Yesterday, the Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that it had committed the amount to help ‘sustain the growth of Singapore’s media sector amid the economic downturn’.

Last year, the authority injected $180 million into the sector.

The money, said the agency’s chief executive Christopher Chia, will be used to co-fund between 200 and 300 new projects over the course of the year, with the aim of creating some 2,000 new media jobs and strengthening Singapore’s burgeoning media industry.

The media sector has enjoyed steady growth of 8 per cent between 1996 and 2006, outpacing the economy’s 5.2 per cent growth. It generated an estimated $20 billion in revenue last year and currently employs some 58,000 people.

The downturn, though, has put a dampener on the sector, said Dr Chia, speaking at the third annual Media Business Forum, held at the high-tech business park Fusionopolis. Increasingly risk-averse investors, for instance, have become less willing to put money into media projects. This prompted the MDA to step in, to help ensure there is work for promising media firms, and that they have enough cash to develop and produce new projects and export them overseas.

Yesterday, it asked media firms to submit proposals for public service programmes that promote values like racial harmony and volunteerism; for TV products that could be given new life as video games or films; and for projects to develop and distribute Singapore’s music worldwide.

Smaller, high-risk research and development-related ideas could receive outright grants. For large-scale productions like feature films, the Government will co-invest and share in the receipts if the production makes money.

The MDA will also release submission details for interactive digital media projects like video games and online television later this year.

Financing aside, it is also facilitating efforts to help the media industry in other ways, from holding training workshops to matchmaking film producers with suitable foreign film distributors, said Dr Chia.

Source: The Straits Times

Singapore, 16 December 2008 – This holiday season brings good tidings for budding game developers in Singapore. From today, anyone with the passion and the talent will have the opportunity to create and quickly commercialize their games on the world’s most popular online marketplace for gaming consoles – Xbox LIVE. This will be boosted by a grant of up to S$50,000 for each successful application from the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) under the MDA-Microsoft XNA
Development Initiative.

From today, Xbox LIVE members in Singapore will gain access to the new Community Games channel which promises to democratize game development and revolutionize the way consumers get and play community-created games on Xbox 360. Community Games is a new distribution channel that allows consumers to create, submit and start commercializing their creations with minimal barriers of entry.

On the MDA-Microsoft XNA Development Initiative, Mr Seto Lok Yin, Assistant CEO (industry), MDA said: “We are extremely excited to work hand-in-hand with Microsoft on this initiative. Together, we can help discover young talents who will come on board to use the platform, test their creations, and market their games for revenue generation. Now, we can equip game developers with the full-spectrum process flow, from concepts to product launch, and progressively building up development capabilities for larger titles. This initiative fits perfectly well with our effort to nurture
Singapore media talents.”

Singapore is the first country in Asia to launch the Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel today, less than a month after the service was launched in the United States and parts of Europe.

CarneyVale:Showtime, first Singapore game set to be published on Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel

Along with the launch is the debut of CarneyVale:Showtime, the first Singapore game set to be published on the Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel. Developed by the Singapore-MI GAMBIT Game Lab1 , a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the multi-agency Interactive Digital Media R&D Programme Office (IDMPO) hosted by MDA, the game had earlier beaten 350 entries from around the world to win the top prize of US$40,000 at the 2008 Microsoft XNA
Dream-Build-Play competition. With the deployment, millions of Xbox gamers in the world will now be able to purchase and enjoy CarneyVale:Showtime for about S$8 or 400 Microsoft Points.

“I am very pleased with the results that have been shown by the students from the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. It proves that Singapore students have the capability to produce a game that is of international stature,” said Ms Teo Chor Guan, Programme Director, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. This positive outcome complements Singapore’s IDM R&D efforts to fuel innovation for commercialisation and making an impact internationally.

An Explosion in Next-Gen Gaming Content A host of new and creative ideas created with the freely available Microsoft XNA® Game Studio software are already appearing on the Xbox LIVE Community Games channel. They include 3-D fighting experiences like “Colosseum” and games for the
entire family like “Word Soup.”

By the end of 2008, Xbox 360 owners are expected to have access to the largest, most creatively diverse game library across all next-generation platforms, with over 1000 titles spanning Community Games, Xbox LIVE Arcade and retail Xbox blockbuster titles like Gears Of War® 2.

Said Mr Alan Chou, Regional Marketing Manager, Xbox 360 in South-east Asia: “Xbox LIVE is the leading online console gaming service with over 14 million members and we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Community Games in Singapore. Microsoft has made it easier for budding developers to make the next Xbox 360 hit. MDA’s enthusiasm and strong support for Community Games will go a long way in growing the local gaming industry, while the trailblazing path set by Team Gambit will inspire
many more to follow.”

