News Stories

Disney makes KeyChest Technology Official

1.6.2010

The Walt Disney Company this week announced its plans for “KeyChest” – a new technology developed for consumers to purchase films or TV shows from various distributors (stored on remote servers), and then play them on multiple devices such as TVs, Blu-ray players, computers and cell phones.

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The technology is designed to provide ease of access from assorted outlets while addressing issues of compatibility in moving content between devices in addition to the limited storage space of consumers.

KeyChest is not planned as a Disney-only venture.  “The idea is to have all the movies consumers want to buy available in this way,” said Kelly Summers, vice president of digital distribution at Disney.  “If it’s Disney only, there really isn’t much value here.”

Disney representatives explained that negotiations with content distributors, cable companies and telecommunications services have been ongoing, and discussions are going to “step up dramatically” at CES.

Disney expects KeyChest will roll out before the end of 2010.

DLNA’s Connected Home Demo

1.12.2009

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), an organization of over 240 CE companies created to develop an interoperability framework for consumer electronics devices, parked a DLNA-enabled connected home out in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The home demonstrated how to share and access digital media easily across a variety of wired and wireless technologies, such as MoCA, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and showed streaming content between CE devices, mobile handsets, STBs and PCs.

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Over 300 new DLNA compliant products were announced at the show.  Some of the biggest news is that any device that wants to be Windows 7 certified must be DLNA certified first which should help to accelerate the number of devices available.

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The DLNA was also showing a product endcap for retail locations that helps the consumer understand the capabilities of the system and the value-add for DLNA certified products.  In the past, DLNA marketing has been sparse so it is nice to see expanded efforts on this front.  Ray Berardinelli who is leading the DLNA marketing and PR efforts assured me that this year there would be greater visibility for DLNA products and that several retailers were onboard to help with the effort.

Where to see it:

  • Central Plaza

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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