International Datacasting Corporation, (TSX:IDC) and SENSIO Technologies Inc. (TSX.V:SIO) announced today that they have signed a letter of intent to jointly develop and offer complete end-to-end integrated broadcast solutions for 3D digital and e-cinema. The announcement is being made on the occasion of the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) being held in Amsterdam September 07 to 11. IBC is the leading international event for professionals involved in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and news content world-wide.
The strategic agreement combines and builds on the complementary leading-edge technologies and products of the two companies. Under the agreement, SENSIO will be providing their expertise in 3D digital content encoding and decoding and IDC will be providing their broadband satellite distribution networks expertise. The companies intend to offer their integrated solution for broadcasting live 3D sporting and cultural events and also for the distribution of movie files to the emerging international digital and e-cinema market.
SENSIO’s 3D technology, originally developed for the consumer 3D entertainment market, transforms stereoscopic high-definition video (e.g. from dual HD cameras) into a format that can be efficiently distributed over standard infrastructure intended for 2D broadband using existing protocols and then transforms the content back into 3D video for direct digital projection. The technology features visually loss-less stereoscopic compression and is compatible with all existing and future 3D projection technologies for 2D or 3D viewing. The SENSIO® 3D Live! Encoder was first introduced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual convention in Las Vegas earlier this year and the companion SENSIO® Cinema Decoder, which completes the SENSIO® solution, will be launched at IBC.
IDC’s SuperFlex technology, along with their Datacast XD content management and distribution software, is a family of products and systems solutions for the implementation of secure broadband satellite broadcasting networks using Internet Protocol (IP) and the industry’s Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard. The company’s DVB-IP systems are in use worldwide for a variety of multimedia point-to-multipoint distribution applications including IPTV, syndicated TV, broadcast radio, news/financial information services and digital cinema. The technology features open standards for content connectivity, a variety of standard encryption and conditional access options, proven network management and a suite of advanced application-specific satellite receivers that are interoperable with terrestrial IP networks including the Internet.
Nicholas Routhier, President and CEO of SENSIO commented: “We are very pleased with this strategic alliance. Satellite delivery is the most cost-effective and efficient method for the distribution of digital cinema content and is absolutely essential for live 3D broadcasts. While others are talking about it, IDC actually has direct experience with real deployed digital cinema networks and they are well known in the industry for having the technology and systems integration expertise needed for high performance enterprise-class solutions. We are also excited about IDC’s international presence and look forward to pursuing the global market with them.”
“This partnership is timely and we are delighted to be working with the SENSIO team and having their technology to add to our portfolio of application solutions” added Ron Clifton, President and CEO of IDC. “Digital cinema networks are just starting to be deployed and affordable 3D cameras and digital projection technologies are now commercially available. SENSIO’s 3D technology is leading-edge and our integrated solution has already been successfully evaluated and demonstrated by an independent third party digital cinema customer. The ability of SENSIO’s technology to provide visually loss-less compression of 3D content over standard 2D bandwidth means we only need to use 50% of the bandwidth compared to conventional approaches. This, combined with the typical 30% bandwidth savings offered by our new DVB-S2 product line, means our integrated end-to-end solution will have a significant operating cost advantage in the marketplace.”
The SENSIO® technology will be featured in a panel workshop presentation and demonstration on Sunday 9 September (Making Movies in 3D to be held at 15:15hr in Room L at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam) and SENSIO will be showing their products along with IDC’s SuperFlex and Datacast XD product lines at the IDC booth located in Hall 1 Stand 331.
