Akamai Announces Go Digital! TV and Film Symposium

-- Fox Filmed Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures execs among others to discuss film and television's ongoing transition to all-digital distribution workflows for invite-only audience at IBC

News provided by

Akamai Technologies, Inc.

Sep 10, 2010, 01:06 ET

AMSTERDAM, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- IBC CONFERENCE -- Akamai Technologies (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, today announced Go Digital!, an industry symposium that will address the film and television industry's ongoing transition to all-digital distribution workflows. Senior technical and business executives from the major studios including Fox Filmed Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Pictures as well as the BBC will join their EU broadcast partners on Monday, September 13 at a historic venue in central Amsterdam for an exploration of emerging best practices in digital distribution. For more information, go to www.godigital2010.com

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"Akamai believes the Internet's performance and economies of scale present opportunity for new efficiencies in the B2B marketplace," said Steven Chester, VP of Film at Akamai. "We are very pleased to work with the slate of media leaders participating in Go Digital! to foster an open dialogue about the emerging best practices in digital distribution."

Studio executives have been involved in the planning of and development of the agenda for Go Digital!, largely under the leadership of John Koscheka, SVP of Worldwide Fulfillment at 20th Century Fox Television Distribution. "Fox has been committed to digital for years, culminating in the development of Foxfast as a B2B video delivery platform in 2009," said Koscheka. "We believe that Go Digital! presents our customers a unique opportunity to learn best practices to streamline the process of acquiring, storing, delivering, localizing and manipulating assets for broadcast. We are fortunate to have all these players in the same room for this unprecedented event."

Collaboration between industry stakeholders is the organizing principle behind Go Digital!, with an emphasis on the creation of opportunities for mutual gain. "The transition to digital workflows creates significant value for both Sony Pictures and our broadcast clients," said Terri Davies, SVP of Worldwide Product Fulfillment at Sony Pictures Entertainment. "With the symposium format of Go Digital!, everyone in the room will benefit from an open exchange of information."

Go Digital! will provide participants with a detailed technical context for their emerging digital transition strategies. Introductory speakers at the event will include Chris Cookson, President of Sony Pictures Technology and Harald Prokop, Chief Architect and Senior Vice President of Engineering for Akamai Technologies. In the first half of the symposium, executives from 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, and the BBC will present their emerging best-practice business cases around the development of digital fulfillment systems, content localization, and technical on-boarding, followed by a moderated session including senior executives from Warner Brothers, Akamai, Signiant, Technicolor, Digital Rapids, and Sony DADC.

In the afternoon, presentations from broadcasters including SBS Netherlands, RTL/BCE, the BBC's Digital Media Initiative, Fox International and National Geographic Europe will focus on issues like metadata management, standards and the development of shared digital playout centers. Executives from Ascent Media Group, Civolution, Deluxe Entertainment Services will join the moderated broadcast panel discussion to follow. Additional industry leaders participating include Testronics Laboratories, Inlet Technologies, Thought Equity Motion, SDI Media, and Smartjog.

About Akamai

Akamai® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimizing Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure e-commerce. Combining highly-distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai's global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. To learn how the world's leading enterprises are optimizing their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter.