3D Media Workshop

The 3D Media Workshop will be held at Fraunhofer HHI, Berlin between 15 and 16 October 2009.

It will provide an international forum to discuss and give guidance to future research, standardisation and development activities of 3D, bringing together production and post production companies, multimedia content providers, broadcast operators, regulators, manufacturers, and R&D organizations.

Topics to be presented and discussed cover the complete chain of 3D production to 3D displays for 3D cinema, (mobile) 3DTV, 3D games, and other immersive applications around 3D content.

The Workshop programme is now online.

Major studios sign deals for online videos

Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate will begin offering the first movie downloads that can be burned to disc using virtually any DVD or Blu-ray Disc burner for playback on a broad range of devices already in millions of consumer homes.

The four studios will offer the downloads through under-the-radar online movie service Film Fresh, which inked the first U.S. movie delivery deal with DivX, maker of a popular video format supported by millions of DVD players, Blu-ray players, TVs, mobile phones, the PlayStation 3 and other devices from the biggest consumer electronics brands, including LG, Samsung and Sony.

DivX has its own built-in copy protection so films can only be played back on certified DivX devices that a consumer registers for their downloads. Film Fresh will allow consumers to make an unlimited number of copies of movies in the Divx format for playback on registered devices.

Read the full story on Video Business and the press release on DivX website.

Avatar Day

August 21 was the Avatar Day, as 20th Century Fox launched the first "extended look" to the new, long awaited James Cameron's movie, filmed with an innovative 3D technology developed by the famous director.

AVATAR takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

Sony 3D Blu-Ray in 2010

CNET Australia reports that Yoshinami Takahashi, deputy senior general manager, Home Entertainment Group, Sony Corporation, confirmed that 3D Blu-Ray discs and players would most likely hit the market in October or November of 2010.

Takahashi conceded that shorter-length content was more suited to the technology. As many viewers suffer from headaches and nausea watching full length movies in 3D, documentaries and animated shorts would probably be in greater demand.

Fully Networked Car workshop 2010

ITU, ISO and IEC are organizing the 5th edition of The Fully Networked Car workshop (FNC-2010), which focuses on information and communication technologies (ICT) in motor vehicles, bringing together specialists in the field of ICT in cars, from top decision makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials and regulators.

Information relating to the workshop is available on the ITU-T website.

Sky to launch 3D TV in 2010

On July 30, Sky announced that it will launch the UK’s first 3D channel next year. The channel will offer a broad selection of the best available 3D programming, which is expected to include movies, entertainment and sport.

The service will be broadcast across Sky’s existing HD infrastructure and be available via the current generation of SkyHD set-top boxes. To watch 3D, customers will also require a new '3D Ready' TV, which are expected to be on sale in the UK next year.

Google to acquire On2 Technologies

On2 Technologies, Inc. and Google Inc. jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire On2, a leading developer of the VP video compression technology.

VP6 has established itself as the de facto Internet video standard through its inclusion in Adobe Flash Player and JavaFX. Hundreds of web video portals, user generated content, and social networking sites use VP6-based Flash for hundreds of millions of users worldwide. VP8 is reportedly able to outperform the industry-leading H.264/AVC video compresison standard.

Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will be converted into $0.60 worth of Google class A common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction is valued at approximately $106.5 million. The transaction, which is subject to On2 stockholder approval, regulatory clearances and other closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.

FP7-ICT-2009-5

The 5th call for proposals of the European 7th Framework Programme on Information and Communication Technologies has been launched on 30 July 2009 and will close on 26 October 2009 at 17:00 (Brussels local time). This call has a total budget of € 732 000 000.

More details at the CORDIS page.