NYConvergence - A digest of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut media and technology news

Mob Scene Creative + Productions Opens NYC Office

The company creates content such as theatrical trailers, television advertisements, promotions, and print advertisements.  It also produces the FX series "Life After Film School."

The Hollywood Reporter

Webby Fives Postponed

The Webby Fives awards, scheduled to take place at 6:30 PM ET on Wednesday, November 19, at The Paley Center for Media, have been postponed according to an announcement on the Center's Web site. Copresented with The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), the awards allow panelists just five sentences for five slides to present their vision of what's important now, hear about what works for the online audience, the business of content syndication, and the inspirations behind the creators' work.

The Paley Center for Media

Layoffs at Thumbplay

Due to the slumping economy, New York-based mobile entertainment company Thumbplay has cut its staff by an undisclosed amount, but claims it is lower than the previously reported 25 percent in Silicon Alley Insider. The company is projected to reach beyond 50 percent revenue growth this year and has plans to generate more next year. 

In March, Thumbplay raised $18 million in funding from Brookside Capital Partners.

MediaPost's Online Media Daily

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> NY-Based Thumplay Partners with MTV
> Startups to See Less Cash as VC Funding Slows

Online Videos Revealed on NY Public Library Site

The New York Public Library has introduced a new online video series on its site called "Treasures," which showcases eleven of the Library's fifty million videos. The videos are also available for viewing on YouTube, Facebook and iTunes.

USA Today

Cisco Network Powers New Tech at Yankee Stadium

Fans at Yankee Stadium will be able to watch the game even when they leave their seats on their cell phones and 1,100 high definition televisions that are being installed throughout the Stadium and are being powered by the Cisco Network. For the 2009 season, touchscreens will display the game from various desired angles, which those with suite seats will be able to control.

Though it may not be ready in '09, fans will also eventually be able to connect to one another and watch replays of the game on their cell phones. Future plans also include teleconferencing between players and Bronx students as well as screens on every backseat. 

The cost of the Network is estimated at $15 million. 

The New York Post

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> Cisco, Yankee Plan Partnership for New Stadium

Queens International Film Festival Opens Thursday

The festival opens its sixth annual series at a hotel near LaGuardia Airport this Thursday.  Queens-based Robert Sarnoff was chosen as a featured filmmaker for the festival.  Sarnoff is a former art teacher, Rockaway Wave political cartoonist and painter.  More information about the festival can be found here.

The New York Times

White Space Vote Worries Broadway League

The league, a trade association comprised of producers and presenters, has mounted a public campaign to dissuade the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from voting to allow "spectrum-sensing devices" on November 4.  The league worries that the devices, which make use of unused transmission frequencies or "white spaces," would interfere with the wireless microphones used from Broadway to large concerts.

Daily Variety

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> Google, Microsoft Battle Broadway Theaters

Former Bear Stearns Banker Creates Online Business

When Win Hornig lost his job in the midst of the Bear Sterns collapse, he started a blog in hopes of capitalizing on the opportunity. Banker Gone Broke reports on the continuing financial meltdown.

In honor of Halloween, Hornig is holding a costume contest online for the best financial crisis inspired costume.

Metro New York

Light Industry Offers Screenings, Performances

Industry City, the six-million-square-foot complex of factory and warehouse buildings wedged between the Gowanus Expressway and New York Harbor in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, now houses Light Industry, an avant-garde film and electronic-arts venue which has hosted events such as a screening of early-20th-century boxing films to a glockenspiel performance of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.  Light Industry is part of an arts initiative at the compex.

The Village Voice

NY'ers Save with Library DVDs

As New Yorkers feel the pain of the economic downturn, libraries around New York City are experiencing an increase in DVD rentals. The Brooklyn Public Library's rate of DVD borrowing, for instance, has doubled over the summer of 2007.

Book and CD borrowing are also up.

The New York Post