Latest news with #ECAM
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ECAM Forum Coordinator Alberto Valverde on an Expanded Second Edition: ‘The Winning Teams From Cannes Are Also in Madrid'
After last year's golden blueprint which set the roadmap for coming years, the second ECAM Forum Co-Production Market, unspooling June 10-13 in Madrid, will drive deeper into its international reach and industry talks as part of its mandate to strengthen the ties between the Spanish talents and its blooming industry with the rest of the world. Lured by upbeat industry buzz from the first edition and Spain's sustained film-TV golden age, industry players and projects are almost twice as many this year to bid for a spot at the industry platform spearheaded by Madrid's prestigious ECAM film school. More from Variety 'To the North's' Mihai Mincan Talks ECAM Forum Bound Coming-of-Age Mystery 'Milk Teeth,' Sound Designed by Oscar-Winner Nicolas Becker (EXCLUSIVE) Madrid's ECAM Forum Ups International Scope With 23 Feature Projects for Second Edition Bertrand Bonello to Be Honored at Madrid's Second ECAM Forum Co-Pro Showcase (EXCLUSIVE) More than 700 accredited delegates ,compared to 400+ in 2024, are expected to fill the halls of its Matadero and Cineteca Madrid venues; 70 international guests, vs. 50 in 2024, will sample 47 films in development and post-production, as well as shorts and series in development. Among 15 programming reps from Toronto, Locarno, Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, London to Marrakech fests are first-time attendees Christian Jeune from the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlinale's Michael Stuetz. On the sales front, the dozen registered companies range from Le Pacte, Goodfellas, Co-Production Office, Film Boutique and Charades to Spain's art-film specialist Bendita Film Sales. At press time, all titles were available for pick up including the next bets by hot talents Mihai Mincan ('To the North') and Francisca Alegría ('The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future') and the anticipated debuts by Nadine Luque, Claudia Estrada Tarascó and Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe. Highlights of this year's beefed-up program of talks and industry events include a masterclass with French auteur Bertrand Bonello, a presentation of the Göteborg Film Festival's industry reference Nostradamus report by Johanna Koljonen, conversations with top Spanish writers, poets and philosophers over The State of Things and Finde, a first industry meeting on financing, investment for indie producers co-organized by Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. To consolidate ECAM's international ties, new partnerships were sealed this year with Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, which runs a week later in Cuenca, near Madrid, and with ACAU and Proimagenes Colombia, the film-TV state agencies in Uruguay and Colombia. ECAM Forum closes Friday June 13 with an awards ceremony. In this interview, ECAM Forum coordinator Alberto Valverde unpacks his 2025 program. How does it feel to stage ECAM Forum a few weeks after a stellar year for Spanish films and co-productions in Cannes? It was an exceptional year for Spanish cinema. Having two filmmakers [Oliver Laxe and Carla Simón] in main competition, a spot usually taken by Pedro Almodovar, was historical. Their respective films 'Sirât' and 'Romería' are international co-productions that illustrate the reason why we exist. Indeed last year the two producers of 'Sirât'– Andrea Queralt and Xavi Font – came to ECAM to present a new project in the middle of shooting their film in Morocco. Xavi submitted Álvaro Pulpeiro's 'Petróleo' at the Films to Come and Andrea came with Silvina Schnicer's 'La Quinta' for The Last Push. Then Elástica's María Zamora, producer of Romería, was here as well. The winning teams from Cannes are also here. In recent years we've witnessed how the Spanish audiovisual industry has morphed and internationalized, with established and new talent working at home and globally. Before launching ECAM Forum, we've been in constant dialogue with all these Spanish players and talent, precisely to connect them to the world and foster new collaborations. Last year you had an almost clean sweep with seven out of eight works in progress going on to premiere at A festivals. That was quite a coup… Yes, we are over the moon. We want to consolidate our works in progress as a relevant space to discover gems for the year ahead, and those results help a lot. It was rewarding talking to the teams behind the works in progress and knowing it was key for them to secure certain premieres and selections that literally were signed during ECAM Forum. Last year's Last Push titles included very different films, from the fragile ones like the winning documentary 'Gods of Stone' to the more solid ones like 'Los Tortuga'('The Exiles') that both ended having nice premieres [respectively in Rotterdam and Toronto] and reached world audiences, literally the number one objective of our work. Could you reiterate what made your 2024 inaugural event a blueprint for the editions to come and outline the key novelties this year? One of the best things last year was to get the feedback from international guests who were dazzled by the quality of the projects. Then on the Spanish side, professionals were equally impressed by the top names in the international delegation. This year the list of international delegates will be even stronger, for instance with the presence of Christian Jeune from Cannes and Michael Stuetz from the Berlinale. The challenge for the first five editions is perhaps to be coherent with the size of our event, the type of projects and professionals invited. We want to maintain the same high quality, attention and care that goes into the selection and