HPA Panel Addresses Post Production’s Move to the Cloud

Is post production dead… or has it just fled to the cloud? That question was posed by HPA President Leon Silverman who moderated a panel on the future of post production at the HPA Tech Retreat yesterday. Post production facilities coping with complicated metadata and new delivery platforms are moving services to the cloud, and panelists from companies including Sony, Premiere Digital, Paramount, Light Iron and others described how they are incorporating cloud services. Continue reading HPA Panel Addresses Post Production’s Move to the Cloud

Twitter Makes Its Data Available to Academics with New Grant

Through its new Data Grants program, Twitter is opening its archives to academics who want access to the data — and it’s all free. The data goes back to 2006, and social scientists and researchers can submit applications until March 15th to request access to old tweets. Until now, Twitter has only made this data available to partner companies for a fee starting at $500 a month. Twitter previously worked with Johns Hopkins University to predict where flu outbreaks will hit; this project hopes to make similar research possible. Continue reading Twitter Makes Its Data Available to Academics with New Grant

Marvel Comics Launches API Featuring 75 Years of Content

Marvel Comics is launching a beta version of an API and developer platform, which will give developers and fans access to its massive library of comics for building apps. The API will include artwork, character bios, expanded stories and more from the original creators spanning 75 years. There are more than 30,000 comics, 7,000 series and 5,000 creators in the database, and developers can even build mini-apps around their favorite characters, titles and creators. Continue reading Marvel Comics Launches API Featuring 75 Years of Content

Warner Archive Instant Adds iPad App and Closed Captioning

Warner Bros. launched Warner Archive Instant in April, offering rare and hard-to-find movies and TV shows online. The $9.99 per month service streams content from Warner Bros., MGM, RKO, Allied Artists and others. Last week, the studio announced a new iPad app for the service. Many of the titles are available for streaming to HDTVs in 1080p via an iPad or Roku player. The entire Warner Archive Instant collection is also now available with closed captioning. Continue reading Warner Archive Instant Adds iPad App and Closed Captioning

EXCLUSIVE: ETC Meets with Multichannel Network Maker Studios

ETC staffers Tim Miller, Don Levy and Phil Lelyveld visited Los Angeles-based Maker Studios in August. Maker Studios is a media company founded by YouTube artists in 2009, “the only network that provides partners a full range of vertically integrated services including development, production, promotion, distribution, sales, marketing and merchandise services.” The company manages 60,000 channels and claims to have more than a billion monthly subscribers. Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: ETC Meets with Multichannel Network Maker Studios

DOTS Technology Could Solve Hollywood Archiving Challenges

Digital Optical Tape System (DOTS) could be the answer to the film industry’s digital archiving problem. Group 47, a startup of several Hollywood technology veterans, is getting ready to build an engineering model, and hopes to have the technology available in the next 18 months. The company proposes DOTS as a robust, secure, inexpensive digital archiving format that could last more than 100 years. The plan is to further develop the technology and license it to manufacturers.  Continue reading DOTS Technology Could Solve Hollywood Archiving Challenges

Sony and Panasonic Join Forces on Optical Discs and OLED

Sony and Panasonic announced yesterday an agreement to team up on developing standards for a next-generation optical disc that can hold more than 300 gigabytes of data (six times the capacity of Blu-ray discs). The companies are hoping to develop the new storage medium by 2015. Once fierce rivals, the two electronics leaders also recently unveiled plans to work together on mass production technology for organic light-emitting diode displays. Continue reading Sony and Panasonic Join Forces on Optical Discs and OLED

Library of Congress Project Seeks to Preserve TV History

At the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, technicians are working to convert old videotapes into digital files, as part of an effort to preserve a collection of 1950s-through-1970s TV shows. The process is challenging, costly and time-consuming, but increasingly important considering the large percentage of original tapes that no longer exist. If the videotapes are not transformed, future generations will have very little access to an important segment of media history. Continue reading Library of Congress Project Seeks to Preserve TV History

Warner Goes Retro with Streaming Archive Instant Service

The just-launched Warner Archive Instant is taking a different approach than that of subscription streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Instead of vying to offer viewers the most recent content, it aims to feed the nostalgia within us all, providing a catalog of rare older films and television shows from Warner’s own history, in addition to selections from MGM, RKO, New Line, Lorimar and Allied Artists, all for $9.99 a month. Continue reading Warner Goes Retro with Streaming Archive Instant Service

GE Holographic Discs Intended for Long-Term Archiving

  • GE announced that is has developed the ability to write data on its prototype holographic discs at speeds equal to that of a Blu-ray burner.
  • The new discs use the same form factor as current optical discs, but using a micro-holographic technology, are able to hold as much as 500GB of data.
  • The discs are comprised of a polycarbonate material containing millions of stamped micro-holograms. Gizmodo explains: “When the light source — whose beam is the same wavelength as that of a Blu-ray drive — hits the disc, it erases the necessary amount of holograms to represent the data it’s recording.”
  • Although physical media seems to be losing relevance based on today’s technologies, the discs are intended for long-term archival uses. With a projected life of more than 100 years, they may serve as a solution for long-term storage of digital film and video content.