“The Blu-ray Disc Academy forum, with its unique emphasis on live demonstration of advanced BD features, BD-Live and 3D BD, is striking a cord with the industry,” says Jean-Luc Renaud Forum Director. “Participants will be flocking to Frankfurt on 19 May from 20 countries, and counting, some from faraway places – Argentina, Brazil, Dubai, Nigeria, and India.”

Amongst the latest additions and amendments to the programme is California-based BluFocus, the entertainment industry's first advanced testing and advisory service specialist for Blu-ray – and the company that oversaw Warner Bros’ biggest BD title to date The Dark Knight. It is now also heavily involved in 3D BD. “We have created unique 3D material with our own 3D cameras with the purpose of demonstrating what "bad 3D" could look like and how it should be avoided has it causes negative effects for the viewer,” says Paulette Pantoja, the company’s founder and CEO, who will be speaking at the conference. “It’s an important contribution to the 3D BD field because it is looking at the quality aspect, not from a technical standpoint, but from the physiological aspects, and therefore how the creative elements can be implemented for the best user experience.”

Sonic Solutions’s Simon James will show some advanced BD interactivity embedded into the Neil Young Archive Series created by MX Entertainment in San Francisco. Two of the exciting BD-J-enabled features in this title include the Neil Young career navigation timeline where the user clicks on the artist’s history to select audio, video, or images. It also features updatable audio, video, and image content via BD-Live where the player’s network connection allows updates to keep the title fresh and dynamic.

Stewart Dickison, recently-recruited Head of Authoring & Post-production at Sony DADC DigitalWorks, will be talking about the in-movie metadata application "movieIQ" as an example of how BD is increasingly focusing on creativity and the consumer experience. With a movieIQ-enabled Blu-ray Disc and an internet-connected player, movie fans can immediately access continuously-updated information tied to scenes within the movie. Also touched on will be the challenges and functionality of wider BD features in the face of 3D BD.

Andy Evans, founder and Director of London's leading high-end authoring and digital production facility The Pavement, will show the first UK BD-Live title of U2-360o At The Rose Bowl ahead of its global release in June. Users can access continually updated footage and material from the band's worldwide tour. The Pavement is using Imagion’s DynamicHD flexible BD-Live solution (to be demonstrated at the event), while creating, managing and supporting the U2 BD-Live content including live streaming of videos and entire songs of different concerts of the ongoing tour. The studio also launched the first DVD/Blu-ray bit budget iPhone app.

Infomedia, the design, authoring and production arm of leading independent BD replicator Infodisc, will present their Blu-ray creation capabilities, including 2D-to-3D transfer.

Sony and Panasonic will be setting up 3D BD booths to showcase their active shutter glasses technology.

For Programme and Registration details, visit www.blurayacademy.com

Some of the companies already registered include:
BD4C Patent Pool, Blu-ray Disc Association, BluFocus, Brickbox Digital Media, Cinram Europe, CyberLink Europe, Dare Post, Deluxe Digital Studios, Devotis forever, Digital2Disc, Disk Pro, Duplico2000, DVD Intelligence, dvdpartners, E-media, Elchmedia, enteractive, Fermata, FS Film Oy, GfK, Europe, Globalcom, GLS Studios, GZ Digital Media, HDTV Forum Schweiz, IBM Research, Imagion, IMS Group, Infodisc Technology, Metacom Communications, Metropolis Group, Microservice technologia Digital da Amazonia, MinnetonkaAudio Software, msm-Studios, MPO International, One-Blu Inc, oomoxx media, Opticon Group, Optimal media production, Pixelstein, Replix, Ringnet, RMS, Rovi Corporation, Screen Digest, Singulus, sofatronic, Solar Applied Materials technology, Sonic Solutions, Sony DADC, Sony DADC DigitalWorks, Subtilly, TAKT, Testronic Labs, The Pavement, The Site, Toshiba, UMA, Visionare, vnproductions, Xenon Corporation.

Story filed 09.05.10