overall organisation. Then obviously as this is the second year, we're expanding a bit the scope of our activities, partnerships and ambitions. The event is growing but we still want it to be sustainable for the next editions. How many delegates will attend this year from how many territories? The numbers reflect the increased interest in our event. This year we have 730 accredited professionals, versus around 400 in 2024. It's been an exponential growth from last year. Then we had about 50 international guests in 2024 and this year we're hosting 70 people. From Spain, we're inviting around the same number, about 70 key decision-makers. So we have about 140 invited guests for the meetings. Countries represented (between 18-20) span from Spain to Canada, U.S., France, Romania, Estonia and Latin America. It was perhaps unintentional – based on the projects selected – but we will have a strong European and Latin American presence this year. With a more ambitious program, what type of budget do you have and can you comment on the significance of your new institutional partnerships? I won't detail our specific budget but it hasn't changed drastically. Our main key partners are the same: ECAM Foundation Comunidad de Madrid. Then Matadero, Film Madrid, Madrid Film Office, Cineteca, the rights collection agency Dama and AC/E, the international promotional body of Spanish cinema, are other partners. We're continuing our collaboration with Filmin, Rotterdam, Series Mania and have new strategic partnerships with Conecta Fiction & Entertainment and the key audiovisual agencies ACAU in Uruguay and Proimagenes in Colombia. For the ECAM school and Foundation, facilitating those collaborations are just natural to exchange talent and create a bridge between Europe and Latin America. We hope to announce new partnerships this fall. This year you've opened your Pitch sessions to international projects. What extra challenges did you meet in your selection process? Our main goal is to promote Spanish cinema internationally and attract international talent to work with Spain. We understand that presenting a selection, and making exciting international talents coexist with promising Spanish projects is a better way to promote their films. It's great to have Spain's Maria Herrera, Alba Esquinas and Elena Molina with Maryam Tafakory [from Iran], Francisca Alegría [from Chile] or Mihai Mincan [from Romania]. Opening to international projects was a challenge as we tried to attract distinctive voices and talents but we did! We are extremely happy with the selection and could easily have picked another 15 projects that couldn't make the cut. We had to make some difficult decisions. I'd like to add that in the short section, last year we had only six national projects. This year we have 11 projects – six from our own training program and five international shorts through new partnerships with Chile Shorts, Bogo Shorts in Colombia, La Femis in France, DISFF in Greece, and FAMU in the Czech Republic. How would you define the 2025 feature length slate in terms of themes, unique auteur-viewpoint and diversity? The selection covers a rich variety of narrative and aesthetic approaches, with a presence of comedies, genre and science fiction approaches, documentaries, and classic fiction works. The projects demonstrate a passion for challenging the boundaries of genres and storytelling, a strong commitment to creative risk and authorship. We love to see a lot of first and second films with super strong visions, that are backed by producers with certain experience, both national and international. I genuinely think it's a super exciting slate with new voices to discover. It is also a more diverse selection when it comes to representation both in the narrative and creators themselves, so, yes, it's a step forward. Something quite remarkable when we look at the Films to Come, is the fact that the 15 projects came out of three different selection processes, and when we ended up with the final list, we realised all were directed by women (with one co-direction). Could you comment on your industry talks and high-brow cycle of conversations? The industry talks targeting the 700+ accredited professionals, focus on the challenges in the audiovisual industry right now, and many sessions offer practical tools and tips, about financing, co-production promotion. Our goal is to strengthen Spanish cinema and we're happy to bring top speakers from Spain and the rest of the world. We're also glad to present the Nostradamus report to our audience, straight after Cannes. The report is key to look at where we're going, how each sector in the industry is integrating the challenges, both within and outside the sector. Then the three Conversations about The State of Things [in Spanish language] is a particularly beautiful strand that we've designed over several months with my colleague Brais Romero and Luis E. Parés from Cineteca Matadero. We tried to map out important topics that touch us as individuals, not only in the industry but as a society, via inspirational talks with filmmakers, writers, poets, musicians, philosophers. It's a beautiful mix of strong voices in Spain. We look forward to hearing their take our world today, the value of creating images. Then one angle to be tackled is nostalgia and its danger. The comfort and inherent creative laziness that goes with sticking to formulas, well know concepts – be it in literature or will be interesting also to hear Bertrand Bonello who masterfully has been avoiding nostalgia, its comfort and safety in his work. Another novelty this year is the new FINDE industry meeting about Financing, Investment and Independent Filmmaking, co-organised with Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. Could you summarise what it's about? This is an extension of ECAM's educational