With the recommendations of the Task Force on the Implementation of Digital tv whirring in the government/industry blender and producers and broadcasters preparing to down a thick, frothy concoction, a group of industry members is going ahead with plans for a major digital tv facility and training initiative.

Doug McKenzie, former president of Magnetic Enterprises who was previously vp and coo, entertainment services at Wescam, together with an expanding group drawn from the upper levels of the production and tv communities, is establishing the Advanced Media Group to facilitate the development of Canadian dtv domestically and internationally.

The group’s initiatives will ultimately draw in the services of audio company Masters Workshop, which McKenzie recently acquired from Magnetic, owned in turn by Rogers Communications.

The amg’s two-year business plan is to build a Toronto facility, a ‘center of excellence,’ aimed at the dtv industry, and to establish a partnership with a Canadian educational institution to develop a training institute in advanced tv studies.

With dtv initiatives underway in Europe and in the u.s., and the issue moving from back to front burner here, McKenzie says the timing is right to establish an organization to support Canadian dtv expertise.

‘I think this industry is going to emerge quickly, more quickly than people realize,’ says McKenzie. ‘Business people in the community need to be brought fully up to speed on their opportunities and the skill sets as they relate to digital tv.’

It is also an opportunity to position Canada in the forefront of the evolving industry, he says. ‘It presents us an opportunity to create a center of excellence for digital tv that would have a profile not just in Canada but ideally throughout the world and would stand apart in that area.’

amg will focus on a number of different business areas, says McKenzie. The first is the Advanced Media Labs, the facility and the training institute which would also be attached to a research and development center devoted to the advanced tv and electronic cinema fields.

Another focus will be film restoration, with a base of operation in Toronto at the aml facility and, possibly, in l.a. and Europe.

Location-based entertainment is the other main emphasis of the group’s business plan. McKenzie had been pursuing independent consulting opportunities within the lbe field and plans are to bring the group into the industry, first likely in a consulting capacity working with established lbe players.

‘We aim to initially come into the industry as consultants where we can apply our own technical expertise to the field and come alongside some of the other developers in the lbe business and some of the major building or construction developers who are beginning to establish some of these sites,’ says McKenzie. ‘Ultimately, the group would grow into a more turn-key developer operation.’

Master’s Workshop, now operating as a standalone company owned by McKenzie, will eventually be brought under the amg umbrella. The sound company had already occupied a high-end large-format niche, and as part of the new organization, will be almost completely dedicated to special-venue entertainment sound service.

McKenzie says he acquired Master’s through a cooperative relationship with Rogers whereby Master’s, under amg, will provide backup services to Magnetic Audio’s work in the tv market.

McKenzie says plans for establishing the training facility are moving forward, with discussions underway with several educational institutions. He says the training initiative will be kept separate from the amg facility, with a university or college owning and managing the educational component. The new venture would also be separate from the task force-proposed dtv transition body, DTV Inc.

It is not yet fully defined what the initial projects coming out of the facility will be – possibilities range from set-top boxes to creative studies – but the company is not designed as a content provider.

‘We are going to be a supporter of content development, a facilitator and, it is hoped, an innovator,’ says McKenzie. ‘I see a great opportunity to come alongside a producer and help them take perhaps what would be a standard tv production and elevate it into an advanced tv production.’

McKenzie points to the task force recommendations that government provide incentives for Canadian producers to address the dtv market worldwide.

‘Producers should be incented to begin now to think about developing advanced tv programming,’ says McKenzie. ‘That means more than shooting on 35mm film to have the resolution in order to be able to reformat for atv later, but to specifically get people focused on acquiring images in digital high-definition and looking at the whole process, because it’s a new medium and it’s going to provide a whole new set of creative opportunities and a new market worldwide.’