Coming to a Small Screen Soon?

Motion picture studios and special effects firms for years have been eager adopters of new technologies that promise to make film production faster, cheaper and easier. Now they’re poised to take the industry to a new frontier by building the first inter-company network to link computer systems throughout Hollywood--and eventually throughout the world.

The proposed network, dubbed HollyNet, has won the backing of five studios--MCA/Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment--and they’ve contributed several hundred thousand dollars to fund the first phase of the project. Dozens of other firms, ranging from technology providers to post-production houses, have also donated labor and equipment.

HollyNet would make it possible for a director to scout out locations for an upcoming shoot by browsing through multimedia files on a desktop computer, for a producer to file all necessary production permits with the county online, and for a special effects designer to deliver a finished digital product directly to a client’s computer.

The project is being spearheaded by Entertainment Technology Center at USC, whose executive director, Alan Yasnyi, has spent much of the last year drumming up support for the project. He persuaded Thomas MacCalla to leave his position as director of entertainment technology at Pacific Bell to become the project director for HollyNet.

“Five years ago, digital production was just a buzzword, but now it is visibly revolutionizing the economics and operations of the industry on a daily basis,” said Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinema-Television, which is home to the ETCenter. “Research indicates some 70% of all current production activity is being profoundly impacted by digital transportation. That’s why it is vital for the industry to take control of creating a network that is designed from the get-go to meet our very specialized needs.”

Until recently, most film production involved the manipulation of celluloid artisans. But dramatic improvements in digital imaging technology have made it possible to do most special effects, editing and post-production work on computers and digital video systems.

Although several studios have already conducted limited experiments in transporting digital data from one company’s computer system to another’s, HollyNet would provide a single inter-company network tailored to the needs of filmmakers and accessible to everyone in the industry.

“HollyNet would allow us to take more control over the process rather than waiting for various vendors and service providers to come to us with their solutions,” said Kenneth Williams, senior vice president at Sony Pictures Entertainment. “We want to have some role in setting the standards for our industry to address our own connectivity issues.”

Williams, who is also a member of the ETCenter’s board, sees a great benefit in connecting post-production companies, special effects boutiques and other partners via a private electronic roadway that would facilitate the direct exchange of digitized sound, data, text and graphics. Users could view dailies and do editing from a remote site and collaborate in real time, even if they’re at separate facilities.

Others are more encouraged by the possibilities for bringing together information on filming locations, permits and the availability of production equipment.

“There’s an unlimited variety of equipment and planning that goes into production and post-production,” said Roger Mayer, president of Turner Entertainment. “If that information were more readily accessible and more accurate, I think we should be able to save money and be more efficient.”

Over the next year, the HollyNet group will conduct an in-depth “needs assessment” to understand exactly how the industry would use such a network and what kind of technology and cost structure would make it work, MacCalla said.

The capacity requirements for the entertainment industry are awesome. Moving images contain far more data than text documents, and MacCalla said a typical transmission on HollyNet would contain 1.5 terabytes of data--enough to fill a small room with CD-ROMs.

The network would use an advanced transmission technique called asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, which allows a great volume of high-resolution images, video, sound and other computer data to travel together over a computer network at high speed. With ATM, HollyNet could carry data more than 10,000 times faster than a 14,400-bits-per-second modem and roughly 350 times faster than a high-bandwidth T-1 line.

If the yearlong assessment shows that the industry would in fact use the network, testing of a HollyNet prototype would begin around the middle of next year. From there, it would continue to expand into a full-fledged network, MacCalla said.

Eventually, HollyNet would make use of the global Internet computer network to connect production facilities and locations around the world.

There could be plenty of roadblocks between here and there. Technical standards are one problem: The participating companies have already invested in different kinds of expensive technology infrastructure, so it wouldn’t be easy to reach agreement on technologies that would work for everyone.

Another potential deal breaker is security. Intellectual property is the stock in trade of entertainment companies, and if they aren’t convinced that the network lines are secure, the HollyNet project will be over before it ever starts.

“Security is a major issue--it’s at the forefront of everybody’s mind,” said Gary Credle, president of studio facilities for Warner Bros. “We don’t want the public or our competitors to see the next characters out of ‘Batman,’ and I’m sure they feel a similar way about us.”

Karen Kaplan covers technology and careers. She can be reached via e-mail at karen.kaplan@latimes.com.