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Gold/Mining/Energy : Research In Motion - RIM.T -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron Schier who wrote (626)	2/27/1999 8:34:00 PM
From: Ron Schier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 848

Waterloo firm has date with Oscar Research in Motion wins technical award for film editing device By Mike Strathdee RECORD STAFF When Dale Brubacher-Cressman joined a small Waterloo technology company in 1988, he never dreamed that his efforts would result in him accepting an Academy Award more than a decade later. But that's exactly what he and his boss, Mike Lazaridis, will be doing this evening in Beverly Hills, Calif. Research in Motion, a wireless communications company co-founded by Lazaridis, will be honoured, along with the National Film Board, with an Academy certificate for technical achievement. The award is for RIM's Digisync Film Barcode Reader, a film editing device which is used by most major motion picture studios. Brubacher-Cressman, RIM's director of product development, made a similar trip to California in 1994 to accept an technical Emmy on behalf of RIM for the Digisync product. "Not many people have an opportunity to get an Emmy or an Academy Award," he said with a smile during a recent interview. He was hired by RIM to develop Digisync after RIM, which then employed only a handful of people, was awarded a contract by the National Film Board of Canada. Ironically, Digisync now generates only a tiny fraction of RIM's overall revenues, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the company's main product line, wireless two-way pagers that allow people to get remote e-mail access. Digisync has brought RIM sales of $200,000 annually for the past few years. RIM's overall sales totalled $27 million for the three months ended Nov. 30. To put in another way, RIM has sold a few thousand Digisync units since the product was introduced. It ships more pagrs than that every week. "The way we justify keeping it going is, it takes very little labour," he said. "On its own, it's a very profitable little business. "Digisync is almost symbolic of what has made this company successful. A very careful attention to detail in technology, work ethic and focus on excellence in engineering which starts with Mike Lazaridis." Brubacher-Cressman doesn't think it likely RIM will come up with any other award winning products for the film industry, given the company's current focus. So he and his wife Cheryl intended to soak up as much fun as they could during their weekend in California, which was to include a luncheon with former Prime Minister Kim Campbell at the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles Thursday. The actual Academy Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony, a $200 a plate dinner held close to a month ahead of the televised Oscar presentations for actors, writers and producers, was to be take place at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, a hotel famous as the setting for the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere movie Pretty Woman. More than 700 people will attend the ceremonies, hosted by actress Anne Heche. Other celebrities scheduled to attend were comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and the 39 members of the Academy's board of governors, including actors Karl Malden, Gregory Peck and Paul Mazurksy. Brubacher-Cressman doesn't expect to sell any more Digisync readers while he's in California, but he will take the opportunity to show RIM's new pager to as many people as possible. "Part of my goals when I'm down there is to spread the word (about the wireless pager). Hey, have you seen this cool new technology?" The next time RIM is associated with the TV industry or motion pictures, Brubacher-Cressman hopes it will be because a leading actor is using the pager during a series or movie. "That would be cool, especially if it gets there without us having to do anything."