Asian D-Cinema Summit 2005, Singapore—Jun 16, 2005
Singapore’s Digital Exchange Offers Commercial Services for Digital
Processing, Distribution and Management of Digital Content
Commercial Services A Reality Through Government - Industry Collaboration
Content owners can now use Singapore to localise their digital content and
re-distribute it worldwide. This is a result of the joint government-industry
collaboration in the form of the Cross Continent Digital Content Transmission or
CCTx. Today, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore revealed this
significant milestone at this year's Asian D-Cinema Summit, held in conjunction
with the Infocomm Media Business Exchange.
CCTx is a pilot driven by government and industry players to develop a viable
business model for digital delivery across continents from the United States to
Asia. The earlier test of transmitting 3 movie trailers already established a
secure, reliable and cost-effective digital delivery work flow from the United
States to Singapore.
At today's Asian D-Cinema Summit, the Infocomm Development Authority of
Singapore and Singapore infocomm & Technologies Federation Digital Media Chapter
or SiTF DMC together with industry players updated on the progress of CCTx. In
addition to distribution, the CCTx latest results demonstrated Singapore's
ability to receive digital content from the United States, process it in
Singapore and re-distribute it to other markets such as the United States and
Thailand.
"CCTx offers a secure and reliable working model for digital content delivery.
Singapore, as a digital exchange, is able to offer the necessary services and
capabilities to receive content from anywhere in the world, process and package
it and deliver it across continents, globally. The Singapore government and
industry players are proud to collaborate and act as a catalyst in the digital
cinema space," said Mr Thomas Lim, Director for Games and Entertainment,
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
The cross continent digital delivery successfully deployed by the CCTx project
witnessed the distribution of an 11-minute test movie called the "Standard
Evaluation Material" (StEM) file produced by The American Society of
Cinematographers (ASC) and Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCIdeveloped by Digital
Cinema Initiatives LLC). Previously tTransmitted from GlobeCast in Culver City,
California the Digital Cinema Lab in Entertainment Technology Centre at
University of Southern CaliforniaETC-USC, Los Angeles to 1-Net, a data exchange
in Singapore, the original StEM narration was localised with Chinese subtitles
and Mandarin voiceover. The process was made possible by local industry
partners, Mega Films and post-production company, VHQ.
The localised content was then re-distributed digitally to the United States and
Thailand via satellite through GlobeCast. In the United States, GlobeCast worked
with Microspace to deliver the localised StEM to the Digital Cinema Laboratory
at ETC-USC. In Bangkok, Thailand, GlobeCast worked with Asia.Net to deliver the
localised StEM to SFX Cinema at Central Plaza, a cinema chain of SF Cinema City
cinema. The localised StEM was also transmitted directly via fiber by Starhub to
two a cinema halls in Singapore at, Eng Wah Suntec and Cathay Cineplex
Orchard.The 170GB StEM file with a total duration of 12 minutes was successfully
screened. This display of a multi-distribution network establishes Singapore's
capabilities as a global distribution hub for digital content.
Following the progress from the initial phase of the CCTx, the transmission to a
regional city signals another step closer for Singapore in the distribution of
digital movies. "The digital retransmission of the localised StEM to the studios
and the region by the CCTx project members allows the industry to identify and
resolve process and business issues critical to commercial adoption of a
worldwide digital distribution system for digital movies," said Mr Mock Pak Lum,
Chairman of SiTF DMC.
"ETC-USC is committed to helping establish a digital cinema system that can
thrive worldwide," said Charles S. Swartz, CEO/Executive Director of the
Entertainment Technology Center at USC (ETC-USC). "The CCTx members' repackaging
and re-transmission of StEM back to the States will take the industry one step
closer to that goal."
The CCTx also engages the latest commercially available digital technologies in
the market, the MPEG 2 - MXF format. Moving forward, it will embrace the DCI
recommended standard, the universal JPEG2000 platform, once it's commercially
available.
In strengthening Singapore's position as a Digital Exchange, international
digital media players are already partnering with local companies to tap on the
Digital Exchange business proposition. Technicolor Network Services is already
partnering with SingTel to ride on Singapore's infrastructure to digitally
distribute content to the rest of Asia. As part of the commercial offerings, the
set-up of a local digital cinema encoding facility by Mega Media, also paves the
way for Singapore to offer content owners and advertisers cost-effective
solution for processing and management of content.
"The processing of the digital content, particularly in the area of localisation,
furthers positions Singapore's another step closer in becoming a Digital Cinema
Exchange aspirations," said Mr Thomas Lim, Director for Games and Entertainment,
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. The IDA's Digital Cinema initiative
isefforts are part of the its Digital Exchange (DX) programme to position
Singapore as the global distribution hub and trading centre for the processing,
management and distribution of digital content such as, movies for studios and
content conglomerates. The DX initiative programme aims to extend Singapore's
hub status into the digital realm to distribute, processing and management of
content through Singapore to the Asian markets.
Singapore as Ideal Location for Processing, Management and Distribution of
Digital Content
Singapore is well-placed as the regional digital distribution hub for content
leveraging on its cutting-edge infocomms infrastructure, well-established status
as a business hub, competitive regulatory policies, strong IP rights protection
and ready availability of skilled manpower.
Singapore already has over 1 million square feet of advanced data centre space.
It is one of the most connected cities in Asia with more than 16 Gbps of
extensive and direct Internet connectivity to over 20 countries. This comprises
6 Gbps to the United States and over 8 Gbps to Asian cities such as Australia,
Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam. In addition, Singapore's
direct Internet connectivity to major ASEAN countries is at least 100 Mbps per
country. Singapore's network infrastructure is also particularly well-suited for
digital delivery of data.
Singapore is ranked first in the World for Networked Readiness Index 2004 - 2005
in World Economic Forum's latest Global Information Technology Report. In
January 2005, Singapore was ranked as one of the Top Seven Intelligent
Communities in the World by Intelligent Communities Forum (ICF) for its Digital
Exchange vision, excellent infocomm infrastructure and global connectivity.
