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Movies to become unique to each
viewer
The recently launched EU project ‘New Media for a New Millennium’ (NM2) will personalise our viewing and create a new media genre. NM2 is developing a set of software tools to enable viewers to watch a personalised production from a larger pool of original content. Viewers will be able to interact directly with the medium and influence what they see and hear according to their personal tastes and wishes. This new media genre has the potential to create a new mass market. Tools for personalised stories To enable this new media genre, NM2 will create innovative production tools, which will ensure that all personalised versions of the media are attractive and engaging. In addition, NM2 will create a new mechanism for retrieving media content and creating the personalised stories.
NM2’s technical project manager, Dr. Doug Williams from BT, said at the kick-off meeting in Heidelberg: “The three-year project has an ambitious aim: to identify a new mass market media genre. The new media genre will allow stories to be adapted, on the fly, for an individual viewer. We think this will be immensely attractive for viewers and for advertisers, but it means we have to think about the whole production process from concept to credits.”
John Wyver from Illuminations Television Limited, producer of ‘A Golden Age’ and ‘Elisabeth’ added: “The software tool that we produce will be extremely sophisticated. It’s not just a matter of stringing together the romantic or action portions of a production. The tool has to know which bits fit together both visually, by observing the time-honoured rules that go into editing, and in terms of the story. Only then will the personalised version both make sense and be aesthetically pleasing.” Figure 1 shows the different components of NM2, and figure 2 illustrates the systems architecture of NM2.
Compelling new applications for broadband The enabling technologies behind this new form of multimedia storytelling include broadband connectivity, cheap mass storage, intelligence at the edge of data networks, and object-based media techniques. Broadband connections are a key condition for the type of interactive media, which the NM2 tools enable. NM2 will provide the basis for making such interactive productions economically feasible for a mass market. Thus, NM2 will give a strong push to the demand for broadband connections. The new digital media genre might become one of the most compelling applications for broadband. Integrated approach NM2 is an Integrated Project under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union, running from September 2004 to August 2007. The inter-disciplinary project brings together media creators, scholars, and producers with communications engineers, software developers, and social scientists in order to advance media development. The 13 partners from 8 different European countries cover a wide range of skills and cultural backgrounds. Seven different media productions will provide the test cases for the NM2 production tools. These range from news reporting and documentaries through a quality drama serial to an experimental television production about love. The NM2 consortium partners The NM2 partners for the technical issues are:
Consumer behaviour & business analysis will be done by Netherlands Organisation For Applied Scientific Research – TNO, Netherlands. Eurescom has the role of overall administrative and financial project co-ordinator. You can find more information on the NM2 website: www.ist-nm2.org Please send us your comments on this article. |
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