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Informix
November 3, 1999Informix
Unveils Media360
Making further strides in helping customers solve their
complex business problems, Informix(R) Corporation, the technology leader in enterprise
database-powered solutions, today announced Media360(TM), an end-to-end media asset
management solution designed to help businesses manage their valuable digital assets
throughout the enterprise.
Informix's Media360 solution addresses the business problems encountered by every
organisation that needs to create, store and distribute content. This includes traditional
and new media companies, broadcasters, film production, radio, retail, publishing,
finance, education, government and brand management organisations.
Weta, the Southern Hemisphere's premier
visual effects facility, will use Media360 to archive and manage up to 1,500 special
effect shots that the company will create during the production of Peter Jackson's screen adaptation of J.R.R.
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Weta has created
award-winning special effects for films such as CONTACT and The Frighteners.
After closely evaluating competitive products, the company chose Media360 because it
needed an end-to-end system that could handle at least 60 terabytes of model, animation,
texture and image data that will be produced over the course of the $260 million, three
film project.
"The creation of visual effects for film is a very data intensive process," said
Jon Labrie, Weta's chief technical officer.
"A shot that passes in a mere 5 to 10 seconds may contain dozens, sometimes hundreds
of separate image elements-and each of these elements may be the end result of many other
operations. The majority of visual effect shots we will produce for Lord of the Rings will
be very complex, and will include computer-generated images that interact with human
characters. Weta needed an asset management
system that is powerful, flexible, and easily extensible. Media360 is the only solution
that met all of those criteria. It's in a class by itself."
Approximately 80 Weta artists and 40
production staff will use Media360 to create, manage, and search a library of shots. The
Informix system supports complex queries for particular types of shots and images. A key
factor in Weta's choice was Media360's object
relational capability. Media360's functionality will accommodate Weta's object work model, and allows each
department to have a customised view and workflow.
Informix has developed a digital multimedia archive with the Spanish TV Company Telecinco
that is at the forefront of digital archive technology. Media360 has enabled Telecinco to
gain competitive edge by being one of the very first European broadcasters to exploit its
digital video assets online.
Telecinco's archivists and journalists can access video footage and associated operational
data with much greater speed and precision, allowing them to use the material more
effectively as a result. By deploying this system, Telecinco will also be in the vanguard
of companies addressing the needs of future consumer-led video-on-demand services.
"Using this advanced technology, Telecinco has very quickly implemented innovative
business processes that allows us to maintain a position at the forefront of European
broadcasters," said Jose Luis Romero, director of Telecinco's IT division.
"Media360 has improved our work processes and provided great savings in both time and
money."
Informix will exhibit Media360 with customer demonstrations throughout the International
Broadcasting Conference in the Rai Center, Hall 3, Booth 142.
Informix Corporation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., provides innovative database solutions
that assist the worlds' major corporations to attain competitive advantage. Informix is
widely recognised as the technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging
from small workgroups to very large parallel processing applications.
Informix's database server, application development tools,
superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the
forefront of major information technology solution areas including media and publishing,
data warehousing, high performance OLTP, and Web/e-commerce. For more information, contact
the sales office nearest you or visit our Web site. |