Media Release

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For immediate release
April 3, 2006

Banff New Media Institute focuses on the film
and television of the future

Definition 2006: HDTV Summit and Digital Media Festival
April 20 to 22 – The Banff Centre
Information: 1.800.565.9989 or 403.762.6180

As television producers prepare to fully rethink everything they know about the business of broadcast, the Banff New Media Institute Accelerator Program at The Banff Centre is bringing together a group of top speakers on the topic of high definition (HD) and the future of film and television. They will air the latest ideas about the evolving medium. The Summit, “Definition 2006,” will take place at the Centre April 20 to 22, and will incorporate a two-evening screening of juried HD films, the Digital Media Festival.

Speakers, including producer Nobuo Isobe of Japan’s NHK, Nick Ketchum, director, English-language radio and TV policy for the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and David Weissman, general manager of Video Arts, will address HD trends, technology, policy, and production in Canada and internationally.

Panels and talks will address topics including the impact of HD technology on production budgets, working in post-production on hybrid formats, project management considerations, cultivating audiences for HD productions, the CRTC’s current HD policy and timelines for analogue shutoff, the status of new technologies, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, digital distribution markets, policy comparisons in Canada and the U.S., archiving HD productions, and who pays the bills for HD — producers or broadcasters.

During the evenings at the Summit, guests are invited to attend the Digital Media Festival in The Banff Centre’s Eric Harvie Theatre. They will have an opportunity to view a selection of juried HD and hybrid short- and feature-length films submitted from across Canada and from the U.S, Hong Kong, Finland, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Banff New Media Institute Accelerator Program was funded by Alberta Innovation and Science, and Western Economic Diversification to support the emerging new media industry in Alberta and Western Canada. The Accelerator supports the new media community in a variety of ways including workshops, prototype development, summits, and market missions.

Print-ready, downloadable images of winning films from the Digital Media Festival

More information on Definition 2006

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Media Contact: Jill Sawyer – Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre 403.762.6475 – jill_sawyer@banffcentre.ca