There is already a ready pool of budding talent raring to get onto Community Games. Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology (DMIT) is the first in the region to offer a 15-week module utilising the XNA Game Studio software, with a lab fully-equipped with 22 Xbox 360 consoles. With the launch of Community Games, students taking the module will be required to submit their final game assignments for peer review and potential release on the channel.

Dr Timothy Chan, Director of DMIT, said: “The Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel gives students an invaluable opportunity to experience the complete workflow in game development, from conceptualisation to development to marketing of their own games.”

For more information on MDA-Microsoft XNA Community Games initiative and CarneyVale:Showtime, please contact:

Ms Serene Tan
Manager, Communications
Media Development Authority
Tel: +65 97263155
Email: Serene_Tan@mda.gov.sg

Ms Jasmine Wong
Assistant Manager, Communications
Media Development Authority
Tel: +65 97263158
Email: Jasmine_Wong@mda.gov.sg

Good morning. I am delighted to join you today at the opening of SIGGRAPH Asia 2008.

Today’s event is highly significant as this is the inaugural Asia edition of The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques. The hosting of this event in Asia for the first time signifies the increasingly important role that the region is playing in the world of Interactive Digital Media, or IDM for short. Singapore is proud and excited to be the first Asian country to play host to this event that celebrates the creativity, passion and excellence of the digital media industry. It is also a privilege for me today to be in the company of some of the brightest and most creative minds in this sector.

Asia leads all regions by accounting for almost 40 per cent of the world’s Internet users, but the region’s population penetration rate for Internet is only 15.3 per cent, compared to the penetration rate of 48 per cent for Europe and almost 74 per cent for North America . Asia offers immense potential as there remains a large, untapped market waiting to join the Internet revolution. These ‘base of pyramid’ markets are equally in need of new ways to connect, communicate and share with each other, and opportunities abound for the implementation of IDM to create “barrier free” local, regional and global social connectivity that will create deep and long-lasting impact for the people in Asia.

Strong support for IDM in Singapore

Singapore has identified the IDM sector as a strategic area of growth, and the government has committed S$500 million to develop our R&D capability in areas where Singapore can gain a strategic lead. A holistic programme has been put in place to encourage entrepreneurship, test-bedding and explorations in IDM from stakeholders in the industry, institutes of higher learning and start-ups. Approximately 200 R&D projects involving some 2,000 researchers, engineers and start-ups have been supported to date.

Our multi-agency Interactive Digital Media R&D Programme Office, or IDMPO, established in 2006, supports research and development in IDM. We believe in working with the best in the world to build our pool of R&D talent. We actively encourage the coupling of local institutions with top foreign universities in collaborative research, and we have established research centres in Singapore with institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for next generation game development, Chinese Academy of Sciences for communication mediation, and Keio University in Japan for research into wearable and pervasive media. We have also recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology of the University of California (Irvine) for long term synergistic research in Experiential Media Systems.

In fact, just yesterday, Minister (MICA) Dr Lee Boon Yang announced plans to develop a media hub, the Mediapolis @ one-north, to further bolster Singapore’s media infrastructure. We are excited by this vision to create the ideal home for international and local media companies, media schools and R&D firms. Mediapolis @ one-north will leverage the arts and creative community at Wessex Estate, as well as the science and technology R&D community at Fusionopolis, along with the institutes of higher learning in the vicinity of the media hub. I am looking forward to the first quarter of next year, when a total of 1.2 hectares of land for Mediapolis @ one-north will be made available for development.

Increasing visibility in the global arena

Singapore’s IDM industry is seeing good growth in recent years. Local companies are developing original intellectual properties across multiple media platforms, widening their appeal and winning new audiences through books, electronic games, merchandise, interactive websites and other media forms.

We are seeing more success stories. In October, our interns from the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab beat 350 entries from 100 countries to come up tops in the 2008 Microsoft XNA Dream-Build-Play competition. They received the top prize of US$40,000 for “CarneyVale: Showtime”, an acrobatic puzzle game.

In the same month, a team from the National University of Singapore demonstrated the quality of their research when it clinched the top prize of US$100,000 at the Grand Finals of The Star Challenge@Fusionopolis, beating finalists from countries such as China, France, Japan and USA. This was a culmination of 10 months of intense competition involving 56 teams from 17 countries, using new technologies and algorithms created by contestants to perform multimedia search on a multilingual database.

