Next Generation Media Accelerator

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The CSU has unique potential because its high number of graduates and their level of preparation for the workforce can make a significant impact on these future technologies. The proximity of CSU campuses to both the technology sector in Silicon Valley and the Hollywood entertainment industry makes partnerships possible between industry and students that will provide the applied research and workforce training needed to keep pace with, and stimulate, technological advances in digital media. The consortium will be a test bed for new technologies as well as an incubator of creative ideas in areas such as broadcast, cable and satellite television, music recording, digital cinema, network distribution, gaming applications, virtual product design/testing, and mobile media, including new transformative broadcast and journalistic practices enabled through next generation internet technology.

Linked by high-speed fiber optic networks already in place, such as the state-wide research and education next generation network (the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, or CENIC), and the international network known as the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF), this new initiative has pilot projects planned for training, surveillance, enhanced communication and information sharing of strategic applications that complement the commercial benefits of this initiative. Projects include:

CINEMALAB: a multi-campus laboratory for new Digital Cinema technologies and practices. The new Digital Cinema standards developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers Group, the leading technical society for the motion imaging industry, are having a major impact on the media community from public broadcasting to independent production companies to major Hollywood studios. With this common set of standards, producers can invest in digital production secure in the knowledge that the formats and technologies are fixed and will provide a foundation with lasting effect. CINEMALAB will serve as the nexus for this new opportunity by connecting industry with students, its workforce of the future. Utilizing the extensive faculty knowledge available at the CSU, CINEMALAB will host industry leaders in specialized short-term residencies designed to create the new tools for Digital Cinema, including collaborative tools for distributed production and post-production. These new tools will create an intellectual property resource for the CSU capable of generating revenue in the digital economy. CINEMALAB will become the workshop for the new digital Hollywood, from the first digital frame to the final digital projection. Industry partners include CineGrid, Lucas Films & Industrial Light and Magic, Yahoo Video, Giant Killer Robots, OnStream Media and Floating World Media.

SEBASTIAN: a pilot project for designing the communication and distribution tool of the Next Generation Internet. Multi-media communication is poised to become the critical application over the high-speed networks that are revolutionizing the digital media and entertainment landscape. SEBASTIAN will be the missing piece, a tool that will allow short films, web projects, design projects, and broadcast documentaries to go from portable devices, such as an iPod, to Next Generation 4K Digital Projectors in a seamless manner, connecting students, faculty and industry in a unified platform. This is a way to distribute student content in a manner that also enhances the industry at large, thus solving the perennial challenge of gaining exposure for student work. SEBASTIAN will become the intelligent answer to the cycle of litigation and illegal file sharing, while opening the doors for creative expression and collaboration. Students will be able to share each other’s work in a dynamic and exciting way. Just as Email has become the “killer application” technology of today’s Internet, SEBASTIAN will do the same for the next generation internet. Industry partners include UthTV, Indielives, Radium, Cap Digital, The Digital Hub, National Digital Research Center (Ireland), Reseau 2000, and the Bay Area Video Coalition.

VERGE: a technology incubator and accelerator that will bring a diverse set of disciplines, including cinema, art, broadcast, design, computer science, health education, engineering, and theater into one network to address, design and disseminate leading edge technologies and applications. Designed to promote industry-relevant intellectual property development within the CSU, VERGE will enable a new direction for the CSU to create the technologies it not only uses, but also technologies that can be embedded in the industry. Similar to MIT’s Media Lab, VERGE will become a site of interdisciplinary innovation where companies will come to solve real world problems. Faculty will participate in a lab environment with the latest hardware provided by industry and the CSU, creating a space for students to work directly with industry. The research objective will be to accelerate new software development and create efficiencies in the emerging global production process for digital media.

The CSU requests $3 million from Labor-HHS-Ed/FIPSE for additional infrastructure development, support of faculty and students, increased industry partnerships, and access to state-of-the-art equipment.

Additional information:

Jim Gelb, Assistant Vice Chancellor
CSU Office of Federal Relations
(202) 434-8060

Derek J. Aitken, Associate Director
SFSU Government & Community Relations
(415) 338-1183