NETIA Supports CineCast Innovative Platform for Connecting French Film Heritage With Social Networks

"Today's video-sharing tools and social media sites provide an exciting new way for audiences to engage with media from France's rich film history," said Vincent Puig of IRI (French Institute for Research and Innovation). "The powerful array of media and metadata management tools provided by NETIA will be vital to our success in involving the public in a richer, more dynamic experience of watching, discussing, and interacting with media."

CineCast brings together 17 research laboratories, cultural institutions, and technology and content companies in an unprecedented consortium. The project is designed to move audiences toward film-focused social media and onto video-sharing sites; facilitate VoD broadcasting over the Web or IPTV on a pay-as-you-go or subscription basis; enable selective broadcasting in digital cinemas; and support new programs and educational and library services. Within the platform being developed, NETIA's media asset management system will simplify the indexing, browsing, management, archiving, and distribution of media.

"As CineCast industrializes the process of making digital media readily available via social networks and various Web-based portals, we can offer a range of intuitive media and metadata management tools that streamline this process," said Florent Barbare, R&D project manager, NETIA. "We're very pleased to be playing a central role in this effort to educate and engage media consumers and film fans across France."

With the help of NETIA for end-to-end media management of even the most complex content distribution environments, CineCast will be positioned to leverage the editorial and document-engineering know-how of the main French film libraries and of the leading film social medium AlloCiné, as well as automatic image analysis technologies and social engineering tools, to establish new media practices and services and to stimulate new individual and collective film experiences.

About CineCast

The CineCast project is a 36-month R&D project with a budget of eight million euros. The project is jointly funded by its 17 partners out of their own capital, and by a pool of public backers within the FUI (French interministerial funding program) for the "competitiveness clusters" represented by CapDigital and Imaginove. Also involved are the French Ministry for the Economy (General Directorate for Competitiveness / Industry / Services), Ile-de-France region, Mairie de Paris, and Department of Val de Marne. Technical and institutional partners include GlobeCast (France Telecom/Orange), Exalead, IRI, Liris/CNRS, List/CEA, Jamespot, BNF, Bibliothèque Centre Pompidou, La Cinémathèque Française, Forum des Images, INA, ALLOCINE, lesite.tv, Vodkaster.com, UniversCiné, and Telecom Paris Tech.

About NETIA

NETIA, a GlobeCast company, is a leading provider of software solutions that enable efficient management and delivery of content to today's full array of media platforms. Relied on by more than 10,000 users in 200 installations in more than 40 countries, NETIA solutions allow content producers and owners to manage content from ingest to delivery, targeting multiplatform outlets including the Internet, VoD, IPTV services, and mobile devices.
NETIA provides content management solutions to major radio and television brands and multimedia groups around the world, and recent wins have made the company a significant new player in the Telco market, as well. Clients include BSkyB, RAI Italy, Radio Riyadh, France Telecom/Orange, RTM Malaysia, Mediacorp Singapore, Radio France, the Associated Press, France Televisions, and L'Équipe 24/24. NETIA has its headquarters in France, with offices in the United States, Paris, Rome, and Sydney, in addition to a global network of professional distribution partners