Hollywood Or Bust: Matsushita Develops Digital Content Distribution

Compiled ByDeborah Austin Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. is going Hollywood -- again -- to collaborate with movie studios in developing new digital content-distribution services. Matsushita, best known by its Panasonic brand name, is setting up Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory in Universal City, Calif. The lab -- a division of research-and-development subsidiary Panasonic Technologies Inc. -- will focus on digital video compression and new content-distribution formats and applications using broadband digital network technologies, including mobile communications and digital television. It will include an internal digital image quality lab for ongoing exchange with video industry professionals, to evaluate high definition image quality for digital cinema, digital TV, next-generation DVD, and highly compressed imaging for next-generation mobile devices. Matsushita's Hollywood history includes the High Definition Telecine Center, established on the Universal Studios lot in 1993; the Digital Video Compression Corp., established at Universal in 1996; and work with major music labels. The $68.9 billion manufacturer Matsushita Electric is based in Osaka, Japan.