XAPPmedia and SoCast have launched a new partnership to integrate XAPPmedia on SoCast’s digital platform for radio. This will enable radio stations on the SoCast platform to utilize voice-activation functions to engage with their audiences on devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home. The company cites Edison Research data estimating that 75 per cent of American homes will have a smart speaker by 2020. That’s up from just seven per cent at the end of 2016.

Sheridan College and its industry partners have announced the full commercialization of SirtNet, a first-of-its-kind in Canada, fibre optic based collaboration network for the Ontario screen industries. SirtNet was developed as an applied research project by Sheridan’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT), in response to the Ontario screen industry’s need for a secure network that would allow production and postproduction teams to collaborate remotely from the start to finish of a film or television series. SirtNet now connects multiple Toronto studios and has been used in the production of more than four television series, including The Handmaid’s Tale and Vikings, along with numerous feature films.