Digital cinema: Eng Wah's Ms Goh with a digital hard disk capable of storing a full movie. With the new platform, same-date blockbuster releases are possible

SINGAPORE is now ready to offer owners of digital content - such as digital movies, videos, and ads - a platform to localise their content and re-distribute it worldwide.

The platform is called CCTx or Cross Continent Digital Content Transmission, and is currently in a pilot phase for digital delivery of content from the US to Asia via Singapore.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) Singapore unveiled the CCTx offering at the Asian Digital Cinema Summit, which was held in conjunction with the Infocomm Media Business Exchange.

'The CCTx latest results demonstrate Singapore's ability to receive digital content from the US, process it in Singapore and redistribute it to other markets such as the US and Thailand,' said Thomas Lim, IDA's director for games and entertainment.

The project tested the distribution of an 11-minute test movie called Stem (Standard Evaluation Material) file produced by the American Society of Cinematographers and Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI). The 170 GB (gigabyte) Stem file was transmitted from Culver City in California to Singapore's 1-Net data exchange.

Once here, the original narration was localised with Chinese subtitles and voiceover. The localised content was then redistributed digitally to the US and Thailand via satellite through GlobeCast.

'The localised Stem file was also transmitted directly via fibre-optic cable by StarHub to Eng Wah Suntec cineplex,' Mr Lim said. 'This display of a multi-distribution network establishes Singapore's capabilities as a global distribution hub for digital content.'

The project is part of IDA's plan to get the cluster to rake in $500 million in annual revenues by 2006 - from about $150 million in 2003.

'We want to position Singapore as a hub for regional operations of top global companies in digital cinema distribution, publishing and software distribution,' said IDA's assistant chief executive for industry, Khoong Hock Yun. 'We want to exploit our edge in digital technologies and leverage on our hub connectivity.'

The current project involves IDA partnering with the Digital Media Chapter of the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation, and the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.

Other companies include Thomson Technicolor, Mega Films, VHQ, Cathay Cineplexes, Eng Wah, SF Cinema City in Bangkok, Mega Media, Barco, Christie Digital, Dell, GDC Technology, Hewlett-Packard, MediaCorp Technologies, EVS
Group of Belgium, GlobeCast, Microspace, StarHub, and 1-Net.

On March 24, 2004, Singapore took a digital step forward with Eng Wah completing the world's first 2K (2,000 lines' resolution) digital cinema deployment at its five-screen multiplex at Suntec City.

'As the world's first full 2K digital cineplex operator, we're excited to be a part of this project,' said Eng Wah's managing director Goh Min Yen. 'CCTx enables us to provide our patrons with same-date blockbuster releases and more digital content, including live telecasts of shows and events from around the world.'

IDA's Mr Lim said Singapore is ideally placed to be a distribution hub for digital content. Singapore has more than a million sq ft of data centre space. It is one of the most connected cities in Asia with 16 Gbps (gigabits per second) connectivity to over 20 countries, including 6 Gbps to the US and 8 Gbps to Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam.

'Singapore's network infrastructure is also particularly well suited for digital delivery of data,' Mr Lim said. 'We are ranked first in the Networked Readiness Index in the World Economic Forum's latest Global IT Report.

'In January, we were ranked one of top seven intelligent communities in the world by the Intelligent Communities Forum for our digital exchange vision, excellent infocomm infrastructure, and global connectivity.'

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