Organised by Singapore Exhibitions Services, Broadcast Asia, one of Asia's biggest electronic media shows, will have a special thrust on animation and gaming this year. The show is being held from 15-17 June 2005.

Last year the show witnessed footfalls from more than 13,500 industry professionals from over 69 countries and had 844 companies exhibiting their products. This year the show incorporates ComGraphics & Animation 2005 as well.

X Media Lab, ComGraph to add muscle to Broadcast Asia

Singapore Exhibition Services CEO Stephen Tan said," Digital Technology is the magic word due to which graphics and animation have gone beyond the console and PC. Singapore is pushing strongly to go more digital. This year at Broadcast Asia we are also incorporating ComGraph 2005 which will be dedicated to animation and gaming"

Another major attraction for gaming and animation professionals at Broadcast this year is the X Media Lab professional day conference and international masterclass which is being held alongside Broadcast Asia.

A project of the Australian Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences Pty Ltd., X Media Lab is a think tank, concept laboratory, and production workshop for new media people creating projects in the convergent media industries. The theme for the first X|Media|Lab in Singapore is primarily for companies and project teams developing animation, graphics and games projects.

Speaking exclusively to Animation 'xpress, X Media Lab CEO Brendan Harkin informed,"X|Media|Lab is staging the first Singapore Lab in association with Broadcast Asia to exemplify and illustrate the connections between creativity and technology in new media. A small number of further X|Media|Lab's will be held around the region, including India, in association with similarly prestigious and influential industry events"

"We get around 50 - 60 projects nominated from around the region for each Lab - of which we select the 8 best for inclusion" he added.

On being asked what was the criteria to select the projects, he replied,"The ability of the Lab Mentors to add value to the project;the likely commercial success of the project and the experience of the project team"

The line up of speakers and mentors at this Media Lab include Paradox Studios ceo Anuraag Khurana. Amongst the others are:-

Katie Salen - New York - World expert on Animation, Games, and Machinima
Justin Evans - Founder Mystic Arts - Beijing and USA
Mike Robinson - UK - Making Animation Your Business
Dale Herigstad - 3-times Emmy Award winner
Michela Ledwidge - Award winning Animator, Filmmaker, and Game Designer
Neeraj Roy - CEO of Hungama - owners of South Asia's two largest entertainment portals

On being asked by Animation 'xpress If there was any incubation scheme for professionals with interesting projects but looking for funding, Brendan replied in the affirmative saying,"We always make sure that there are VC's and other funding avenues represented inside the Lab. At the last Lab in Melbourne, 3 of the projects got funding immediately from the international mentors involved.The point of X|Media|Lab is to help compaies get their projects to market and succeed, and we are aware that development funding is a core critical issue for the development of creative ideas"

Going by the way Broadcast Asia is wooing the animation, gaming and digital content companies this year with Comgraph as well as X Media Lab, it will not be a surprise if most of the core technical and marketing teams from Indian studios are Singapore bound this June!

- Anand Gurnani