Village Gamer

Sault Ste. Marie – Four Algoma University students have won the approval of critical judges and qualified for the Dare to be Digital video game design competition being held this June to August in the United Kingdom. Sunny Atwal, Eric Stock, Pedro Melendez, and Chris Iaconis from Algoma University and one student from the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland have been accepted to take part as a team in the annual competition.

Dare to be Digital bills itself as the United Kingdom’s premier video game design competition for students. Now in its tenth year of operation, Dare to be Digital is an annual summer event that allots teams of students ten weeks to design and build a video game prototype. At the conclusion of the ten weeks, the teams are brought together at a showcase event where their games are evaluated by industry experts. The competition is open to all university students across the UK and also regularly attracts international competitors from nations such as China, India, Japan and Malaysia.
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Waterloo – SuperMegaUltraGroovy today introduced Capo, a remarkable new Mac OS X application that helps aspiring musicians learn to play their favorite tracks. Capo slows down songs from iTunes without changing the pitch, letting users hear every note and chord and play along at their own pace.

“Capo helps you become a better musician,” said Chris Liscio, founder of SuperMegaUltraGroovy. “By slowing down your favorite music, and learning to play songs clearly at a rate you’re comfortable with, your playing technique will improve as you work your way up to full speed.”

Capo allows users to adjust the speed and pitch of audio, independent of one another. Pitch adjustments can be made finely, to match an instrument’s tuning, or coarsely, to change the song’s key. In addition, users can set markers, and create loops, to aid their learning. All these settings can be saved in Capo documents, so that users can later return to where they left off.
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Montreal – Bandzoogle.com, the leading website builder tool for musicians, has announced its member artists have exceeded $1 million in music and merchandise sales direct from their websites–a milestone made sweeter for members by the fact that Bandzoogle doesn’t charge fees or commissions on those sales.

“The fact that Bandzoogle lets artists keep 100 percent of their sales sets us apart from the vast majority of e-commerce solutions for musicians,” says Chris Vinson, president of Bandzoogle. “And our team is proud to have helped our members reach this million-dollar milestone,” he says. “It demonstrates how our tools are helping musicians succeed on the web.”
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Toronto – LyricFind, the world’s leading provider of legal lyrics services, is today excited to announce the release of the first-ever legal lyrics applications for both the iPhone and Facebook.

Both applications provide access to LyricFind’s massive database of over one million lyrics, representing over 40,000 artists and 200,000 albums, which is the largest legal collection available today. Users can also access artist images and bios, discographies, and album art, plus see charts of the top lyrics and artists across LyricFind’s entire network of hundreds of sites. Lyrics are searchable by artist, song name, and even the lyrics themselves (for those times when you’ve got a song running through your head and have no idea what it is!).
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Toronto – Shortcovers by Indigo Books & Music, Inc. , a digital destination that enables people to discover and experience their next great read on the mobile device they already own, today released user metrics from its first two months. Additionally, Shortcovers announced product updates, new publisher content and its developer program for mobile device manufacturers.

“We’re pleased with the response to Shortcovers in just the first two months, and are learning more every day about what our users want out of a mobile destination for ebooks, magazines and newspapers,” said Michael Serbinis, CIO & EVP of Indigo Books & Music. “Far and away, our biggest successes are our global reach and platform diversity. We thought iPhone would dominate downloads, but we’re very popular on Blackberry and Android. Readers tell us again and again how much they appreciate that our service is available on devices they already own.”
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Toronto – Yangaroo, the industry’s leading secure digital media distribution company, is pleased to announce the launch of the next generation of its Digital Media Distribution System, DMDS 5.0, the preferred method for sending secured digital media.

DMDS 5.0 is the culmination of months of planning, development and an investment of over a million dollars, based on user feedback and the specific needs of organizations to move and market digital files securely and efficiently.

A significant new feature of the system is support for the delivery of broadcast quality video. Leveraging prior experience in assisting content owners and radio stations to digitize workflows and reduce and eliminate the use of Compact Discs – DMDS 5.0 reduces the reliance on tape based work flows by allowing content owners to drag and drop broadcast quality videos for distribution to industry professionals. This not only facilitates unparalleled collaboration among the involved parties, but reduces or eliminates the duplication, shipping and delivery of tapes- a process that takes a significant amount of time, money and effort.
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Banff – The Banff World Television Festival (BANFF) announces the new Kids & Animation series featuring top television program creators, broadcasters and executives in children’s and animation industries. The 30th edition of BANFF takes place at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada, June 7–10, 2009.

“We developed the Kids & Animation series out of our continuing effort to create innovative festival programming together with more opportunities for building new business relationships,” commented Peter Vamos, BANFF Executive Director. “We are proud to launch this new series led by some of the best in the industry of animation and children’s television programming.” The Kids & Animation series is designed to address new programming formats along with the current trends and issues facing the youth focused and animated television industries. Sessions will run concurrently with the regularly scheduled sessions on Tuesday, June 9 and will include networking opportunities, broadcaster briefings and spotlights on key players in the industry.
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Banff – A Call For Entries has been issued for the CTV National Fellowship Programme, with an application deadline of 5pm EST, Thursday April 30th, 2009. CTV National Fellowships are intended to encourage professional development in the television industry by enabling emerging creative talent including producers, writers and directors – i.e., program makers – to attend the Banff World Television Festival. Fellowships are not intended for established professionals, nor are they intended for entry-level candidates. Applicants must have a minimum of one significant production credit.

CTV National Fellowships cover the following: full festival registration, including admission to all seminars, workshops, and on-demand screenings; all official social events; and air transportation (transportation allowance based on lowest airfare available). Accommodation and all other costs of attending the festival are the responsibility of the fellowship recipient. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – Norsat International Inc., announced today that it has acquired Ireland-based Bluemoon 4G Ltd. (“Bluemoon”), a provider of WiMAX solutions. Norsat will purchase a 100% stake in Bluemoon for five million (5,000,000) Norsat common shares. The all-stock transaction allows Norsat to complement its’ product portfolio with the addition of a comprehensive end-to-end turnkey WiMAX solution.

“With the acquisition of Bluemoon, we accelerate our entry into the WiMAX market and expand our geographic reach into markets in emerging countries,” said Dr. Amiee Chan. “We believe this acquisition is aligned with our strategic diversification into the commercial sector and will deliver long term growth and increase Norsat’s profitability.”
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Banff – The Banff World Television Festival (BANFF) and nextMEDIA Banff present the first Telefilm Canada TV 360 Program, established to provide cross-platform development opportunities for Canadian producers, writers & directors. TV 360 will be held during nextMEDIA Banff and the 30th edition of BANFF, which take place at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada, in June 2009.

“TV 360 is a valuable addition to the existing training programs and fellowships at BANFF,” commented Peter Vamos, BANFF Executive Director. “We’re excited to collaborate with Telefilm Canada to create this new and original program that will foster cross-industry partnership between new media and the future of the television industry.”
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