An Irish firm has developed a way for people to get films in much the same way they withdraw money from cash machines, Eamon McGranereports
An Irish company has Hollywood in a technological spin. After years of fighting technology that has been used to pilfer movies from the internet or circumvent copy protection on discs or DVD machines, movie moguls look set to embrace a system that will not only secure the content from theft, but create new distribution channels for their products.
Like the music industry before them, the film studio giants have had an uneasy relationship with technology and are desperately looking to avoid the meltdown the music sector suffered over peer-to-peer file sharing.
Illegal movie downloading is incredibly prolific and sites such as YouTube are being monitored constantly for prohibited uploading of films.
Portomedia, a Galway company, has come up with a way to distribute "rights protected" movies that can be downloaded from places you might not expect - an airport, a train station or university.
Simply use a USB key, insert it into a kiosk called a Movieppoint, which is not dissimilar to an ATM, and in 15-30 seconds you can have a movie to play on your PC, laptop, mobile device and TV.
For the film studios the beauty of the device is that when you download the movie the licence to play it comes with it. After a period of, for example, 48 hours the licence expires and the movie cannot be watched another time unless the user chooses to purchase or rent it again.
Portomedia is the brainchild of Chris Armstrong, a physicist by profession who one night tried unsuccessfully to rent a film.
After withdrawing cash from an ATM he thought: "why couldn't I get a film this way?" And so an idea was born.
While dreaming up and building the technology was one thing, having content was another.
Armstrong realised early on that if his idea and venture was to succeed he'd have to get the film studios on his side.
So off he went to Hollywood. After IBM caught wind of his idea and saw the potential, the IT company facilitated introductions with some of the most powerful people in showbiz. "We were invited back by Disney and its president Bob Eiger. He asked us to make a presentation to over 100 executives.
"So now we've gained their confidence and they know we're there to help them. We will increase the number of transactions of movie sales and rentals. And if successful, the Moviepoints will be as ubiquitous as ATM machines."
Irish people wishing to avail of the USB key and Movievault box for TV viewing will be able to purchase them online in the coming months from www.moviepoint.net
If the Irish tests are successful Moviepoints will be distributed throughout Europe and in the US.
"A lot of people asked me why we haven't started in New York or Sacramento and why Ireland. I said why not. After all, we're based here and per capita have one of the highest movie consumption audiences in Europe and the world," said Armstrong.
While Portomedia has been warmly received in Hollywood, some analysts are still predicting that online movie downloads will be the way of the future.
With more fibre networks on the way, the downloads will become even quicker.
"Yes, that's true," said Armstrong. "But the net will get clogged up especially if they're trying to download high definition films. We have the advantage of portability and mobility - being able to move content from the Movievault at home, or on a laptop and bring it with you.
"I think when we have no bottlenecks for downloading and you can choose what kind of media you want, then we'll really start to see the digital world we've all been talking about and my wish is that Portomedia will help to place Ireland at the centre of it. I hope it will capture people's imaginations."
