BUSINESS ALLIANCES
ACT is in the process of forming some key business alliances, some of
which arise from the VISEUM project.
NSM Jukebox
ACT has signed a memorandum of agreement with NSM Jukebox Gmbh, one of the
VISEUM partners, that established a marketing affiliation between the companies.
NSM manufactures CD jukeboxes and is a world leader in the field. NSM's
jukeboxes are being used in the VISEUM project and NSM is one of the VISEUM
partners.
Under the terms of the agreement ACT will become a Software Affiliate of
NSM. For ACT this means that software developed by ACT, such as the Cinemage
software, will be a recommended product for NSM's customers world-wide.
With ACT providing software for enabling new Internet applications and NSM
providing high volume storage at a reasonable cost, the partnership should
be of excellent benefit to both participants.
Communications Research Centre
The Communications Research Centre (CRC) is the major communications research
facility for Industry Canada and is located near Ottawa. It conducts research
in a number of areas including satellite communications, radio communications,
broadcast technologies, and network systems & technologies.
Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between ACT and the CRC,
the two organizations will collaborate in the pilot deployment of software
developed by ACT.
In January 1994 the CRC created the Broadband Applications and Demonstration
Laboratory (BADLAB). The BADLAB is the first research and development facility
in Canada designed to demonstrate and test information highway applications
using high-speed asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) fibre optic networks,
with network extension via satellite. BADLAB is the ATM gateway to western
Canada, linked to the CANARIE National Test Network and connected to the
Ottawa Carleton Research Institute Network Inc. (OCRINET), through a 90
Mb/s fibre link. BADLAB is also connected with the European ATM network
through Teleglobe Canada's Globesystem Altantic submarine cable.
ACT will provide a copy of the Cinemage client software to the BADLAB which
can be used to access the ACT Cinemage Server in Vancouver, making use of
the CANARIE National Test Network.
The CRC will assist ACT in the establishment of the network connectivity
required for the VISEUM project, and may also join the project as an associated
partner of ACT.
Italian Partnership
ACT is in the process of negotiating with an Italian company for a joint
venture that will see Cinemage systems deployed in Italy. The proposed pilot
project will create three museum sites in Italy, in Rome, Venice, and Palermo.
Each site will operate a Cinemage content server, managing their own collections
of CD based digital images.
The sites will be inter-connected via an ATM network supplied by Telecom
Italia, the Italian national telecommunication network. The ATM network
will, in turn, be interconnected with the Internet.
Customers will access the museum sites via commercial Internet access providers,
using the Cinemage Curator Client
software.