curriculum. We wanted to offer practical tools to hone the skills of our emerging talent in financing. We see producers surrounded by great talent and yet struggling to finance their projects. So hopefully this will be an illuminating session. We've designed this initiative with French producer based in Madrid Sophie Erbs and Teresa Azcona, director of Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. We see this is a pilot year and we will evaluate afterwards the program's formula. On a personal level, how does it feel to run the hottest new Spanish co-pro market? It feels soooo good. Last year, we had a blank canvas which needed to be painted. We didn't know if it would be abstract, or not. This year, we reaped the good seeds from the first edition, and our team is stronger. The whole is even more coherent because we had more time to design our program. But our focus is still to have a great time through a very friendly, focused professional event, with a high standard of projects and guests. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fabric8Labs to Showcase ECAM Enabled Cold Plate with Wiwynn at Computex 2025 for Best-in-Class Liquid Cooled AI Data Centers
SAN DIEGO, May 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fabric8Labs, Inc., the leader in Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM), announced today a collaboration with Wiwynn, an innovative cloud IT infrastructure provider for data centers, to demonstrate advanced cold plates, utilizing ECAM technology, at Computex 2025, taking place May 20-23 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1, for next-generation AI data centers. This collaboration brings together Fabric8Labs' breakthrough additive manufacturing technology with Wiwynn's leadership in high-performance, energy-efficient server and rack solutions to address the escalating thermal challenges posed by high power density silicon and AI workloads. Targeted Cooling for Maximum PerformanceLeveraging Fabric8Labs' proprietary ECAM process, the companies are introducing highly customized cold plates engineered to match the power maps of advanced AI accelerators. These solutions feature parametrically optimized fin structures that direct coolant flow to thermal hot spots, delivering optimized thermal-hydraulic performance, uniform die temperature distribution, and thermal performance enhancements 48% better than traditional skived microchannel technologies. By integrating ECAM-enabled components, Wiwynn's systems are designed to meet the rising demands of AI infrastructure, offering best-in-class cooling, improved device reliability, and a lower total cost of ownership. "Wiwynn is a leader in data center IT infrastructure, and we are thrilled to support their mission with advanced cold plates enabled by ECAM," said Ian Winfield, VP of Product & Applications at Fabric8Labs. "ECAM enables the cooling solution to be designed specifically for the underlying SoC power map, optimizing performance, efficiency, and device reliability." We are thrilled to showcase the innovative ECAM-based cold plates, in collaboration with Fabric8Labs at Computex," said Lentis Pai, Director at Wiwynn. "This advanced solution delivers superior thermal performance to enhance liquid cooling capabilities. Combined with Wiwynn's expertise in server design and cooling solutions, we're addressing the demanding thermal challenges of next-generation AI data centers." Fabric8Labs and Wiwynn are redefining what's possible in data center cooling — combining breakthrough manufacturing technology with visionary infrastructure design to deliver solutions that meet today's demands and lay the foundation for a more efficient, scalable, and sustainable AI-driven future. About Fabric8LabsFabric8Labs, Inc. based in San Diego, California, is revolutionizing manufacturing with its advanced 3D printing technology—Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM). Founded in 2015, the company's proprietary ECAM technology is a key enabler across electronics, medical devices, communications systems, and semiconductor manufacturing. Fabric8Labs' ECAM technology empowers data center infrastructure, enabling advanced thermal management solutions, power management components, and semiconductor information at: About WiwynnWiwynn is an innovative cloud IT infrastructure provider offering high-quality computing, storage, and rack solutions for leading data centers. Committed to the vision of "unleash the power of digitalization; ignite the innovation of sustainability," Wiwynn invests heavily in next-generation technologies to deliver TCO-optimized, workload-tuned, and energy-efficient solutions from cloud to information at: Contact:Ian Winfieldcontact@ View original content: SOURCE Fabric8Labs, Inc. Sign in to access your portfolio
Cision Canada
29-04-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
GardaWorld Launches ECAM, a New Global Champion Business in AI-Driven Live Surveillance Technology Français
