* Women lauded at newMedia 99

While reviews of the newMedia 99 show held recently in Toronto were mixed, the event concluded on a positive note June 4 with the presentation of the Canadian Women in New Media Awards, recognizing the contributions of women to this emerging field.

Winners were announced in three categories: b.c.’s Gerri Sinclair won the Pioneer Award, Toronto’s Aisha Wickham won the Outstanding Young Woman Award and b.c.’s Emma Smith won the Outstanding Volunteer Award.

Sinclair is the founding director of multimedia research and development center Excite at Simon Fraser University and is the ceo of Internet company NCompass Labs. She has served on several advisory boards, including Canada’s National Advisory Council on the Information Highway, the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Wickham is manager of communications and client services for SMART Toronto, responsible for liaison with the group’s members and coordinating the activities of the Toronto New Media Trainers Alliance.

Smith is founder and president of the Wired Woman Society, a non-profit organization facilitating career opportunities for women in it and new media.

* NewTek adds Video Toaster NT

NewTek has launched VideoToaster nt, the nt successor to its famed desktop video system.

vt nt provides an all-in suite of tools for editing, compositing and 2D and 3D animation, with capability to work with uncompressed video. As an uncompressed D1 solution, the system is positioned as a high-end suite allowing unlimited layering and high-quality images that is cost-effective for a range of facility users. The system will retail for $4,500 and will be available this month through Toronto-based Videolink.

vt nt includes the In:sync Speed Razor vte (Video Toaster Enhanced) editing system, which features a project timeline that allows unlimited layers of video, audio, animation and still image files; the ability to capture, edit and output to uncompressed video and other video formats, including asf for video streaming on the Web; a 2D compositing system; and power character generator.

The system also includes NewTek’s Lightwave vt for 3D animation and effects and the company’s Aura paint, 2D animation, rotoscoping and video layering system. The system provides a hardware/software configuration utilizing software with the systems processor, facilitating upgrades.

Modules for a realtime, 16-input switcher, storyboard editing, realtime 3D dve, Chroma keying, serial D1 interface and others will be added in the future.

* A Peachy deal

Portland, Maine and Israel-based Peach Networks, creators of applications for digital set-top boxes has named Peterborough, Ont.-based Capella Telecommunications as exclusive Canadian distributor of Peach’s digital set-top box data system.

Capella is charged with creating a market in the Canadian cable industry for The Access Channel, Peach’s interactive turnkey platform which uses the company’s proprietary software at cable head ends and existing cable infrastructure to provide subscribers MPEG-2 video audio and data services.

The advantage of the Peach system, according to Capella vp new business development Stephen Sacks, is that it is ‘head-end-centric,’ enabling subscribers speedy access services like Windows, e-mail and Internet and games.

‘Peach is a digital application working on digital set-top boxes which can take any Windows or video application and fire them through set-top boxes without slowing down the speed of the set-top,’ says Sacks. ‘It’s running standard MPEG-2 video and audio and carouseling it from the head end.’

The Peach system works with boxes from sa and Sagem, distributed by Capella, but not yet with gi boxes. The Peach system is based on the company’s Interactive Media Server, providing a data stream for each subscriber, who uses the set-top box with the remote control and optional keyboard to access the system.

* New post-grad course in F/X, compositing

Toronto’s Seneca College has launched a new post-graduate program in Visual Effects and Compositing. The two-week program began this month and is designed to produce professionals with specialized digital effects training. The program was developed in conjunction with Toronto- and Vancouver-based effects specialists gvfx.

With instruction in the areas of compositing and visual effects, students will be taught blue-screen film techniques including lighting, lenses and camera moves, digital paint, 3D special effects like particle systems for explosions, fog and smoke and animated digital mattes for wire and rig removal among other effects techniques.

The program will be taught using Side Effects’ Houdini, Eyeon’s Digital Fusion and Ultimatte and will also use SGI’s nt machines.

* U.K.’s Kingston votes PixStream

The video networking systems of Waterloo, Ont.’s PixStream have been chosen by u.k.-based Kingston Communications for use in a technical trial of Kingston’s new adsl-based interactive television services.

The PixStream system is a multichannel platform for the delivery of high-quality MPEG-2 digital video over broadband networks. The system can be incorporated into terrestrial, satellite, cable and wireless infrastructures, and supports distribution formats like adsl, Gigabit Ethernet and lmds.

The PixStream system will be integrated into the broadcast video head-end, handling compressed and uncompressed video feeds and adapting them to the Kingston platform.

* Jaleo, Mountain Gate announce joint venture

Jaleo North America and Reno, Nevada-based Mountain Gate Imaging Systems announced a joint venture to collaborate on development of CentraVision storage area network (san) technology for North American users of Jaleo and Tempest hd systems. The deal promises new, no-waiting collaborative capabilities for editors and compositors.

The joint venture will provide a high-speed networking and media sharing solution for Jaleo, facilitating the sharing of high-resolution images in hd, 601 and Imax formats across a single-fiber channel network.

CentraVision technology allows sgi, nt and Mac machines to be connected to a single high-speed fiber channel network where data is stored in a central storage area. Machines on the network are able to access the same files simultaneously, for true concurrent access.

At nab, Mountain Gate and Jaleo demonstrated new CentraVision feature Bandwidth Manager, which establishes which stations on the network require realtime capability and guarantees bandwidth across a network for applications like realtime hd editing.

With the agreement, the two companies will direct financial, technical and sales and marketing resources to a single san solution.

* Tektronix names Huddlestone

Tektronix Canada has appointed Neil Huddlestone national sales director, measurement business division and gm of Tektronix Canada. In the latter capacity, Huddlestone replaces Richard McBee, who moves to Tektronix world headquarters in Oregon.

Huddlestone was previously test and measurement vp of sales and marketing at Hewlett Packard Canada.