I am proud to note that our start-ups are also proving their mettle in the competitive global markets. Five of our local entrepreneurs were recently nominated as finalists in the 2008 Business Week list of Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs. It is heartening that many of these companies are starting to find investments and interesting market strategies that are helping them to commercialise quickly as a business.

The vibrancy of Singapore’s IDM industry was also greatly enhanced by the slate of leading companies establishing their presence in Singapore this year. They include familiar names such as Ubisoft from France, Electronic Arts and Linden Labs from the US, Real U from Germany, Softworld from Taiwan, Sunwoo Animation from Korea, and most recently, Rainbow from Italy. These companies have all chosen to leverage our position as Asia’s leading digital media hub to site regional operations and develop content for international markets.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our strong belief that even in these uncertain times, compelling innovation and a strong desire for breakthrough will continue to be the driving force for stakeholders and users in the IDM sector.

I am certain that the exchange of minds and myriad of business opportunities on offer at SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 will ensure you have a very fulfilling and fruitful time in the few days ahead. On this note, it is my pleasure to now declare SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 officially open.

Thank you.

Serene Luo from The Straits times looks at three funded projects that are yielding interesting results.

Jazzing up the games sector

• $12m Awarded to Co-Space™ Projects
• A Closer Look at the Co-Space™ Projects
• IDMPO Entrepreneurs Nominated for BusinessWeek’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs
• IDMPO Companies’ Found Success through Facebook

$12m Awarded to Co-Space™ Projects
The IDM R&D Programme Office recently announced the selection of 15 projects on the concept of Co-Space for funding through the inaugural Co-Space (industry) Call for proposals. Awarding a total of $12 million, these projects range from transport to heritage planning and have the potential to propel Singapore’s IDM industry and pioneering new innovations.

Collectively, these projects involving 15 companies will achieve for Singapore an increase of some $37 million in Total Business Spending, 240 new jobs, and create platforms and services that will support some 1300 third-party applications. Hands-on training and development will also be provided for some 5600 students and professionals.

Details are in the press release available at http://www.idm.sg/2008/10/idm-captures-the-imagination-of-companies/

A Closer Look at the Co-Space™ Projects

Users will soon be able to navigate Singapore in true, first person 3D view, where there will be realistic simulation of building interiors and waterways; and information will be organized with reference to actual locations.

For example, the MagicStitchTM platform being developed by Visual Factory, in collaboration with NHB will soon allow museum curators from around the world to design and curate their own virtual 3D museum galleries; showcasing precious art works from the national archives of countries around the world.

The Call also saw innovation in new media experiences, where proposals touched on new forms of interactivity and multi-platform broadcasting for more pervasive and engaged media choices. Soon, computer interaction will no longer be confined to the keyboard, as VeeV Interactive Pte Ltd, a wholly-owed subsidiary of Sky Media, will offer users the ability to ‘hold’ and ‘use’ tools to draw, paint, colour and create pictures using an affordable haptic device. PGK Media’s AdMe service will also allow users to interact and send video clips and other media-rich content to more than 40 live-sized mobile billboards located across Singapore

Sun Microsystems and Open Solutions Innovation aim to break new grounds in the creation of new dynamic virtual worlds that allow seamless immersion and interaction with the real world. For example, a wave of your hand in the real world could correspond instantly with your avatar waving in the virtual world. Voice communication is equally realistic as virtual parties can phone outsiders to the virtual world for private calls or conference group calls. These technologies could be applied in conducting real world-virtual world conferences and command centers, in real-to-virtual world classrooms, virtual demonstrations and exhibitions, among others.

Mariko by Thales Technology Centre Singapore will demonstrate its effectiveness particularly in the maritime domain through virtually enhanced sailing scenarios, open to the public on the internet. Mariko targets sailing enthusiasts wishing to enhance their sailing experience.

The relevance of virtual media-rich environments will be brought into a variety of consumer services. For example, taxi commuters can expect shorter queue times at taxi stands as new services such as Stratech System’s Dynamic Vehicle Allocation System will detect commuter queue lengths and convert such data into media rich visual applications on the Internet and commuters’ mobile phones. The system will also allow the capturing and sending of video images from taxi stands to taxi operators’ call centres so that taxis can be better deployed to meet commuters’ demand.

We see Co-Space as the key to unlocking the unfulfilled promise of an information society. To see a complete list of projects and how its influence can seep into our daily activities, please see http://www.idm.sg/co-space/projects/

IDMPO Entrepreneurs Nominated for BusinessWeek’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs

Eight local entrepreneurs are running to win BusinessWeek’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs, making Singapore the country with the most individual entries. We congratulate the entrepreneurs of the 5 companies nominated. We are pleased to note that 3 of the 5 companies are in the IDM sector and we will continue to root and support them.