Following the combination of GardaWorld's ECAMSECURE and Stealth Monitoring businesses, ECAM now boasts North America's largest footprint of monitored mobile and permanent surveillance units MONTREAL and DALLAS, April 29, 2025 /CNW/ - Garda World Security Corporation ("GardaWorld"), an entrepreneurial-driven corporation focused on building global champions in security services, AI-enabled security technology, integrated risk management and cash automation solutions, today announced the launch of ECAM, a North American leader in advanced AI-driven surveillance technology. ECAM combines the world's most advanced live video surveillance technology with human expertise to deliver real-time protection with unmatched precision and vigilance. ECAM delivers intelligent security with proprietary and patented mobile and permanent remote video monitoring tailored to industries like residential communities, construction, commercial real estate, logistics, auto dealerships and critical infrastructure. By combining smart tech with expert eyes on every camera, ECAM offers an unrivalled hybrid security monitoring solution combining the speed and precision of AI-powered threat detection and deterrence with the critical thinking and experience of human security professionals. "With ECAM, we're building more than a company — we're building a global champion business that will shape the future of surveillance and security. By combining the scalability of advanced AI with decades of operational expertise, we've created a platform that delivers a level of efficiency, reliability and insight unmatched in the industry," said Stephan Crétier, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of GardaWorld. "ECAM already commands the largest footprint of monitored mobile and permanent surveillance units in North America, positioning us as the emerging market leader in a rapidly expanding sector. We've invested aggressively to scale, innovate and unlock long-term value — with a laser focus on market share, operational excellence and sustainable growth. The opportunity in surveillance ahead is massive and ECAM is uniquely positioned to lead." Unique, newly developed proprietary technology deployed As part of its launch, ECAM has also launched a proprietary upscaling technology and process of enhancing the resolution and quality of lower-resolution video footage using advanced algorithms. This new technology, known currently as "Integra", is now deployed across all ECAM surveillance systems and represents a significant advancement in how video surveillance footage is processed and analyzed. Unlike traditional approaches, image resolution can remain lower at origin and upscaled up to 6x for AI detection and monitoring fidelity. All of this occurs within the advanced ECAM cloud. The result: significantly reduced bandwidth usage and dramatically enhanced detection performance. With up to a 40% boost in AI detection accuracy and a 50% increase in identification range, ECAM's "Integra" tech enables earlier, more reliable threat recognition. "Integra" is designed for low resolution input from edge, but high-resolution output into cloud AI, and it delivers up to 6x greater data transmission efficiency — a game-changer for organizations seeking to scale surveillance without compromising network performance. "ECAM enters the market at a time when customers are demanding smarter technology, faster threat detection and response and greater cost efficiency," said Christopher Brooks, Chief Operating Officer of ECAM. "Our deeply customer-centric model is built on operational excellence and innovative proprietary technology, developed by our own in-house R&D teams. We deliver high-performance security solutions with speed, precision and value without unnecessary complexity or overhead. By combining AI-driven innovation with deep executional and human expertise, we're enabling our customers to scale their security smarter, respond faster and realize stronger ROI from day one." ECAM, bringing to life the vision of Every Camera, Always Monitored, is the product of a strategic combination between ECAMSECURE, a pioneer in outdoor video surveillance, and Stealth Monitoring, a North American leader in innovative commercial mobile and permanent video security solutions. This business integration follows GardaWorld's acquisition of Stealth Monitoring in late 2024 and leverages the success of GardaWorld's established ECAMSECURE platform to create an even stronger, innovative and comprehensive AI-driven security offering. ECAM has approximately 140,000 cameras currently monitored across North America. About ECAM ECAM is a North American leader in AI-driven live surveillance technology solutions, with the continent's largest footprint of monitored mobile and permanent surveillance units. With a vision of Every Camera Always Monitored, ECAM combines the world's most advanced AI-driven live video surveillance technology with human expertise to deliver real-time protection with unmatched precision and vigilance. From R&D to product development and platform innovation, ECAM fully owns and develops its entire operation and technology stack. The company develops proprietary technologies specifically designed to address the most common challenges in surveillance. This in-house approach ensures customers benefit from rapid innovation and cutting-edge solutions tailored to their most common challenges. Headquartered in Dallas, ECAM is a global champion business of GardaWorld, an entrepreneurial-driven corporation that builds global champions in security services, AI-enabled security technologies, integrated risk management and cash automation solutions. For more information visit GardaWorld is an entrepreneurial-driven corporation that builds global champions in security services, AI-enabled security technologies, integrated risk management and cash automation solutions, employing more than 132,000 highly skilled and dedicated professionals across the globe. Driven by a relentless entrepreneurial culture and core values of integrity, vigilance, trust and respect, GardaWorld's global champions offer sophisticated, tailored security and technology solutions through high-touch partnerships and consistently superior service delivery. With a deep understanding that security is critical to the organizational resilience of business operations and the safety of communities, GardaWorld is committed to impeccable governance, professional care and the well-being of everyone. Thanks to a well-earned reputation, GardaWorld businesses are long-standing security partners of choice to some of the most prominent brands, influential individuals, Fortune 500 corporations and governments. For more information visit:
