Topics

• IDMPO at BroadcastAsia 2008
• Gaming Gets Serious
• Gimme a ”C”, ”I”, ”D” and ”M”
• Sound Research in NTU
• Hear That?

IDM at Broadcast Asia 2008

As Asia’s premier digital multimedia technology event, BroadcastAsia will feature a wide range of companies, e.g. broadcasters, production companies, animation houses, content owners, computer graphic producers, online gaming developers. BroadcastAsia2008 “Digital: The Journey Forward” will showcase the latest digital multimedia technology and professional industry equipment and services from exhibiting companies all over the world.

A core focus of the Singapore Pavilion this year is on interactive digital media, and IDM Programme Office (IDMPO) will be having a showcase area within the Media Development Authority Jewel Showcase under the Singapore Pavilion.

The showcase will be featuring some of the projects funded by IDMPO for the past year, and their outcomes thus far. The technologies include 3D rendering, content delivery, and visualization and effects, etc.

The exhibition will be held from 17-20 June 2008 at Singapore Expo. Do come down and catch the exciting showcase by IDMPO and MDA!

For more information, please visit http://www.broadcast-asia.com/

Gaming Gets Serious

Participants at the recent Computer Games, Multimedia & Allied Technology 2008 discussed new IDM innovations, impact on users and future developments.

The theme was gaming, but the discussions were serious at the Computer Games, Multimedia & Allied Technology 2008 (CGAT 2008) conference on 28 April. CGAT concentrated less on the games themselves than on harnessing the available Interactive Digital Media (IDM) to make the games happen.

Instead of testing Grand Theft Auto IV, participants were busy discussing not only games and gaming technology, but also issues like the impact of IDM on users. Blackberries and cell phones are wonderful tools of communication, observed Associate Professor Harold Thwaites, but he asked if they have spawned an “always in contact work ethic”, and a “vacation-connection addiction”.

Another issue, of particular interest to developers of computer games, is the possibility that virtual reality may not need to be 100 percent to promote a “sense of reality”, as shown by the attachment of people to their Tamagotchi virtual pets.

This is exactly of interest to IDMPO, highlighted in the keynote address of Mr. Michael Yap, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, MDA and Executive Director of the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Programme Office.

Cyberspace, Mr. Yap proposed, is about to go through another evolution where our physical world and the virtual world will merge, or at least the boundaries between the cyber and physical spaces will blur.

This technological revolution is called Co-Space, short for Co-existent Spaces. Users will be able to process information seamlessly across both environments. Physical spaces, fitted out with ubiquitous computing and smart interfaces, will be infused with dynamic, rich media interactivity, so a person could look for all his friends in certain vicinity, for example. With actual spaces co-existing with real-time virtual environments, digital interaction will shift from web “pages” to web “places”.

Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister of Finance, also noted that computer games are “not just fun but a huge site for innovation.” Games, he said, “are providing a scaleable environment in which we are able to experiment and test convergent technology”.

Mixing and matching C”, I”, D” and M”

Singapore’s network of IDM Research-Oriented Centres of Excellence is growing. We have IDMI, iMC, IDMC and now IMI.

IMI is the Institute for Media Innovation, launched on 30 Apr 08, by the Nanyang Technological University. IMI will bring together 100 researchers from a range of disciplines, including art and design, engineering and education, focusing on areas such as next-generation multimedia search, advanced “intelligence” in media, as well as innovative digital cinema and television.

One of the professors in the National University of Singapore (NUS) has commented on the increased interaction and dialogue between different disciplines, which is a good development. He himself is involved in IDMI’s work. Now, IDMI stands for the Interactive Digital Media Institute, launched by NUS last year.

There is also iMC, which is Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s iMedia Centre, and IDMC, which could be Singapore Polytechnic’s Interactive and Digital Media Centre or Temasek Polytechnic’s Interactive Digital Media Collaboratory.

The excitement in our Institutes of Higher Learning is palpable and we look forward to good IDM R&D coming from them.

Sound Research

When sound is shaped and packed into a tight beam, it can be projected to a targeted group of audience, creating interesting sound effects. This has various applications such as in billboards, gaming and multilingual teleconferencing, where sound beams of different languages can be projected to different groups of participants in the same room without the need of physical partitioning.

There are however several research challenges to overcome. The first is the enhancement of audio fidelity of the directional sound beam, which is currently limited to speech quality due to the very narrow bandwidth of the physical ultrasonic emitters. Another challenge is to devise ways to control and adjust the sound beam so that more precise control features can be achieved.

Dr Gan Woon Seng from the Nanyang Technological University is now leading a team to work on these challenges in his research project “Next Generation of Directional Sound Beam with Bass Enhancement and Beamsteering to Support New Interactive Digital Media Applications.” For his earlier work in this area, Dr Gan had won the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award in 2001. He also has 10 journal publications as well as 3 local and 1 US patents pending.

This research project is one of the R&D projects in the area of Interactive Digital Media that have been accepted for funding. To date, 26 projects from our Institutes of Higher Learning have been awarded.

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Hear That?

He plans to revolutionise the way we hear by creating a new type of mixer console – a visual audio mixer.

Mr. Jim Miller came to Singapore in 2005 to pursue an executive master of business administration, but the programme led to bigger things.

On the advice of his classmate, he started a company that creates software to enhance real-time audio for mixer consoles, in 2007.

Supported by the i.JAM (IDM Jump-start and Mentor) Microfunding Scheme, Versonic Pte Ltd is creating the first visual audio mixer for live shows.

“The visual audio mixer is a concept whereby the sound sources are presented in an intuitive graphical manner. Imagine being able to manipulate the sounds as they appear onstage. A guitar source would look like a guitar, a piano a piano, and so on,” said Mr. Miller.

He was inspired to design something that caters to the needs of the consumer market where according to him, has no quality digital mixers available.

He had previously worked with an engineering team at Euphonix, a US-based company. Its System 5 digital audio mixing console is used by Hollywood movie production companies, television studios and live venues such as the Sydney Opera House.

Though useful for complex audio productions, the product is expensive, Mr. Miller said. So, over the last 10 months, Versonic’s board of five directors has been working on developing its software which he expects to be priced “in the low thousands (US$)”.

The team is considering these ways to bring the yet-to-be-named software to market: Selling just the software, and/or offering it together with hardware.

In the first option, users will have to install the software in their own computers. They will also need to buy additional audio converters to get audio into and out of their computers. Most computers can handle only up to two microphones and up to six speaker outputs.

The second option costs more but enables users to plug in and start mixing audio right away.

“I hope that one day all the schools, live music venues and places of worship use our product,” he said.

While these potential clients might already have their own audio mixers, Mr. Miller is confident that Versonic’s software will gain a foothold in the market.

“There will always be some number of churches that start up each year. And when an established church remodels, it often updates its audio equipment at the same time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Versonic team is keeping busy with business development, building distribution partnerships and raising funds. The goal is to launch the software next year.

“Frankly speaking, i.JAM and programmes like it are why this company is based in Singapore and not the US. I feel there is a real push to grow businesses locally with a global focus and that is exactly what we are trying to do,” Mr. Miller said.

The i.JAM Microfunding Scheme, launched in 2006, supports people and start-ups with breakthrough ideas that can be development into innovative products and services.