

The Promax Gold Medallion Awards and the BDA Awards will wrap the show again and show organizers say they have received an unprecedented number of entries – 8,400 – for both events.

For more information check the organizations’ websites (www.bdaonline.org and www.promax.org).

* Euro post alliance

An aggregation of European post players have formed an alliance to promote the post industry on the continent. The new initiative, MAX European Post Production Alliance, is launching at the Cannes Film Festival, May 12 to 23. The group consists so far of four post facilities: Germany’s Das Werk, France’s Mikros Image, Italian shop Blue Gold and Belgium’s ace.

The goal of max, say its founders, is to attract major u.s. projects to Europe, keep domestic jobs at home, and to optimize the use of the shops’ combined post systems to provide film restoration services during gear downtime, using a restoration process that draws on film systems like Quantel Domino, Philips Spirit and Discreet Inferno.

The max alliance will also provide services to its members such as new business development, marketing services, technical integration and project management.

* Pro Tools plugs in to surround sound

Santa Cruz, California-based Kind Of Loud Technologies has begun shipping a new surround-sound helper in the form of its Smart Pan Pro plug-in for Pro Tools.

Smart Pan Pro is touted as the first product to bring discrete six-channel surround sound capabilities to Pro Tools. The product supports major surround sound formats including 5.1, 7.1 and lcrs, allowing users to create mixes for Dolby Digital, dts, dvd video, dvd audio and game formats.

The plug-in is listed at us$995 and is available from Kind Of Loud (www.kindofloud.com) and some Pro Tools resellers.

* Digital duel

On the set of The New Addams Family May 5 and 6, Vancouver’s Shavick Entertainment was sponsoring a duel between Sony and Panasonic to test how their new digital video technology stacks up against 35mm.

Sony rep Sim Video and Panasonic rep Pilot West Productions were shooting the same scenes as the old-time cameras to draw the comparisons.

‘This is the latest technology and we want to be sure that we are on top of it and able to provide our partners and clients with the best product possible at the best cost possible,’ says James Shavick.

The Fox Family series wraps this month.

* Sheridan expands telecom program

Oakville, Ont.’s Sheridan College is expanding its range of educational endeavor with a new Interdisciplinary Masters of Science Degree in Telecommunications. The program will be run in cooperation with the University of Colorado at Boulder, which is home to one of the leading telecommunications programs in North America.

Vangroovey HDTV seminar

iatse Local 669 is holding an hdtv seminar in Vancouver June 19 and 20, open to all western production types. The event will be held at the BCTel Auditorium in Burnaby

* ICE’d at NAB

At NAB 99, Waltham, Mass.-based ice introduced its ice’d approach to the video compression arena as well as showcasing ice’d versions of post and effects systems like Puffin Designs’ Commotion, Avid Media Composer and Avid Xpress, and Media 100.

The company launched two new video compression products for Internet broadcasting and other new media applications based on ice’d Sorenson Video 2.0, an accelerated version of Utah-based Sorenson Vision’s Quick-Time-compatible codec. The company also announced ice’d Media Cleaner Pro, an audio and video compression software from Los Gatos, California-based Terran Interactive.

ice’d Sorenson Video 2.0 promises accelerated speed and performance for the host product and works with the ice Blueice board to offload number-crunching type duties from the desktop’s core processors to provide more video delivery power.

ice is delivering ice’d Sorenson Video 2.0 bundled with Sorenson Broadcaster for live streaming video applications, and with ice’d Media Cleaner Pro 4.0. The former package is priced at us$6,995 and the latter at us$6,495.

ice also showcased the enhancements provided by other ice’d products including Adobe After Effects and the Avid Media Composer and Xpress nonlinear editing systems. ice’d Avid systems feature accelerated versions of third-party tools accessible within the Avid environment, including Final Effects Complete effects filters and DigiEffects’ Cine Look Broadcast film-look tool.

Vancouver’s Artifex is currently using ice’d versions of compositing and effects gear for its work on the Shavick Entertainment series The Addams Family. The four-person shop is one of the effects contributors for the series, overseen by Toronto/Vancouver-based gvfx.

The shop uses Lightwave and Electric Image for 3D and Puffin Designs’ Commotion for paint, and has ice’d After Effects for compositing and ice’d Ultimatte for blue and green screen work.

Artifex’s Adam Stern says the ice’d gear provides significant speed advantages for turning out the volume of work.

‘The key thing for us is compositing,’ says Stern. ‘This takes us into the realm of Flint and Flame-type speeds for compositing because the ice board accelerates Ultimatte about 10 to 15 times per frame. That means a frame that would typically take two minutes to composite we’re now dealing with about 15 to 20 seconds.’

* Tempest atop the Mirage

Jaleo showcased its new Tempest hd nonlinear editing and compositing system far from the nabbing crowd, in a private suite atop the Mirage Hotel. The aim of the off-site approach was to focus on specific facilities which would be in the market for an hd solution of this kind over the next several months. Among the keen Canadians were Command Post/toybox, Optix, cbc and Torstar. Jaleo maintained a show floor presence at the booths of Alias, Storage Concepts and Metastor.

Tempest is touted as the first nonlinear editing and compositing system which boasts resolution independence and capability for working natively in yuv.

The system runs on sgi Onyx2, delivering uncompressed hd at 1080, 720 and 480I or p at variable frame rates. The system also enables users to comb multi-stream 601 with realtime effects and features new Real Time Color Adjustment Technology, allowing hd color correction in realtime as well as keyers for varying compositing requirements.