Stanley Han – Stanley Han wrote his own success story when his company created KooBits, a platform for children to create interactive stories, publish e-books, and network with other KooBits users. KooBits has just been launched in more than 60 schools in Singapore and several hundred training centers in Indonesia. Han, a National University of Singapore engineering graduate, plans to launch KooBits in China, Europe, and Australia in 2008.

Aileen Sim – Aileen Sim saw the potential of starting a business in the virtual world before others did. In 2006, Sim co-founded First Meta, a leading provider of financial services for virtual worlds. A year later, her company launched the first virtual-world credit card, the MetaCard. A graduate of the National University of Singapore, she has helped raise $1.7 million for her company and together with her team has brought First Meta to the forefront of integrating real and virtual economies. Her company has been featured in such leading media as TechCrunch, CNET Asia, Wired, and BBC World Service.

Other local entrepreneurs nominated for Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs

• Darius Cheung, Varun Chatterji, Rishi Israni and Indradeep Biswas from tenCube
• Leonard Tan from PurpleClick Media and 9 Minutes
• Ryan Lee of Xm-i, Metacommunique

Voting is still on, please show them your support!

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1008_asia_young_entrepreneurs/index.htm

IDMPO Companies’ Found Success through Facebook

My Paper featured two of i.Jam funded projects (Tyler Projects and Fresbo) in a two-paged cover story on 8th October. The story is angled on how local IDM or game companies made use of social networking sites like Facebook to distribute their products/games.

Fresbo and Tyler Projects received IDMPO’s i.JAM funding of S$50k about one year ago.

Vincent Ng, Co-founder of Fresbo, said “The fund came at a time when we were doing third party web projects to sustain the company, as Fresbo World was still in development phase at that time and cash flow was extremely tight. The injection of funds allowed us to stop spending time and effort on sustaining the company and channel all focus into developing the technology and the actual product.”

Read the full story at http://www.idm.sg/filesrepo/08/10/8.pdf

Singapore, 17 October 2008 – Fifteen new projects on the concept of Co-Space™ have been awarded funding by the multi-agency Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Research and Development (R&D) Programme Office (IDMPO) hosted by the Media Development Authority.

Collectively, these projects involving 15 companies will achieve for Singapore an increase of some $37 million in Total Business Spending , 240 new jobs, and create platforms and services that will support some 1300 third-party applications. Hands-on training and development will also be provided for some 5600 students and professionals. The projects have also secured 20 public agencies such as National Library Board, National Heritage Board (NHB) and Sing Health as early adopters.

About S$12 million in funding have been awarded to the 15 projects. They were selected from the inaugural Co-SpaceTM (industry) Call for Proposals which attracted 55 proposals involving some 200 companies from the Broadcasting, Real Estate, Healthcare, Defence, Sports, Gaming, Virtual Worlds, Telecommunications, Education and 3D sub-sectors. The Call closed in June 2008.

The Call is part of the IDMPO’s efforts to build the IDM industry in Singapore, whose strategic programme on behalf of the National Research Foundation has seeded innovation amongst local academic institutions, industry and start-ups across the island. The focus of the R&D extends beyond technology development, to also encouraging stakeholders to experiment with new services, business models, and the translation of IDM into the domains of various economic sectors.

Under the Call, exciting innovations in 3D realism and immersive media will soon result in technologies which will capture and render Singapore in rich 3D detail. These projects, when implemented over the next 2 to 3 years, will mirror Singapore in virtual 3D; including street objects, the surrounding maritime areas, and the interiors of buildings.

“Co-Space™ has spurred innovation and breakthrough thinking in the future of digital-physical environments. The Call has attracted participation from all levels of the industry including start-ups, local Small Medium Enterprises, and Multi-National Companies who have pitched in with us to inspire a new generation of applications. Co-Space™ has jumpstarted cutting edge thinking and innovation in IDM. Our aim moving forward, would be to nurture an environment to support the thousands of companies, students and researchers under our programme; in order to position Singapore at the forefront of this next generation Web”. said Mr Michael Yap, Executive Director, IDMPO.

Projects funded under the Call

Together, the projects will add realism to the 3D environment, with new tools and applications that will revolutionise the way in which organisations and businesses conduct their activities. Users will soon be able to navigate Singapore in true, first-person 3D view, where there will be realistic simulation of building interiors and waterways; and information will be organised with reference to actual locations, – projects undertaken by IDM companies G Element, Metaversum, Thales Technology Centre Singapore, KPB Technologies and Visual Factory.

