Weekly diary
Activision Blizzard
Diablo III launched
Blizzard Entertainment has announced a series of official events to celebrate the launch of Diablo III, its new role-playing action game. Over the night of May 14 to 15, partner distributors in France, the US, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan will keep their doors open for those players who want to be among the first to buy this third game and face off against the Lord of Terror’s demons. Players will be able to participate in activities and events as well as various contests in which the celebrated game is a prize. Members of the development team will be on hand to meet with the players and sign the game boxes. The addresses of all the stores open for this promotional event can be found at the dedicated site.
Universal Music Group
Strangeland
Four years after Perfect Symmetry, the members of the British foursome Keane are making a big comeback this week with their winning new album, Strangeland. The group has already released the first single, “Silenced by the Night,” which serves as an excellent preview of the other tracks on the album. Fans will once again find the catchy melodies and pop arrangements that made the group a success. The deluxe version includes 12 album tracks and a collector’s booklet with photos plus a story by William Boyd, while the DVD features the band playing acoustic versions of four songs.
SFR
SFR and Bull venture into cloud computing
SFR and Bull have obtained State support for the rollout of a French and European cloud-computing infrastructure. Based on an innovative open-source architecture, it will provide powerful, secure, competitive and environment-friendly cloud-computing services, which will become available over the coming weeks, for all private and public players. Drawing on their combined expertise, SFR and Bull will offer an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solution that comprises solid design, quality operations and data security in an open-source environment. The capital will be divided among SFR (47%), Bull (20%) and La Caisse des Dépôts through FSN (33%), all of which are joint-venture shareholders. The project represents a €225 million investment and will directly create some 400 new jobs.
Maroc Telecom
The Cyber Tree project
At the seventh International Moroccan Agriculture Show, for which it is the official sponsor, Maroc Telecom presented the Cyber Tree project. Part of the company’s sustainable development strategy, this project was developed over several months by a multi-disciplinary team. Every year, Moroccan forests are ravaged by various fires. The goal of this new campaign is to equip the trees at the edges of the forests with video cameras and systems designed to detect smoke and heat. This equipment runs on solar energy and is connected by mobile and 3G networks to monitoring centers operated by the authorities in charge. Text messages and streaming video are transmitted to these authorities in real time in the event of a fire. The operator received the Best Research and Innovation Award for this Cyber Tree project.
GVT
The Multiroom
GVT announced one more unprecedented functionality in the brazilian cable TV: the Multiroom. The service is free, available to all subscribers who have the set-top box with recording function. The service, pioneer in Brazil, allows to watch recorded content anywhere in the house eliminating the purchase of multiple recorders. GVT is the only TV in Brazil that uses satellite to transmit TV channels in high definition and broadband network to offer video on demand and integrated services to the internet.
CANAL+ Group
Moonrise Kingdom opens the Cannes Film Festival
Wes Anderson’s new film Moonrise Kingdom, distributed in France by StudioCanal, will open the 65th Cannes Film Festival on May 16. With an impressive cast that includes Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton, the film will undoubtedly be a festival highlight. It will also open in cinemas the day it is screened in Cannes. In the story, set in the 1960s, a pair of young lovers flee their New England island town to live together in the wilderness, prompting a local search party led by the sheriff and the girl’s parents.