Java Magazine - May/June 2012

Troy Mockenhaupt, senior engineer at Jargon, tests out various devices.

SNAPSHOT JARGON TECHNOLOGIES jargon-tech.com Headquarters: Burbank, California Industry: Media and entertainment Employees: 15 Java version used: Blu-ray Disc Java, based on Java ME CDC/PBP Packaged Media profile of Globally Executable MHP (GEM)

Srikanth grew up in India, where she also attended college and obtained a master’s degree; she then worked in Japan helping an elite group of software engineers automate a steel mill. She transitioned into media technology in 2002 when she joined Panasonic Hollywood Laboratories (PHL) in Southern California, where she was part of the core R&D team that developed the Blu-ray Disc high-definition optical media format. It was an exciting time for the home entertainment industry. Along with Sony and Philips, Panasonic was working diligently to gain market acceptance against the rival HD DVD format backed by Toshiba. Srikanth represented Panasonic at several meetings of the Blu-ray Disc Association and also worked with some of the Hollywood studios to create Blu-ray content.

As consumer interest in high-definition video content increased, Srikanth and her colleagues saw an opportunity to strike out on their own.

“We started seeing a need for Blu-ray expertise that was lacking in the industry, and there were only a few companies that were able to do this,” she recalls. “We founded Jargon Technologies to realize the vision of the creative community in Hollywood, as well as in other industries such as education.” innovative use of Java technology— specifically, to help special-needs children realize their full potential.” The market reached a tipping point in 2008 when several studios and distributors shifted their allegiance to the Blu-ray format. On February 19, 2008, Toshiba officially announced that it would stop the development of HD DVD players. Blu-ray had won the format wars, and, almost overnight, Jargon found itself at the center of a revolution in interactive entertainment.

COMMUNITY JAVA TECH

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Jargon’s other founding members included Jeff Schulz, chief platform architect, and Nathan Epstein, COO. Srikanth donned the mantle of CEO, taking responsibility for account management, business development, and overall corporate strategy. The new company soon landed high-profile projects with Panasonic, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Its forte was developing interactive applications that reside on the bonus discs distributed with popular Blu-ray titles.

“Slowly, we started doing more and more Blu-ray work, but we also branched out into connected TV, mobile, and other areas,” says Srikanth. “Our goal is to reach a wide audience through

TAKING FLIGHT

Be careful what you wish for. It was around this time that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment asked Jargon to implement a new type of game for the Blu-ray release of the movie Rio, a very successful animated film about a domesticated macaw from small-town Minnesota who takes off on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The theatrical release had been a worldwide success, Jargon’s technology team brainstormed with Fox Home Entertainment’s content directors about ways to push the boundaries of Blu-ray Disc Java (BD-J) to enhance the consumer