ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY IS RIPE FOR DEVELOPMENT; IS PITTSBURGH READY?
Jess Trybus has spent the last two years learning how to design a highly organized dream out of the raw materials of imagination, software code and computing power, and sheer collaborative effort.
They’re called video games.
Now, she realizes that to find a job in her field in Pittsburgh she almost has to start her own company.
“I want a job in Pittsburgh that I want to apply my skill set to do,” said Ms. Trybus, 32, one of the first graduates of Carnegie Mellon University’s celebrated Entertainment Technology Center, a two-year master’s program that is the world’s first of its kind. The program started its first class of eight students in 1999 and has grown to the point where there are now more than 70 students in the program.
To some, the field of entertainment technology translates into video games, the computer-generated simulations that test eye-to-hand coordination, decision making and skill. To others, it’s a field that is emerging and converging into a new industry all its own, combining the worlds of technology and creativity into a fusion of new opportunities.
In recent years, regional policy makers and promoters have fixed on new industries for Pittsburgh to grow — Internet auction services, robotics, biotech, nanotechnology and systems on a chip, to name a few.
While Pittsburgh has made lamenting the loss of its young people one of its favorite hobbies, some observers see entertainment technology as an enormous, growing industry in which youth is pre-programmed into its appeal.
Count David Gurwin, an entertainment attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll PC, who also serves as an adjunct professor at ETC, among them.
Mr. Gurwin points out that the world’s second-largest software company is Electronic Arts, a video game firm based in California. While it is best known for producing such popular video games as as The Sims or John Madden 2006 football, its market capitalization is nearly $15 billion. At the same time, it is conducting an ongoing search through the halls of ETC seeking new talent, providing an annual internship for 10 ETC students, often offering jobs in which the salaries start at more than $80,000 a year.
Last year, he pointed out, the video game industry, including both consoles and software, was larger than the motion picture, television and music industries combined. “It’s huge,” said Mr. Gurwin. “And it’s growing dramatically.”
The question for Pittsburgh is how prepared is it to meet the demands of a new industry to-be?
MIXED REVIEWS
So far, the reviews are mixed on how much regional and state policy makers are committed to seeing entertainment technology succeed here.
“When you look at what a cultural city Pittsburgh really is, and the incredible mix of art and technology students who come streaming out of the schools here, a tremendous opportunity is being squandered,” said Jesse Schell.
Mr. Schell speaks as both a professor of ETC and as the founder and principal of Schell Games, a new video game development firm he launched late last year with a new office on the South Side.
He sees a region he loves burgeoning with immense talent in both his field and others that feed into it: fine arts, music, drama and technology. Along with ETC, there are new programs for entertainment technology at the Art Institute and at Duquesne University, as well as education programs in related fields. But he also sees a dearth of local companies to hire them, and a slowness from the region’s powers that be to understand the potential.
“People I know who run studios in California hire a lot of grads from here, and are jealous of Pittsburgh companies that are able to ‘bottle at the source,’” said Mr. Schell. “Still, the small number of companies we have now can’t hire everybody, and really talented grads who would like to stay in the region can’t do it.”
BRINGING THE GAME HERE
Still, the draw of Pittsburgh and ETC is also bringing some companies and talent here.
Shawn Walters believed so highly in the potential of the ETC that he relocated his video game company, Xgaming, to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles, setting up a staff of two within ETC’s offices in the Pittsburgh Technology Center in 2003.
Xgaming develops game consoles that are sold in 17 countries.
“I certainly believe working with the ETC has been a major contributor to our success,” he said.
Lou Musante, a principal of Catalytix, a consulting and research firm headed by “Creative Class” author Richard Florida, takes a forgiving attitude on the chance the region isn’t getting the signal about entertainment technology.
He has just embarked on a nationwide survey of the field of entertainment technology to help better define it and find what cities are poised to benefit from it.
While other new industries grew up on their own, Mr. Musante points out that entertainment technology is hard to discover as its own industry because in reality it exists as a convergence of other fields.
“We can’t understand it,” said Mr. Musante. “That’s why it’ll take a while for policy makers to understand the opportunity here.”
CHARTING THE ECO DEVO MVP
This year marks the first time that Carnegie Mellon has begun exploring the full economic development potential of entertainment technology.
In January, ETC received a $500,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Ben Franklin Technology Authority, to help develop new training simulations and new interactive robotics to be used as tools for tourism promotion.
“How we’re going to form an industry cluster is we’re going to put our necks out and start a company right away,” said Ms. Trybus.
Both the director of edu-tainment at ETC, and CEO of her fledgling firm, Etcetera Edutainment, Ms. Trybus is perched on the edge of making computer training simulations a real-world business.
She is launching Etcetera Edutainment to provide computer training simulations for the health care and manufacturing fields. To start, she has lined up the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Alcoa Inc. as clients.
“It’s all attitude,” she said. “It’s about helping people to realize how great this region is.”
Original Post by Tim Schooley, may be contacted at tschooley@bizjournals.com