IDT Media To Produce 3-D Animation For Pearson Education
IDT Media's Digital Production Solutions to create 3D animation for Pearson’s "Sing, Spell, Read & Write" curriculum
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Newark, N.J., February 27, 2003 -- IDT Media’s Digital Production Solutions (DPS) today announced that it has completed its first project in the educational market, a series of 3-D animations for Pearson Education, the global leader in education publishing. The 3-D animations were developed for Pearson’s "Sing, Spell, Read & Write" program, a unique 36-step interactive curriculum aimed at children from Kindergarten to third grade. IDT Media is a division of IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT.B, IDT.C), a multinational carrier, technology and telephone company.
DPS’ Global Animation Studio fully animated the two “Sing, Spell, Read & Write” characters, “Gus” and “Gussie” to be used for educational materials. The Global Animation Studio was responsible for all modeling, background design, lighting, texturing and final rendering of the characters.
“We all remember the Dick, Jane and Spot reading series from our childhood. Well, that’s all part of Pearson Education’s rich literary and educational heritage dating as far back as the 1890’s. Today, they’re still developing enlightening programs for our youth,” said Jim Courter, IDT’s CEO. “IDT Media’s creative 3-D enhancements to the ‘Sing, Spell, Read & Write’ curriculum will reach a new generation of children and at the same time, help update an important teaching and learning tool.”
“The “Sing, Spell, Read & Write” program is a great education tool. We are proud to partner with Pearson in creating compelling animated characters” said Morris Berger, Executive Vice President, Business Development, IDT Media. “Using our Global Animation Studio’s 3-D animation software, we’ve enhanced this program to engage children in the joys of learning.”
DPS is currently working on a co-production agreement with Jim Jinkins and David Campbell of Cartoon Pizza, the creators of Doug, Stanley and PB&J Otter. In addition, the DPS studio is working on production of 26 episodes of “Monster by Mistake” under an agreement with CCI Entertainment, Ltd to be broadcast worldwide. The DPS studio offers producers access to international animation talent on demand for a fraction of domestic costs, and with levels of control similar to an in-house studio.
About Pearson Education
Educating 100 million people worldwide, Pearson Education is the global leader in integrated educational publishing. With brands such as Pearson Prentice Hall, Pearson Scott Foresman, Pearson Longman, Pearson Education Technologies, and many others, Pearson Education provides research-based content and assessment tools, professional development resources, and educational services in all available media, spanning the learning continuum from birth through college and beyond.
Pearson Education is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO), the international media company, whose primary operations also include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.
About IDT Corporation, through its IDT Telecom subsidiary, is a facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to its retail and wholesale customers worldwide. IDT Telecom, by means of its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT and Liberty Media Corporation own 95% and 5 % of IDT Telecom, respectively. IDT Media is the IDT subsidiary principally responsible for the Company's initiatives in media, new video technologies and print media.
On January 9, 2003, IDT announced that it is changing its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbols. Effective February 26, IDT's common stock began trading under the symbol IDT.C. Effective March 19, IDT's Class B common stock will trade under the symbol IDT.
Through its various subsidiaries, IDT has interests in several telecom, Internet-related and media companies. IDT acquired the assets of Winstar Communications in December 2001. IDT Corporation common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT.B and IDT.C. As of December 12, 2002, there were about 54.1 million shares of Class B common stock (IDT.B) outstanding, and about 25.0 million shares of common stock (IDT.C). Of these, approximately 4.0 million shares of Class B common stock and approximately 5.4 million shares of common stock were held by IDT Corporation.
In this press release, all statements that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “intend,” “estimate, “target” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors, including, but not limited to, those described in our most recent report on SEC Form 10-K (under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”), which may be revised or supplemented in subsequent reports on SEC Forms 10-Q and 8-K. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following: potential declines in prices for our products and services; our ability to maintain and grow our retail telecommunications services, particularly our prepaid calling card business; availability of termination capacity; financial stability of our customers; our ability to maintain carrier agreements with foreign carriers; effectiveness of our marketing and distribution efforts; increased competition, particularly from regional bell operating companies; our ability to manage our growth; competitiveness of our Winstar subsidiary; impact of government regulation; our ability to obtain telecommunications products or services required for our products and services; and general economic conditions, particularly in the telecommunications markets. We are under no obligation, and expressly disclaim any obligation, to update the forward-looking statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Feb 27, 2003 |
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