MUMBAI: Thomson, through its Technicolor Digital Cinema business, and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore announced a partnership to establish a digital cinema hub and network operations centre (NOC) in Singapore.

“Thomson recognises Singapore’s commitment to the digital media and entertainment industry and believes there will be tremendous value in utilising their robust infrastructure to expand our digital cinema service offerings into the Asia-Pacific region. Digital cinema is growing at a very rapid pace, and we look forward to supporting studio and exhibitor customers as they begin to roll out digital cinema in Singapore and Asia-Pacific,” said Curt Behlmer, VP, COO of Technicolor Digital Cinema, within Thomson Services division.

Thomson, with the support of the IDA, plans to construct an efficient and secure digital cinema hub and NOC in Singapore to offer digital cinema service and related management solution capabilities to the motion picture industry for the Singaporean territory and other Asia-Pacific regions.

“IDA is delighted to support Thomson-Technicolor’s first digital cinema hub in Asia to cater to the digital media and entertainment industry. This strategic partnership furthers Singapore‘s efforts to be the leading trusted digital cinema hub outside North America and Europe for the processing, management and distribution of digital cinematic content”, said Tham Ai Chyn, assistant chief executive, industry and cluster development, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Thomson’s Singapore facility is expected to have the capability to support the following digital cinema services: physical and electronic forms of content delivery; Thomson’s key distribution and management systems; equipment monitoring; and 24/7/365 multi-lingual call-centre support, fully integrated with its premier operations in the US.

The build-out of the new digital cinema hub and NOC in Singapore is slated to begin in mid-2008.