Los Angeles, CA—Jul 13, 2006
Entertainment Technology Center at USC and Keio University's DMC Form Digital Entertainment Alliance
Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California (ETC-USC) and the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC) at Keio University, Tokyo have formed an alliance to advance digital entertainment technologies. Harnessing Hollywood's and Japan's entertainment communities, the two entities will develop joint and complementary research and testing programs in digital production and postproduction and home networking for digital media and content. Areas of focus will include 35 mm film restoration in 4K; home theater security and image quality management; 4K motion picture cameras; advanced display technologies for home digital cinema; and product compliance to DCI specs.
Said Charles S. Swartz, executive director/CEO, Entertainment Technology Center at USC, "Japan is an important center for digital imaging technologies and DMC is uniquely capable of tapping into the research being done at Keio and other universities and at corporate labs in Japan. Together we will support the creation of tools and technologies with which Hollywood can produce and deliver new forms of entertainment and move into new distribution platforms."
Added Professor Naohisa Ohta, PhD, director of the Digital Cinema Project at DMC, "USC and its research unit ETC-USC are prestigious institutions in Hollywood, where digital cinema is the most advanced in the world. By bridging the U.S. entertainment and Japanese electronic communities, DMC hopes not only to build a valuable program for its students and enhance its own technology efforts, but also to further the Japanese entertainment electronics industry."
Funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, DMC is aligned with the Digital Cinema Consortium of Japan (DCCJ), a non-profit organization of Japanese entertainment, communications and electronics companies promoting art and culture through superior quality digital cinema formats and related infrastructure. Keio/DMC Professor Sadayasu Ono is the Vice President of DCCJ.
ETC-USC's mission includes drawing together entertainment technology resources and expertise from around the world, as well as promoting a single, global digital cinema standard. The organization founded the Digital Cinema Lab, where the Hollywood studio consortium, Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), conducted extensive testing to establish digital cinema specifications. Another ETC-USC project is The New Digital Home, for which ETC-USC will establish a laboratory to explore the new digital home domain with a special focus on mobile and portable media devices.
