HP Delivers Digital Foundation to Entertainment Industry

HP's (www.hp.com) strategy to drive the digital transformation of the entertainment industry took a major step forward today with the announcement that Sony Pictures Entertainment, Ascent Media Group, Warner Bros. Studios and Infinity Broadcasting are leveraging HP innovation to revolutionize the way they create and distribute content.

The announcements - which span the film, television and radio industries - were made at the National Association of Broadcasters 2005 event being held here.

"It's undeniable that technology is playing an increasingly important role in the business of media and entertainment. It enables every step of the process from the creation and production of stories, how they are distributed and how they are enjoyed," said Shane Robison, chief strategy and technology officer, HP.

At the core of HP's digital entertainment strategy is the HP Digital Media Platform (DMP). Leveraging technology developed by HP Labs, the company's central research facility, the HP DMP enables media companies to create content once to distribute many times, in any format - thereby reducing the time to market for new assets and providing new content streams for old assets.

An industry standards-based framework of enterprise software, hardware and services, the HP DMP allows media companies to digitize, store, process, manage, distribute and archive complex media assets securely and efficiently.

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) today unveiled its plan to streamline the distribution of its film and television content by leveraging a series of new digital entertainment technology and services created by Ascent Media Group (AMG) and HP. SPE, AMG and HP have formed a first-of-its-kind alliance to digitize SPE's library of film and television assets.

SPE and AMG chose the HP DMP to digitize its entire library of film and TV content, enabling SPE to create content once and deliver it more securely, quickly and cost-effectively than ever before.

In addition, Warner Bros. Studios and HP today announced the expansion of their existing alliance to develop the industry's first digital, end-to-end process (DETE). HP, Warner Bros. Studios and Accenture are designing and implementing an architecture that will enable Warner Bros.

The HP DMP is being adapted to meet the specific needs of the studio and will serve as the foundation of this architecture. The DETE will enable Warner Bros. Studios to transfer digital files between its production, post-production and distribution businesses easily and securely.

"We have a vision, and now, with HP and Accenture as partners, the opportunity to create a seamless infrastructure that will allow technology to integrate and streamline many of the time-consuming steps and procedures inherent in film production, post-production and distribution," said Chris Cookson, president, Warner Bros. Technical Operations.

Warner Bros. Studios and HP also announced that they have teamed to restore the 1933 classic motion picture "King Kong."

Warner Bros. Studios has brought the best elements and prints from all over the world and has scanned them into a 4K digital file. Using HP's "dirt and scratch" technology, which was developed by HP Labs, the 72-year-old classic will be digitally restored to its 1933 brilliance.

HP has also invented a new film restoration process for Cinerama films that eliminates the "seams" visible from the old three panel Cinerama process as well as corrects the distortions in perspective that were inherent in the change from Cinerama's curved screen to a flat one.

In addition to its work with the film and television industry, HP is helping the radio industry reach its listeners in new ways with Visual Radio.

Developed by Nokia and offered by HP, Visual Radio adds a new dimension to FM radio by letting consumers listen to local FM radio via their mobile phones while simultaneously receiving interactive information and graphics that are synchronized with the broadcast.