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Cambridge, August 2008 – Cambridge Imaging Systems will provide key elements in the East of England’s new digital commerce initiative, the ‘Digital Content Marketplace’(DCM).

The DCM project will provide an infrastructure that brings together digital content from various sources, including archived film, learning materials and other audiovisual material, allowing potential users to find what they need and incorporate it in new products and services.

The initiative is co-ordinated by Norfolk County Council and will be based at EPIC, the East of England Production Innovation Centre in Norwich. As well as EPIC, the project board includes representatives from Screen East, the East of England Multimedia Association (EMMA) and the museums, libraries and archives of the East of England. It is supported by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) as part of its remit for the development and delivery of projects that will stimulate the use of broadband and digital technology for the benefit of the region’s economy.

The brief for Cambridge Imaging Systems included providing a system to enable high capacity, fast access to digital items along with a means of integrating catalogues of material held by third parties into a single, searchable resource. Content providers include the East Anglian Film Archive and the Britten Pears collection.

Cambridge Imaging Systems will supply its Imagen Media Control Centre (IMCC) to manage the process of ingesting, decoding, transcoding and distributing material, as well as managing the database and storage. In short, this means that all material, from whatever source, will be ‘labelled’ in a way that makes it easy for people to find, view and retrieve via the web. The web interface will be managed by the company’s Imagenweb system.

The eventual DCM network will allow closed groups and online communities to be set up, provide model trading agreements, advice on rights management and relevant legislation. Content will start to become available at the end of the year.

Tony Blake of Cambridge Imaging Systems said:

“Our Imagen solution has been developed from our work with some the World’s most prestigious archives as well as with universities and newswire services. There is tremendous untapped potential in the digital sector within the Eastern Region and we are confident the DCM initiative will be an enormous asset.”

Mark Wells for the DCM project said:

“DCM will offer new ways of working to traditional business sectors as well as stimulating new types of internet-enabled business activity. Even the smallest business will be able to benefit from the aggregation of specialist services in a global marketplace.”

Website www.create-clips.co.uk

Media Contact - John Foster (mediamatters@mac.com) at 01473 652195

Editor’s note:

Cambridge Imaging Systems provides complete archive management systems, including encoding, transcoding and retrieval of stills and video. Clients include the BBC, British Pathe, ITN and Ministry of Defence, along with universities and newsfilm management and distribution companies.