For example, the MagicStitchTM platform being developed by Visual Factory, in collaboration with NHB will soon allow museum curators from around the world to design and curate their own virtual 3D museum galleries; showcasing precious art works from the national archives of countries around the world.

“NHB has selected Visual Factory Pte Ltd to develop the Cybermuseum project based on its immersive 3D technologies. Visual Factory’s product, MagicStitch™, is an attractive platform for fast and easy deployment of 3D immersive applications. Professional and non professional users can now create their own virtual spaces, social networks, e-commerce applications, and much more” said Mr Philip Chua, Chief Technology Officer, National Heritage Board

With the augmentation of geographical infrastructure such as cameras, location based capabilities and telemetry sensors, the 3D world will provide rich opportunities for new types of services, not least of which is a new virtual shopfront for business owners proposed by Qmax, a real to virtual payment gateway proposed by First Meta, and real-time interactive large scale video streaming proposed by ETi ServTouch.

A framework for the integration of these virtual technologies will also be put in place by Sun Microsystems, who will work with the open source community to couple the rich world of 3D virtual spaces with sensor and location based technologies.

The Call also saw innovation in new media experiences, where proposals touched on new forms of interactivity and multi-platform broadcasting for more pervasive and engaged media choices. Soon, computer interaction will no longer be confined to the keyboard, as VeeV Interactive Pte Ltd, a wholly-owed subsidiary of Sky Media, will offer users the ability to ‘hold’ and ‘use’ tools to draw, paint, colour and create pictures using an affordable haptic device. PGK Media’s AdMe service will also allow users to interact and send video clips and other media-rich content to more than 40 live-sized mobile billboards located across Singapore

The relevance of virtual media-rich environments will be brought into a variety of consumer services. For example, taxi commuters can expect shorter queue times at taxi stands as new services such as Stratech System’s Dynamic Vehicle Allocation will detect commuter queue lengths and convert such data into media rich-visual applications for commuters’ mobile phones. The software will also allow the capturing and sending of video images from taxi stands to taxi operators’ call centres so that taxis can be better deployed to meet commuters’ demand.

The 15 projects awarded under the call were selected after rigorous evaluation by a 16-agency evaluation panel. Collectively, they offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation through a combination of both physical and virtual world offerings, and create an environment for building yet unknown services that tap on the promise of digital ubiquity. The resulting applications; rooted in the usefulness of real-world, real-time information, will also create opportunities for limitless new experiences for the public.

Last month, the IDMPO announced the funding of 13 Co-Space™ projects submitted by local academic institutions. With the contributions from both the industry and academic field, Singapore is well positioned as a player in the next generation Internet, where the web will become even more pervasive, immersive, and integrated into our daily lives.

Moving forward, IDMPO will be working on a National Innovations Commons framework whereby technologies developed will be shared across the sector to foster an environment for collaboration. IDMPO will also be engaging closely with public and private sector organisations to push the envelope of innovation through co-creation.

View Projects

RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State for Education and Information, Communications and the Arts, announced the initiative at the i.JAM Networking Session. The initiative is meant to help raise the investment needed by IDM companies to further commercialise and develop their products and their companies.

This is done by putting selected companies through an intensive programme consisting of business planning and presentation classes, business plan improvement meetings, and personal coaching sessions.

These companies will then pitch their products to venture capitalists and other investors who might be interested in their products. On top of the private investments, the companies also qualify for R&D grants from IMDMPO or co-investment by SPRING SEEDS Capital of Spring Singapore.

So far, the initiative has signed up 40 potential investors, including big names like SPH, ST Electronics, Mediacorp Technologies, IDG Ventures Vietnam, and Stream Global.

This initiative is part of IDMPO’s ongoing effort to create an interlocking ecosystem between the four key groups in IDM R&D, which are institutes of higher learning, industry players, start-ups and individuals, and schools, to create innovation and capacity in the IDM industry.

Source: Business Times Online

Other i.MATCH related news

MDA launches iMATCH to bridge funding gap for IDM startups (Channel News Asia)
IDM start-ups to get boost from i.MATCH initiative (Business Times)
MATCH to boost local IDM companies’ search for funding (Berita Harian)
IDM start-ups to get boost from i.MATCH initiative (Business Times Online)
MDA help for digital media startups (The New Paper)
MDA sets digital fund, new niche TV (The Hollywood Reporter)
Singapore govt to support interactive digital media startups (IndiaTelevision.com)