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Multimedia sector: Waiting for the next big boom?

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Even as an increasing number of software professionals are being benched and

others are apprehensive of their future, the hitherto ignored segment of the

Indian software industry — multimedia — is slowly beginning to receive its

fair share of attention.

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Multimedia institute heads and professionals in the field are confident that

the next few years might be boom time for this segment. A sure pointer of this

trend is the rise in number of institutes ‘specializing’ in multimedia

courses. So, is the multimedia industry the next big thing?

US recession has not had any impact on the number of students opting for the

course. On the contrary, we are seeing a marginal increase in the number of

inquiries on the courses offered by the institute, an indicator that people are

looking at this sector to make it big, points out Pentamedia Graphics’

associate consultant (Bangalore) Anitha Padmanaban.

US-based software graphic programmer V. Narayanan says the future for the

sector seems bright despite India arriving late at the scene. This is supported

by the salary multimedia professionals attract in the US. According to industry

sources, anything between $40,000 to $100,000 per annum is paid to an individual

in the field depending on the experience, project and location within the US. A

multimedia fresher in India can expect anywhere around Rs 10,000.

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The growth projection



According to Nasscom figures, the multimedia market size in India was estimated
to be Rs 500 crore or $1.1 billion in 1999-2000. In 1999-2000, out of the total

software exports of $4 billion, nearly $180 million worth of exports was

contributed by multimedia related products and services and software exports

incorporating multimedia features. With Indian software and services industry

offering special effects and designing customized software to global media

houses, the multimedia software development services is estimated to garner $370

million as exports in 2000-01 (see Figure

1
).

Opportunities unlimited



According to Nasscom, the spread of IT and availability of new media has thrown
up new opportunities for multimedia industry in various sectors such as

animation, local content/Web designing and movies. Indian firms can also offer

services to overseas firms to establish new media infrastructure and their

management. Indian firms can also establish offshore services infrastructure

such as video server centers, so that customers/viewers from various countries

can have access to variety of content through high-speed telecom links.

But then the stumbling block...



Nasscom’s strategic review for 2001 states that "the use of
multimedia remained largely restricted with not much headway in the commercial

corporate segment. It further stated that multimedia was unable to bundle real

time interactivity with digital media capabilities."

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Some professionals cited the unrealistic time limit set by the customer as

the main reason. "A customer walks in with a project with preset deadline

and an inflexible budget. And hence, one has to work within a shoestring budget

and insufficient time limit, which would definitely have an impact on the end

product," says Vinod Nanaiah, designer/programmer in a Bangalore-based

firm.

Antony, another 3D graphic designer of a Chennai-based multimedia firm, says most Hollywood producers prefer to go to Japan and Indonesia because of inferior quality of graphics available in India. But, this can be cited to the fact that Indians were late in this field and hence the industry is still in a fledgling stage. Take for instance, the use of Rig cameras. This is a recent phenomenon in the Indian movie industry, but this has been in use in Hollywood for nearly 10 years. The lack of Indians mastering the ‘color correction’ is another pointer to this trend, Antony adds.

Lack of experienced personnel in the field is seen as another stumbling

block in the growth of this sector. As the local market is not big enough to

support the operational costs, limited recruitment of these professionals are

carried out, says V. Narayanan.

But the future is out there



The home market is increasingly getting hooked to the multimedia boom. According
to a Nasscom survey, 64 per cent of multimedia PCs were bought by SOHO consumers

in 2000. The numbers may still be small, but the growth potential in this market

is huge. The multimedia industry should attract the home consumers with more

localized and cheaper products.

Despite the various lacunae in the multimedia industry, a majority of the

professionals express optimism of the future as India has the necessary talent

to produce quality graphics, provided the movie industry pumped in more capital

for the projects. And with more and more multimedia houses finding the field

attractive in terms of returns, India is likely to make it big in this field,

said Vice President, Development, GDR Media Ltd., Venakatasubramanian (see Figure

2
). 

(Graphics courtesy: NASSCOM strategic review 2001)

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