Sony DADC announced it will start an initiative for a production technology alliance for Blu-ray Disc dual layer. Detailed information will be presented at the European MEDIA-TECH Showcase & Conference 2007 in Barcelona, Spain.

The presentation will start at March 6, 2007, at 5.30 pm in Room "Sala F" and will introduce the partners of the coming production technology alliance. Sony DADC will also present its latest Blu-ray roadshow.

One of the aims of the forthcoming alliance is to ensure developers optimizes the use of Blu-ray’s huge capacity of up to 50GB. “The Blu-ray Disc dual layer format allows for more than just a movie to be stored in the absolute best high-definition quality,” says Sony DADC. “There is no need to pack additional discs to store these bonus materials, thereby eliminating costs and simplifying the end user's entertainment experience,” it says in a veiled broadside against the competing HD DVD format. Depending on the encoding method, there is room for more than five hours of high-definition quality video.

MEDIA-TECH convenes at Barcelona’s Rey Juan Carlos I on 6-7 March. John Calkins (pictured) , Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Sony Pictures Entertainment will be the keynote speaker. He will take a look at the future of digital media and the prospects of emerging optical formats and digital ways of distribution.

At SPE, John Calkins is responsible for the management of the studio‘s corporate development initiatives in all of its entertainment divisions. Before joining SPE, Calkins was president of Lieberfarb & Associates, where he oversaw operations, evaluated acquisitions and led the business development efforts related to the firm‘s broadband video initiatives.

Before Lieberfarb, Calkins was senior vp corporate business development and strategy at Warner Bros. Entertainment. In that role, he was a key player in the creation of Movielink, the f i v e - s t u d i o joint venture to distribute movies on the Internet.

In his speech “Are the days of packaged media really numbered?" Jean-Luc Renaud, publisher of DVD Intelligence and a Board Member of the DVD Asssociation, will explore the current status of technologies competing for the delivery of video content and will assess the extent to which they will cannibalise the DVD market. How packaged media fare in advanced communication network countries like Japan and Korea, which Europe aims to emulate, will be examined as well.

Renaud has also been invited by the International Disc Duplicating Association to talk about the next-generation disc formats at the seminar co-located with the MEDIA-TECH event with which the IDDA is partnering.

Other speakers at the MEDIA-TECH Conference include Professor Masud Mansuripur of the University of Arizona, who will examine the roadmap for storage technology.

For details on MEDIA-TECH Barcelona click here. Information about IDDA click here.

Story filed 18.02.07