CNM Short Takes

Molson launches new online radio stationMolson Canada has launched a new online streaming music service dubbed "Junction Radio" on its iam.ca site. The service is being powered by IcebergRadio.com, and offers five channels of tunes: current alternative, hip hop "hot", alternative, active rock and top 40. A spokesperson for Molson says the site is aimed at younger beer drinkers, those of age to 24. A trademark application for the "Junction Radio" name was filed by Molson on October 19. The station has been launched fast on the heels of the new FatPipeRadio.com service sponsored heavily by Molson and aimed at college and university students. The FatPipeRadio initiative features 11 diferent stations, as well as features such as webcasts, concerts and contests (CNM, Sept. 8/04). SPARK opens at SheridanThe new Sheridan SPARK at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning opened on September 18, and staff are now seeking to populate the facility with tenants. The 5,000 square foot space is seeking early-stage companies in the digital content sector, and touts its location within the Sheridan research community as a key advantage. SPARK incubator program advisor Shirley Speakman tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that the facility has already attracted one tenant, a firm started by Sheridan grads in the HDTV and post-production sector, Inside Centre Productions. While incubators have received a bad rap since the collapse of the dot com bubble in the early 2000s, Speakman says the availability of skilled students and faculty expertise at Sheridan will set the facility apart. She is working currently to attract companies working in television, wireless communication, digital content and the companies that support those firms to take up residence. The SPARK offers secure access to facilities, a fully equipped presentation boardroom, reception and office services such as fax, mail and photocopier, as well as Internet access and furnished work spaces. VoodooPC aims to remove patching challenges for gamersCalgary-based VoodooPC is now offering a software product called Voodoo GameDoctor that automatically searches for PC game patches, notifying gamers about their availability and offering the ability to automatically install them. The product also works with graphics drivers. Voodoo Gamedoctor is available for a 30-day free trial period, and then costs $15 per year of service, which also includes access to the dedicated GameDoctor servers and a choice of a one-year magazine subscription to PC Magazine, Computer Gaming World, or Electronic Gaming Monthly. "GameDoctor tracks new content, game levels, demos, mods and movies and brings the download to your desktop. This eliminates the need for trying to track down the files and then having to wait to download from some of the more popular download services," said Trentent Tye, chief software engineer at VoodooPC, in a press release. Voodoo GameDoctor also offers a portal where users can download free game demonstrations, and read the latest industry news. Servers are located in the United Kingdom and North America. The free trial is available at http://www.voodoogamedoctor.com. VORTEX sees two win $2,500 for new media projectsGeoff Siskind of Tightrope Entertainment Inc. and Michael Gibson of Zapdramatic in association with Stitt Feld Handy Group each won $2,500 for their innovative new media products in the first VORTEX event, supported by the Ontario Media Development Corp. The event took place in October at the McLuhan International Festival of the Future. Tightrope presented a project called Push Button Stories that will license characters from pre-existing preschool television shows and reformat them into an interactive DVD where child and parent have the opportunity to become one of the characters in the story. The company is currently working with Grandpa’s Garden, produced by PTV Productions. Zapdramatic was awarded a prize for its project called Move or Die. The initiative is in development to become a fully interactive adventure series for television, Internet and DVD. The VORTEX event gave 44 groups the chance to pitch their projects to a panel of experts including Ashton Westwood of Westwood Creative Agency, Andra Sheffer of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Keith Clarkson of Telefilm Canada, and Bravo!FACT’s Judy Gladstone. BBC launches web clip galleryBBC Worldwide Canada on October 21 launched its BBC Motion Gallery, which provides Internet access to moving image clips from the BBC and CBS News archives. The web site at http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com features a collection of 10,000 moving images available for licensing. The move extends BBC Worldwide’s £10 global footage sales business. Heritage makes two contributions to digital contentCanadian Heritage announced on October 15 that it will grant the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) $856,720 to undertake the second phase of its Open Territories project, which in turn will further develop three platforms to be used by artists. Partners in the project include the University of Montréal, Interaccess, McGill University, CANARIE Inc., and the National Reseach Council. On the same day, Heritage announced $780,819 for Carleton University’s Digital Architectural (Re) Construction Program and Native Drums. Money for each announcement is at least partly from the New Media Research Networks Fund. Telefilm new media fund winners announcedTelefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund announced the projects that will receive financing for 2004/05, the final round of winners as the fund heads into a hiatus. 304 applications were received, 82 of which were invited to submit full proposals for further consideration. Of these, 14 of 24 English-language applications for product development and marketing, and 9 of 15 market research and prototyping applications were accepted. Of the French-language submissions, 10 of 29 applications for product development and marketing, and 11 of 12 applications for market research and prototyping, as well as one application for distribution assistance, were accepted. Web sites and convergent web sites accounted for 29 of the funding awards. One award involved interactive television. Three projects will use game consoles as the platform, and one will use the PC gaming platform. Two projects involve interactive DVD, while one will use a DVD ROM. Five projects are for CD-ROMs. Two projects propose using wireless platforms. The full list of winners is available at http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/data/Communiques/rel_494.asp CCTA urges Industry committee involvement on copyrightThe Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) wrote on October 1 to Industry Canada minister David Emerson to again ask that the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology be directed to examine any proposed changes to the Copyright Act. The CCTA has consistently opposed some measures now being proposed to reform Canada’s copyright laws, including any move toward conferring liability on ISPs for infringing content or a "notice-and-takedown" regime governing the removal of infringing content. "The CCTA believes it is within the Industry Committee’s specialized mandate to assess whether the approaches to copyright reform being considered could jeopardize Canada’s economic health, technological development and international competitiveness," it writes. "Imposing copyright liability on ISPs and, as some suggest, making them collect an Internet ‘copyright tax’ from subscribers or imposing onerous enforcement obligations would put Canada’s Internet industry at an economic disadvantage compared to other countries."

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | October 29, 2004

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