This article originally appeared in the Sept. 2010 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY
The growth of online video and music is driving demand for co-location space in data centers. That’s the word from Brad Hokamp, chief marketing officer at Telx.
Hokamp says Telx has had a lot of success in the online video streaming space with companies like Hibernia Media, which is a content manager for broadband media, and Justin.tv. Telx also has a relatively new presence in Los Angeles, and is starting to make some progress there with movie studios, he adds. Hokamp goes on to say that the company is also keen on the gaming category, explaining that gaming has some heavy compute requirements, and Telx can help house the gear to address that.
Hibernia is co-located in the Telx 60 Hudson location in New York, which Hokamp says is one of the Telx facilities offering customers highly reliable, secure data center environments with direct fiber connectivity to all other tenants.
Justin.tv, an online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact with live video, is at Telx’s facility at 200 Paul Ave. in San Francisco.
“The Internet is the newest publishing house for content produced worldwide, and consumers expect a high-quality experience every time they interact with online media technologies,” says Michael Siebel, CEO of Justin.tv. “As the top live online [community], with some of the most engaged users who are watching streaming video, we must continue to give our customers the most valuable experience possible with minimal viewing disruption. By co-locating our servers with Telx, we have the ability to connect directly to the widest number of carriers available in the market today and ensure maximum uptime for our service.”
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DreamWorks Casts Cerelink for Cloud Computing
Cerelink Inc., a New Mexico Cloud Computing company, and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. have signed a multi-year agreement involving the use of on-demand, elastic cloud computing to render DreamWorks Animation motion picture projects. Cerelink has deployed a significant number of computer servers in New Mexico to meet DreamWorks' demand for computer-generated imagery rendering. The effort is expected to create one of the largest cloud computing arrays for motion picture production in the world, according to James Ellington, CEO of Cerelink.
Disney Acquires Playdom, Tapulous
The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to acquire Playdom (News - Alert) Inc., one of the leading companies in the fast-growing business of online social gaming. Playdom titles like Social City, Sorority Life, Market Street and Bola, engage an estimated 42 million active players each month. In other news, The Walt Disney Co. has acquired music-related video game developer Tapulous Inc., which develops games for Apple Inc.'s iPhone (News - Alert) and iPad devices. Tapulous has 30 million reported users and is most famously known for the top-selling Apple App Store download game Tap Tap Revenge.
www.disney.com
Sony Creative Software Licenses proDAD
A company called proDAD, which is a developer of digital video effects plug-ins and image optimization technologies for professional video editors, broadcast professionals, as well as aspiring pros, has announced that Sony Creative Software has chosen to integrate proDAD's video stabilization technology into its Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 video editing software package. proDAD's Mercalli video stabilization product has long been a favorite of video professionals for removing "shake" from otherwise good video in post-production. Until now, the Mercalli video stabilization technology has only been available as a plug-in for NLE applications such as Sony Vegas Pro, Adobe Premier Pro/Elements, Pinnacle Studio, and others.
www.sonycreativesoftware.com
Viacom-owned MTV Networks (News - Alert) has acquired video game developer Social Express Inc. The Los Angeles Times reports that the financial terms were not disclosed. The games developer will be integrated into MTV's Nickelodeon Digital Group, which includes the company's online gaming assets.
www.mtv.com
Verizon Expands Online Content
FiOS TV customers will automatically receive free, unlimited online access to popular content from Time Warner’s Turner networks – TNT and TBS – with plans to bring the same content to mobile devices in the near future. Verizon (News - Alert) is working with a number of content providers, including FOX News, CBS, MTV Networks , Hallmark Channel, Smithsonian Channel, the Tennis Channel and more to test a significant amount of additional online programming. These channels will join other online video services already available to FiOS customers.
www.verizon.com
On the heels of THQ's announcement about its plans to adapt the popular third-person, open-world action videogame franchise Red Faction into a television movie, THQ has announced a deal with Starlight Runner Entertainment. The latter company is a New York-based production entity specializing in transmedia storytelling. It will work with THQ to further develop Red Faction for extension across all major media platforms including film, television, online, mobile, books and graphic novels.
www.thq.com
Movie Studio Spotlights HP Switches
Looking to improve its data center infrastructure performance, DreamWorks Animation SKG has chosen HP data center switches. “Based on our testing, HP networking solutions have proven to be the best option for our increasing scale and global demands,” says Derek Chan, head of digital operations at DreamWorks. “We’re pursuing an aggressive path toward leveraging HP’s new A-series offerings at both the edge and the core of our data center. This will enable us to effectively keep pace with the demanding growth of our business.”
www.hp.com
3D Innovation Center Comes to Japan
Panasonic (News - Alert) Corp. has established the 3D Innovation Center in Japan. This center will serve as a contact point for customers related to the 3D business by coordinating the various departments within the Panasonic Group. Through this initiative, Panasonic aims to achieve growth in its network AV business, one of the company's key business fields, and contribute to the expansion of the 3D industry as a whole.
www.panasonic.com
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "USA - Digital TV - Broadcasting & IPTV Market" report to its offerings. The U.S. now has one of the highest rates of pay TV penetration in the world. There are more than 100 million pay TV subscribers in the U.S., amounting to more than 85 percent of households.
www.researchandmarkets.com
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
